SUB PHATT Y
IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS WARNING - WHEN USING ELECTRIC PRODUCTS, THESE BASIC PRECAUTIONS SHOULD ALWAYS BE FOLLOWED. 1. Read all the instructions before using the product. 2. Do not use this product near water - for example, near a bathtub, washbowl, kitchen sink, in a wet basement, or near a swimming pool or the like. 3. This product, in combination with an amplifier and headphones or speakers, may be capable of producing sound levels that could cause permanent hearing loss.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 7 8 9 UNPACKING & INSPECTION SETUP & CONNECTIONS POWER EXTERNAL AUDIO IN USB MIDI CONTROL VOLTAGE IN OVERVIEW & FEATURES 9 PRESET PANEL 10 BANK & PATCH BUTTONS SAVING PRESETS ACTIVATE PANEL 10 12 13 BASICS OF SOUND SIGNAL FLOW OSCILLATORS 15 OVERVIEW CONTROLS OCTAVE WAVE FREQUENCY HARD SYNC OSC 2 TRY THIS PATCH INITIALIZATION EXPLORE THE OSCILLATORS OSCILLATOR SYNC 15 MIXER 14 OVERVIEW CONTROLS OSC 1 OSC 2 SUB OSC NOISE 16 FILTER 17 OVERVIEW CONTROLS CUTOFF RESONANCE
17 18 19 ENVELOPES OVERVIEW CONTROLS FILTER ATTACK FILTER DECAY FILTER SUSTAIN FILTER RELEASE AMPLIFIER ATTACK AMPLIFIER DECAY AMPLIFIER SUSTAIN AMPLIFIER RELEASE TRY THIS NOTE ARTICULATION CLASSIC ELECTRONIC KICK DRUM 20 MODULATION 21 OVERVIEW CONTROLS LFO RATE SOURCE PITCH AMT PITCH AMT OSC 2 ONLY FILTER AMT WAVE AMT TRY THIS LFO WAVEFORMS PULSE WAVE MODULATION 22 GLOBAL PITCH CONTROLS MIDI INDICATOR FINE TUNE GLIDE RATE OCTAVE BUTTONS KEYBOARD WHEELS 23 SHIFT MODE 26 KNOB AND BUTTON REASSIGNM
UNPACKING AND INSPECTION Check the contents of the shipping carton Be careful when unpacking the Sub Phatty so that nothing is lost or damaged. Moog recommends saving the carton and all packing materials in case you ever need to ship the instrument for any reason. The Moog Sub Phatty ships with the following items: 1. Sub Phatty synthesizer 2. Power cord 3. Owner’s manual 4. Registration card What you will need: 1. A stand or table sufficient to support the Sub Phatty 2.
Power Plug one end of the supplied AC cord into the standard IEC power connector on the Sub Phatty’s leftside panel. Plug the other end into an AC outlet. The Sub Phatty’s universal power supply will operate with 50 or 60Hz AC power sources ranging from 100 to 240 volts. Flip on the power switch located next to the power connector. NOTE: It may take as long as 60 seconds for the Sub Phatty to warm up before oscillator tuning has stabilized if you’ve left it outside on a cold night.
OVERVIEW AND FEATURES The Sub Phatty is a monophonic analog synthesizer, very much in the tradition of other classic Moog synthesizers. It is housed in a sturdy case containing a 25-note, velocity-sensitive keyboard, with a front panel that delivers plenty of hands-on controls for designing, saving, and retrieving your own sounds. Like many instruments, the Sub Phatty is monophonic, meaning that it plays one note at a time.
Saving Presets Saving presets is a two-finger maneuver. Just remember that whenever you save a preset to a particular location, the preset previously stored in that location will be deleted. To save your changes, press and hold the BANK button corresponding to the bank in which you want to store your new preset. While holding the BANK button, press the PATCH button corresponding to the location in which you want to store it, hold both buttons for at least one second, and then release them.
BASICS OF SOUND Cont. Amplitude—the intensity of vibration—determines a sound’s loudness. A high-amplitude sound is loud, and a low-amplitude sound is soft. A vibrating source’s loudness depends on the amount of air it displaces, and that depends on how hard it vibrates. It’s difficult for anyone to identify a musical instrument simply by the pitch or loudness of the sounds it makes.
The oscillators, filter, modulators, and other parts are connected in the most useful ways for producing and modifying electronic signals that result in sounds. Unlike on a modular synthesizer, many connections between the Sub Phatty’s various parts are hardwired, meaning that it is not possible to change the routing of the pathways that connect them. The electrical signals within a synthesizer are either audio signals or control signals, depending on the pathway they follow.
