The CELESTIAL converging-voices pad

pad · soft · 72 BPM (60–84) · A major · 8 bars

CELESTIAL4.11Two notes an octave apart, closing to a third over four chords

Every patch on the Moog Subsequent 37

The technique

Two notes, and the figure is the distance between them closing. Start an octave apart, the root and the root above, and hold both for two bars.

The lower note moves and the upper one waits. Over the vi, lift the lower note to the key’s third: a sixth. Over the IV, lift it a semitone to the fourth: a fifth. The upper note does not move for six bars.

Over the V, both move: the lower note up a tone to the fifth, and the upper one down a semitone to the seventh for the first time in the figure. A third. That is the arrival, and it is the only time the top voice moves.

Enter each note on the head of its chord and hold it to the next change. No gaps and no restrikes. Where a voice does not move, keep the key down across the change.

Keep the lower voice the lower. The distance closes from an octave to a sixth, a fifth and a third, and the two never cross; the ear follows the closing.

After the third, the next pass opens back out to the octave. Let the seventh resolve up to the root and the fifth fall back to the low root at the same moment, and the figure has breathed.

The chords

4 chords over 8 bars, in A major.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
IAA · C# · E1–2●
viF#mF# · A · C#3–4●
IVDD · F# · A5–6●
VEE · G# · B7–8●

The figure is played over these chords; supply them separately if your rig allows.

The notes

8 bars in A major. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

  • steps 1–32·over I A·A3·degree 1·MIDI 57
  • steps 1–96·over I A·A4·degree 1·MIDI 69
  • steps 33–64·over vi F#m·C#4·degree 3·MIDI 61
  • steps 65–96·over IV D·D4·degree 4·MIDI 62
  • steps 97–128·over V E·E4·degree 5·MIDI 64
  • steps 97–128·over V E·G#4·degree 7·MIDI 68

On the Moog Subsequent 37

Subsequent 37 · Voice

Settings for this voice

Settings for a pad · dark voice on this box, written here. They are not the preset’s own values: load the preset to hear it as it ships.

Settings

  • SWING50%(0…100 %)

    50 is straight; it swings the onboard arpeggiator and sequencer, nothing played from elsewhere

    PRESET EDIT, ARPEGGIATOR, SWING

GLIDE

  • ONOFF

    Must be lit for any glide at all

OSCILLATORS

  • OSC 1 · OCTAVE8'
  • OSC 1 · WAVESAWTOOTH

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC 2 · OCTAVE8'
  • OSC 2 · WAVETRIANGLE

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC · HARD SYNCOFF

    Keep OSC 2 at or above OSC 1 or it barely sounds

  • OSC · KB RESETOFF

    A defined leading edge, at the cost of a click on hard attacks

  • OSC · DUO MODEON

    On: the two oscillators take independent pitches, so this patch plays two notes

  • OSC · KB CTRLHI

    HI puts OSC 2 on the top note and OSC 1 on the bottom; LO swaps them

  • OSC 2 · FREQUENCY0st(-7…7 st)

    Leave near centre: this is a detune on top of a note OSC 2 is already playing

  • OSC 2 · BEAT FREQ1Hz(-3.5…3.5 Hz)

MIXER

  • OSC 15.5(0…10)
  • SUB 14.5(0…10)

    Always a square, always an octave below OSC 1

  • OSC 25(0…10)
  • NOISE0.5(0…10)

    Pink, not white

  • FDBK / EXT IN0(0…10)

    With nothing in EXT IN this feeds the mixer output back into itself

FILTER

  • CUTOFF420Hz(20…20000 Hz)

    Fully down closes the filter completely

  • RESONANCE2.5(0…10)

    Above 7 the filter sings by itself

  • MULTIDRIVE1(0…10)

    Tube-like warmth at the bottom, hard clipping at the top

  • SLOPE24

    dB per octave: one, two, three or four poles

  • EG AMT2(-5…5)

    Bipolar: below centre the envelope pulls the cutoff down

  • KB TRACK0.5(0…2)

    1.0 is 1:1 tracking centred on C3; 2.0 is 2:1

ENVELOPE GENERATORS

  • ENV · KNOB SHIFTOFF

    Unlit, or the eight knobs below are DELAY, HOLD, VEL AMT and KB TRACK instead

  • FILTER EG · ATTACK700ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · DECAY1400ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · SUSTAIN5(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • FILTER EG · RELEASE900ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · LOOPOFF

    On, the envelope repeats for as long as a note is held — a multistage LFO

  • AMP EG · ATTACK600ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · DECAY1800ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · SUSTAIN8.5(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • AMP EG · RELEASE1200ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · MULTI TRIGOFF

    On, every note re-attacks even when you play legato

  • AMP EG · LOOPOFF

    Off on everything but a bed: looping the amplitude re-articulates a held note

MOD 1

  • SOURCETriangle
  • HI RANGEOFF

    On, the LFO runs ten times faster

  • SYNCOFF

    Off, so RATE is in hertz rather than clock divisions

  • LFO RATE0.6Hz(0.1…100 Hz)
  • KB RESETOFF

    On, the LFO restarts at zero on every note

  • PITCH AMT0.5(-5…5)
  • OSC2

    Which oscillator PITCH AMT reaches

  • FILTER AMT1(-5…5)
  • DESTVCA LEVEL
  • MOD AMT0(-5…5)

This block draws on the Subsequent 37 User's Manual, pp.21-61; its values are starting points.