Fun with Envelopes | 10
You will hear a longer attack on the filter
envelope, slowly opening the filter up,
but at the same time you’ll notice that
it is raising the SUB 1 FREQ of VCO 2,
increasing the rate of the sequencers. As
you lengthen the VCF ATTACK the clock
will accelerate more slowly.
Since we’re using VCO 2 SUB 1 as our
clock, our patterns are moving much
quicker than with the internal clock of
Subharmonicon (which is much slower
than the VCOs).
Since the POLYRHYTHM section is
comprised of four clock dividers, which
slow down clock signals, we can turn
down the overall clock rate simply by
rotating RHYTHM 1 counterclockwise.
This gives us a slower clock rate that still
accelerates based on the acceleration time
set by VCF ATTACK.
MAKE THIS CONNECTION
We can exaggerate this eect even further
by using the second sub-oscillator of VCO
2 to stop and start the sequencer. Patch
the VCO 2 SUB 2 output to the PLAY input.
Turn down VCO 2’s SUB 2 FREQ knob to
around noon and you’ll start to hear this
stopping and starting motion in action,
creating very o-kilter rhythms that are
being accelerated by VCO 2 SUB 1 while at
the same time being turned o and on by
VCO 2 SUB 2!
This creates a very complex system,
and you can start to perceive that
Subharmonicon sounds like it almost
has a mind of its own.
Click the QUANTIZE button (setting it to
8-ET) to quantize the voltages coming
from SEQUENCER 1 into a diatonic scale.
Play around with the SEQUENCER 1 knobs
and you’ll be able to find melodies that
move in very strange patterns.
→ The ability of Subharmonicon
to stretch out time, manipulate
clocks with its envelopes, and even
stop and start itself with its own
oscillators makes Subharmonicon a
powerful instrument for generating
tangled melodies and strange
sequences.
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