Moog DFAM does Microtonal: "Spinning with Sophie Germain" (featuring small man straddling a cactus)

Published on Jun 18, 2018 Kris Lennox

"Right. The rulebook states you have to feature a houseplant in a synth vid in order to be a real synth player. So I featured a small wooden man straddling a cactus whilst playing a Strat.

I think this means I'm now officially a real synth player. Which means I may get gigs at synth venues.

Who knows. I may land a gig at Moogfest next year. Actually, wait: probably not, given I haven't lopped my man bits off. Times are tough and all - and I'm all for innovation and creativity - but having to chop off one's knob to secure a gig is a step too far, even for a Scotsman.

Moog's commitment to the castration policy can even be seen in the DFAM, where if you want to operate it properly you have to stick your own knobs on it.

To serious theoretical matters:

Sophie Germain was a mathematician known for 'Sophie Germain Primes'. These are primes where the form 2p + 1 is also prime.

Take the number 7. (7 x 2) + 1 = 15, which is not prime. Therefore 7 is not a Sophie Germain prime.

11, however, is a Sophie Germain prime ((11 x 2) + 1 = 23, which is prime).

The frequencies of this sequence are all Sophie Germain primes. None of the notes are conventional pitches. The entire sequence is microtonal.

Here is a breakdown of the step sequence (steps 1-8 respectively):

491 Hz
419 Hz
359 Hz
293 Hz
251 Hz
191 Hz
173 Hz
131 Hz

Very interesting sound. I split/doubled the signal, with signal 2 sent through a ring modulator. Hence the odd sound underneath.

Quite often, microtonal music has the effect of sounding very 'metallic'. I'd say this work is no exception.

All best
Kris"