OSCILLATORS OVERVIEW Oscillator 1 and oscillator 2 are the Sub Phatty’s primary sound sources. They generate four basic waveforms: triangle, sawtooth, square, and pulse. The triangle wave consists of odd-numbered harmonics only. Its fundamental is very strong, and its overtones are very weak, making it less harmonically complex than other waveforms.
OSCILLATOR CONTROLS cont. FREQUENCY: This knob is used to fine-tune oscillator 2’s pitch within its selected range. The knob’s range is seven semitones higher or lower than its center position. At its center position, oscillator 2 is tuned to oscillator 1. Turning it just slightly out of tune with oscillator 1 can yield interesting detuned or phasing effects. HARD SYNC OSC 2: This button locks oscillator 2’s phase to oscillator 1, eliminating any phase differences between them.
TRY THIS OSCILLATOR SYNC With the HARD SYNC OSC 2 button engaged, you can step through the harmonic series by turning oscillator 2’s FREQUENCY knob. To begin, make sure both oscillators are turned up in the mixer. Turn both OCTAVE knobs to their lowest settings, and then press the HARD SYNC OSC 2 button so that it’s illuminated. Begin with the FREQUENCY knob turned fully counterclockwise and slowly turn it while listening for how the overtones change.
FILTER OVERVIEW The number and relative strengths of a sound’s harmonic frequencies determine its tone color or timbre. The Sub Phatty contains a filter for removing certain frequencies from audio signals. Because filtering gives you control over an audio signal’s harmonic content, it physically alters the waveform being filtered. The Sub Phatty has a classic Moog lowpass ladder filter with four selectable slopes (see Hidden Parameters on pg.26).
FILTER CONTROLS cont. The depth of the envelope’s effect on the cutoff frequency also depends a lot on the CUTOFF setting. If the setting is very high and you adjust the EG AMOUNT to raise it further, then the envelope will have little effect. The lower the cutoff frequency, then the more the envelope will be able to modulate it. On the other hand, if the setting is very low and you adjust the EG AMOUNT to lower it further by turning the knob counterclockwise, again, the envelope will have little effect.
ADSR amplitude release sustain d e c ay attack time When you play the Sub Phatty, your keyboard technique determines how the envelope generators respond, which impacts your musical expression and articulation. If you release the key before the envelope reaches either its maximum or sustain level, the release stage immediately takes effect. When you play staccato (very short notes), the envelope may never reach its decay stage, depending on its attack setting.
ENVELOPE CONTROLS CONT. FILTER RELEASE: Use this knob to specify the time it takes the filter cutoff to descend from its sustain value to the CUTOFF knob’s manual setting. Its value ranges from 1 millisecond to 10 seconds. When you use the filter envelope to modulate pitch or wave amount, the RELEASE knob specifies the time it takes the control level to descend from the sustain value to zero.
MODULATION OVERVIEW Controlling modulation (abbreviated as mod) is an important aspect of programming and playing synthesizers. When you modulate a synth’s audio signal, you’re changing something about the way it sounds. When you modulate a control signal, you’re changing something about its effect on whatever it’s controlling. Synthesizers route their control signals from modulation sources to modulation destinations.
MODULATION CONTROLS cont. PITCH AMT OSC 2 ONLY: Pressing this button applies pitch modulation to oscillator 2 only, with no effect on oscillator 1. The button illuminates when it’s engaged. If you engage the HARD SYNC OSC 2 button (which phase-locks the oscillators), then modulating oscillator 2’s frequency with an LFO or envelope will change the oscillator’s harmonic content but not its pitch.
Pulse Wave Modulation Cont. When you press a key and push up the MOD wheel, you’ll hear the LFO’s effect on pulse width. Push it up only slightly, and you’ll hear a dramatic sweeping of the harmonics that sounds a bit like a chorusing effect. Turn it up more, and you’ll hear the entire waveform being canceled in rhythm with the LFO. That’s because you’re pushing the pulse wave beyond its maximum width, so that the waveform doesn’t have a chance to cycle back to its starting point.
SHIFT MODE Although you can control all of the Sub Phatty’s functions directly from the front panel, you’ll need to dig a little deeper to reach some of them. Shift mode reassigns several front-panel controls so you can use them to edit hidden parameters. Like all parameters, changes you make in Shift mode are memorized when you save your preset. Engage Shift mode by holding down the BANK 4 button and then pressing the ACTIVATE PANEL button.
KNOB & BUTTON REASSIGNMENTS CONT. PARAMETER: VELOCITY TO FILTER ENVELOPE DECAY/RELEASE KNOB: FILTER ENVELOPE RELEASE Changing this setting lets you specify how much velocity affects the filter envelope’s decay and release times. To lengthen the decay and release in response to how hard you play on the keyboard, engage Shift mode and turn up the filter envelope’s RELEASE knob. The knob’s range is from 0 to 100%.
