The UBER_SUB displaced fifth on the Moog Subsequent 37

The technique

The riff is four notes: the root twice, the third, and then a leap up to the fifth. The fifth is the top of the bar and the note everything else is arranged around.

Bar one puts the fifth on beat three. Bar two brings it half a beat early. Bar three holds it back until the second half of beat three, so the bar drags before it lands. Play the shape the same way every time and move only when the leap comes.

After the fifth the line falls to the note one step above the next chord’s root and leaves it there, so each bar hands over from above rather than landing early. That note is the chord’s own root: i hands to VII, VII to VI, VI to v.

Bar four breaks it. The fifth arrives on the "and" of two and the line walks back up through the third to the root instead of falling. That is the turn, and it is the only bar that goes up at the end.

Keep every note short and let the gaps stay open. The leap reads as a leap because there is space in front of it; legato through the bar and it is a scale.

Never play the raised third of the key. It is a major third over i and this line lives too low for it to read as colour rather than as mud.

Everything sits inside one octave, from the key’s fifth up to the next one. That is enough room for a bass line that is about where the notes fall.

read in

The chords

4 chords over 4 bars, in F minor.

Degree	Chord	Notes	Bars	Under the figure
i	Fm	F · Ab · C	1–1	●
VII	Eb	Eb · G · Bb	2–2	●
VI	Db	Db · F · Ab	3–3	●
v	Cm	C · Eb · G	4–4	●

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

The rules

Never the raised 3rd, on any chord — over i, a major third this low reads as mud rather than as colour.

The notes

4 bars in F minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

steps 1–3·over i Fm·F2·degree 1·MIDI 41
steps 4–5·over i Fm·F2·degree 1·MIDI 41
steps 7–8·over i Fm·Ab2·degree 3·MIDI 44
steps 9–12·over i Fm·C3·degree 5·MIDI 48
steps 14–16·over i Fm·F2·degree 1·MIDI 41
steps 17–19·over VII Eb·Eb2·degree 7·MIDI 39
steps 20–21·over VII Eb·G2·degree 2·MIDI 43
steps 22–26·over VII Eb·Bb2·degree 4·MIDI 46
steps 28–30·over VII Eb·Ab2·degree 3·MIDI 44
steps 31–32·over VII Eb·Eb2·degree 7·MIDI 39
steps 33–35·over VI Db·Db2·degree 6·MIDI 37
steps 36–37·over VI Db·F2·degree 1·MIDI 41
steps 38–39·over VI Db·Db2·degree 6·MIDI 37
steps 43–46·over VI Db·Ab2·degree 3·MIDI 44
step 48·over VI Db·Db2·degree 6·MIDI 37
steps 49–54·over v Cm·C2·degree 5·MIDI 36
steps 55–58·over v Cm·G2·degree 2·MIDI 43
steps 59–61·over v Cm·Eb2·degree 7·MIDI 39
steps 62–64·over v Cm·F2·degree 1·MIDI 41

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··· ·x··

17 x··x ·x·· ···x ··x·

33 x··x ·x·· ··x· ···x

49 x··· ··x· ··x· ·x··

—1 (vel 110), 9 (vel 120), 17 (vel 110), 22 (vel 120), 33 (vel 110), 43 (vel 120), 49 (vel 110), 55 (vel 120)
—4, 7, 14, 20, 28, 31, 36, 38, 48, 59, 62

The pad part

pad · soft

The pad never plays the chord’s fifth. The bass has that note, and it lands somewhere different in every bar. With the fifth left out of the pad, each of those landings belongs to the bass alone and the ear hears where it falls.

Strike each chord on the downbeat and hold it for the whole bar. The pad is the steady reference under the line: it changes on the one every time, so the displaced fifths are heard against a clock that does not move.

The key’s seventh sounds in all four bars. Over i it is the chord’s seventh, over VII its root, over VI its ninth and over v its third, so one key under one finger changes meaning four times while it stays where it is.

Bars three and four are the same three keys. Only the bass under them changes: over VI they are the seventh, ninth and third of a major chord, and over v they are the root, third and eleventh of a minor one.

The pad notes

4 bars in F minor. Each note is in force across the steps shown.

steps 1–16·over i Fm·Eb4 F4 Ab4·degrees 7 1 3·MIDI 63 65 68
steps 17–32·over VII Eb·C4 Eb4 G4·degrees 5 7 2·MIDI 60 63 67
steps 33–48·over VI Db·C4 Eb4 F4·degrees 5 7 1·MIDI 60 63 65
steps 49–64·over v Cm·C4 Eb4 F4·degrees 5 7 1·MIDI 60 63 65

On the Moog Subsequent 37

Subsequent 37 · Voice

Settings for this voice

Settings for a sub · dirty 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 · OCTAVE16'
OSC 2 · WAVESQUARE
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 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 · FREQUENCY-1st(-7…7 st)
Centre is unison with OSC 1; fully clockwise is a fifth
OSC 2 · BEAT FREQ1.5Hz(-3.5…3.5 Hz)
A constant beat rate at every pitch, unlike FREQUENCY

MIXER

OSC 17.5(0…10)
SUB 19.5(0…10)
Always a square, always an octave below OSC 1
OSC 22(0…10)
NOISE0.5(0…10)
Pink, not white
FDBK / EXT IN4(0…10)
With nothing in EXT IN this feeds the mixer output back into itself

FILTER

CUTOFF200Hz(20…20000 Hz)
Fully down closes the filter completely
RESONANCE5.5(0…10)
Above 7 the filter sings by itself
MULTIDRIVE8(0…10)
Tube-like warmth at the bottom, hard clipping at the top
SLOPE24
dB per octave: one, two, three or four poles
EG AMT1.5(-5…5)
Bipolar: below centre the envelope pulls the cutoff down
KB TRACK0(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 · ATTACK3ms(0.1…10000 ms)
FILTER EG · DECAY300ms(0.1…10000 ms)
FILTER EG · SUSTAIN2.5(0…10)
0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10
FILTER EG · RELEASE220ms(0.1…10000 ms)
FILTER EG · LOOPOFF
On, the envelope repeats for as long as a note is held — a multistage LFO
AMP EG · ATTACK3ms(0.1…10000 ms)
AMP EG · DECAY750ms(0.1…10000 ms)
AMP EG · SUSTAIN8(0…10)
0 to 100%, calibrated 1 to 10
AMP EG · RELEASE200ms(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 RATE2Hz(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.

The UBER_SUB displaced fifth