Subharmonicon
Tallent Edition

Introduction

This guide will provide everything you need to know about the Tallent Edition, an unofficial extension to your Subharmonicon’s firmware.

If you’re already a Subharmonicon user (and if you’re reading this, we’re guessing you are), simply read on to discover what’s new.

Everything in Moog’s Subharmonicon manual still applies. The Tallent Edition adds to Subharmonicon firmware 1.1.1. It doesn’t take anything away, and when you first switch it on, your Subharmonicon behaves just as it always has. Every new feature waits until you ask for it.

Note This is an independent project. It is not made, tested or supported by Moog Music, so please don’t send them your questions about it. Send them to us instead, at the address at the end of this guide. And as with any unofficial firmware, you install it at your own risk.

What You’ll Need

• A Subharmonicon. Whichever firmware version it’s running now is fine.
• The MIDI adapter (DIN socket to 3.5mm plug) that came with it.
• A computer with a web browser, and a MIDI interface or USB-MIDI cable with a 5-pin MIDI output.
• A SysEx application, such as SysEx Librarian for macOS or Bome SendSX for Windows.

Installation

The Tallent Edition isn’t distributed as a file you can load directly. Instead, a small tool adds it to your own copy of Moog’s firmware, right in your web browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

1. Download Subharmonicon Firmware v1.1.1 from Moog’s downloads page and unzip it.
2. Open brandon-tallent.github.io/subharmonicon-extended-firmware and select Subharmonicon_Firmware_v1_1_1.syx from the folder you just unzipped. A new file, subharmonicon-tallent-edition.syx, will download automatically.
3. Connect your MIDI interface’s output to the Subharmonicon MIDI IN jack using the adapter, and select that interface in your SysEx application.
4. Send subharmonicon_FIRMWARE_INVALIDATE.syx from Moog’s folder. The Step 1 LED of Sequencer 1 will blink.
5. Send subharmonicon_FIRMWARE_ERASE.syx. The Step 2 LED of Sequencer 1 will blink.
6. Send subharmonicon-tallent-edition.syx. The Sequencer 2 LEDs fill up from left to right as the file arrives, which takes a couple of minutes. Then the Step 3 LED of Sequencer 1 blinks a few times, and Subharmonicon restarts with its customary light show. You’re done.

Note Steps 3 to 6 are Moog’s own update procedure, with our file standing in for theirs at the end. The firmware update instructions in Moog’s download describe it in more detail, including what to try if a file doesn’t seem to arrive.

Going Back

To return to Moog’s firmware at any time, repeat steps 3 to 6 with Moog’s own Subharmonicon_Firmware_v1_1_1.syx as the last file. Your Subharmonicon will be just as Moog made it.

Where to Start

When Subharmonicon restarts, nothing has changed. Your patch sounds as it did, the rhythm generators divide the tempo as they did, and every knob and button does what Moog’s manual says it does.

Everything new is switched on in Settings Mode, one feature at a time, and switched off again the same way. If you only try one thing first, make it Gate Patterns.

New Features Overview

Below you will find a summary overview of the new features and functional changes in the Tallent Edition. Refer to the next chapter for detailed descriptions.

New Features

Gate Patterns

Each RHYTHM knob selects one of 32 four-bar patterns, from plain note values to house, breaks and Euclidean rhythms.

Separate Envelope Rhythms

RHYTHM 3 and RHYTHM 4 trigger the VCA EG and the VCF EG, independently of the sequencers and of each other.

Paraphonic Mode

All six oscillators are tuned separately, and play up to six MIDI notes at once.

Harmony Mode

The oscillators play chords built from a key and scale you choose, with a bass note beneath and a melody on top.

Morph Mode

The SUB 1 oscillators sweep through eight wave shapes, from a plain tone to bursts and rattles, in time with the clock.

Noise

VCO 2’s SUB 2 can be traded for a noise source.

MIDI Velocity

The velocity of a note can set its level.

MIDI Glide

Notes played legato slide from one to the next.

MIDI VCF

The VCF EG can be triggered from a MIDI channel of its own.

MIDI Control

MIDI CC messages can turn the RHYTHM knobs, press the assignment buttons and change the new settings.

