Doepfer

Having just purchased my first modular synth and assembled a modular version of the Dark Energy and Dark Time.(this is the easy part) I find myself way over my head and quite stunned by what I am looking at. I thought I was begining to understand a little but have quickly realised that all I am doing is just plug and hope that sounds come out and not smoking ruins.
My plea to all you experienced users is, can you point me and all new users to any publication that will give some of the basics of actually using the system. I have downloaded and printed masses of technical info but what is required is a simple guide as to what can be connected to what and what can or cannot be plugged or patched to what.
It has always been my moan that manuals are great at telling you how a thing works but terrible at explaining how to work it. RTFM is all very well but knowing what the words mean doesn't guarantee knowing what the sentence means. 
Sometimes I just feel stupid. Explaining this to my 15 yr old son is somewhat trying.
HELP!!!!

Hello Anthony,
Here is a link to Doepfer 's very useful tutorials created by our friend member Raul Penna.
I hope they will be a some help for you.
Frendly,
Marc-Henri

http://www.youtube.com/user/raulsworldofsynths?feature=watch



________________________________
 De : Anthony <anthony.box@talk21.com>
À : Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com 
Envoyé le : Dimanche 22 avril 2012 11h15
Objet : [Doepfer_a100] Those new to modular synths.
 

  
Having just purchased my first modular synth and assembled a modular version of the Dark Energy and Dark Time.(this is the easy part) I find myself way over my head and quite stunned by what I am looking at. I thought I was begining to understand a little but have quickly realised that all I am doing is just plug and hope that sounds come out and not smoking ruins.
My plea to all you experienced users is, can you point me and all new users to any publication that will give some of the basics of actually using the system. I have downloaded and printed masses of technical info but what is required is a simple guide as to what can be connected to what and what can or cannot be plugged or patched to what.
It has always been my moan that manuals are great at telling you how a thing works but terrible at explaining how to work it. RTFM is all very well but knowing what the words mean doesn't guarantee knowing what the sentence means. 
Sometimes I just feel stupid. Explaining this to my 15 yr old son is somewhat trying.
HELP!!!!


 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi!

First of all, don't panic!

Some tips:

Learn what's an output and what's an input.  Only plug an output into an input.  This should make it pretty much impossible to blow anything up by mistake.

About the simplest patch you could make is... let's see... if you have a MIDI to CV converter (eg A-190-2 or A-190-3), a VCO (eg A-110), and a VCA (A-131), you could plug the converter's "CV note" (note pitch) output into the oscillator's "CV1" input, the converter's "gate" (note length) output into the VCA's "CV1" input, the oscillator's waveform output (any of them) into the VCA's "audio 1" input, and the VCA's output into some headphones, starting its output volume at 0 and slowly moving it up to about 0.5, which is loud enough for me at any rate.

Then once you get bored of that, start swapping things out and putting more things in between these parts.  Want more expressive playing?  Plug the converter's cryptically named "CV V/V" output (note velocity) into the VCA's "CV2".  (Actually, I might be missing something myself here, as loud notes leave the attenuator open even after the gate's closed...  Which is curious, as I thought a closed gate would output 0v and anything multiplied by 0 is 0, so maybe the VCA's CV1 and CV2 are added together, not multiplied...  See, I don't really know what I'm doing here either, but it's fun working it out!)  Or add a filter, they're always good.  You can wire up the gate to an ADSR generator (eg A-140) to the VCA, to get a more pleasant rising and lowering of the volume with each note.  Or you could wire it up to the filter, so its cutoff point falls down over time.

Unless you're being quite literal about getting the modular equivalent of a Dark Energy, and bought the A-111-5?  The thing about the A-111-5 is that it's a whole synthesiser inside a single module.  While I'm sure it's great, and I'm guessing it's a friendly introduction or stepping stone to modular synthesis, it does seem to somewhat defy the modular philosophy, which (like Unix) seems to largely be about each tool doing a single job very well.  (Not that I'm complaining!  The A-100 seems partly based on the Roland System-100M in places, at least in terms of the naming scheme, and even the 110 module that had was an all-in-one synth module.)

