The Subharmonicon Diaries 

"Captain's log. It's Day 7...........I haven't slept in over 48 hrs..........the frequencies...emanating from.....the Subharmonicon are getting stronger. .. .. .. the beats are disgraceful. ... I am not sure how much longer I can keep this up..." [End of Transmission]

I was very happy to see that you were giving the subharmonic an in-depth review. I really like your approach to reviewing synthesizers. Every subharmonicon should have this etched on that back plate: “You cannot step into the same river twice, for other waters are continually flowing on.”

Excellent review and you landed on all the beautifully “unique” and frustrating aspects of this synth. Where I have found the Subharmonicon’s personality fits with me, is I have come to find it to be a inspiration or creative block buster. It doesn’t quite fit with most of the gear I have.. but I too will often find myself looking up at the clock and wondering where 2 or 3 hours have disappeared to. I often find that after sessions like that where the subharmonicon is playing “me” and not the other way around, I approach my other semi-modular gear slightly differently and with different ideas than I had previously.. so in that way, the Subharmonicon is like a mini musical vacation machine. It momentarily wipes away my creativity block and allows me to return to my workflow with a new perspective and new ideas.. For that reason alone.. I’ll be keeping it, even with its quirks..

Just a mention that the clock pulse delay issue has been fixed in firmware update 1.1.0 available from Moog

Such a joy waking up to find an hour long Tim S. video on the Subharmonicon. Thank you!

Can I just say that the opening piece that plays under the 'Day 1' section is phenomenal. I've wanted a Sub H since they came out, but hearing that piece has out me into 'buy it' mode. So beautiful. Congrats!

Felt for you with the reset button. We've all been there. Had a beautiful textured drone in clouds using the freeze button. Tried to save it & it just didn't seem to work, lost it. It was integral to the atmosphere of the piece. 2 hours later I couldn't recreate it. RECORD RECORD RECORD :D We can wallow in our lost little treasures together in hopes for some sort of comfort hahaha. Great video, I really hope to pick up a subharmonicon in future, big fan of the Mother.

I’ve made the most out of it in my set up splitting the VCA out and creating parallel paths. The beauty of semi modular is that it is also modular, so just go with your instincts. Beautiful instrument.

Love this format. Great balance between concise, thorough, personal and objective! Thank you for your effort!

I've been looking at these for a while. This is the best review/demo/introduction to them I've seen. Very useful to me, thank you

This is actually a great video format. Most showcase a few one-tricks of their new gear and give a overall impression but this was highly informative and entertaining

what a wonderful logbook of your journey with this Moog ! congratulations , it's a great work , very helpful to avoid nervous burn out . many thanks to have shared your experiences . sincerely

I’ve been loving the SH, I’ve had it for a month now. The strength of this synth is in the sequencers/polyrhythms. I’ve been clocking it and the Mother 32 & DFAM (they really are meant to be used together) from a TR08, tune it how I fancy using oscillator one and one four step sequence and then start adding oscillators and the other sequence and changing the sequencers and pitches. I get better results with small tweaks rather than wild changes. It’s a lovely instrument, you can really get lost in it. Like the DFAM, the SH is limited in scope, but that’s to be expected, it’s a module not an entire rig. It is also more suited to serendipitous performance that careful planning

What a great day! An hour long Shoebridge video on my beloved Subharmonicon! This is inspirational and will be sure to influence future Proxy Merchants releases!

This is the first video I've watched of yours, I'm very impressed with how clear you explain things and the great production value of your video. Keep up the great work, Subscribed.

As with all your videos, this was incredibly informative, relaxing and entertaining. I have lots of synths including the Moog Grandmother which I love. Considering buying one of these but really not sure, have to say this was the most helpful video I've seen so far. Thankyou for the time and effort you put into all of your videos, without people like yourself it would be so easy to waste lots of money. Keep up the excellent work, it really is appreciated.

Great video, chilled way of presenting and one of the best musical examples of the device.

Using the subharmonicon's outputs with the rest of my system to give the bass + lead their own filters and envelopes has been a game changer.