Settings Mode

All of the new settings are made from the front panel, and are remembered when the power is off.

Changes to Existing Features

Until you switch a feature on, Subharmonicon behaves as Moog’s manual describes, with these exceptions:

SEQ 1 ASSIGN buttons

With the sequencers stopped, holding SUB 1 and SUB 2 together for one second enters Settings Mode.

MIDI transpose

A MIDI note played while the sequencers are running still transposes the sequence. The transposition now ends when you release the note, and on MIDI Stop or All Notes Off. (Moog’s firmware leaves it in place.)

Power-up

Subharmonicon now powers up stopped, at Step 1, rather than where it was when it was switched off. The SEQ 1 and SEQ 2 assignments in the Polyrhythm section are remembered, as before.

With Rhythm Type set to Gate Patterns, the Polyrhythm section and the clock change as well:

RHYTHM knobs

Each knob selects a pattern in place of a division.

RHYTHM 3 and RHYTHM 4 buttons

The SEQ 1 and SEQ 2 buttons under these two knobs select the VCA EG and the VCF EG.

Envelope triggering

The envelopes are triggered by the RHYTHM 3 and RHYTHM 4 patterns, and no longer by the sequencers’ steps.

TEMPO knob

The range is 40 to 239 BPM.

CLOCK input and output

Both work in sixteenth notes.

NEXT button

Advances both sequencers by exactly one step.

Envelope outputs

The VCF EG and VCA EG are no longer smoothed by a few milliseconds on their way out. (We can’t honestly say we hear the difference.)

Now on to the details…

New Features in Detail

Here’s how to take advantage of everything the Tallent Edition adds. We’ll start with Settings Mode, where every new feature is switched on and off, and then cover everything else section by section.

Settings Mode

Subharmonicon doesn’t have a display, so the new settings are made in a mode that borrows the buttons and LEDs it does have.

Entering Settings Mode

Selecting a Setting

Eight buttons now each select a setting:

The button of the setting you’ve selected blinks. (For Tuning Span, it’s the four QUANTIZE LEDs that blink.) The other SEQ ASSIGN buttons are lit if their setting is switched on, so the panel also shows you what’s in use.

Changing a Setting

Five more buttons change the setting you’ve selected, and Sequencer 1’s STEP LEDs show its value:

EG

Switches the setting on or off. The EG button is lit when it’s on. For a setting with an amount, EG switches between zero and the amount you last set.

NEXT

Raises the value, or selects the next choice.

RESET

Lowers the value, or selects the previous choice.

SEQ OCT

Switches between coarse and fine steps, for the settings that have an amount. The ±2 LED is lit for coarse and the ±1 LED for fine.

STEP LEDs

The four STEP LEDs of Sequencer 1 show the value: the more LEDs, the more of it. Each setting’s description tells you how to read them.

PLAY

Saves your settings and returns Subharmonicon to normal. (It doesn’t start the sequencers.)

Note Settings Mode also saves and closes by itself after 30 seconds without a button press. When you leave, the SEQ ASSIGN buttons and the LEDs go back to showing what they did before. Nothing you press in Settings Mode changes your assignments.

Another note Holding OSC 1 and OSC 2 together still enters Moog’s Fine Tune mode, exactly as before.

A tip The drawings in this section are collected on a single page, the cheat sheet, to print and keep beside your Subharmonicon.

What’s Remembered

Settings made in Settings Mode are stored when you leave it, and are still there when Subharmonicon is next powered up. The SEQ 1 and SEQ 2 assignments in the Polyrhythm section are remembered too, as they always have been.

A setting changed by a MIDI CC message is temporary. It lasts until you change it again or switch off. (See Control Changes for the one exception.)

The Polyrhythm Section

Rhythm Type

Rhythm Type decides what the four RHYTHM knobs do.

Stock

Each knob divides the tempo by a whole number from 1 to 16, as Moog’s manual describes. This is the setting the Tallent Edition starts out with.

Gate Patterns

Each knob selects one of 32 rhythm patterns.

To change the Rhythm Type, enter Settings Mode and press SEQ 2 ASSIGN SUB 1. Then:

EG

Switches between Stock and Gate Patterns.

