Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Most Wanted I - A-195-1 Pitch-to-CV/MIDI Interface

If there is one module that i am looking forward to, it must be the A-195-1 Pitch-to-CV/MIDI Interface.
The Doepfer Future Modules page tells us it will be an
"interface for conversion of a monophonic audio signal (e.g. singing, wind or string instrument) into the corresponding pitch CV (1V/Oct.), loudness CV and gate. Simultaneously the values are transmitted via MIDI"

Great idea, you sing, whistle or play a tune into a microphone and your A-100 will follow.

I used to own a Roland CP40 Pitch-to-MIDI converter that did the same, i bought it second-hand, and i saw the potential but sold it later ( and regret it now... kinda )
The CP40 was a small light-weight plastic desktop module, not very expensive at the time and had some basic changeable parameters like Bend, Octave Shift and Expression.
It worked as expected, not completely flawless, but good enough for impressive sounds. Too bad it was MIDI, and not analog.

...and that is why i am looking forward to this forthcoming A-195-1 Pitch-to-CV/MIDI Module ( note: No release date so far )
I bet Doepfer is still thinking hard about how this module should look.
The module has been in and out of the Doepfer brochures over the last years but i recently saw it was also back on the Doepfer Future Modules page now. Are they making progress?
There was a Poll on the A-100 forums a long time ago before i joined them, but at that time there wasn't much response to that, if i am correct.

I hope we will see a release date soon, i am sooo looking forward to this, even more to the Pitch-to-CV conversion than to the Pitch-to-MIDI conversion
Ofcourse the module should have some basic functions like a gain for the input, a slew controller plus some other functions of the CP40, but i trust the engineers at Doepfer... ;) I'll leave that to them, but the "loudness CV and gate" are a good start.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

A-174-2 Modulation Wheels CV Source

Last week i received my latest A-100 Module.
It's the A-174-2, Modulation Wheels CV Source, a module with two wheels.
I got the original version, with a spring loaded wheel at the left side with bipolar voltage output, and a wheel without spring at the right side with only positive voltage output.

It doesn't make any sounds, but it does offer me more (voltage) control over the sound. Both wheels deliver two identical voltage outputs.

First times i tried it out was in combination with the filters, adding voltage to the cutoff range and adding resonance... very basic stuff, but impressive.
This should also work very well with the Voltage Inverter Module (A-175), i can't wait to try this (and more) out soon.

I can't say it is the prettiest module because the wheels are quite large, but they feel great and seem to react very accurate.