Moog Sub 37 Update Brings Powerful New Step Sequencing Features

moog-sub-37

At the 2015 NAMM Show, Moog Music was previewing a major update to the Sub 37 analog synthesizer.

The update brings significant new sequencing capabilities to the Sub 37, letting it be used as an interactive performance tool, similar to Moog’s classic modular sequencer.

In the video below, Moog’s Amos Gaynes offers a run-down of the new sequencing capabilities that are coming with the update. Note that this isn’t a dog and pony show demo – Gaynes dives right into the details:

The new features will be available as an update to Sub 37 owners. See the Moog site for details on the Sub 37 analog synthesizer.

33 thoughts on “Moog Sub 37 Update Brings Powerful New Step Sequencing Features”

  5. The Sub 37 is really maturing into a beast of a synthesizer. To get all of this as a free update is great, because it means Moog and Gaynes designed the Sub 37 to have some room to grow, and also that they are putting resources into developing it.

    I’d be really surprised if the Sub 37 DNA doesn’t show up in another device, like the sequencer mentioned above or a rack module.

    One think I’d like to see that I don’t think he mentioned is the ability to skip steps in a sequence. That would turn this into an ideal keyboard for Berlin School synth jamming!

    1. I have a Sub37 and could be wrong but I think the ‘tie’ function will bridge 2 steps together in the sequencer. Not skipping, per se, but the same audible effect is rendered.

      1. Brad

        I think ties and skipping are a little different.

        Ties continue a note over multiple steps. For example, instead of 1-2-3-4, a tie might turn it into 1-2-2-4, where the second note sustains for two beats.

        Skipping removes a step from a sequence entirely, so instead of 1-2-3-4, the sequence might go 1-2-4.

        This is really an important feature for people that are interested in Berlin School style step sequencing, and you can hear examples of this all over early Tangerine Dream albums, where they ‘play’ the sequencer throughout a track.

          1. Ties create the “glide” effect also known as portamento, so the note slides between the pitch of the first to the second.

            The rest plays no note but keeps the beat.

            A combined tie rest will extend the length of the note rather than it only playing for one beat.

    2. Did you actually check out the features on this? Amos has done a great job of implementing a really powerful step sequencer. it looks like you can sequence anything, have sequences of different lengths, punch steps in and out while it plays, update sequences while they are playing, run them in a variety of directions and a bunch more.

      Plus it supports control voltage inputs, so you could do some pretty crazy things with sequences if you’ve got any modular gear.

      My MicroBrute has a great little step sequencer, but it can’t do any of those things.

      This BLOWS AWAY the capabilities of the sequencers in most keyboards.

      If you think this is ‘MEH’, then your current sequences must be boring.

      1. Plus the easy modulation mapping now, with no menu diving, that gives you incredibly deep synthesis with out really ever having to think at all!

      2. The 37 is quickly becoming my favorite synth to program and get lost in. I’m already using my Voyager XL less and less. The sound is amazing and more modern, and the new sequencer functions will make it so fun to use. That said, the sequencer on the DSI Pro 2 blows the 37 away.

        Still, the 37 is def the best, imho, synth pound for pound, the Moog has ever made.

  7. I’m trying to buy one… They are hard to come by right now. Back ordered everywhere I have checked so far. Happy to see it successful.

  12. This shows how much digital there is in the new Moogs. Does the Voyager have firmware? (One thing I don’t like among several with Moog’s web site design is the downloads pages. It’s just a LILO list. It would be nice to be able to click on the type of synth, but no, you have to click one page after another and visually scan the whole page to find any files you need to download. And it might not even have the right name for the file in the Name column, so you’d have to look in another column for a clue as to which file you’re looking at. That might be excusable on a 1980s web site, but today it’s just laziness personified on the part of the site designer and management in general.) It’s nice to have all this built in to the Moog keyboard, but in the old days of Minimoog and even the Voyager more recently, this stuff they’re building in you used to do with outboard stuff, sequencing and effects etc. If you didn’t need those things you didn’t need to buy outboard gear. Is it cheaper this way? Is it better? What if I like the Sub 37 sound but I prefer using, say, a Doepfer or Analog Solutions sequencer? It might be nice if Moog made a Sub 37 that was nothing but the analog for say $899 or $999. Just an analog synth with a keyboard, nothing more, sort of Minimoog Junior. Can the Sub 37 function without any digital in it?

    1. The Sub Phatty is in your price range. There is still digital in there, however: Presets, Midi, … What’s usually important for people is that the signal path is analog, not the things around it.

      These synths have CV/Gate inputs, so you can control them from any analog sequencer you like.

      1. All the convenience of digital, like saving presets, adding features by firmware updates and auto tune. While retaining the analogue sound and knob per function design.

        It’s the best of all worlds. I can’t see why any one could complain about a feature like a sequencer being built in. You can still use the sequencer independently to sequence other Instruments.

        It’s like saying “why put two LFOs in? I might only need one, I can buy a modular LFO”

        If I had to buy a modular kit, I’d have bought what they’ve chosen, but I wouldnt have the consistent level of design across modules, it would be a lot harder to have all the parts working together so well, and useful features like looping envelopes would likely be obscured by other less usefull features.

        The sub37 has so much depth to it, it basically is modular, the best of modular.

    2. You can get a Sub Phatty for $899 and patch your CV/gate into that. The Voyager does have firmware. Firmware updates are nothing to be afraid of and are Not Mandatory.

  14. I would love to see them update Animoog so it stops crashing, Update Moog Filatron so it regains Audiobus compatibility, and update the software for the Moog Minitaur so it doesn’t have midi sync problems via USB that it has been crippled by since its original release. That would be really nice if just one of the moog products i’ve purchased would function properly without some kind of workaround.

    1. Amen to that brother. My Voyager RME has not responded well to MIDI since day one. Running the RME with a MIDI sequencer is an exercise in futility. I finally received an email from Moog acknowledging the issue is present in Voyagers built between 2010-2013. Tried contacting tech support twice…yeh good luck, no answer. Thinking of selling the Voyager and getting DSI Prophet 8 rack mount for 1/2 the price.

  15. I just updated my Sub37 with this, so Awesome. Thank you Moog!! I am wondering, this seems new to Moog as far as giving us huge updates like this. It feels like Elektron started this trend and other manufacturers are stepping up to do the same. I dig it.

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