Moog sequencer

[Gene & Debby Stopp]

The 960 is a one-of-a-kind hardware sequencer...

I'd actually never heard of this trick before, let me try it....

<hits power switch on floor near computer>

Yep, sure enough, you can get multiple stages on at the same time by
patching the "gate out" of one stage to the "gate in" of another stage. The
Moog 960 is a cascaded flip-flop shift register design, and the SET button
one each stage is an "exclusive set" function - that is, when you push the
button on stage 5, for example, that action clears all other stages and
turns on stage 5. But it appears that the "gate in" jack does *not* clear
all other stages, it simply sets the corresponding stage.

I have just patched stage 3 OUT to stage 6 IN, and when I hit OSC ON the
sequence goes like this:
(each line a new clock)
1
2
3, 6
4, 7
5, 8
6, 1
7, 2
8, 3, 6
1, 4, 7
2, 5, 8

etc. etc. If you just let it run it will eventually set all stages "on"
with two "off" stages travelling across, either 2 or 4 stages apart from
each other.  Very psuedo-random.

I can't hear the effect of this (too many patch cords to move right now,
the PA isn't even hooked up) but I can surmise that the voltage pattern
will be a complex sum of multiple active pot settings. Good for
non-chromatic stuff, I'd imagine, and intuition tells me that it would be
rather hard to keep things on a "western" scale...

The Moog's distinctive feature, I think, would be the SKIP/NORMAL/STOP
rotary switch on each step. This allows you to run the sequencer and then
drops steps into the sequence or take them out (which of course changes the
overall sequence length). I'm pretty sure that this is done during certain
parts of the two-album set of Tangerine Dream live - you can hear a bass
sequence bounce between two notes and then a third note drops in, and then
a fourth, and so on with notes taken in and out (artistically, of course)
after that. Probably Chris Franke messing with these switches.

Anyway I like the 960 - it has a nice old-radio kind of feel to it, with
big red plastic push-buttons and incandescent lamps all over the place.

- Gene

----------
> From: Haible Juergen <Juergen.Haible at nbgm.siemens.de>
> To: 'DIY' <synth-diy at horus.sara.nl>; 'analogue' <analogue at hyperreal.com>
> Subject: Moog sequencer 
> Date: Tuesday, July 22, 1997 3:46 AM
> 
> I just visited some web page about the Moog modular, and was puzzled by
> a description of the sequencer:
> 
> "It's possible for more than one stage to be on at once, actually. One
> way to make this 
> happen is to patch the output
> of one stage to the input of another. To get back to only one stage on,
> push a set button."
> 
> I have to admit that I had never heard this before, never played a Moog
> sequencer myself,
> never bothered to look into the schematics too deep - but now the whole
> thing gets
> damn interesting !
> 
> Can anybody share his special tricks with the Moog sequencer? any things
> you
> can't do with other sequencers ?
> 
> JH.