I haven't used the A-111-5, but looking at a picture of it, it looks like you just hook a MIDI to CV converter up to its VCO F input (for the note's pitch) and ADSR gate input (for the note's length), and then you forget it's in a module unless you want to extend it in some way.

Anyway, to learn pretty much everything about synthesis, try Gordon Reid's Synth Secrets series for Sound On Sound:  http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm  (It's in reverse chronological order for some reason.)

But the most fun and idiosyncratic way to learn something is through personal experimentation, so just go ahead and start wiring things up randomly and seeing what happens, as long as you only connect outputs to inputs.

Good luck!

Hope that helps,
Zoë.

hi,
I think the question in your case is 'what do you expect your system to
do?' or what kind of sonic result are you looking for?
best wishes
Jakob
 Am 22.04.2012 11:15 schrieb "Anthony" <anthony.box@talk21.com>:

> **
>
>
> Having just purchased my first modular synth and assembled a modular
> version of the Dark Energy and Dark Time.(this is the easy part) I find
> myself way over my head and quite stunned by what I am looking at. I
> thought I was begining to understand a little but have quickly realised
> that all I am doing is just plug and hope that sounds come out and not
> smoking ruins.
> My plea to all you experienced users is, can you point me and all new
> users to any publication that will give some of the basics of actually
> using the system. I have downloaded and printed masses of technical info
> but what is required is a simple guide as to what can be connected to what
> and what can or cannot be plugged or patched to what.
> It has always been my moan that manuals are great at telling you how a
> thing works but terrible at explaining how to work it. RTFM is all very
> well but knowing what the words mean doesn't guarantee knowing what the
> sentence means.
> Sometimes I just feel stupid. Explaining this to my 15 yr old son is
> somewhat trying.
> HELP!!!!
>
>  
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Zoe,
thanks for that, it's calmed me down a little, sound advice (no pum intended). I did purchase the A111-5 with the knowledge that it was a complete synth in itself my thought was it made sense if I was going to use my 2 units seperately (my son having taken control of the basic system I first got ) I suppose if I had really thought it through I would use the system while he was at school. Anyway, In to Out was a rule I instilled in my son I guess I had a bit of a panic attack when I was mesmorised by the shere number of controls, jacks and buttons that come with the modular systems. I have an A190-3 arriving any day this is a part that is also in the Dark Energy box. 
You talk about 'missing something....' about closed and open gates?? this is a question I have, How do you close and open a 'gate' I imagine it is similar to an on-off switch (electronically) ? I was told that it is the same as CV but somehow that does not ring true to me. Surely CV is a change of voltage brought about by differing keys on the key board. the +or - 1v ??.
Having said that I did manage to get some sounds and was happy that my putting together of the modules actually worked, a mouth drying experience flipping that power switch for the first time. I'll have a look at the SOS site.
Plus thanks to all you others that replied I have looked at Youtube vids and Rauls site.
I shall keep plugging away.
Tony
 
 

