Moog Subharmonicon Review: Is It Worth $700?

[@MrMusicbyMartin]

Great video, thanks. I’ve used the Subharmonicon since it was released a few years ago - I liked the concept so much I bought a second one so I could have them interact with each other. The manual is beautiful, by the way. And you’re spot-on too about effects really bringing the oscillators and sub-oscillators to life. You touched on the aural difference between the SH and other Moogs - the Subharmonicon has an unusual pulse-width modulation - so that the square wave oscillator is modulated by the sawtooth. I think this makes a big difference to the sound, and isn’t a feature you’ll find on other Moogs. Making it fit in with other equipment is not too straightforward - there are six oscillators to be manually tuned for each step, and there are eight steps! In the video you included, it just sounded like an arpeggiated chord - it didn’t demonstrate the rich harmonic variety of the instrument. I’m an ‘experimental musician’ which means I’m not too bothered if things don’t sound like we expect them to! My recent videos demonstrate the sound of two Subharmonicons, or controlling or controlled by other gear.

[@MKDVB]

For sure how you get on with a piece of gear says as much about you as it does the gear. The Subh is cool -- I'm just not at a point in my life where I can do "leisurely" sounds/music exploration so when I do sonic experiments, they tend to be more texture based than rhythmic. I never got around to doing half the things I thought of when I first go the synth -- never even patched it to the Matriarch, which seems a missed opportunity in hindsight.

[@MrMusicbyMartin]

@@MKDVB I hope you kept the Matriarch - I bought a Grandmother, which is great for textures, I’m sure the Matriarch is the next level. You’re right about character and personality affecting our preference for instruments. There’s such a variety of instruments in the synth world that we can each find the ones which suit us best - I’m a lab-coat wearing techie musically!

[@pietro5456]

Man, if you were to build a synth "arsenal" from scratch, what would you buy to cover as many grounds as possible? An OB6, a sub37, I'm kinda new to synthland, cheers!

[@MKDVB]

I'm not an analog purist so if the Prophet X wasn't so flaky, I think that one would check most boxes for me. It sounds amazing with the analog filters but also has some nice piano patches. But so flaky ... But really depends on what type of music you want to make. Music instruments are so personal.