1:04 ...MakeNoise slinks out of the room. I will say that when I first dipped my toe in the eurorack waters about 8 years ago, I started with quite a few MakeNoise pieces. I truly believe that it was Tony Ronaldo's design aesthetic that steepened the learning curve for me and truly slowed things down. I knew analog subtractive synthesis well, but dealing with the funky arrows and squiggly lines from knob to knob...whew. Doepfer is so logical.
Let’s agree to disagree. One function per module can turn out really, really expensive. Not even touching on the fact that Doepfer is often building modules that are way too deep for “cheap” cases.
@@MapleSonics I agree with you. Just look at the doepfer complete systems. Not exactly cheap and not THAT much functionality in there. Although for utilities I find reaching for Doepfer is a smart move. Let's say you need 4 attenuverters, a doepfer solution would be a bit bigger than a lot of offerings, but way cheaper.
@@MapleSonicssome people like having massive synths. With brands like this, you can have one for the same price as a normal sized synth from a higher end boutique brand.
We're all jaded at this point, Doepfers idea of turning signal processing lab hardware into musical instruments is pretty wild to occur to an exacting german engineer if you think about it. ((:
If had the experience and knowledge that I have now when I first got into eurorack, I would only buy Doepfer modules I think. Never need to worry about future firmware and digital parts failing. They sound great also.
Gotta love Doepfer. The OG. Anyway, for a moment there I thought “hey, why not use your Waldorf?”, then it hit me, it only has duophonic support and even that is a bit of a hand-wave. I do love my Waldorf, though. It’s currently packed with Behringer 100 modules, similar to what you once had set up. Anyway, great overview of the Doepfer quad/poly modules. They’ve always been interesting to me.
I have the Quoad VCO too, sounds really great and finally i can do 4 chords polyphony... i also use the solero vero for being in tune with my other voices!
Thanks Tim great video. Timely also, as I was thinking of getting the A-111-4, the A-105-4 and some VCA modules and using the Expert Sleepers FH-2 + one or more FHX-8CVs connected over USB to the Osmose to bring MPE into Eurorack. In that case you might not even need envelope generators, as you can create the envelopes on the Osmose while playing (passing the Osmose channel pressure and polyphonic after touch to CV).
Is that the Cre8audio NiftyKEYZ keybed? If yes, they're super cheap here atm, they really do open up some nice combo like you've shown. Great vid, thx for the upload.
Speed the video up by 1.75 and listen to the opening chords. I think I just accidentally discovered one of the most beautiful sounds possible. I set it back to normal speed and it didn’t have the same feeling.
I sometimes ponder the idea of a polyphonic modular system with 4 or 6-pole jack plugs. So that you can patch and operate like a monophonic system, byt with polyphony. Someone must have thought of this before, but i've never seen it.
5:45 weird phase issue in the video audio (mono-ing the video audio at this point completely cancels out the saw wave). Edit: actually most of the synth audio in the video is completely phase flipped.
Doepfer started me on modular, still have a few modules left. They are very unsexy, but they have modules covering basically anything you would want from regular 'east-coast' synthesis as well as a bit of wierd stuff as well. You can easilly make them look twice as cool if you replace the knobs with Moog-style ones! Oh and I did a two-voice version of what you do here, sounded great with a bit of pwm for fatness! 😃 Seems like your Quad-VCO does not allow for pwm though?
Hi, Tim! Thank you! It was pleasure to hear such beautiful sound from a modular system. I'm new to music synthesis, and I want to extend my experience with modular analog devices. I'm thinking about Pittsburgh Taiga, it's a semi modular unit, and I think it will be much easier to know the basics. What do you think, is it worth any attention as a starting point, or it's better to take something like Doepfer? Regards, Pavel.
Hey Pavel, I have not tried the Taiga for myself. I have read some comments from people saying it took time to get to know how to use it, how to get predictable sounds. I don't know the details but it might be worth taking a look at people's opinions to see if it would be a good choice for a first semi modular synth....
