Happy Knobbing III - New Joystick-Lever

The latest minor modification to my A-100 system  is the replacement of the A-174 Module's joystick.

I finally changed my black plastic lever with a newer aluminium one that i ordered at Doepfer last week.

Modules before 2007 had the black plastic lever as standard, all modules delivered after 2007 already have this aluminium lever.

It's just a small optical change, nothing more. The new lever is a bit shorter, but does have a nice/better grip though. And that for only 10 Euro's...

<  Old vs. new lever

A-134-2 Dual Voltage Controlled Crossfader

 My latest ( my 60th! ) Module is the A-134-2 Dual Voltage Controlled Crossfader.

This module, that contains two identical voltage controlled crossfader units can be used in combination with controller modules like the Wheels or the Joystick controller to make fades between different sounds  ( or even control signals like LFO's ) 

Each unit has two voltage controlled amplifiers (VCAs) with opposite control behaviour.

In standard (assymetrical) mode, with 0 volts CV added to CV1, input A is fully closed and input B fully opened.

Adding more control voltage to the CV1 input will result a volume increase at input A and a decrease of the volume at input B. In the middle position you will hear a nice mix of the two inputs.

Different settings for the module are available, by switching the internal jumpers you can make the CV inputs ready for bi-directional voltages ( positive and negative ).

By coupling both units you can even control 4 inputs with, for example the A-174 Joystick Module's control voltage, where the centre is the 50% mix and each 'corner' of the joystick is an individual input. A truly amazing and very versatile little module...

Booktip III - Synthesizers by Hans de Vries ( in Dutch Language )

This little Dutch book, written in 1983 (!) is probably one of the best synthesizer-technology-books that I own. The fact that it is written in Dutch wasn’t enough reason to keep this book out of this blog.

In 144 pages, Hans de Vries explores the basics of sound creation.
The first half clearly explains the basic building blocks of synthesized sound, very clearly written (... but in Dutch, remember...) and with lots of graphs and explanatory pictures ( b/w )

The second half of the book delves more into the use of synthesizers in practical situations like (home-) studio’s etc.. The book ends with an overview the most popular or groundbreaking (analog) instuments of that time, like the Korg MS20, various Moogs, Oberheims and Rolands, up to the fisrt digital synthesizer; the Yamaha DX-7

Funny detail in this book is the writer’s skepticism towards MIDI and Computerized sequencing. Remember... around 1983 there were only a few instruments equipped with MIDI, and computers weren’t cheap. Above that, computer-sequencing-programs were not widely available back then.

ISBN: 90-201-1642-8

Oscillator Synchronizing

Interesting sound-effects can be obtained by the synchronising of (multiple) oscillators.
In a typical setup, one oscillator (master) restarts the cycle-period of the other one (slave) , what results in equal base frequencies on both oscillators. This is called Hard Sync.

The result is an irregular waveform with it's own harmonic spectrum, completely different from 'standard' waveforms

Soft Sync is a more general name for all kinds of oscillator synchronisation.
This form is very similar to Hard Sync, but here the slave oscillator is forced to reset to zero with every cycle of the master regardless of position or direction of the slave waveform, which often generates asymmetrical shapes.

In Soft Sync, rather than resetting to zero, the wave is inverted;  its direction is reversed.
Further variations to the sound can be made by comparing the sounds with different comparison tresholds. For more info see the Wikipedia page on Oscillator Synchronisation
Soft Sync sounds smoother  and distinctly different from hard-sync.
It is difficult to replicate this effect on digital synths, due to aliasing problems.

Soft Sync-like effects can also be created with other modules, for example a phaser or a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) Module.

Quick Tip III : Vocoder testing

Ideal for ( Doepfer ) vocoder testing;


Try feeding an audio-book or a recording of your favorite radioshow through your system while tweaking your vocoder settings.

Speech-only programmes are perfect for this purpose.

