Doepfer Dark Energy 2 DIY Mod. Breakout Box Walkthrough by Organzoner

Organzoner posted a great video with a step-by-step tutorial on how to expand the capabilities of the Doepfer Dark Energy 2 by adding a breakout box...

Video: Doepfer Dark Energy 2 DIY Mod. Breakout box walkthrough

" Here's a step-by-step walk through of how to get more patch points from your DEII.

All the jumpers are connected to the internal circuits according to the information found on the Doepfer website: http://www.doepfer.de/pdf/Dark_Energy...
thank you creativegallerys and other experimenters on Google for the idea.

Dieter Doepfer is legend, what an awesome semimodular synth!
nice hidden options! A great synth right out of the box. Now I just want to build an A-100!!!
...ordered an intellijel metropolis for CV gate/pitch sequencing the DEII and Moog SlimPhatty.
- organ zoner organzoner organz owner"

Uploaded by Organzoner

Doepfer A-127 BOM Filter Breakout Module Announced

Doepfer finally announced a few new modules for this year.
The first one is an expander-module for the A-127 Triple Voltage Controlled Resonance Filter, which has always been my favorite Doepfer filter...

Basically they took advantage of all the filter outputs that were already available in the original A-127 module, but not made available on the frontpanel.

I wrote about how i made my own A-127-expansion-board a few years ago in this blog, but this official board takes it to the next level, with even one more filter and separate audio outputs.

A-127 BOM Filter
Breakout Module

" For early summer 2014 the A-127 breakout module is planned.

This expansion module offers these new functions:
- additional notch filter for each sub-unit
- separate outputs for lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch for each sub-unit
- separate audio input with attenuator for each sub-unit

The breakout module allows the separate use of each of the three A-127 filters.
In addition the filters can be patched parallel or serial.
Especially the serial connection of three notches generates very complex phasing-like structures.
For parallel filter connection the existing mixer of the main module may be used or an external mixer.
For serial connection the filters are patched in the desired sequence at the breakout module.
A jumper is used to define the filter type for each sub-unit for the mix unit of the main module.

Remark:
The breakout module can be used without modification only in combination with the new version of the A-127 (pcb printing "Version 4").
Only the new version has the expansion connector available, that is required to connect the breakout module.
It's also possible to combine the breakout module with older versions of the A-127 (versions 1, 2 and 3) but in this case soldering is required to connect the breakout module to the main module (soldering 4 wires to each filter unit).

We will publish corresponding modification instructions as soon as the breakout module will be available."

You can still find my own A-127 DIY-expander blogposts via http://patchpierre.blogspot.nl/2010/12/modifications-ii-127-triple-resonance.html

Source: http://www.doepfer.de/a127.htm

The new Doepfer modules will be shown at #MusikMesse in the booth of their distributor Alex4 in hall 5.1, booth nr. C54

Update May 23 2014: " The A-127 BOM is already in production and should be available July 2014."

MAQ16/3 FracRak Breakout Box

MAQ 16/3 FracRak breakout panels

Not every-one finds it practical that the Doepfer MAQ16/3 Sequencer has all its connections on the backside of the module.
Especially when you change your setup a lot, you don't want to climb behind your 19"-rack to change patch-cables every time.

Of course there are always people who have figured out a solution for this.

This MAQ breakout panel that i found in an old Matrixsynth post came with a pair of custom made FracRak breakout panels to bring the MIDI jacks and the 1/8" Voltage Control and Gate jacks to the front of your FracRak panel for easy patching.
These would have fit perfectly next to your Paia modules for example.
It also had the necessary cables to connect to these panels from the back of the MAQ16/3.

Sideview of theMAQ 16/3 FracRak
breakout panels

According to the maker these panels were not cheap to put together. (Try pricing the 2 MIDI panel mount barrels and even the 6 panel mount 1/8" barrels)

Theoretically it is possible to make such breakout panels for a Eurorack system.

The CV and Gate outputs would fit easily on one of those 8HP wide pre-drilled blank panels (A-180-style) that Doepfer sells as spare parts. 

You can even put in a few extra switches for your own maximized customization experience. Your limit is your imagination.

Personally, I have long CV (red coded cables) and Gate (blue) wires coming out of my MAQ16/3 that come into my Eurorack system through multiple A-180 Multiples modules, but i can see the benefits of this module.

It might be worth investigating the possibilities of a Eurorack breakout panel a little more for a future blogpost.

A-142-4 plus Expander Demo by Hawklord2112

Regular video-uploader and contributor to the blog Hawklord2112 uploaded another nice new video.

He bought himself a new A-142-4 Quad Decay module and also an extra expander module for it.
Each of the 4 sub-units of the A-142-4 has a pin header with two pins available.