Congratulations! Really great video! I loved your conclusion (incl. the excuses LOL)... and the examples/demo track! As allways you mostly bringt it to that point, that i was interested in. Thumbs up!

Your teaching style is very detailed and thoughtful. Thank you!

A very intimate and insightful video. Thanks a lot. I feel many of your points having had this wonderful little synthesiser for a week. And I’m very excited to see how this instrument will evolve after spending more time with it.

The definitive video for anyone considering this quirky synth. Thanks again Tim for a detailed and thoughtful presentation.

Love your videos Tim, great work again thank you 🙏

Interesting review. Had mine for about 5 months and found it has really helped me shift my workflow from what had become stale and formulaic to something that’s inspiring and challenging. It leads me to places I would never normally go.

Interesting video! Very good!! I love this kind of review (pros and cons, limitations, great advices, etc) I think I'm totally in line with your mindset :)

This was great to get a realistic view into an experience with a new piece of gear and learning how to use it.

Tim this video was amazing. A proper synth documentary, thank you so much for this! I feel very much the same way about the SH. It’s a beautiful synth but you have to really invest in learning it and accept it for what it is to really enjoy it. Truly inspiring content, bravo! PS: absolutely loved your take on the “reset button”/“on-off” behaviour👏🏼👏🏼

What a beautifully filmed video!

Top review. He summed up the emotional roller-coaster of learning this synth.

Top tier review, brilliant work, thank you so much 🙏

A well made video. Really appreciate the effort you put into this. The shooting style puts the viewer right at this beautiful device. And the details delivered in a way that someone considering buying a Subharmonicon needs to hear. Nice complement to Kim Bjorn's book. Keep up the good work!

Dein Video ist so gut und liebevoll gemacht, richtig richtig gut... Respekt bitte mehr davon!

Thanks - great video. Wasn't sure I'd watch the whole thing, but I did. It was enthralling.

good review style, got so much information out that other reviews are missing, thank you!

This was a beautiful video. The subharmonicon workflow is definitely more on the generative side, Im glad that you found a jamming workflow that works for you. I've had some success sending the clock to the trigger. Then I know each beat will send a trigger and I can generate interesting rhythms with both sequences away from the main pulse.

Excellent presentation, as always!

I found this very helpful. I have neglected my Subharmonicon, do to getting other great gear, and obsessing over the shiny new stuff. Thanks for reminding me, about my SubH, and showing me how to get more out of it. Will now play with it, and combine with my newer stuff. Best wishes for your continued success, and happiness, as a music creator.

So glad you made this video, as you understand and explain synthesis very well. The Eurorack modules in Moog housing look very interesting, especially the stereo mixer. I’ve only listened to this video on the way to work, so might have missed a lot, but a couple of observations I have. The Subharmonicon works very well paired with a kick drum and a little reverb makes a lot of difference. I look forward to watching this at the weekend. All the best.

Thanks very much for making this video. You helped me make up my mind about purchasing this instrument.

Nice video, great demos. One of the few people I’m able to watch all the way through. Certainly helped me decide on whether to pursue one or not.

Thanks for the thorough review. Very informative and honest.

Thanks Tim for the well balanced account of your experiences.

I wrote one piece of music with my subharmonicon so far and yes, it was a hard ride. I felt I had to built everything arround it and still felt like having some tuning issues. But also nothing I ever wrote sounded like this. That was the intention of the ones like Bob Moog and all the other pioneers. And you always grow with imperfect equipment....

I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the Subharmonicon. Interesting little synth that sure has its quirks eh? I've had it for about 9 months now and, like you, have found it to be ideal to jam along to. It's the synth that's always first to the party, or the one that starts it. Aside from that, I've had success playing it as a monosynth while using its oscillators to create a harmonically rich lead. It has its flaws, but it's definitely changed the way I make music and it's inspired me more often than I can count.

