Modular Synth - An All Doepfer Orchestral(ish) Patch by IsVisible

IsVisible uploaded an interesting new video to YouTube... enjoy!

Video: Modular Synth - An All Doepfer Orchestral (ish) Patch

" Here's a patch I filmed about two years ago. Made with all Doepfer modules.
Some patch notes:
The A-143-4 Quad VCLFO/VCO is triggering the gate/envelopes of the A-143-2 Quad ADSR, clocking the random voltages from the A-149-1, providing cv for the two filters (A-106-1 Xtreme and A124 Wasp)
The A-143-4 is in turn being modulated by two LFO's, A-143-9 and A-146.
The two voices are then passed through a channel each of a Tapco 4400 Dual Spring Reverb.
www.isvisible.co.uk"

Uploaded by isvisible

Random Video: Modular Synth - A-143-4 and A-149-1 Orchestral(ish) Sounds by IsVisible

Here's the latest modular synth video by IsVisible.
It's kind of orchestral-ish and features Doepfer's A-143-4 and A-149-1 modules.

Video: Modular Synth - A-143-4 and A-149-1 - Orchestral(ish) Sounds
Modular Synth - A-143-4 and A-149-1 - Orchestral(ish) Sounds from isvisible on Vimeo.

" Here we have the Doepfer A-143-4 Quad VC/LFO/VCO triggering the A-149-1 Random Voltages. The A-143-4 is also triggering the A-143-2 Quad ADSR along with providing a little cv to the A-110 VCO's.
All in all with a little filtering courtesy of the A-106-1 Xtreme Filter (Korg MS-20 inspired) and the A-124 Wasp (erm... a Wasp clone) it sounds a bit orchestral, in an abstract kinda way anyway.
Both line outs from the modular (bassier / brassier low end and plucked / reedish higher end) are going directly into a lovely old Tapco 4400 Dual Reverberation System then to my mixing desk where the audio is taken from."

Follow IsVisible on Twitter at https://twitter.com/isvisible

More IsVisibe at http://www.isvisible.co.uk/

Also check out his new album vii. http://isvisible.bandcamp.com/album/vii  - free to download, or pay what you like if you feel the need.

A-143-2 Quad ADSR - Power to the Quads!

Good value-for-money and serious rackspace-savers are Doepfer's Quad modules.
These modules offer four (-duh-) identical but individual modulation sources in one module.

My A-143-2 Quad ADSR is at the heart of my A-100 system.
With 4 envelope generators in one this is a very powerful module, and this is where the 3 individual gate outputs from my MAQ 16/3 come together.
Also see THIS post.

The Gate inputs of the units 2, 3 and 4 are normalled to the Gate input of unit 1, so Gate input 1 is connected to the switching contacts of the Gate input sockets fom submodule 2, 3 and 4 if no other input is connected.
With only one Gate signal applied to Gate input 1, it can be used to trigger all four sub-modules simultaneously.
A switch for each individual channel is available for switching between high, low and medium ranges.

All 4 sub-units have additional input sockets for Re-Trigger, but the re-trigger behaviour of the A-143-2 is slightly different compared to other envelope generators;
During the attack phase the envelope cannot be re-triggered or reset. (unlike the A-140 ADSR envelope, that envelope can be re-triggered while the gate is still open).

Each sub-unit also has three digital outputs (high/low) that sends a trigger signal at the End of Attack (EOA), End of Decay (EOD) and End of Release (EOR).

This is very useful if you want to daisy-chain the sub-modules to create more complex envelopes. (or even complete loops)
The envelope outputs are displayed with LEDs and the maximal envelope voltage (Attack/Decay reversal point) is about +8V.