Ex cellent video. FYI the A-144 is discontinued. I have one and it's functionality is extremely limited. A quadrature LFO can do the same thing and much more.
Hi. Not stupid at all. You need to convert your midi out from your keyboard to CV plus gate signals: CV to drive the oscillators and gate to trigger envelopes. Unless your keyboard provides CV and gate outputs as well as midi you will need a "midi to CV converter" module. There are many to choose from, Doepfer make some, ideally you want a module that can provide you with 4 note polyphony if that is what you are aiming for.
Was the synth's audio recorded in a separate channel and mixed to the video later on, or were the studio's speakers captured by a mic? It seems to be barely audible. Great video, and I love your insights as always; it's just I literally can't hear the demos, unfortunately.
@@MarkoDeLaVoota I agree with your comment. Also, I just rewatched the video using headphones and that way I could hear the demos perfectly. Must be something with the little speakers I have, probably. - [* Edit: probably due to mono phase cancellation. *] Again, awesome video, this actually inspired me to put together a similar, 4 voice synth using some of the BRoland 100 series modules I have. I should put them into a case with some of these Doepfer modules.
Hey Tim! Question for you. Is there really a difference between running four oscillators into a module with four filters which are controlled all together, or instead running four oscillators into a mixer and then into a single filter?
You will want the four filters if you are applying envelopes to filter cutoff and playing polyphonically up to four notes at the same time, or if you want to pan each oscillator separately in the stereo field. But otherwise no, a single filter will work just fine.
@TimShoebridge Thank you for the good answer? And is 4 voices the max you can control with a single MIDI keyboard in the Eurorack system? You could obviously get more oscillators, filters, etc., but I havent seen any MIDI to CV converters that output more than 4 channels
Doepfer is cool. All the long time modular heads know their cool. If I need a utility or filter, analogue oscillator. I go Doepfer. Only newbs think Doepfer is budget (no reference to you obviously)
I've been using a big Doepfer system since the mid nineties and it's solid. Not the most glamorous of machines, but, like you say, it can take just about anything I can throw at it. But I have to say that Doepfer's customer support is terrible. I once asked them for some information and got a very rude cold shoulder answer. I have stopped buying Doepfer after that. Just so you know.
Doepfer A-100 is everything that's good about modulars. The giant digital autopilot modules with weirdo graphics or hipster artisan BS is what's cringe. Cliche spam combos like "generative pingable krell" or "racheting thruzero bongo" is a disservice and not a statement let alone musically viable.
1:04 ...MakeNoise slinks out of the room. I will say that when I first dipped my toe in the eurorack waters about 8 years ago, I started with quite a few MakeNoise pieces. I truly believe that it was Tony Ronaldo's design aesthetic that steepened the learning curve for me and truly slowed things down. I knew analog subtractive synthesis well, but dealing with the funky arrows and squiggly lines from knob to knob...whew. Doepfer is so logical.
you have to do acid or mushrooms once or twice to understand the Make Noise design. it actually becomes really easy if you do that
I love doepfer. Affordable. And great quality. They sound amazing. No need for 600.00 modules.
Let’s agree to disagree. One function per module can turn out really, really expensive. Not even touching on the fact that Doepfer is often building modules that are way too deep for “cheap” cases.
@@MapleSonics true indeed. I’m just old school lol. 😝
@@MapleSonics I agree with you. Just look at the doepfer complete systems. Not exactly cheap and not THAT much functionality in there. Although for utilities I find reaching for Doepfer is a smart move. Let's say you need 4 attenuverters, a doepfer solution would be a bit bigger than a lot of offerings, but way cheaper.
@@sergoz123 also agreed 🙂
@@MapleSonicssome people like having massive synths. With brands like this, you can have one for the same price as a normal sized synth from a higher end boutique brand.
Good to see Doepfer getting proper recognition on your channel. Liked and subscribed.