NEXT, RESET

NEXT selects Gate Patterns. RESET selects Stock.

STEP LEDs

Gate Patterns
Stock

MIDI

CC 115

Rhythm Type is independent of Pitch Mode. Any pitch mode can be used with either.

Note Changing the Rhythm Type doesn’t restart anything. Press RESET afterwards if you’d like a clean start.

Gate Patterns

In Gate Patterns, a RHYTHM knob selects a pattern: a four-bar phrase of sixteenth notes, 64 steps long, with a hit on some steps and a rest on the others. There are 32 to choose from. Fully counter-clockwise is silence, and they get busier (and stranger) from there. You’ll find them all under The Patterns below.

The four rhythm generators also split into two pairs, with two different jobs:

RHYTHM 1, RHYTHM 2

Advance the sequencers. Their SEQ 1 and SEQ 2 buttons work as they always have: each hit of the pattern moves Sequencer 1, Sequencer 2 or both on to the next step.

RHYTHM 3, RHYTHM 4

Trigger the envelopes. Under these two knobs, the SEQ 1 button sends the pattern’s hits to the VCA EG, and the SEQ 2 button sends them to the VCF EG. Light both, and each hit triggers both. (Ignore what’s printed on the buttons. We do.)

That separation is the whole idea. A sequencer moving on to its next step no longer triggers anything by itself, so the notes can change on one rhythm while the volume is played by a second and the filter is accented by a third.

When two patterns are sent to the same place, a hit in either one counts.

A good place to start is one lit button per knob: RHYTHM 1 to Sequencer 1, RHYTHM 2 to Sequencer 2, RHYTHM 3 to the VCA EG and RHYTHM 4 to the VCF EG, as shown above.

Note If you switch to Gate Patterns, press PLAY and hear nothing, the envelopes aren’t being triggered. Turn the RHYTHM 3 knob a little way up from fully counter-clockwise, and make sure the SEQ 1 button beneath it is lit.

A few things to know about playing with patterns:

• All four patterns run through the same four-bar phrase. Turning a RHYTHM knob changes the pattern without losing your place in it.
• PLAY pauses the phrase, and picks it up again from where it stopped. RESET sends the phrase and both sequencers back to the beginning.
• NEXT moves both sequencers on by one step, without moving the phrase and without triggering the envelopes.
• Holding RESET still holds the sequencers on a step, as before.
• The EG button still decides whether the envelopes are triggered automatically. With it Off (unlit), the RHYTHM 3 and RHYTHM 4 patterns don’t trigger them. Held (blinking) works as before.
• The TRIGGER button, the TRIGGER input jack and MIDI notes trigger both envelopes together, as before.
• The VCF EG and VCA EG outputs skip the few milliseconds of smoothing that Moog’s firmware applies to them.

And at the patchbay:

SEQ 1 CLK, SEQ 2 CLK outputs

Send a pulse each time their sequencer advances, so they carry the RHYTHM 1 and RHYTHM 2 patterns.

TRIGGER output

Sends a pulse on every hit that’s sent to the VCA EG.

RHYTHM 1–4 inputs

A control voltage here still adds to its RHYTHM knob, and now sweeps through the patterns.

Note MIDI CC 113 (Rhythm Generator Logic) has no effect in Gate Patterns.

A tip Give RHYTHM 3 quarter notes (pattern 3) for the VCA EG, give RHYTHM 4 the backbeat (pattern 10) for the VCF EG, and turn up VCF EG AMT. That’s a steady pulse with a filter accent on two and four that the sequencers know nothing about. Now turn RHYTHM 1.

The Patterns

Here are all 32, numbered in the order a RHYTHM knob selects them, from fully counter-clockwise (0) to fully clockwise (31). Each row is a bar, each square is a sixteenth note, and the filled squares are hits.

Most patterns set up a groove in their first two bars and vary it in the last two. The plain note values don’t vary at all, which makes them the ones to reach for when you just want things to line up.

Tempo and Clock

Four-bar patterns want a different clock from dividers, so in Gate Patterns:

TEMPO knob

The range is 40 to 239 BPM, with 140 BPM at the center position. (Moog’s 20 to 3,000 BPM is a fine range for a clock you’re going to divide by 16, and not much use for a four-bar pattern.)