No matter what, that opening 45 seconds of intro music is absolutely sublime. Perfect

The first video i saw of you, great job. I am considering to add the Subh. to my setup still though i expected the same „limitations“ you mentioned. Anyway ..i felt like with this review you almost explained how „ok it is“ that every musician is doing his thing differently and i like that point. And to be open to other paths of experiencing music and creating it. You really sort of (maybe unintentionally) covered something „bigger“ with this video... Great. Thanks!!

Thanks Tim, I'm very new to synthesizers and have virtually zero experience of using one. Your review was practical and thorough, and I just wanted to say thanks for really going in-depth on the pro's and con's of the Subharminicon. Cheers

Really nice video. Thanks. Instrument sounds lovely despite the limitations.

Great account of you working with the Subharmonicon. Thanks...

I really love the lack of control on this device. It just allows for ideas that I would have never thought to happen. These beautiful happy accidents of chance and circumstance. And the intricate polyrhythms. And then you pair that with another Moog. I enjoy the combination of a Moog grandmother. it's just such a joyous sound hearing these two work in conjunction

Thanx a lot for your videos mate, love how you do it

Thanks, Tim. That was fascinating!

Great review very helpful to see your thinking process!

i have the subharmonicon and all the negative things are true, and i absolutely love the subharmonicon. just wish they hid USB MIDI capabilitiy

Thanks for your honest reviews. Very informative.

What a beautiful instrument.

Thanks for this, Tim. This thing is an animal for sure. Not quite a pet, but an animal one tries to tame, and one for many ends in a foster home failure.

i loved this video, very interesting way to go through an synth review. thumb up to you too.

One of my favourite music making videos on RU-vid; one of my favourite instruments; one of the very few videos I watch more than once. :-)

Thank You, Tim! Your Own Observations are Very Interesting! )

Thanks again for this highly sophisticated view on the Moog Subharmonicon ... it challenged me to buy one together with a DFAM. I immediately renamed mine to "Disharmonicon" 😎 but i like it anyway, especially in that combination. 👍

This has that old Orb, 808 state vibe @ 9:13. Those guys are always getting these same 1970's "analog synthesizer you've never heard of from BitONE or Crumar" analog patterns in their music. I'll wager nobody picked up on the vinyl pops. Lovely vid. I would have purchased one if it was an 8 step sequencer or more. Obviously a hardware limitation that cannot be modified by a firmware update. Tim, you make some creative grooves in this video, and many analog-based ambient bands like I mentioned earlier have repeating grooves buried in their tracks. It's cheap enough to keep...I like it on you.

I bought a Subharmonicon yesterday, and have been trying to learn its idiosyncrasies. This video, along with Loopop's review, is speeding up my learning quite a bit. Thank you (and Loopop).

Fantastic review. Thank You.

It's taken a while, but I've just ordered one. Wow. My first Moog. Lots of experimental fun ahead. Happy New Year when it comes.

I´m no musician but a great synthesiser enthusiast. My 2nd hand Subharmonicon is now for about 3 months on my desk and every day I find something new inside this excellent instrument. The first day with the Subharmonicon was somehow frustrating as it´s not the kind of synthesisers I was familiar with. But step by step you will explore more of the fascinating challenges the Subharmonicon offers. Thank you for your wonderful video which gives some new inspiration impulses ... although you will return the Subharmicon I like it very much.

I kinda went through the same process as you with my Subharmonicon. I almost sold it the first week. But I kept on and I'm using it for more than I thought I would. I appreciate the honest review.

Throughout whole review, I was never touched to be really interested in the instrument. For my taste its not interesting soundwise, too limited and for my workflow completelly unusable. But still watched whole review till the end, its rare talent to do your job this good, honest and indepth! All the best!

Thanks for taking the time to give us this full full full insight on how you (not) clicked with the Subharmonicon. I have been very interested in buying one, but also struggle with how it will fit in my workflow. From what I have heard and seen the Subharmonicon is quite a thing to fully get a grip on (to be able to make what you have in mind) and I probably have to change how I work (at least a bit) if I want this to make work for me. First and foremost, it is probably an instrument that I would need to spend quite some time with, because it is so different from what I'm used to working with. Second, I have a feeling this is more a song starter than something you use to fill a gap in your song. It seems to dictate how the feeling of the song will be instead of me dialing in what it is going to do. Maybe (at best) I can direct it a bit, but I have a feeling most of the time it will be the other way around. A bit like when you play in a band and the keyboard player plays this incredibly inspirational part and you start jam along, which leads to something new and something you would not have made on your own. But I'm not sure if I'm ready right now. If I find one cheap (I doubt it will happen), I might, but otherwise, I will stick with more predictable instruments probably.