Short demo:
  In the Morning Vocoder test by NetPierre
* original audioclip from: http://NoAgendaShow.com / http://NoAgendaShots.com

Quotes I : Edgar Varèse

"I dream of instruments obedient to my thought and which with their contribution of a whole new world of unsuspected sounds, will lend themselves to the exigencies of my inner rhythm."

Edgard Varèse 

Filtering

A filter is a device for eliminating selected frequencies from the soundspectrum, and in some cases to emphasize the level of other frequencies.

Lowpass filter: Removes frequencies above its cutoff frequency

Highpass filter: Removes frequencies below its cutoff frequency

Bandpass filter: Only allows frequencies to pass through above and below a specified range

Notch filter: Allows frequencies to pass between specified ranges ( = Band-Reject filter )

CD-Tip II : Popular Electronics by Philips Research Lab

This 4-CD Boxset with the subtitle  " Early Dutch Electronic Music from Philips Research Laboratories 1956 - 1963 " is a collection of great (restored) works from the Dutch pioneers in electronic sound.

These four CD's contain hard-to-find compositions and sound-examples from the groundbreaking Philips NatLab studios in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
Pioneers from that time like Dick Raaijmakers,Henk Badings and Tom Disseveld were already working on electronic sounds in the late 1950's, and this collection of Dutch electronic and tapeloop-music is the most complete one ever compiled.

The boxset includes 7 booklets (180 pages) and a few mini-posters, full with background information on the history of Philips NatLab and the composers and technicians of that time. You will also find all the CD details in these books, as well as lots of pictures, scores, schematics and other related documents.

 Popular Electronics: Early Dutch electronic music from Philips Research Laboratories, 1956-1963 by Basta Music

Additional info on this  Popular Electronics  4CD Boxset
BastaMusic: Cat. Nr.: 3091 412

A Question of Cables

Doepfer sells  patch-cables for the A-100 system (3.5 mm plug mono jack) in many different colors and sizes.
The latest addition to the Doepfer assortiment are the orange 50 centimeter patchcables with angled plug on one side. 

The prices are fairly acceptable, and the more you buy ( at once ) the cheaper they get each...
Sizes vary from 15 (yellow), 30 (black) , 50 (grey), 80 (red) , 120 (blue) to 200 (green) centimetres, but i wish they also had other lengths. (...and colors)

Let me know in the comments if you know a place where they sell patch-cables in other colors or lenghts, it will be appreciated.
Purple ones would be nice... but not too long... ;-)

Never Enough VCO's

The engines or hearts of all modular synthesizers are definetely the VCO's. As main sound source for your patches it seems you never have enough of them.

I own 5 VCO's at the moment, One A-111 High End VCO plus four A-110 Standard VCO's. Ideal for stacking layers of waveforms to make extra- fat sounds, and also very useable for multiple A-100 melodylines

The A-111 is the one i use most because of its extended possibilities. 

This VCO has an extended frequency range, improved waveforms, FM and Soft Sync inputs plus an extra fine-tune-controller. Ideal for controllerfreaks like me. 

It produces sine, triangle, pulse and sawtooth waveforms, which are all derived from the triangle oscillator, what does make it hard to produce perfect sine-waves ( but a little better as the A-110's sine wave )

One of the best things is that all 4 waveforms are all simultanously available at the outputs for your mixing pleasure.

The much cheaper A-110  has less controls and is based on a sawtooth oscillator. All outcoming waveforms of this module are derived from this sawtooth by internal waveform converters. This module also generates sinewaves that are not completely perfect, but to 'normal' ears this is hardly audible

I never noticed, and i guess most of us don't care and never noticed the imperfect-ness of the sinewaves of both modules.

Even on an oscilloscope it is hardly visible that the sinewaves are nothing more than rounded sawtooth-waves.

For a perfect sine wave Doepfer recommends the A-143-9 Quadrature LFO/VCO, another interesting module, that i will highlight in a future blogpost.

Note: As the special circuit CEM3340 used in the A-111 High End VCO module is no longer available the module has to be discontinued. Sales at Doepfer while stocks last !