The Quad series consists of the following Multiple modulation sources so far;
A-143-1 Quad AD, A-143-2 Quad ADSR 
A-143-3 Quad LFO, A-143-4
Quad VCLFO/VCO (just released), A-143-9
VC Quadrature LFO and modules A-142-4 Quad Decay, plus Quad Amplifiers A-132-2 Quad VCA I and A-132-4Quad exp. VCA

Most Wanted - Future Modules Update

It is always good to keep an eye on the posts from the Doepfer Yahoo Usergroup.
Not only to get answer to all the A-100 questions you have, the DIY-tips, and the interesting module discussions but also for Dieter Doepfer's own input, troubleshooting and the occasional company updates.
In one of his latest posts he announced a few interesting 'new' things on Doepfer's to-do list, including a few that are not yet on Doepfer's Future Module page.

The ones you can already find on that page are the A-190-5 polyphonic USB/Midi-to-CV/Gate interface, the A-142-4 Quad Decay, A-195-1 Pitch-to-CV/Midi/USB interface, A-192-2 CV/Gate to Midi interface, A-143-4 Quad VCO/VCLFO and the A-100 touch keyboard.

The original A-126(-1)

I already blogged about the forthcoming A-157 Trigger Sequencer (not much info on the Doepfer site, only in a NAMM 2010 brochure), but the update of the A-126 module was new for me.
The A-126-2 Frequency Shifter II will be a redesign of the old module. 

Because of availability of the special circuit CEM3382 used in the original module's internal quadrature VCO, the 'original' A-126 is no longer available and they had to stop the production of this module. 

It looks like Doepfer is now working hard on a succeeding model without an internal VCO.

Other modules that were mentioned were a VC Slope Generator ( no specs or further info available, but maybe something like the Serge Universal Slope Generator ?- i'm only guessing !), a Master Clock module/synced LFO, the A-100 bus board V2 with some Analoge Systems connectors ( no more Analogue Systems-to-Doepfer adaptors necessary? ), and an A-100 miniature power supply redesign 

Besides that, Dieter posted that they are also still working on various non-A-100 Doepfer products like the Dark Matter (Dark Energy expander with Noise, S&H, a second VCO, Multimode-VCF, additional waveforms and maybe some other effects), the Dark Link, and an expansion board for the DIY Synth. 

" ... still on our to-do list. But I can't say in which sequence the planned products will be released."

Note: Please don't call or mail them too often at Doepfer about release-dates or updates of future modules. The Doepfer website is updated very regularly, so you will find all the latest info there...

Busboard Access

Updated August 25th 2011

A good patch can sometimes turn out to a whole spaghetti of patchcables.
Luckily Doepfer provided the A-100 system with a subsystem that makes the routing of some Gate and CV signals through the internal busboard-system possible.

It's too bad that not all modules have this ability, but for some modules this is a good way to avoid "over-wiring" your system with patch-cables.

Only modules A-110 (Standard VCO), A-111 (High end VCO), A-111-5 (Mini Synth. Voice), A-140 (ADSR), A-164-1 (Manual Gate), A-185-1 (Bus Access), A-185-2 (Precision Adder) and A-190-1,2,3 and 4 (Midi Interfaces) have access to the CV or Gate signal of the A-100 busboard.

The A-164-1, A-185 (-1 and 2) and A-190 (-1,2 and 3) can be used to "write" the busboard, i.e. they can output the signals to the bus.

The others are able to "read" the busboard, i.e. they pick up the signals CV (A-110, A-111, A111-5) resp. Gate (A-140, A-164-1) from the bus.
The A-111-5 can pick up CV and Gate from the bus. Also the planned A-143-4 Quad VCLFO/VCO will be able to read the A-100's busboard.
For details please refer to the user manuals of these Doepfer modules.

Most of the modules come with jumpers inside that can connect or disconnect the signal from and to the busboard. If other modules should be able to "write" or "read" the bus some of them can be modified. More on this in a future modding blogpost.

Doepfer warns on their DIY-site for shortcircuiting modules and/or busboard, so please take note:
Pay attention that only one module is allowed to "write" to the same bus signal.  If two or more modules write to the bus this leads to a short circuit of the corresponding outputs.
Please let me know if i forgot some modules in the Feedback section of this post, thank you!