Very good review and fair arguments.

Great video! Excellent demonstration of the clock bug; I'll have to check if mine does that.

A great and rewarding video thank you. I guess I too have a love/hate relationship with this wonderful instrument. One moment it is a magical engine, the next, an out of tune mess BUT when you hit those sweet spots, oh boy! This was a hard-won product for me at UK prices so I really wanted to love it and, I really do love it. But, sometimes, I also really do wonder what I will ever be able to achieve with it and THEN, I hit one of those sweet spots again and I know what can be achieved. Your video describes these emotions really well - thanks.

Great video!!

Coming back to this, the day 10 jamming seems like a great use. Would be wonderful to have it having a nice little rhythm to play to with an osmose. Thanks for posting!

Love the survivor man review style!

Im quite enjoying the different drum sounds you have in this vid. Acoustic drums are great, just like an electric bass. It doesn't have to be alllllll synths :)

I had a Lyra-8 and later on I borrowed the Subharmonicon. Both appeared to me as "organismic" synths that more or less play the player rather than that the player plays them. Ultimately I ditched them both, I just could not cope with their stubborness that seemed stronger than my own creativity.

Thanks for this, mate. I was thinking about returning mine until trying some of your tips and advice.

The Midlife Synthesist agrees generally. It's not a synth that should be your first, or be your only or even main synth. For me, I like the jams. I make music as a hobby only; so I'm not beholden to due dates or deadlines. I also don't tend to plan out or have full ieas I want to create, I make things - if they sound nice enough I'll record it and enjoy it. For me though, this is an addition to the Mother 32's and DFAM 4 tier rack that I have. Can I make everything with that? Nope, not even with lovely Matriarch which is super extendable and massive. Ultimately the whole echo system of Moog Mother for me is a collective warm synth tone. I can them flip to drums and guitar and do something completely non synth related. Or I can grab refX Nexus 3 and do something dance/trance filled. I wholeheartedly appreciate your honesty and opinions Tim. I can see your positive and negatives, and I can see as a production based musician I see your points as well. I'm a hobbyist through and through :)

Thank you for taking the time to do this! I must say I’ve spent almost 2 months now trying to make this Subharmonicon work for me in a way that’s consistently rewarding and I will say every single point you have made about it’s flaws and limitations are 100% spot on. This is really a shame, I feel. The problem with the Sub oscillators, the problem with the limited number of envelopes, limited useful patch points… everything is true. I wanted so badly for this to be a wonderful instrument and addition to my music creation toolbox, but it’s just flawed and limited in so many ways. For me the best way I’ve found to use it is to complete ignore the oscillators and suboscillators almost entirely, take the filter envelope decay way down, take the cutoff way down, basically eliminating the filter altogether, and making very fast glitchy percussive blips, as a polyrhythmic “drum machine”. The horrible issues with the gross disparity between main oscillators and sub oscillators makes the tuning of sequences far too problematic and difficult to do in an uncompromised way. I am constantly having to change the pitch sequences in order to simply find proper harmonic tuning between them, which makes composition very restricted. I threaten to sell it weekly, but for some strange reason I can’t get myself to part with it. Maybe because it’s such a comparatively inexpensive complete synth, compared to what the cost of putting together all the individual modules to make something similar would be. I don’t know. It really is a love/hate relationship. I tend to hate it more than I love it, yet those brief moments of love somehow keep me on the hook. But thank you hit a video that so perfectly encapsulates the exact experiences I have had with this instrument.