MIDI clock

As before, a MIDI clock received at the MIDI IN jack takes over from the TEMPO knob, and the patterns follow it.

CLOCK input

As before, a clock signal here overrides the TEMPO knob. Each pulse advances the patterns by one sixteenth note, so send it sixteenths (four pulses per quarter note).

CLOCK output

While the sequencers are playing, sends a pulse every sixteenth note. When Subharmonicon is following the CLOCK input, it sends each pulse it receives.

Note If you clock a DFAM (or anything else that advances on every pulse) from the CLOCK output, it steps in sixteenth notes while Gate Patterns is on.

Stock

With Rhythm Type set to Stock, the Polyrhythm section is Moog’s. Each RHYTHM knob divides the clock by a whole number from 1 to 16, all eight SEQ 1 and SEQ 2 buttons send their rhythm generator to the sequencers, the sequencers trigger the envelopes, and MIDI CC 113 chooses OR or XOR logic.

The clock is Moog’s too: TEMPO runs from 20 to 3,000 BPM, the CLOCK input and output count the same pulses the rhythm generators do, and NEXT steps the sequencers the way it always has.

Pitch Modes

Pitch Mode decides how Subharmonicon’s six oscillators are tuned. There are four:

Normal

Moog’s tuning. Each subharmonic oscillator plays an undertone of its VCO.

Paraphonic

All six oscillators are tuned separately, and can play six MIDI notes.

Harmony

The oscillators play chords in a key and scale you choose.

Morph

The SUB 1 oscillators become shape-shifting tone generators.

Selecting a Pitch Mode

Enter Settings Mode and press SEQ 2 ASSIGN OSC 2. Then:

EG

Steps through the modes in the order above, and around again.

NEXT, RESET

Select the next mode or the previous one.

STEP LEDs

Normal
Paraphonic
Harmony
Morph

MIDI

CC 114

Note Changing the pitch mode releases any MIDI notes that are being held. It doesn’t change the Rhythm Type.

Normal

Normal is the Subharmonicon you already know: two VCOs, each with two subharmonic oscillators tuned to its undertones. There’s nothing to add, except that Gate Patterns, Noise, Glide and Velocity all work in Normal mode too.

Paraphonic

In Moog’s design, a subharmonic oscillator can only ever play an undertone of its VCO. Paraphonic mode cuts the cord. All six oscillators (VCO 1, VCO 2 and the four subs) are tuned separately, so Subharmonicon can hold any six notes you like, and can play up to six MIDI notes at once.

(It’s paraphonic rather than polyphonic because all six still share one filter, one VCA and one pair of envelopes.)

Here’s what changes:

FREQ knobs

Each of the six FREQ knobs tunes its own oscillator. The center position is the oscillator’s note: middle C, until a MIDI note says otherwise. Rotating the knob either way raises or lowers the pitch by up to two octaves (or one: see Tuning Span). There’s a small flat spot at the center, so the note itself is easy to find.

QUANTIZE

Applies to all six oscillators. With a scale selected, every FREQ knob steps through its notes. With no QUANTIZE LEDs lit, tuning is continuous.

SEQ ASSIGN buttons

Each button adds its sequencer’s STEP knobs to that one oscillator and no other. Light OSC 1 alone and the sequence moves VCO 1 while its subs stay put. Light all three and they move together.

SEQ OCT

Still sets the range of the STEP knobs.

When you play MIDI notes (with the sequencers stopped, as always), each new note is handed to the next free oscillator in line: VCO 1, then its SUB 1 and SUB 2, then VCO 2 and its subs, and around again. Six notes can sound at once. A seventh takes over from an earlier one.

When you release a note, its oscillator goes back to middle C (plus whatever its FREQ knob and its sequencer add).

Note An oscillator without a note isn’t silent. It rests at middle C, shifted by its FREQ knob, and you’ll hear it whenever the VCA is open and its LEVEL knob is up. So think of the six FREQ knobs as tuning the chord that Subharmonicon plays when left alone, and of each MIDI note as borrowing one voice of it for a while.