We're all jaded at this point, Doepfers idea of turning signal processing lab hardware into musical instruments is pretty wild to occur to an exacting german engineer if you think about it. ((:
Thanks for the video, this really demystifies the rabbit hole of available options for getting into modular
My favorite modules are my 3 favorite voices in Eurorack. The A-110-4 QZVCO, the A-110-6 TTZQVCO, and the A-111-2 VCO.
Thank you,I have been curious about these modules and this is the best demo of them I have seen.
Always interesting, informative and entertaining content Tim. Thank you!
that looks and sounds like all the poly I´ll ever need. thank you.
If had the experience and knowledge that I have now when I first got into eurorack, I would only buy Doepfer modules I think. Never need to worry about future firmware and digital parts failing. They sound great also.
Cool video, I learned a lot today. Thank you!
I absolutely love Doepfer modules they are made with high quality standards and sound amazing.
brilliant. (so good to see euro-rack used harmonically and with a sense of melody (that’s how I do it!)
Gotta love Doepfer. The OG. Anyway, for a moment there I thought “hey, why not use your Waldorf?”, then it hit me, it only has duophonic support and even that is a bit of a hand-wave. I do love my Waldorf, though. It’s currently packed with Behringer 100 modules, similar to what you once had set up.
Anyway, great overview of the Doepfer quad/poly modules. They’ve always been interesting to me.
Sync nearly brought me to tears, it was so beautiful. :)
THIS is really clever! sounds great and can be a real BIG Synth. cheerzz a lot 4 this video!
Looking forward to your possibly taking a look at the Dreadbox Telepathy six voice bundle, Tim.
Sounds great!
I have the Quoad VCO too, sounds really great and finally i can do 4 chords polyphony... i also use the solero vero for being in tune with my other voices!
love it!!
Thanks Tim great video. Timely also, as I was thinking of getting the A-111-4, the A-105-4 and some VCA modules and using the Expert Sleepers FH-2 + one or more FHX-8CVs connected over USB to the Osmose to bring MPE into Eurorack. In that case you might not even need envelope generators, as you can create the envelopes on the Osmose while playing (passing the Osmose channel pressure and polyphonic after touch to CV).
Doepfer, the German eurorack INVENTOR.
great video!!!
Is there a way of building one that has 8 voice polyphony? Maybe even just by using deeper modules?
Is that the Cre8audio NiftyKEYZ keybed? If yes, they're super cheap here atm, they really do open up some nice combo like you've shown.
Great vid, thx for the upload.
That intro is sooooo good
I saw Dieter at NAMM doing math on a napkin. He’s hip as f-k.
napkins are awesome!
Speed the video up by 1.75 and listen to the opening chords. I think I just accidentally discovered one of the most beautiful sounds possible. I set it back to normal speed and it didn’t have the same feeling.
Is there anything that allows filter key tracking?
I sometimes ponder the idea of a polyphonic modular system with 4 or 6-pole jack plugs. So that you can patch and operate like a monophonic system, byt with polyphony. Someone must have thought of this before, but i've never seen it.
5:45 weird phase issue in the video audio (mono-ing the video audio at this point completely cancels out the saw wave). Edit: actually most of the synth audio in the video is completely phase flipped.
Yes I noticed that too, but it's only the UA-cam audio, my original audio sounded fine 🤷♂️
Would the a-1114 be easier to tune,,and more 'in tune',than with four seperate modules from different companies?
Sweetest Doepfer Module Walkthrough
Top Quality
Unfortunately i only own two LC9 Cases but no Doepfer Modules
Doepfer started me on modular, still have a few modules left. They are very unsexy, but they have modules covering basically anything you would want from regular 'east-coast' synthesis as well as a bit of wierd stuff as well. You can easilly make them look twice as cool if you replace the knobs with Moog-style ones! Oh and I did a two-voice version of what you do here, sounded great with a bit of pwm for fatness! 😃 Seems like your Quad-VCO does not allow for pwm though?
It does 👍
You could actually make normalled connections off the back of the module to avoid the cable bloat.
Hi, Tim!