KNOB & BUTTON REASSIGNMENTS CONT. PARAMETER: EXTERNAL INPUT LEVEL KNOB: NOISE To manually control the level of signals coming from the Sub Phatty’s EXT IN jack, engage Shift mode and turn the NOISE knob. PARAMETER: OSCILLATOR 2 BEAT FREQUENCY KNOB: oscillator 2 frequency Engage Shift mode and turn oscillator 2’s FREQUENCY knob to set the “beat frequency” of oscillator 2 against oscillator 1. The range is plus or minus 3.5 Hz, with no detuning (0Hz) in the middle.
ADDITIONAL HIDDEN PARAMETERS in shift mode You can access the Sub Phatty’s additional hidden parameters using a combination of buttons and the keyboard. First engage Shift mode by holding down the BANK 4 button and pressing the ACTIVATE PANEL button. Then enter a code from the hidden parameter chart using the BANK and PATCH buttons to select the parameter. Finally, press a key on the keyboard to select the parameter’s value.
Legato Glide ON You can change the default setting so that glide is engaged only when you press a key before you release the previous key. This is called legato glide. You can toggle legato on and off by engaging Shift mode and pressing the BANK 1 and PATCH 4 buttons. Pressing the low C# key turns legato glide on, and pressing the C key turns legato glide off. When glide is turned on and legato glide is turned off, glide affects all notes you play.
4 Pole • 24dB Per Octave 3 Pole • 18dB Per Octave 2 Pole • 12dB Per Octave 1 Pole • 6dB Per Octave Filter slope By default, the Sub Phatty’s filter rolloff is set to the classic Moog 24dB-per-octave slope. You can change this setting in real time as you play, making the change in slope part of your performance. To change the filter slope, engage Shift mode and press the BANK 2 and PATCH 1 buttons. Use the four lowest notes on the keyboard to select the slope.
+ LFO Tracks Pitch Consistent LFO Rate LFO KEYBOARD TRACKING AMOUNT To specify how much the LFO rate tracks the keyboard pitch, enter Shift mode and press the BANK 2 and PATCH 4 buttons. Pressing the low C key sets keyboard tracking to zero, meaning key pitch will have no effect on LFO rate. Pressing higher keys sets a proportionally greater amount of keyboard tracking; the middle C on the keyboard sets 1:1 LFO pitch tracking, meaning the LFO rate will double when the key pitch doubles.
Envelope Reset ON When Filter Envelope Reset is turned on, each new note triggers the filter envelope to reset from zero, so its output sweeps fully from zero to maximum with each attack. By default, with envelope reset turned off, an envelope Attack sweeps the envelope output only from its current level to maximum. The effect of Envelope Reset is more prominent with longer attack and release times. To change this function, engage Shift mode and press the BANK 3 and PATCH 2 buttons.
KB, MIDI, or Gate CV Gate CV KB or MIDI Gate Open (EG bypassed) Filter envelope gate You can control whether the filter envelope is triggered by the keyboard, by an external control-voltage source, by both, or whether the filter is unaffected by the envelope generator. Engage Shift mode and press the BANK 3, PATCH 1, and PATCH 2 buttons. Pressing the low C key leaves the gate open and bypasses the envelope generator. When you press C#, only the keyboard or a MIDI signal will trigger the envelope.
Amp. Env. Repeat ON Amp. Env. Repeat OFF AMPLIFIER ENVELOPE Repeat Just as with filter envelope repeat, it’s possible to use the amplifier’s envelope generator as a multistage LFO for controlling amplitude. When amplifier envelope repeat is enabled, then the delay, attack, hold, decay, and release stages will loop continuously for as long as the note is held. The shorter the envelope times, the faster the loop will repeat.
etc.... Channel 3 Channel 1 To change the output channel, engage Shift mode and press the BANK 1, BANK 4, and PATCH 2 buttons. The next key you press will determine the output channel. Pressing the low C selects Channel 1, C# selects Channel 2, and so on, all the way up to D# above middle C, which selects Channel 16.
DIN MIDI In To DIN MIDI Out & USB Port DIN MIDI In To USB Port Only DIN MIDI In To DIN MIDI Out Only 7-bit Coarse Resolution 14-bit Fine Resolution MIDI Merging OFF MIDI MERGE DIN The Sub Phatty can merge MIDI data it receives with the MIDI data it transmits. You can specify the path of the merged data so that data received at either the MIDI IN jack or the USB port is passed through to the MIDI OUT jack or the USB port.