 
www.wizardwoodcraft.co.uk
 
Norfolk UK
 


>________________________________
> From: Zoë Blade <zoe@bytenoise.co.uk>
>To: Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com 
>Sent: Sunday, 22 April 2012, 14:35
>Subject: Re: [Doepfer_a100] Those new to modular synths.
>  
>
> 
>   
> 
>Hi!
>
>First of all, don't panic!
>
>Some tips:
>
>Learn what's an output and what's an input.  Only plug an output into an input.  This should make it pretty much impossible to blow anything up by mistake.
>
>About the simplest patch you could make is... let's see... if you have a MIDI to CV converter (eg A-190-2 or A-190-3), a VCO (eg A-110), and a VCA (A-131), you could plug the converter's "CV note" (note pitch) output into the oscillator's "CV1" input, the converter's "gate" (note length) output into the VCA's "CV1" input, the oscillator's waveform output (any of them) into the VCA's "audio 1" input, and the VCA's output into some headphones, starting its output volume at 0 and slowly moving it up to about 0.5, which is loud enough for me at any rate.
>
>Then once you get bored of that, start swapping things out and putting more things in between these parts.  Want more expressive playing?  Plug the converter's cryptically named "CV V/V" output (note velocity) into the VCA's "CV2".  (Actually, I might be missing something myself here, as loud notes leave the attenuator open even after the gate's closed...  Which is curious, as I thought a closed gate would output 0v and anything multiplied by 0 is 0, so maybe the VCA's CV1 and CV2 are added together, not multiplied...  See, I don't really know what I'm doing here either, but it's fun working it out!)  Or add a filter, they're always good.  You can wire up the gate to an ADSR generator (eg A-140) to the VCA, to get a more pleasant rising and lowering of the volume with each note.  Or you could wire it up to the filter, so its cutoff point falls down over time.
>
>Unless you're being quite literal about getting the modular equivalent of a Dark Energy, and bought the A-111-5?  The thing about the A-111-5 is that it's a whole synthesiser inside a single module.  While I'm sure it's great, and I'm guessing it's a friendly introduction or stepping stone to modular synthesis, it does seem to somewhat defy the modular philosophy, which (like Unix) seems to largely be about each tool doing a single job very well.  (Not that I'm complaining!  The A-100 seems partly based on the Roland System-100M in places, at least in terms of the naming scheme, and even the 110 module that had was an all-in-one synth module.)
>
>I haven't used the A-111-5, but looking at a picture of it, it looks like you just hook a MIDI to CV converter up to its VCO F input (for the note's pitch) and ADSR gate input (for the note's length), and then you forget it's in a module unless you want to extend it in some way.
>
>Anyway, to learn pretty much everything about synthesis, try Gordon Reid's Synth Secrets series for Sound On Sound: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm (It's in reverse chronological order for some reason.)
>
>But the most fun and idiosyncratic way to learn something is through personal experimentation, so just go ahead and start wiring things up randomly and seeing what happens, as long as you only connect outputs to inputs.
>
>Good luck!
>
>Hope that helps,
>Zoë.   
>      
>
>   

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

As far as ins and outs go: you cannot really cause any damage by plugging
things in "wrong". There is protection in all modern modular systems for
the voltage levels found in these systems. Smoking modules are not big
sellers!

Of course, most useful results occur when you observe the "out to in" rule.

LOL as my son would say. I get your thinking.


 
www.wizardwoodcraft.co.uk
 
Norfolk UK
 


>________________________________
> From: "blacet@blacet.com" <blacet@blacet.com>
>To: Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com 
>Sent: Sunday, 22 April 2012, 16:20
>Subject: Re: [Doepfer_a100] Those new to modular synths.
>  
>
> 
>   
> 
>As far as ins and outs go: you cannot really cause any damage by plugging
>things in "wrong". There is protection in all modern modular systems for
>the voltage levels found in these systems. Smoking modules are not big
>sellers!
>
>Of course, most useful results occur when you observe the "out to in" rule.
>
>   
>      
>
>   

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> You talk about 'missing something....' about closed and open gates?? this is a question I have, How do you close and open a 'gate' I imagine it is similar to an on-off switch (electronically) ? I was told that it is the same as CV but somehow that does not ring true to me. Surely CV is a change of voltage brought about by differing keys on the key board. the +or - 1v ??.

Right, so as far as I understand it, everything you can do in a modular synth involves hooking up outputs to inputs, with a voltage that can be anything between -12v and +12v, usually even less than that (0v to +5v seems quite common).

