Tips for the Moog Sub 37 Editor

The top segment of the window contains the navigation bar.

The Editor Page shows the main edit panel, plus a lower panel of additional controls. These additional controls correspond to menu settings on the Sub 37. There’s nothing here that you haven’t seen before, either on the Sub 37 panel, or in its menus.

The Sequencer Page displays the sequencer editor in the lower panel. It provides a nice interface to the sequence data - the notes, step parameters, and overall sequence settings.

The Setup Page displays the setup controls in the lower panel. It contains controls for the items in the MIDI and Global menus on the Sub 37. Read the Sub 37 manual section for those menus for the details of these settings.

Here is where you turn Local Control on or off if you use the Editor within a DAW.

Also, make sure that Program Change receive is on, so that the Sub 37 can follow preset changes from the Editor.

The Mapping Page displays the MIDI CC mapping in the lower panel. These correspond to the table entries in the MIDI Control Change messages starting on page 53 in the Sub 37 User Manual.

The controls for CV mapping are on the left side; these correspond to the entries in the Global > CV Mapping menu.

The Librarian Page shows folders and lists of presets. It has three major columns, but is logically grouped into two sections:

The columns show different items:

The computer keyboard can be used to navigate the lists. Use the up and down cursor arrow keys to move up and down the lists. Use the return key to open and close folders.

The librarian interface has a pop-up menu for each data column:

On the bottom panel of the Setup Page, just right of center, at the bottom, you’ll see the software version of the Editor and the firmware version of the Sub 37.

When first starting up, it can be wise to make your own copy of the presets, especially if you have customized any. Here are the steps:

Well, we really can’t. The Hardware Presets list is just a view inside the synthesizer, which is organized by bank and preset number. Can’t change that. Instead, here’s a workaround:

See the next item.

Pretend there are three boxes inside the Sub 37: the keyboard, an arpeggiator/sequencer, and a sound module. Here’s a diagram:

There are two controls of interest here: Local Control and Seq MIDI Out. Both these controls are on the Setup page of the Editor, and in the Global > Local Control and Global > Seq Options menus on the Sub 37.

With Local Control On, the keyboard controls the ARP, and the ARP controls the synth module. MIDI input is merged with the messages from the keyboard, and this merged stream is sent to the arpeggiator. MIDI output can come from the keyboard directly (Seq MIDI Out = Keys), or from the output of the ARP (Seq MIDI Out = SEQ).

With Local Control Off, there are two different routings:

In addition, you have controls to select what kinds of messages are sent out the MIDI ports, and which ports are active. See the Setup page, and the MIDI menu on the Sub 37.

Here’s how the modulation boxes are setup now:

To narrow the range of modulation depth, pick a mod controller that you don’t use, and give it more of the available range. This cuts the range of the other controls.

For example, setting Ctrl4 to 50% will cut in half the modulation depth from the mod-wheel.

Make sure the Search Presets field is empty. Or maybe it’s a folder that contains only other folders? If so, try opening it with a double-click or return key.

The Categories menu shows only the categories that are assigned to the presets in the currently selected folder.

Here’s one cheat: use the Sequencer Mod Values to modulate the Ratchet Count. You can’t get different pitches on each subdivision, but you can get something other than straight, even, beats.

Set the Sequence Mod Destination to Ratchet Count, set the Mod Amount to 100%, and set individual mod values at each step in the sequence. Set the initial Ratchet Multiple to 1, and modulate upwards with mod values from 0 to 127. Or, set it somewhere else and modulate up or down.

The table below shows the mod values for a particular ratchet count, when modulating up from a ratchet count of 1. Negate the numbers to decrease the ratchet multiple. For instance, if the Ratchet Multiple is set to 4, and you wish to modulate it down to 3, then you need to drop down by one notch, so set the Seq Mod value to something from 0 to negative 15.