Grant Middleton master class – Mono Light
The first patch generates the snare drum and arpeggio patterns for the first section of Monolight from TD's Encore album. Mixer 3 controls the levels of three different signal paths. Level 1 controls snare level, Level 2 controls arpeggio level, and Level 3 controls bass note level. These are modified by Knobs 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
The snare sound is made up of DrumSynth1 and the top row of EventSeq1. If you count along each step, you can almost hear the Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap..Tappy, Tap rhythm in your head. That's all there is to it.
The next signal path to look at is probably the bass note. The Note Sequencer named "Chord Seq" cycles round 6 steps to follow the chord sequence of the tune, which is C, Em, Am, F, Dm, G. The middle 8 (actually, middle 12, but who's counting) section uses a different chord sequence, but the arpeggios are muted then, so it doesn't matter. The "Chord Seq" clock input is triggered by the 'Link' output of the Note Sequencer called "Arpeggio". This means that for every 16 steps of "Arpeggio", "Chord Seq" will advance one step. The output of Chord Seq feeds MasterOsc2, which drives OscSlv3, 4 and 5.FilterE2 and AD-Env2 provide the note shaping. Note that AD-Env2 is triggered by the first note in the bar only, provided by the bottom row of EventSeq1. It may be possible to use the Clk input to Chord Seq to trigger this instead, but I haven't tried that. The arpeggios are provided by the group of modules in the middle 2 columns of the patch.
The Arpeggio Note Sequencer is set to values: (0, 0, 3, 7, 12, 7, 3 , 7) x 2. Mixer 6 adds these values to the root note provided by Chord Seq and the resultant summed signal is sent into module KeyQuant1. This snaps the values to the key of E major. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that the chord sequence is in the key of C major. The reason for this is that throughout the Nord, E is taken as concert pitch, for some reason (A is the usual base reference in music). The way to bring thing back to C Major after being quantised, is to run MasterOsc4 at -4 semitones, and if you hold the mouse over the Coarse knob, you'll see that it's at value C3. Wait a minute, does that mean.........? Yes, if you look at MasterOsc2, you'll see that it's set to C2. Mixer2 sums the outputs of OscSlvC1 and C2, while FilterE1 and AD-Env1 shape the notes. The only other thing worth noting is that there is a global sequencer reset provided by Constant1 (linked to Knob 5) and modules OnOff1 and OnOff2 (which are controlled by Morph Group 1, in turn controlled by Knob 6), which stop the trigger signals reaching the melodic parts of the patch. This allows you to make them stop playing without having to mute their outputs, making for a more natural cutoff than slamming down the volume knobs ! Knob 4 simply starts and stops ClkGen1.
The next patch is designed to play the lead melody in the TD track Monolight. Master Osc1 feeds OscSlvB2, C2 and B1. B2 and C2 are set to exactly the same frequency but with different waveforms. The real MiniMoog has a waveform which is a cross between a sawtooth and a pulse wave, and that's what I was trying to reproduce. OscSlvB1 is slightly detuned from both of these, to get that typical phasey sound of two similar oscillators running very close to each other in frequency. These are sent into Clip1, to provide a bit of extra bite and overdrive effects. FilterC2 is a static high-pass filter, which I put in to make the sound less full at the bottom end, and FilterC1 is a low-pass to make the top end a little less fizzy (Nords tend to have a very full top end, which makes them a little harsh sounding compared to real analogues). FilterE1 and ADSR-Env1 provide typical sound shaping.
The only other aspect to note is that the vibrato oscillator (LFOSlvC1) depth is controlled by Morph Group 1 (red), which in turn is controlled by the Modulation Wheel of the attached keyboard. If you don't do this, the vibrato becomes very strong very quickly. Another approach to this is to control Pitch mod Depth directly by the Mod Wheel, but attenuating the output of the LFO by some other module (eg Control Signal Mixer, which only consumes 0.16% DSP load).
It's not exactly like a genuine MiniMoog, but it's close enough for a crappy cover version! To make it more interesting, you could assign the Knobs to parameters like Filter cutoff and resonance, or maybe to the ADSR parameters. Then it becomes more like a genuine monosynth.