A-100 analog modular Website
The long-awaited polyphonic mixer A-135-5 is now finally available since the end of 2023. Yes, of course you could already make do with A-130-8 VCAs, for example. Some poly fans also installed a series of A-138n narrow mixers or A-138f dual crossfaders, but of course it wasn’t all that elegant. The A-135-5 mixer is elegant. … Read more
The A-190-5 is a Midi-to-CV/Gate interface primarily intended for polyphonic applications. This means that up to four modular synthesizer voices can be controlled via any midi keyboard. Polyphony is still a rather exotic “fringe phenomenon” in the modular area. Effort, cost and complexity to control such a system appear relatively high compared to modern analog … Read more
Four manual attenuators in a slim 4TE module. Ok, this is definitely not an exciting module with lots of bling and two dozen hidden features. This is a tool. Simple, clear, and once you have it – indispensable. For example, I have two A-183-1 Dual Attenuator Modules (now running out of stock modules) in my … Read more
It’s hard to imagine even more VCAs in a small space than the A-130-8 allows. No fewer than eight independent, linear VCAs are housed here in just 6HP. And because there was still some space on the front panel, there are also sum outputs for inputs 1-4, 5-8 or for all inputs 1-8 together. So … Read more
The A-111-5 is not an oscillator in the traditional sense, but a complete mini synthesizer with VCO, VCF, VCA, ADSR and two LFOs. A “Dark Energy” (first generation) for the modular system! A lot of things here are patchable, but upon closer inspection you’ll see that some signal paths are exclusively internal. For example, there … Read more
Does this sound familiar? A new module enters the market and your first thought is: Oh, I know that one, I already have one of these, two in one housing – so what… I’ll take another look anyway: Oh, morphing between filter types, even via CV. Lots of control inputs, common for both filters, separate … Read more
The A-171-4 Quad Slew Limiter is the youngest member of Doepfer’s family of polyphonic modules. What they all have in common is a four-fold layout of the functionality. All of these are influenced by common controllers and/or common control voltages. In addition, all Poly modules (at least in current production) have the option of internal … Read more
I often used my A-111-5 as a “stopgap” when I quickly needed another simple synthesizer voice and maybe was just too lazy to patch extra VCO, VCF, VCA, ADSR and LFOs for such a secondary voice . I was often plagued by the “guilty conscience of the modularist” when I ignored the far-reaching possibilities of … Read more
The “Slim Line” module is a version of the classic analogue noise generator A-118-1 reduced to half the width (only 4HP). As with the other “Slim Line” modules, slightly smaller buttons and sockets with narrow, round nuts are also used here. The controls are at the top and the sockets are at the bottom, which … Read more
From a mathematical point of view, a ring modulator forms the product of two signals and then subtracts the sum of the signals from it: a * b – (a + b) Unfortunately, this great formula does not make us any smarter in terms of sound. Actually, this is “only” amplitude modulation, which, in contrast … Read more