When the two pins are shortened (e.g. by means of a jumper on the PCB board or a toggle switch connected to the two pins) the corresponding sub-unit changes to a loop mode. 

In this mode the unit triggers itself like an LFO..

The expander is made of a pre-manufactured panel, punched for 8 sockets, almost identical to the A-180 front panel but without the printing.
Those panels are very useful for DIY-projects like this.
In his video he explains how it all works.

Video: A-142-4

"Basic demo of the Doepfer A142.4 Quad Decay generator and DIY breakout expander"

Uploaded by hawklord2112

Doepfer Usergroup Poll: MS-02 Module?

A new Poll at the  official Doepfer Usergroep is about the idea of realizing an A-100 module with the possibillities of the 'classic' Korg MS-02 expander module.
This module was part of Korg's MS series of instruments, which also included the MS-20 Monophonic Synthesizer, the single oscillator MS-10, the keyboardless MS-50 module, and the SQ-10 sequencer. Additional devices included the MS-01 Foot Controller, MS-03 Signal Processor, MS-04 Modulation Pedal and VC-10 Vocoder.

( MS-02 user manual with detailed info online available HERE )

" In my search for a Korg MS-02 I haven't been successful so far. In building a great A-100 modular synth I was. This got me thinking: It would be great if Doepfer would add a module to the A-100 module list with the functionality of the Korg MS-02. I can imagine more people are interested. I sent the question to Dieter and he suggested to start a poll on this list. So here we go. "

Options:
O - I would be interested in a Korg MS-02 like module as long it's cheaper than 100 euro
O - I would be interested in a Korg MS-02 like module as long it's cheaper than 150 euro
O - I would be interested in a Korg MS-02 like module as long it's cheaper than 200 euro
O - I'm not interested in such a module

To vote, you can go to the Yahoo! Groups Poll HERE.

More info controlling a MS-20 / MS-10 with a Doepfer device HERE

Modifications III : A-127 Triple Resonance Filter Expander (part 2)

Hmmm... that went faster as i expected.
My brand new self-made A-127 Expander Module is now almost finished.
( Find part 1 HERE)
The switches are wired too, and the overall look of the module is even better as expected.

I did have some trouble with drilling holes through the aluminium front-plate at first, but it seems i aligned the sockets nice enough with the output sockets of the A-127 itself.
The switches work smoothly and the 'new' 12 dB filters sound sweeeeeet.

I'm very happy with this module, and glad that i went with this option instead of just putting switches on the A-127's front panel.


The wiring of the modules on the backside was quite simple. Red wires were used for switching between the different filter-modes, the blue ones the the audio-multipliers, and yellow ones (not visible in the picture) for the lower switch.
I did the soldering without removing anything from the module, but you might want to remove some components for easier access.

Instead of soldering you can also use small (0.1") wire-sockets at the board's jumper-spots. An example with detailed information of this can be found HERE

Update March 10, 2014
Doepfer announced an official Breakout Module for the A-127,
find out all about it at http://patchpierre.blogspot.nl/2014/03/doepfer-127-bom-filter-breakout-module.html

Modifications II : A-127 Triple Resonance Filter Expander

Now that i finished my first 'real' module-modification i couldn't wait to start with the next project.
At first i wanted to replace a red LED for a blue one on one of my modules myself, but i couldn't decide which module i should pick for this... and i'm still not sure, but that can wait....

Another plan that was in my head from the beginning was the placing of 3 switches on the front-plate of my A-127 Triple Resonance Filter. There are 3 jumpers inside this module that allow the user to switch the filter-type of each of the three channels between Band-Pass (standard) and 12 dB Low-Pass. I have seen some examples on the web of this modification, most of them just with the switches mounted on the A-127 itself, but unexperienced as i am, i was too afraid to damage the front-panel and went for an Expander Module design.

So that is why i am building it into an official 4HP blind-panel that i bought from Doepfer. Each of the three A-127 channels on my expander module design will have a switch to switch the channel's filter-mode and will also provide an extra (linked) audio output.
( mainly to fill up the space, but i aligned these with the A-127's original outputs to make it look more like an official Doepfer module ) .

To complete the expander module i also want to place a switch at the bottom that has the function of the J3 jumper that is inside the A-127 module on the mix circuit-board. This switch can put the module in a mode so that both levels of the filter and the original can be controlled with attenuator 1 ( audio level in )

I am not finished with the project yet, the mounting of the switches and extra outputs is done. Wiring is the next step, i'll write another post on that later this week...
Find Part 2 at http://patchpierre.blogspot.nl/2010/12/modifications-iii-127-triple-resonance.html


Update March 10, 2014
Doepfer announced an official Breakout Module for the A-127,
find out all about it at http://patchpierre.blogspot.nl/2014/03/doepfer-127-bom-filter-breakout-module.html