Moog Subharmonicon

Big shock. @jayhosking makes another great video with amazing sounding music :slight_smile:
Seriously, you’re such a pleasure to listen to.

I wound up returning my SH, but I really did like it and it’s very unique. For whatever reason I just didn’t love it in my own music. Just could not get it to sit in my mixes. It either had to dominate or shrink into nothing along side the sounds I tend to gravitate toward. I feel like if I owned 20+ synths I’d keep it around for the occasions where it works for me, but I don’t and I’m cool with that. Using my Qu-Bit Bloom with two VCO’s gets me a pretty good polymetric kinda thing and I have more control over the sounds I like. Gonna have to do the trick for now :slight_smile:

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Great track and performance Jay! Didn’t know you did vocals for your stuff, great chops and emotional weight! Got a kind of Thom York (solo work) vibe, not that your singing reminds me of his, just popped up as a reflection and I mean that in the most positive way, I love him.

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Totally fair. I love the Novation Peak in so many ways, and really like a lot of the patches they’ve continued to serve up, but for whatever reason, I could never make a sound from scratch that I liked on it. Totally normal to gravitate toward some gear and not others. (I think I just gravitate toward that Moog sound.)

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Wang a guitar in there and i hearing a bit of Radiohead or King Crimson.

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@jayhosking Really enjoyed this. Wasn’t expecting the vocals and it was a pleasant surprise!

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That was fantastic!

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Damn, really nice track. The FM from the Matriarch really added a new layer.

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No doubt a silly question, but I know nothing about synths and how they work - bear with me, I’m learning :wink:

Could a digitone get the same sounds / tones / voices as a subharmonicon?

Not silly at all, especially if you’re just learning.

Synths fall into a few categories, but the two most common are subtractive synths and FM synths. Subtractive synths tend to sound warmer and fuzzier, due to a combination of their oscillators and filters; FM synths tend to sound harsher and brighter. Subtractive synthesis is usually what you find in classic hardware (e.g. Moogs), whereas FM really appeared in the 80s and has progressed from that 80s sound into the cold/crystalline/metallic sounds of more recently.

Both are great, and to some extent you can make overlapping sounds, but by default they sound very different and they each have tonal aspects that can’t be emulated by the other. The Subharmonicon is a subtractive synth, and the Digitone is an FM synth. So if you’re looking for the Subharmonicon sound, you’re probably not going to find it in the Digitone.

Hope that’s helpful. Best of luck!

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Thank you @jayhosking ! Much appreciated. That’s a great help. I think I’m going to have to have both side by side to really make the call.

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Just to add something to the great response by @jayhosking, the Subharmonicon has a rather unique take on sequencing notes, using 2 (overlapping) 4-step sequencers to create poly-rythms, whereas the Elektron uses a more conventional 16-64 step sequencer.

You would want to make sure you compare this aspect as well to see which one will serve you better right now.

If you prefer the sound of analog subtractive synthesis over FM, but find the Subharmonicon’s sequencer is not what you are looking for, you can also look at the Moog Mother 32, which is subtractive, with a generally similar sound to SubH (but also different because it doesn’t have the suboscillators), but it has a more traditional sequencer.

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So while this topic is hot, how are people liking the Subharmonicon,
it seems fairly limited synthesis wise but it seems like the magic is in the sequencer.

I am all about polyryhtms and love what some people have achived with the SH.

I have seen some really lovely visceral sequences being churned out.

but my fears is that is it is a one trick pony. SH owners what are your thoughts?

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My first impressions: I like the sound of it a lot, its oscillators and filter, but I’m fond of that Moog sound in general. The sequencer is fun but a little more fickle (and less musical) than I’d first hoped, and gets you into some really wonky territory if you’re not careful. Still, its massive limitations lead to really pleasing results and I was immediately making music with it. And the fact that it can send its rhythms out (either isolated, or summed together) to control other gear is an amazing feature that I didn’t know I’d want until I had it. It’s a blast to pair with other modular gear. If you’re into melodic, hypnotic lines in songs that drift in and out of your attention, you should give the Subharmonicon a shot.

There are plenty of pieces of gear I play with and think, “This is fun, but I’m almost certainly not holding onto this for the long run.” While it’s still early days, I haven’t felt that at all about the Subharmonicon, and usually it would come up by now.

Hope that’s helpful!

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What makes the Digitone special is the subtractive synthesis signal path it has.

From the manual :

Digitone represents our vision of how FM synthesis can be revitalized and modernized. Here’s how: combine FM sound generation with a classic subtractive synthesis signal flow. From jagged chaos to mellow soundscapes in less than a second. Digitone is one unique box.

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Dear lord, that’s a great track.

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Thanks @aloud, I should have mentioned, I have a Subharmonicon.

I purchased this on a complete whim, never owned a synth bar a little casio keyboard you could sample into when I was 6/7 (I’m 41 now lol). Always been into guitars to be honest. I knew I wanted to try a synth out, I knew i liked Moogs tones, the idea of two analog VCOs and four Subharmonic Oscillators really interested me for chord creations - the sequencer went over my head to be honest.

After having the Moog for a month and half I still love the tone, the 6 voices as such - but the sequencer drives me nuts. I either get a (lovely) slow droning 4 beat pattern, or a sort of skipping 8 beat patter or just a mess. I’m not too much of a fan of the little nobs to program the note change of each step either as it’s pretty fiddly and can be a bit hit and miss.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the thing, it sounds fantastic (though I tend to drown it in delay and reverb). Its introduced me to a whole new world of music making and creativity. I honestly thought I’d be returning the Subharmonicon after 14 days but its the guitars that are gathering dust at the moment.

Subharmonicon lead me to the Digitakt (via a blackbox 1010 that really wasn’t for me). Loving the control of the Digitakt, the workflow and all the trigs/probability/control. So now I’m thinking, sell the moog and get a Digitone. The @OscillatorSink thread on droning the Digitone really caught my eye.

EDIT: Ordered a Digiton :smile:

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Just been told that my Subharmonicon is waiting for pickup from Elevator Sound. I know what I’m doing this weekend :grinning:

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Mine was due this week but now I’m told mid September…wahhhhh.

I’ve had my eye on both SubH and Digitone so looking forward to your thoughts after you get the DN.

The DN does Acid thread was yet another eye-opener for me. Maybe there are limits to getting to sound like a Moog, but it seemed convincing enough to me as a stand-in for a 303.

I’m sure the two will complement each other well.

I just picked mine up :sunglasses: If any UK-based ‘nauts want one, Elevator Sound have one left in stock from this batch.