Thank you! It was pleasure to hear such beautiful sound from a modular system. I'm new to music synthesis, and I want to extend my experience with modular analog devices. I'm thinking about Pittsburgh Taiga, it's a semi modular unit, and I think it will be much easier to know the basics. What do you think, is it worth any attention as a starting point, or it's better to take something like Doepfer?
Regards, Pavel.
Hey Pavel, I have not tried the Taiga for myself. I have read some comments from people saying it took time to get to know how to use it, how to get predictable sounds. I don't know the details but it might be worth taking a look at people's opinions to see if it would be a good choice for a first semi modular synth....
Ex cellent video. FYI the A-144 is discontinued. I have one and it's functionality is extremely limited. A quadrature LFO can do the same thing and much more.
Maybe a stupid question: where do I get the 4 CV signals to send to the 4 oscillators if I have a generic midi controller keyboard? Tks.
Hi. Not stupid at all. You need to convert your midi out from your keyboard to CV plus gate signals: CV to drive the oscillators and gate to trigger envelopes. Unless your keyboard provides CV and gate outputs as well as midi you will need a "midi to CV converter" module. There are many to choose from, Doepfer make some, ideally you want a module that can provide you with 4 note polyphony if that is what you are aiming for.
Thanks Tim, you were very kind and quick. Dopfer A-190-5 Poly midi/cv/gate interface, for example ?
@@marcodifrancesco9851 Yes that one supports 4 voice polyphony 👍
Was the synth's audio recorded in a separate channel and mixed to the video later on, or were the studio's speakers captured by a mic? It seems to be barely audible. Great video, and I love your insights as always; it's just I literally can't hear the demos, unfortunately.
sounds perfect on my end , I don't think that Tim will allow himself to make such blunder, guy is a perfectionist
@@MarkoDeLaVoota I agree with your comment.
Also, I just rewatched the video using headphones and that way I could hear the demos perfectly. Must be something with the little speakers I have, probably. - [* Edit: probably due to mono phase cancellation. *]
Again, awesome video, this actually inspired me to put together a similar, 4 voice synth using some of the BRoland 100 series modules I have. I should put them into a case with some of these Doepfer modules.
Hey Tim! Question for you. Is there really a difference between running four oscillators into a module with four filters which are controlled all together, or instead running four oscillators into a mixer and then into a single filter?
You will want the four filters if you are applying envelopes to filter cutoff and playing polyphonically up to four notes at the same time, or if you want to pan each oscillator separately in the stereo field. But otherwise no, a single filter will work just fine.
@TimShoebridge Thank you for the good answer? And is 4 voices the max you can control with a single MIDI keyboard in the Eurorack system? You could obviously get more oscillators, filters, etc., but I havent seen any MIDI to CV converters that output more than 4 channels
@EthanRMus You're right that most converter modules max out at 4. However some go further, Polyend have a converter supporting 8.
I'd recommend Analogue Systems modules too - similar philosophy & design aesthetic to Doepfer.
Doepfers are for people who are serious about modular synthesis.
Doepfer is cool. All the long time modular heads know their cool. If I need a utility or filter, analogue oscillator. I go Doepfer. Only newbs think Doepfer is budget (no reference to you obviously)
Tim, that white synth in the background, what is that?
A Roland JDXA
no problems with sound here
I've been using a big Doepfer system since the mid nineties and it's solid. Not the most glamorous of machines, but, like you say, it can take just about anything I can throw at it. But I have to say that Doepfer's customer support is terrible. I once asked them for some information and got a very rude cold shoulder answer. I have stopped buying Doepfer after that. Just so you know.
Dieter has always promptly replied to me personally and never have I felt it rude. Maybe he got outta bed the wrong side that day!
The audio sounds out of phase to my ears
Can't hear the synth.
Doepfer A-100 is everything that's good about modulars. The giant digital autopilot modules with weirdo graphics or hipster artisan BS is what's cringe.
Cliche spam combos like "generative pingable krell" or "racheting thruzero bongo" is a disservice and not a statement let alone musically viable.
It's pronounced "Duhpfer"
I love Doepfer. WYSIWYG. Solid and relatively affordable.