A tip You don’t need MIDI at all. Select 12-ET with the QUANTIZE button, tune a chord on the six FREQ knobs, and assign a sequencer to just one or two of the oscillators. That’s a chord with a moving voice inside it, which is something a Subharmonicon has never been able to do.

Tuning Span

Tuning Span sets how far the FREQ knobs reach in Paraphonic, Harmony and Morph modes: two octaves either side of center, or one. It starts out at two. (One octave makes fine tuning by hand a good deal easier.)

It has nothing to do with the SEQ OCT button, which still sets the range of the STEP knobs.

To change the Tuning Span, enter Settings Mode and press QUANTIZE. The four QUANTIZE LEDs blink. Then:

EG

Switches between the two spans.

NEXT, RESET

NEXT selects ±2 octaves. RESET selects ±1 octave.

STEP LEDs

±2 octaves
±1 octave

MIDI

CC 116

Harmony

Harmony mode turns Subharmonicon into a chord machine. You choose a key and a scale. Subharmonicon works out the seventh chord that belongs on each note of that scale and plays it on the four subharmonic oscillators, with a bass note on VCO 1 and a melody on VCO 2. Whatever you do to it, it stays in key.

In this mode the six FREQ knobs stop being tuning controls, and each takes on a job of its own:

Each of the four SUB FREQ knobs begins at its first choice when fully counter-clockwise. That’s C, Ionian (the major scale), root position and close voicing.

The 14 scales, in order, are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian, followed by the harmonic minor scale and its six modes: Locrian natural 6, Ionian sharp 5, Dorian sharp 4, Phrygian natural 3, Lydian sharp 2 and Super Locrian.

The VCO 1 FREQ and VCO 2 FREQ knobs work as they do in Paraphonic mode, with the note at the center position and a reach set by the Tuning Span, except that they can only land on notes of the scale.

Sequencing Harmony

A sequencer assigned to an oscillator moves whatever that oscillator’s FREQ knob selects. So the six SEQ ASSIGN buttons become:

SEQ 1 ASSIGN OSC 1

Sequencer 1 moves the chord’s root (and the bass with it). This is your chord progression.

SEQ 1 ASSIGN SUB 1

Sequencer 1 changes the scale.

SEQ 1 ASSIGN SUB 2

Sequencer 1 changes the key.

SEQ 2 ASSIGN OSC 2

Sequencer 2 plays the melody.

SEQ 2 ASSIGN SUB 1

Sequencer 2 changes the inversion.

SEQ 2 ASSIGN SUB 2

Sequencer 2 changes the voicing.

To get started with Harmony:

1. Select Harmony mode, and rotate all four SUB FREQ knobs fully counter-clockwise for C major.
2. Turn up the four SUB LEVEL knobs. Leave VCO 1 LEVEL and VCO 2 LEVEL down for now.
3. Light SEQ 1 ASSIGN OSC 1, and turn the other five SEQ ASSIGN buttons off.
4. Press PLAY. The four STEP knobs of Sequencer 1 now choose four seventh chords, all of them in C major. (In Gate Patterns, that takes one pattern advancing Sequencer 1 and another triggering the VCA EG.)
5. Bring up VCO 1 LEVEL to add the bass.
6. Bring up VCO 2 LEVEL and light SEQ 2 ASSIGN OSC 2. Sequencer 2 now plays a melody over the chords.
7. For extra credit, light SEQ 2 ASSIGN SUB 1 as well, and Sequencer 2 will change the inversion as it goes.

Note The chords are always in your scale, so the QUANTIZE button has nothing to quantize. It does still choose between equal temperament and just intonation. Select 12-JI or 8-JI, and listen to what just intonation does for a seventh chord.

Harmony Spread

Spread detunes the six oscillators against one another, for a wider, slowly moving chord. At its maximum they’re spaced evenly from 30 cents flat (VCO 1) to 30 cents sharp (VCO 2’s SUB 2). At zero, the tuning is exact. Spread only applies in Harmony mode.

To set the Spread, enter Settings Mode. Harmony Spread is the setting that’s selected when you arrive (or press SEQ 1 ASSIGN OSC 1). Then:

EG

Switches between zero and the amount you last set.

