Doepfer History: MVP1 MIDI Volume Pedal

The Doepfer MVP1 MIDI Volume Pedal was manufactured from 1991 until 1994 and was available as a kit, ready built pc board or complete pedal unit (i.e. built into a foot controller).

Doepfer MVP1 with external box and
the (Dutch) Elektuur Magazine of July 1994

The MVP1 was a programmable unit that could be used as volume (factory setting) or expression-pedal.
It featured MIDI In and Out so it could be placed between your keyboard and a sound module.

Via a learn button and internal DIPswitches you could change this module's functions.
Other parameters that could be controlled with this unit were volume, modulation, portamento, aftertouch, pitchbend, and velocity.

The MVP1 was also published as a DIY article in the July 1994 issue of electronic magazine ELEKTOR which was published in different languages (German, French, English, Dutch).

MVP1 DIY-kit

Elektor is a monthly magazine about all aspects of electronics, first published as "Elektuur" in the Netherlands in 1960, and was published worldwide in many languages including English, German, French, Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese (native and Brazilian) and Italian with distribution in over 50 countries.
The English language edition of Elektor was launched in 1975 and is read worldwide.

The advantage of Doepfer's original MVP1 board was that the board was so small that it could be mounted inside the pedal.
ELEKTOR modified Doepfer's original MVP1 pc board design a little bit because they did not like that a smaller circuit was located directly under the processor to keep the pcb board dimensions as small as possible, but the electronic circuits are exactly the same.

MVP1 pedal with internal electrnics

The ELEKTOR version of the pc board was much larger and that's why an external box was necessary (as seen in the top picture).

The last MVP1 units were sold somewhere between 1995 and 1996.

The kit costed between 40 Euros (PCB only) and 70 Euros (PCB and foot controller)
The ready built unit was available for 110 Euros.
Around 600 units were manufactured.

The user manual is still available on the Doepfer website HERE

Sources: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elektor
and additional info as always kindly provided by Dieter Doepfer

Find all my Doepfer History blogposts at http://patchpierre.blogspot.nl/search/label/Doepfer%20History