Neat and Unique Sub 37 Sounds and Behaviors

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Ted3000
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Neat and Unique Sub 37 Sounds and Behaviors

Post by Ted3000 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 8:40 am

I thought I'd start a thread about some of the cool (or at least unique) Sub 37 tones and behaviors that I have not encountered on other synths.

1. Keyboard Octave Switching: Most synths I've used - virtual analogs and digitally controlled analogs - have short keybeds with octave switches. Usually you can hold a note, and as long as the key is held, you can switch octaves and the original note continues to hold. Press a new note, and the new range is applied. On the Sub 37, held notes are transposed as soon as you change the keyboard octave range. It's a different approach, but it makes for cool performance techniques.

2. Oscillator octave range switch: The four footages on each oscillator have detents on the pot. Between the detents, it switches back to the INIT default range. It makes switching octaves occasionally have a little blip. It's just a little interesting behavior that you can exploit.

3. Patch Changes: Seems like every synth ever made will change patches instantly, even if a previous patch is still decaying. I like that on the Sub 37 you can change patches, but the new sound parameters are not applied until you key a note. It's a small thing but it seems unique to me. I'm used to tails suddenly clicking and the new sound changing mid-stream. This design feels more deluxe.

4. VCO drift: I've never played a VCO synth that has such stable tuning and scaling. You get the benefits of VCO - subtle flanging, always just a hint of motion - with almost DCO-like stability. The Oscillator Reset option really tightens up the attacks, but you still get the frequencies slowly peeling away for that classic Moog tone. One and two never quite lock frequency for more than a few seconds, but they're never sour unless you dial that in. It's literally the best of both worlds.

5. Filter Slopes: 24 is classic, 18 is quite appropriate for acid sounds (yes, I know the 303 = 24), 12 has that bright classic character. But the 6db has a strange tone that I've never heard anywhere else. It's such a unique timbre that it does not sound like a lowpass. Most of the signal is passed, but with a wild nasal boost right up to self oscillation.

6. Filter Volume and Bass Drop: I may be wrong, but the Sub 37's filter seems to drop less bass and less volume than other Moog filter incarnations. I seem to reach for the volume knob less often than other Moog synths I've owned, and much less than the Minilogue, which cuts output in half even a touch of res.

7. Modulating the speed of an LFO with another LFO: I have not seen this outside modular or menudiving digital synths. It makes the Sub 37 able to create the experimental sounds you generally don't see on keyboard style analogs.

8. Envelope looping: The Minimoog lets you use the third oscillator as an LFO. The Sub 37 lets you use the envelopes as LFOs, and the results are not just applicable to the filter and VCA. The modulation possibilities are staggering.

9. The sequencer is more advanced than many standalone units. It's really fun to sequence modulation amount and route it to control things like waveshape.

10. The drive and gain staging is out of this world. Vintage sounding filter overdrive, postfilter overdrive, and a feedback path that seems to push the whole signal into a girthy distorted fog that softly clips and eventually erupts into chaos, all while maintaining a huge low end. Many synths have a nice fuzzy distortion on board, and you can get that sound on the Sub 37 with an effects box. But no one offers such a wide range of tone-shaping drive, and no one makes that available as a modulation destination.
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mmarsh100
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Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 12:36 pm

Re: Neat and Unique Sub 37 Sounds and Behaviors

Post by mmarsh100 » Wed Mar 29, 2017 3:28 pm

Nice post :)
6. Filter Volume and Bass Drop: I may be wrong, but the Sub 37's filter seems to drop less bass and less volume than other Moog filter incarnations. I seem to reach for the volume knob less often than other Moog synths I've owned, and much less than the Minilogue, which cuts output in half even a touch of res.
And you can get the bass back with the Drive knob!

rans53
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 2:20 pm

Re: Neat and Unique Sub 37 Sounds and Behaviors

Post by rans53 » Sun Apr 02, 2017 7:18 pm

Great post! Thank you for putting that in words.

motwell
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Dec 05, 2014 8:05 pm
Location: San Luis Obispo County, Central California, USA

Re: Neat and Unique Sub 37 Sounds and Behaviors

Post by motwell » Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:19 pm

Yes, thanks for posting. That's a lot of good info in one place.
Sub 37 (firmware 1.2.0), Mother-32 x2, MF-103; Ableton Live Suite 9.7.1 on Windows 10 Pro (64-bit); RME UCX interface.

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Chimponaut
Posts: 106
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:35 pm

Re: Neat and Unique Sub 37 Sounds and Behaviors

Post by Chimponaut » Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:01 pm

Nice Ted3000.

One of my fav things is the ability to assign glide to only one osc. I know this is a pretty common feature on synths but it sounds absolutely amazing on the Sub37. (Applying glide to only one osc and then automating the glide time to bring it in and out when needed) It can add a beautiful ripping kind of sound to the attack depending on what other mods are happening.
HW: Sub 37 <> Model D (original) <> Minitaur <> Slim Phatty <> OB-6 Module
<> Prophet Rev2 8V <> Prologue 16 <> Integra 7 <> SE-02 <> Triton Le <> Audient ASP-880
<> RME Raydat

SW: Nuendo

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