Send Note Data Only Send Data From KB, MOD & PITCH Only Send All Data Except Volume Data Filter OFF (Sends All Data) MIDI OUTPUT FILTER It is possible to filter the MIDI data that the Sub Phatty sends so that certain data isn’t received by external MIDI devices. To turn on the MIDI output filter, engage Shift mode and press the BANK 2, BANK 4, and PATCH 2 buttons. Press the C# key to send everything except volume data.
Last-Note Priortiy High-Note Priority Low-Note Priority NOTE PRIORITY Because the Sub Phatty is monophonic, it will play only one note at a time. What happens when you press two keys at the same time? By default, it plays a note in response to the most recent key you pressed, regardless of its position. This is called last-note priority. You can change that behavior, however, so that it will play either the lowest or the highest note when you press more than one key.
initialize global parameters Engage Shift mode and press BANK 3, BANK 4, and PATCH 2. Press C# twice to reset the global parameters (Local Control, MIDI Output Filter, Use Preset Volume, Use Preset MOD Wheel, Note Priority, Knob Wheel) to their default setting. restore factory presets Engage Shift mode and press BANK 3, BANK 4, and PATCH 3. Press C# twice to reload the Sub Phatty’s 16 factory presets. NOTE: Invoking this command will delete any user presets.
send all presets Engage Shift mode and press the BANK 3, BANK 4, PATCH 3, and PATCH 4 buttons. Press C# twice to send all 16 presets to your computer as a single Preset Bank file. If you record this MIDI system exclusive data on your computer and then send it back to the Sub Phatty, it will replace all 16 presets stored in the Sub Phatty’s memory. For additional hidden parameters and updates visit www.moogmusic.com/subphatty.
CONTROL/ PARAMETER CC CC VALUE RANGE AMPLIFIER EG ATTACK 28 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 28 / CC 60 AMPLIFIER EG DECAY 29 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 29 / CC 61 AMPLIFIER EG SUSTAIN 30 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 30 / CC 62 AMPLIFIER EG RELEASE 31 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 31 / CC 63 FILTER EG ATTACK 23 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 23 / CC 55 FILTER EG DECAY 24 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 24 / CC 56 FILTER EG SUSTAIN 25 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 25 / CC 57 FILTER EG RELEASE 26 0-16383 14 BIT: CC 26 / CC 58 VCO 1 LEVEL 15 0-16383
CONTROL/ PARAMETER CC CC VALUE RANGE NOTE PRIORITY 111 0 = Global, 32 = Low Note, 64 = High Note, 96 = Last Note RELEASE ON / OFF 88 0 = OFF, 64 = ON MODULATION SOURCE 71 0 = Triangle LFO, 16 = Square LFO, 32 = Saw LFO, 48 = Ramp LFO, 64 = S&H, 80 = Filter Envelope LFO RATE 3 0 - 16383 LFO MIDI SYNC 102 0 = OFF, 64 = ON LFO GATE RESET 93 0 = OFF, 64 = ON FILTER MOD AMOUNT 2 0 - 16383 14 BIT: CC 2 / CC 34 PITCH MOD AMOUNT 4 0 - 16383 14 BIT: CC 4 / CC 36 WAVE MOD AMOUNT 20 0 -
CONTROL/ PARAMETER CC CC VALUE RANGE PITCH MOD. OSC 2 ONLY 70 0 = OFF, 64 = ON MODULATION WHEEL 1 0 - 16383 72 0 = OSC 1 Only, 43 = OSC 2 Only, 86 = Both OSC 1 & 2 VCO 1 OCTAVE 74 16 = 16’, 32 = 8’, 48 = 4’, 64 = 2’ VCO 2 OCTAVE 75 16 = 16’, 32 = 8’, 48 = 4’, 64 = 2’ FILTER POLES 109 0 = 1 POLE, 32 = 2 POLES, 64 = 3 POLES, 96 = 4 POLES LFO RANGE 76 0 = Low (.01 Hz - 10Hz) 43 = Mid (.
SERVICE AND SUPPORT INFORMATION MOOG LIMITED WARRANTY Moog Music warrants its products to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one year from the date of purchase. During the warranty period, any defective products will be repaired or replaced, at Moog Music’s option, on a return-to-factory basis. This warranty covers defects that Moog Music determines are no fault of the user. In countries outside of the USA, contact a Moog authorized distributor listed on our web site (www.
SPECIFICATIONS TYPE: Programmable Monophonic Analog Synthesizer SOUND ENGINE: Analog NUMBER OF KEYS: 25 TYPE OF KEYS: Semi-Weighted OTHER CONTROLLERS: Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel POLYPHONY: Monophonic SOUND SOURCES: 2 Variable Waveshape Oscillators, 1 Square Wave Sub Oscillator, 1 Noise Generator OSCILLATOR CALIBRATION RANGE: 22Hz-6.8kHz.
