The Terror Bass flat-two cadence line on the Moog Subsequent 37

The technique

Three bars of the i, one bar of the bII, and its root is a semitone above the key’s root. The figure is the fall from the flat second back to the root, and everything before it is there so the fall has something to fall from.

Bar one: root, fifth, third, fourth. Bar two: root, third, fifth, flat sixth. Bar three: root, fourth, third, fifth. Each bar strikes the one, the "and" of two, beat three and the "and" of four, and nothing climbs above the flat sixth. Staying down there for three bars is what makes the fourth bar sound like it lifts.

Bar four is the bII: its root, its fifth above, its octave above that, and then the key’s root, a semitone down, on beat four. That root is on the beat, not the "and", and it is the only note in the figure that lands on beat four. Hold it to the bar line and let the next pass restrike the low root an octave under it.

The octave is spent once, here and nowhere else. Bars one to three never rise past the flat sixth, so the high flat second and the root after it are the only notes in the figure that leave the low register. That is what makes them read as the ending rather than as more line.

The bar head is the loudest note in bars one to three. In bar four the loudest is the root on beat four. Play the flat second above it as the note that gives way, and the root as the note that takes over.

Hold each note to the next strike. The line is legato; the one place it should feel like a step and not a slide is the flat second to the root, and that comes from the accent, not a gap.

Never raise the second. Raised, it makes this an ordinary minor key, and the fourth bar has nowhere to fall from.

read in

The chords

2 chords over 4 bars, in E phrygian.

Degree	Chord	Notes	Bars	Under the figure
i	Em	E · G · B	1–3	●
bII	F	F · A · C	4–4	●

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

The rules

Never the raised 2nd, on any chord — over i, the raised second turns the phrygian semitone into a minor scale, and the fourth bar has nowhere to fall from.

The notes

4 bars in E phrygian. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

steps 1–6·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 7–8·over i Em·B2·degree 5·MIDI 47
steps 9–14·over i Em·G2·degree 3·MIDI 43
steps 15–16·over i Em·A2·degree 4·MIDI 45
steps 17–22·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 23–24·over i Em·G2·degree 3·MIDI 43
steps 25–30·over i Em·B2·degree 5·MIDI 47
steps 31–32·over i Em·C3·degree 6·MIDI 48
steps 33–38·over i Em·E2·degree 1·MIDI 40
steps 39–40·over i Em·A2·degree 4·MIDI 45
steps 41–46·over i Em·G2·degree 3·MIDI 43
steps 47–48·over i Em·B2·degree 5·MIDI 47
steps 49–54·over bII F·F2·degree 2·MIDI 41
steps 55–56·over bII F·C3·degree 6·MIDI 48
steps 57–60·over bII F·F3·degree 2·MIDI 53
steps 61–64·over bII F·E3·degree 1·MIDI 52

The grid

Every step below strikes the note in force at that point. The grid is where the figure is played.

1 x··· ··x· x··· ··x·

17 x··· ··x· x··· ··x·

33 x··· ··x· x··· ··x·

49 x··· ··x· x··· x···

—1 (vel 118), 17 (vel 118), 33 (vel 118), 49 (vel 118), 61 (vel 120)
—7, 15, 23, 31, 39, 47, 55
—9, 25, 41, 57

On the Moog Subsequent 37

Subsequent 37 · Voice

Settings for this voice

Settings for a bass-mid · hard 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 · OCTAVE16'
OSC 1 · WAVESQUARE
The knob is continuous; these are its four named points
OSC 2 · OCTAVE8'
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 RESETON
A defined leading edge, at the cost of a click on hard attacks
OSC · DUO MODEOFF
Off: one note at a time, both oscillators on the same key
OSC · KB CTRLHI
Inert while DUO MODE is off; set so FREQUENCY keeps its semitone scale
OSC 2 · FREQUENCY0st(-7…7 st)
Centre is unison with OSC 1; fully clockwise is a fifth
OSC 2 · BEAT FREQ0Hz(-3.5…3.5 Hz)
A constant beat rate at every pitch, unlike FREQUENCY

MIXER

OSC 16.5(0…10)
SUB 17(0…10)
Always a square, always an octave below OSC 1
OSC 24(0…10)
NOISE0(0…10)
Pink, not white
FDBK / EXT IN0(0…10)
With nothing in EXT IN this feeds the mixer output back into itself

FILTER

CUTOFF320Hz(20…20000 Hz)
Fully down closes the filter completely
RESONANCE4.5(0…10)
Above 7 the filter sings by itself
MULTIDRIVE3(0…10)
Tube-like warmth at the bottom, hard clipping at the top
SLOPE24
dB per octave: one, two, three or four poles
EG AMT3(-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 · ATTACK2ms(0.1…10000 ms)
FILTER EG · DECAY180ms(0.1…10000 ms)
FILTER EG · SUSTAIN1.5(0…10)
0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10
FILTER EG · RELEASE120ms(0.1…10000 ms)
FILTER EG · LOOPOFF
On, the envelope repeats for as long as a note is held — a multistage LFO
AMP EG · ATTACK2ms(0.1…10000 ms)
AMP EG · DECAY400ms(0.1…10000 ms)
AMP EG · SUSTAIN6(0…10)
0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10
AMP EG · RELEASE120ms(0.1…10000 ms)
AMP EG · MULTI TRIGON
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 RATE4.5Hz(0.1…100 Hz)
KB RESETOFF
On, the LFO restarts at zero on every note
PITCH AMT0(-5…5)
OSCBOTH
Which oscillator PITCH AMT reaches
FILTER AMT0(-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.