When you play a note on a MIDI keyboard and send that to the converter, it makes a few different voltages symbolising different things.  The gate goes up to +5v and stays there for as long as you keep the key pressed, then goes back down to 0v when you let go again.  It's there to tell things (such as an ADSR envelope generator) how long the note lasts, and nothing else.

Another kind of voltage it sends is the pitch of the note.  I explain this in more detail here:  http://bytenoise.co.uk/Pitch_control_voltages

Bear in mind that with modular synths, you see a lot of what's going on behind the scenes or under the hood compared to hardwired synthesisers.  For example, the oscillators keep oscillating even when you're not playing a note.  The only reason you can't hear them constantly are because of the VCA.  You wouldn't know that from using hardwired synthesisers, but it's pretty simple to discover (possibly by mistake, even) with a modular setup.  Nothing's shielded from you, or rather, you're not shielded from the intricate workings of your machine.

The phrase "CV" just means control voltage, and is a catch-all term for whenever you're using the voltage of something to send information from one module to another.  It's a somewhat arbitrary distinction though.  Gates are sometimes called CV, as they do send a voltage out in order to convey information, but it's either on or off, there's no full range (it's digital/binary/boolean, not analogue, with intermediate voltages).  So when you hear about "CV and gate", it's being emphasised that gate doesn't "really" count as CV, as opposed to the pitch.  Try not to worry about the wording, it's a bit inconsistent sometimes.  What's important is that the modules talk to each other using voltages.

And even the audio is voltages, and you can use audio as if it was CV, which is how FM synthesis works, by feeding one oscillator's output into another's input.

So anyway, yes, a gate is very much just an on-off switch, and in practical terms, you simply press a note on your keyboard, and the MIDI to CV converter tells the envelope generators this using a gate signal.

Those Sound On Sound articles probably explain it better than me, though!

All the best,
Zoë.

yes, in a VCA (for example A131 or a132) the cv 1 and cv2 are added together they are not multiplied.
so, in order to achieve the notes closing, you would need two vca's in series. 

one vca to be controlled by the ADSR cv, and one VCA after it (or before it) to be controlled by midi note velocity CV, of the midi to cv converter module.

 
Bakis Sirros
www. parallel - worlds - music. com
www. facebook. com/ pages/Parallel-Worlds/192093934136476
www. myspace. com/ interconnectedmusic
www. myspace. com/ memorygeist
www. DiN. org. uk
www. vu-us. com


________________________________

 From: Zoë Blade <zoe@bytenoise.co.uk>
To: Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 4:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Doepfer_a100] Those new to modular synths.
 

  
Hi!

First of all, don't panic!

Some tips:

Learn what's an output and what's an input.  Only plug an output into an input.  This should make it pretty much impossible to blow anything up by mistake.

About the simplest patch you could make is... let's see... if you have a MIDI to CV converter (eg A-190-2 or A-190-3), a VCO (eg A-110), and a VCA (A-131), you could plug the converter's "CV note" (note pitch) output into the oscillator's "CV1" input, the converter's "gate" (note length) output into the VCA's "CV1" input, the oscillator's waveform output (any of them) into the VCA's "audio 1" input, and the VCA's output into some headphones, starting its output volume at 0 and slowly moving it up to about 0.5, which is loud enough for me at any rate.

Then once you get bored of that, start swapping things out and putting more things in between these parts.  Want more expressive playing?  Plug the converter's cryptically named "CV V/V" output (note velocity) into the VCA's "CV2".  (Actually, I might be missing something myself here, as loud notes leave the attenuator open even after the gate's closed...  Which is curious, as I thought a closed gate would output 0v and anything multiplied by 0 is 0, so maybe the VCA's CV1 and CV2 are added together, not multiplied...  See, I don't really know what I'm doing here either, but it's fun working it out!)  Or add a filter, they're always good.  You can wire up the gate to an ADSR generator (eg A-140) to the VCA, to get a more pleasant rising and lowering of the volume with each note.  Or you could wire it up to the filter, so its cutoff point falls down over time.

