Doepfer Modular Synthesizer Tips

[keyofnight]

A friend of mine built an enclosure for a Doepfer modular synth and gave it to me for my birthday. It rocks. He gave it to me with a few modules: A-131 (a VCA), A-106-1 (Xtreme high/low pass filter), and A-119 (External Input / Envelope follower.

I made a few noises with it, but I'm not sure what else to do with it—I mostly need another module or two (ring modulator / LFO of some sort).

Do any of you run Doepfer modules? (I know some of you do, from my Google searches, but there are always newcomers to these forums.) If so, what modules do you use?

(Maybe we can start a club? )

 

[bass.bert]

hi, had the wasp filter and tried the waveshaper long time ago…

i was slightly overchallanged with that kind of modular stuff that time. i think i kept the audio-in module and the filter, but they never made it into a pedalboard setup.
did anybody test something like this pitch to voltage controller (not doepfer but still an eurorack) in combination with a real oscillator?

i just know this Invalid Link Removed, but i think tracking on bass would be more difficult…

 

[keyofnight]

hi, had the wasp filter and tried the waveshaper long time ago…

i was slightly overchallanged with that kind of modular stuff that time. i think i kept the audio-in module and the filter, but they never made it into a pedalboard setup.
did anybody test something like this pitch to voltage controller (not doepfer but still an eurorack) in combination with a real oscillator?

i just know this Invalid Link Removed, but i think tracking on bass would be more difficult…

I haven't tried any of the Pitch-to-CV stuff quite yet, but I imagine it would track as well as it would for the guitar. —why wouldn't it?

That video was awesome. I've always been more of a filter person myself, but this is pretty cool. I saw one guy use a clock divider to get a tame square wave out of his guitar for use in effects. It requires EQing and lots of gain, but it looks like it works pretty well…and it looks like it'd work on the bass too.

 

[bongomania]

I was a total fiend for modular synths between 1985 and 2000. The good news / bad news thing about them is you just have to try plugging everything into everything and see what comes out. There isn't much more to say, because it's all about the unique "happy accidents" discovered by creating a Frankenstein's Monster and applying voltage to it.

 

[bass.bert]

I haven't tried any of the Pitch-to-CV stuff quite yet, but I imagine it would track as well as it would for the guitar. —why wouldn't it?

i think it depends on the quality of the pitch detection. on bass you have longer wavecycles as on guitar, what may result in more latency…

 

[keyofnight]

i think it depends on the quality of the pitch detection. on bass you have longer wavecycles as on guitar, what may result in more latency…

That makes sense. If I only knew someone with a clock divider module…

 

[keyofnight]

Alright! This is an old thread, but I'd rather not open up 100 threads about the same thing. Besides, this thread is at the top of Google searches. (;

Right now, I've played around with the A106-1 Xtreme Highpass/Lowpass Filter, and here are my observations. This module is versatile…especially for the bassist . It's extremely easy to get a thick "self-oscillation" at high resonance settings. It's also easy to get a rich "auto-wah" out of it if you use some sort of envelope generator. I use the A119 external input as it has an envelope follower that gets the job done. Distortion is also easy on the A106; the input and output stages are extremely sensitive to medium-to-high levels, and there are two clipping diodes that you can set manually for (a)symmetrical clipping/limiting.

This module has lots of hidden features that are easy to stumble upon when you don't want to. It can be used as a notch filter or a bandpass filter…and sometimes it hard to keep these functions in check. The lowpass control is polarized, so keep it at 12 o'clock unless you're experimenting or know what sound you want.

Here are sound samples, if anyone is interested.

Döpfer Test 001: "Chunky." by keyofnight on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Döpfer Test 002: "Two intervals." by keyofnight on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
Döpfer Test 003: "Quick Groove" by keyofnight on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Anyone know what other modules are fun to play with?