Tim, another awesome video! I'm not too interested in owning the SubH but this was a great watch nonetheless and I found your daily updates and comments very insightful. The music was also very nice, polyrhythms sound so good. I couldn't help but get distracted by the system 55 set up you have in the background though...Please make a video sharing your thoughts/demoing this as it's gotten on my attention as of late while I pine over the 2500 modules that aren't yet available. Am thinking about investing in both now but I have a lot of unanswered questions about the System 55 it's capabilities and possible tuning issues. Regardless thanks for the new video, I'm always learning and you make it easy to digest. Cheers~

A well presented video. The synth definitely isn’t for everyone. It’s all about the small happy accidents that you randomly stumble upon.

Excellent review ... after watching this I decided to 'roll my own' using Erica Synths Black Sequencer to create the polyrhythms - which can be saved ... and extended - driving a DFAM and Mother-32 in addition to Argos Bleak (to add a variety of harmonies rather than just the subHarmonic scale) linked to a couple of extra oscillators. Not as elegant to use but, like you, I want an rather large slice of 'controllability' with my chaos to get what I want out of it.

This is a great video.... i keep coming back to this video, as the Subharmonicon is a peculiar thing, but what i want from it is adventure, and this video perfectly shares your adventure into the Subharmonicon with us.... it's definitely crept up the GAS list after seeing this again for the ?th time...

Thank you for this honest diary. It wasn't the purpose of the video, but you made the Behringer system 100 shine once again ! I definitely need some of these modules.

Thx for this extended review. Understand you completely. My first synth in the 80s was a Moog Rogue. Loved it but was getting boring after years because of what you found out about this one.

Thanks Tim for the tutorial..Yes,I definitely spin some of your music,and have for a while..

loved the video

Good video as usual though I had to watch it in instalments! The sequencer is appealing (or would be if there was a way to intentionally set up polyrhythms) but overall I think you've saved me a good few hundred bucks! 😀

Amazing video. MOOG should reference this on their site. At times I'm amazed by what I get out of this thing AND at times I'm baffled how limited the internal sound operators are. I have a love hate relationship with this but it still amazes me. After watching you experience the same things I've experienced the last 6 months of ownership I no longer feel alone. The info. you presented with respect to the sequencer timing is better than ANYTHING else I've read or seen. No MIDI out from the sequencer could be a deal breaker for some but how would you know until you actually LIVE with one for a while. It certainly has a personality of it's own. It's the first piece of hardware I've EVER owned that I thought I had it all figured out an hour after unboxing it BUT as time went on I began to realize I really didn't know anything about the sequencer timing and STILL don't understand it. I don't think you're going to get rid of it. I can sense that it's a life long piece of hardware for you. Come on Tim, it's a MOOG for GOD sake !!! Thanks for the video, it was really DejaVuIsh, entertaining AND informative all at the same time.

Thanks Tim, really enjoyed the video. Like yourself and many commenters, I have mixed feelings about the Subharmonicon. I have struggled integrating it into my workflow. It’s my first Moog and have found it more of a challenge than I expected. It’s also my only semi-modular so I don’t have anything to integrate it with. I have almost sold it a few times, but haven’t yet. The most success I’ve had with it is jamming along side the Subharmonicon rather than as a stand-alone unit. Not sure that I will keep it...

I am a long time Moog fan and have had many of their instruments but I have to agree with you on the SubH. I still love to use it but now it is a small part of my setup and sound and not the main part to it.

