The SYNTH GONG decay-spaced strikes

texture · soft · 72 BPM (60–84) · D minor · 8 bars

SYNTH GONG9.01Seven strikes in eight bars, each placed where the last has gone

Every patch on the Moog Subsequent 37

The technique

Seven strikes in eight bars. Strike, then wait until the sound has gone, then strike again. What you are playing is the space.

The waits get shorter as it goes: a bar and a half, then a bar and a quarter, then a little over a bar, then less. Nothing about the pitches makes that happen. The crowding is the whole shape.

The last strike lands on the head of bar seven and holds for two bars. Only the first strike shared a bar head with it; every one between drifted across the bar, so the return to one is the end.

The pitches are the low root, its fifth, its octave, then the flat sixth, the fifth, the third, and the root again. Each is struck once and never repeated inside its own decay.

Let every strike ring all the way out. If the next one arrives while the last is still sounding, the two become a chord and the figure stops being a gong.

Never play the key’s second while the i is sounding. Against a root still ringing from two bars back it beats rather than colours, and it is the note a hand reaches for to fill a gap.

Keep the whole figure inside the octave it is written in, from the low root to the one above. A gong that climbs stops reading as one struck thing and starts reading as a melody.

The chords

3 chords over 8 bars, in D minor.

DegreeChordNotesBarsUnder the figure
iDmD · F · A1–4●
VIBbBb · D · F5–6●
iDmD · F · A7–8●

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

The rules

  • Over i, never the 2nd — against a root still ringing from two bars back a second beats rather than colours.

The notes

8 bars in D minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

  • steps 1–23·over i Dm·D2·degree 1·MIDI 38
  • steps 25–43·over i Dm·A2·degree 5·MIDI 45
  • steps 45–61·over i Dm·D3·degree 1·MIDI 50
  • steps 63–75·over i Dm·Bb2·degree 6·MIDI 46
  • steps 77–87·over VI Bb·A2·degree 5·MIDI 45
  • steps 89–95·over VI Bb·F2·degree 3·MIDI 41
  • steps 97–128·over i Dm·D2·degree 1·MIDI 38

On the Moog Subsequent 37

Subsequent 37 · Voice

Settings for this voice

Settings for a texture · soft 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 · WAVETRIANGLE

    The knob is continuous; these are its four named points

  • OSC 2 · OCTAVE16'
  • OSC 2 · WAVESAWTOOTH

    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, but with KB CTRL off the part is still one note plus a drone

  • OSC · KB CTRLOFF

    Off: OSC 2 leaves the keyboard and holds a fixed pitch

  • OSC 2 · FREQUENCY7st(-36…36 st)

    The extended scale — p.26 prints it as +/- 3 octaves — in force only while KB CTRL is off

  • OSC 2 · BEAT FREQ0.5Hz(-3.5…3.5 Hz)

MIXER

  • OSC 14.5(0…10)
  • SUB 13(0…10)

    Always a square, always an octave below OSC 1

  • OSC 25(0…10)
  • NOISE2.5(0…10)

    Pink, not white

  • FDBK / EXT IN0(0…10)

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

FILTER

  • CUTOFF700Hz(20…20000 Hz)

    Fully down closes the filter completely

  • RESONANCE3(0…10)

    Above 7 the filter sings by itself

  • MULTIDRIVE0.5(0…10)

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

  • SLOPE12

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

  • EG AMT3.5(-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 · ATTACK3200ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · DECAY4500ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · SUSTAIN6(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • FILTER EG · RELEASE3800ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • FILTER EG · LOOPON

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

  • AMP EG · ATTACK2400ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · DECAY6000ms(0.1…10000 ms)
  • AMP EG · SUSTAIN9(0…10)

    0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10

  • AMP EG · RELEASE4000ms(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 RATE0.2Hz(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…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.