Unless you're being quite literal about getting the modular equivalent of a Dark Energy, and bought the A-111-5?  The thing about the A-111-5 is that it's a whole synthesiser inside a single module.  While I'm sure it's great, and I'm guessing it's a friendly introduction or stepping stone to modular synthesis, it does seem to somewhat defy the modular philosophy, which (like Unix) seems to largely be about each tool doing a single job very well.  (Not that I'm complaining!  The A-100 seems partly based on the Roland System-100M in places, at least in terms of the naming scheme, and even the 110 module that had was an all-in-one synth module.)

I haven't used the A-111-5, but looking at a picture of it, it looks like you just hook a MIDI to CV converter up to its VCO F input (for the note's pitch) and ADSR gate input (for the note's length), and then you forget it's in a module unless you want to extend it in some way.

Anyway, to learn pretty much everything about synthesis, try Gordon Reid's Synth Secrets series for Sound On Sound:  http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm  (It's in reverse chronological order for some reason.)

But the most fun and idiosyncratic way to learn something is through personal experimentation, so just go ahead and start wiring things up randomly and seeing what happens, as long as you only connect outputs to inputs.

Good luck!

Hope that helps,
Zoë.
 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> yes, in a VCA (for example A131 or a132) the cv 1 and cv2 are added together they are not multiplied.
> so, in order to achieve the notes closing, you would need two vca's in series. 
> 
> one vca to be controlled by the ADSR cv, and one VCA after it (or before it) to be controlled by midi note velocity CV, of the midi to cv converter module.

Thanks, that makes sense!  I was trying to work out what I'd need to achieve the effect I was after, and got as far as "not the mixer, because that also adds, rather than multiplying."

Out of curiosity, is there anything that's made easier to do with the adding of CV1 and CV2 that I haven't thought of?  I'm considering swapping out my A-131 for an A-132.3 (so I can occasionally use the linear mode of one of them for FM synthesis).  I did have reservations about losing the ability to use, say, an ADSR and velocity at the same time, but from what you've just told me, it sounds like I'd actually *gain* that ability instead if I simply use both VCAs in serial in exponential mode, and I never had it to begin with.

Thanks, that's helped me quite a bit!

Zoe.

having two cv inputs added to open the same vca is also useful:
one simple example would be having two asynchronous lfo's modulating one vca. this would create a weird kind of random-ish tremolo... or randomish fm index, if this vca's output ends up connected in the linear fm input of a vco.
plus many other weird effects....

of course, having a vca with only one cv input, but inserting, between this cv input and the modulation sources, a linear (and dc-coupled) mixer, is the same exactly as having a vca with many cv inputs.

 
Bakis Sirros


________________________________

 From: Zoë Blade <zoe@bytenoise.co.uk>
To: Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 8:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Doepfer_a100] Those new to modular synths.
 

  
> yes, in a VCA (for example A131 or a132) the cv 1 and cv2 are added together they are not multiplied.
> so, in order to achieve the notes closing, you would need two vca's in series. 
> 
> one vca to be controlled by the ADSR cv, and one VCA after it (or before it) to be controlled by midi note velocity CV, of the midi to cv converter module.

Thanks, that makes sense!  I was trying to work out what I'd need to achieve the effect I was after, and got as far as "not the mixer, because that also adds, rather than multiplying."

Out of curiosity, is there anything that's made easier to do with the adding of CV1 and CV2 that I haven't thought of?  I'm considering swapping out my A-131 for an A-132.3 (so I can occasionally use the linear mode of one of them for FM synthesis).  I did have reservations about losing the ability to use, say, an ADSR and velocity at the same time, but from what you've just told me, it sounds like I'd actually *gain* that ability instead if I simply use both VCAs in serial in exponential mode, and I never had it to begin with.

Thanks, that's helped me quite a bit!

Zoe.
 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks, that makes sense!