Re: Moog Sub 37
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 2:56 am
That's how the Korg Lambda is, too.Stab Frenzy wrote:I think there's a step missing from this though. In a paraphonic synth like the Poly 800 for example there's a VCA per oscillator, you don't hear all 8 oscs droning when you only press one key down. The Sub 37 doesn't do that, you always hear both oscs no matter how many keys you press.
It gets messy and indistinct when every single permutation is considered. :::shudders:::
I guess we need a name for those, too.
That's what a number of people said. Amos responded on the Automatic Gainsay Facebook page by saying:Stab Frenzy wrote:It's not paraphonic and Moog shouldn't have put that word on the synth. It's a monophonic synth with splittable osc tuning. I guess you could use the word duophonic (as opposed to having a polyphony of two) as that's what the Odyssey was described as. If it was paraphonic when you were in 'paraphonic' mode and pressed down one key you'd hear one osc, not two.
"...the new Moog synth is "2-note paraphonic" -- it can play two independent pitches from its two oscillators, in response to two keys played at once. Paraphonic still seemed less misleading than "Duophonic" (to me) because of the single VCF, VCA, and their respective envelope generators. Although ultimately I had very little to do with what got written on the panel"
Amos brings up a point that a lot of people have where a note count isn't valid unless that note count is individually articulated. I personally don't believe that is the case. The term "polyphonic" was used by Bob Moog to describe the first instance of his modular synthesizer, which was actually WAS polyphonic but had the divide-down oscillators sent through a single VCA/VCF arrangement.
The first synths that were "duophonic" were not articulated duophony, either. :/
Well, no. Because polyphony is about whether multiple notes can be played, and not whether those notes are articulated.Stab Frenzy wrote:I guess all this stuff is open to reinterpretation to a certain extent and never set in stone, and for example if you play a chord on a guitar that's going through an auto-wah and a tremolo pedal it doesn't stop being a polyphonic instrument does it?
You're not alone with that.Stab Frenzy wrote:If you get right back to the idea of a synth 'voice' in a polyphonic instrument coming from the idea of a human voice in a choir, each voice should have a separate amplitude and tone control system. I always thought of paraphonic instruments has 'not fully polyphonic' instruments, in the same way that a paramedic isn't a full doctor or a paralegal isn't a full lawyer. But that might just be me.
Except that you have to remember that these devices weren't designed to act like acoustic musical instruments. They were designed to allow you to sculpt sound in monophony.
No one describes a pipe organ as "not being real polyphony" because it lacks a filter or source of amplitude control per-voice. They are not articulated voices... and still, they're considered polyphonic instruments. It's only when articulation becomes possible that it becomes an issue.
This is why I have taken to saying that polyphony defines whether it is capable of playing multiple notes... and "articulated" should be used to define whether each of the notes it can play are, in fact, articulated.
The Sub 37 is, in fact, "paraphonic" in the current usage of the word, because its two voices share a single filter and VCA arrangement. But as I've pointed out, all monosynths are paraphonic, too.

I would describe the Sub 37 as duophonic, in the style of the Odyssey and Sonic Six.