Great video, Tim. I've been working with my Subharmicon for a number of weeks and I'm happy to see others having similar successes and frustrations. Overall, it's a very interesting device, but requires effort/knowledge to get what you're trying to create. It's definitely a great tool for helping to get the 'creative juices' flowing. I do have a comment about the 'bug' you mentioned concerning the delay with the second sequencer. I had noticed that myself and attached an oscilloscope to Seq1, Seq2 and the trigger outputs. The 'delay' is actually sequence 2 sometimes starting on the falling edge of Seq1 rather than the leading edge. This appears to just be a result of the time division relationship between Seq1 and Seq2 at certain rates. Consider the delay as a the 'remainder' of the division of the two rates. If you run with minimum time division values (knobs more clockwise) you're more likely to have things work correctly since your working with simple clock divisions, eg. 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc. However, with the knobs more counterclockwise, you might think you're running even relationships between Seq1 and Seq2, but you might be actually be getting a ratio between the two sequencers of 5/11th's rather than exactly 1/2. With only simple integer math, the 'rounding error' or 'remainder' has to be accounted for in some manner. This also relates to the 'Reset' button problem. If you happen on a sequence that sounds great, but depends on that 'remainder' value, restarting the sequence may cause a radical change. I try to build sequences with the knobs more clockwise and frequently push the Reset button while I'm creating the polyrhythms. That way, I'm more likely to get a stable setup. Thanks again for the detailed video. The Subharmonicon is certainly a challenging device that might not suit everyone, but it's complexity and quirks are part of its charm. Cheers.

Hi Tim - always love your reviews. I check out every Subharmonicon review I see. I think yours is the most critical :-) Everyone else seems to give it glowing reviews and I bought one a few months ago. I love polyrhythms, harmonics and sequencers. I spent a week solid with it, although you got further into it than I did, but I eventually sent it back. I did read the manual :-) but I ultimately found the synth unintuitive, idiosyncratic, limited and, alas, very disappointing. As you said, it's almost sacrilege to criticise Moog but I also thought it over-priced. For the record, I do like Moog gear and have a Grandmother and a DFAM which are great. There's a site which publishes Subharmonicon patches and I tried all those available when I had mine. Your patches are among the best I have heard. However, virtually all patches sound like a one-bar variation. This is, of course my own experience, my own view and opinion and what is so wonderful about the world of synths is that different folks like different gear More power to you.

I kind of sort of impulse bought this last night. I have the 104 HP powered Moog case and a Mavis that will fit perfectly together, which will then be controlled by my Arturia Keystep Pro for a nice little portable noodling station :D Thanks for your honest review!

What an interesting choice Moog made to sum the triggers from both sequencers to the single TRIGGER OUT jack. The random coolness of that became evident when you drove the 182 pair from that output. Polyrhythms rule.

Awesome review....I have the subsequent 37 but want to go modular also. Very enlightening

I too felt a bit frustrated maybe let down with my purchase at first but when I stopped trying to make it do what I wanted, I had a much more enjoyable music experience. I feel like there's a good balance between limits and possibilities with this box. I do agree that a lot of the subharmonics are not that usable for harmony stuff.. but one thing I do love is that you never play the same thing twice, if you turn it off you'll never hear your jam again, makes it kinda special in a way

Thank you, nice video!

Great video! I've had a Subharmonicon for several months now and have been through very similar thought processes as you. I generally like synths with big sweet spots and have found the SH to have a very small sweet spot. The first couple of times I stumbled across a lovely melodic rhythm I didn't dare touch the synth for so long I forgot how it worked! I now regard the buttons to modulate the sub oscillators with the sequencers as very much an 'experimental mode'. I usually leave them off and when an idea is developing, just try turning them on to see if it works or not. I do think it helps to approach it with a open mind as to what you will get at the end. If you have a distinct idea in mind, it's probably not the instrument to carry that out on. I'm very much into the idea of making sequences and rhythms that could almost be generated by nature and for that the SH works really well. So I now tend to use it as a sketch pad to get something natural and rhythmic and then record that to audio and in the DAW put it through something like Cycles to mangle the audio - time stretch, push it across the keyboard so I can play it polyphonically - reverse it put it through granular, various effects, etc. It can be a generator for some wonderful sounds when used in that way. For getting the sounds going, someone else on RU-vid described a process of leaving it in drone mode and going through all the oscillators to find 'harmonic sweet spots' and then going through the sequence to build it up. I found that quite a useful way of thinking about it. I really wish it had midi out though as you could do so much more with it if it had. Also it still strikes me as odd that after hours playing around with it - when I want to play along with another synth, I generally have no idea what notes it's playing and have to hunt up and down the keyboard working out the notes/key that will go with it! Anyway, thanks for the video - you made some stunning sequences and it was great to watch and listen to.