NEXT, RESET

Raise and lower the amount, in eight steps from zero to maximum. Press SEQ OCT for fine steps.

STEP LEDs

Zero
to One LED for each quarter of the range

MIDI

CC 112

A tip A little goes a long way. Somewhere between a quarter and a half (one or two STEP LEDs) is a good place to start.

Morph

Morph is the strange one.

A subharmonic oscillator makes its sound by restarting a rising ramp, over and over. Normally those restarts are evenly spaced, which is what gives you a steady pitch. In Morph mode, each SUB 1 spaces its restarts in a repeating pattern of eight instead, and its SUB 1 FREQ knob sweeps smoothly through eight differently shaped patterns:

Even is a plain tone, one octave below its VCO. Each shape after it bends the wave further out of true, adding undertones and shifting the pitch you hear, until you arrive at Single cluster, which is one long ramp and a rattle. Between the named shapes, the knob blends each one into the next.

Here’s what the controls do in Morph mode:

VCO 1 FREQ, VCO 2 FREQ

The pitch of each VCO, tuned as in Paraphonic mode: the note is at the center position, and the knob reaches up to two octaves either side. Each SUB 1 follows its VCO.

SUB 1 FREQ

The shape, from Even (fully counter-clockwise) to Single cluster (fully clockwise).

SUB 2 FREQ

Two things at once. It tunes SUB 2, as in Paraphonic mode. And SUB 2’s pitch sets the rate at which SUB 1’s timing is pushed and pulled, which sets the shape in motion. This happens even with the SUB 2 LEVEL knob all the way down.

SEQ ASSIGN buttons

OSC 1 and OSC 2 transpose a VCO and its SUB 1 together. SUB 1 sequences the shape: with a STEP knob at its center position the shape is wherever the SUB 1 FREQ knob put it, and rotating the STEP knob moves it by up to half of the full sweep in either direction. SUB 2 sequences SUB 2’s pitch, and the modulation rate with it.

WAVE switches

In the middle position, SUB 1 modulates the pulse width of its VCO, as Moog’s manual describes. In Morph mode that carries the shape into the VCO’s own sound, even with SUB 1 LEVEL turned down.

Note Sequencing the shape isn’t affected by QUANTIZE or SEQ OCT. For the widest sweep, start with the SUB 1 FREQ knob near its center position.

Morph also listens to the clock. While the sequencers are stopped, each shape runs free. Press PLAY, and both subs of each VCO restart together on the downbeat of every bar, while the longest gap in each shape is nudged onto a sixteenth note whenever it falls close to one. Everything in between stays loose. At low pitches, where a shape is slow enough to hear as a rhythm, this is what makes it sit in the groove.

A MIDI note in Morph mode sets the pitch of VCO 1 and VCO 2 together, keeping whatever interval you’ve tuned between them. They stay on that note after you let go.

A tip Brake and Accelerate, the third and fourth shapes, are at about ten and eleven o’clock on the SUB 1 FREQ knob. Their restarts crowd together or spread apart like a bouncing ball, and they’re at their best low, slow and synced to the clock.

Noise

The noise itself is always the same. It doesn’t follow notes, tuning, glide or the sequencers.

To switch Noise on or off, enter Settings Mode and press SEQ 2 ASSIGN SUB 2. Then:

EG

Switches Noise on and off.

NEXT, RESET

NEXT switches it on. RESET switches it off.

STEP LEDs

On
Off

MIDI

CC 117

Note In Harmony mode, VCO 2’s SUB 2 FREQ knob still selects the voicing, but the chord gives up its seventh to the noise. In Morph mode, VCO 2’s SUB 1 keeps its shape but is no longer modulated.

A tip Turn the other five LEVEL knobs down, pick a busy pattern for RHYTHM 3 and shorten the VCA DECAY. Subharmonicon now has a hi-hat.

MIDI Operations

Everything in the MIDI Operations chapter of Moog’s manual, and in their firmware update notes, still applies. In particular, MIDI notes play Subharmonicon while the sequencers are stopped, and transpose the sequence while they’re playing. (One small change: the transposition now ends when you release the note. Moog’s firmware leaves it in place.)

What a note plays now depends on the pitch mode:

Normal

One note at a time, on both VCOs and their subs, as before.

Paraphonic

Up to six notes, one for each oscillator.

Harmony

The note you play becomes the root of the chord (or the nearest note of the scale does), and the melody moves with it.

Morph

VCO 1 and VCO 2 together, which then stay on that note.

Velocity

Subharmonicon has always received the velocity of each MIDI note, and has always ignored it. Velocity Depth sets how much attention it now pays.

At zero (where it starts out), every note plays at full level. As you raise the depth, softer notes are played more quietly, until at the maximum the softest notes all but disappear. A note at full velocity is always at full level.

To set the Velocity Depth, enter Settings Mode and press SEQ 1 ASSIGN SUB 2. Then:

EG

Switches between zero and the depth you last set.

NEXT, RESET

Raise and lower the depth, in eight steps from zero to maximum. Press SEQ OCT for fine steps.

STEP LEDs

Zero
to One LED for each quarter of the range

MIDI

CC 111

Note There’s only one VCA. In Paraphonic mode, the velocity of the newest note sets the level of the whole chord.

Glide

Glide slides the pitch from one MIDI note to the next when you play legato (that is, when you start the new note before letting go of the old one). The envelopes aren’t retriggered, so the two notes join into a single gesture. If you’ve ever programmed a slide on a TB-303, you know the sound.

Notes played separately still start on pitch. Glide works in every pitch mode, and it applies to MIDI notes only. The sequencers’ steps don’t glide.

There are eight glide times to choose from: roughly 10, 22, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 and 2000 milliseconds. Glide starts out at 22 milliseconds, which is the 303’s own. (These aren’t stopwatch times. The pitch eases toward the new note, covering about two thirds of the distance in the time given.)

To set up Glide, enter Settings Mode and press SEQ 1 ASSIGN SUB 1. Then:

EG

Switches Glide on and off. The EG button is lit when it’s on.

NEXT, RESET

Select the next longer or shorter time. Press SEQ OCT for fine steps in between.

STEP LEDs

All eight STEP LEDs, Sequencer 1’s and then Sequencer 2’s, show the time: one LED for 10 milliseconds, two for 22, and so on up to eight for 2000.

MIDI

CC 65 (on and off), CC 5 (time)

MIDI VCF

Normally, a MIDI note triggers both envelopes. With MIDI VCF switched on, the two are split between two MIDI channels:

• Notes on Subharmonicon’s own MIDI channel set the pitch and trigger the VCA EG.
• Notes on the next channel up trigger the VCF EG and do nothing else. It doesn’t matter which notes they are. (After channel 16 comes channel 1.)

This lets a sequencer play filter accents from a track of their own, wherever it likes, without touching the notes.

To switch MIDI VCF on or off, enter Settings Mode and press the SEQ 1 button under the RHYTHM 1 knob. Then:

EG

Switches MIDI VCF on and off.

NEXT, RESET

NEXT switches it on. RESET switches it off.

STEP LEDs

On
Off

Note MIDI VCF has no effect when Subharmonicon is set to receive on all MIDI channels.

Control Changes

The Tallent Edition responds to these MIDI CC messages, in addition to the ones listed in Moog’s manual:

A few things to know:

• A RHYTHM knob’s CC replaces the knob until you next move the knob, just as Moog’s CCs do for the SUB FREQ knobs.
• The button CCs (84 to 89) set a whole group of buttons at once. They don’t toggle, so sending one twice does nothing the second time. They’re remembered just as if you had pressed the buttons, which makes them the one exception to the rule that CC changes are temporary.
• Moog’s CCs for the VCO FREQ and SUB FREQ knobs still stand in for those knobs, whatever the knobs happen to be doing in the current pitch mode.
• CC 113 (Rhythm Generator Logic) applies in Stock only.

To store a setting permanently over MIDI, without touching the panel, the project includes a small tool that writes a SysEx file for any of the settings in this guide. You’ll find it, along with the source code, at github.com/brandon-tallent/subharmonicon-extended-firmware.

That’s It

Everything else is exactly where Moog put it. Now go make something.