Doepfer dark energy patch sheet

It felt like too much work at the time to make the panel movable and I felt comfortable with a Phatty-style design, but it's definitely possible, no doubt about that. By any means keep me informed of your progress, I'd sure love to see a movable version of that mod! Hello Khoral.

I'm interested to modify my microkorg and to have a solution like your one. Do you have some instructions on how-to please? Thank you very much. I think he cut the two parts separate with a saw, and removed the top panel with the knobs still in place. I've finally finished my own MicroMoorg project! The hinge is fully functional and it works great. Ran into quite a few challenges throughout the process and had to learn a whole pile of new skills to pull it off, but it's done and I'm very happy without how it turned out.

There's one small issue with the CV inputs: there's no way, without resorting to an external attenuator, to limit the full, unrestrained voltage that hits every chosen destination. However, this is where you might need to browse some of Doepfer's other wares.

Getting started with MIDI couldn't be easier. Thanks to the handy 'learn' button, the Dark Energy will memorise the channel of incoming data and store the continuous controller you most wish to turn into a CV output. Connecting with USB is equally easy. The MIDI interface generates gate signals to drive the envelope generator, as well as four other control voltages. CV4 is initially assigned to mod wheel, but you can specify another controller. An internal arpeggiator is brought to life by a MIDI program change.

The arpeggiator can sync to external clock, and although it isn't full of treats, is a fun trinket nonetheless. Program changes are used to select other functions such as envelope retriggering and the assignment of some of the voltage outputs. Should you be comfortable with the idea of poking around inside your gear, a degree of customisation is yours for the taking. We've already seen that a glide control can be added if you have the skills; the same goes for a MIDI Thru port, and a technical information booklet is supplied describing how to achieve this and other mods.

One bonus of implementing a Thru connection is that multiple Dark Energies are supported. Each in the chain subtracts the notes it plays from the MIDI stream before passing it to the next, raising the tantalising possibility of multiple synth voices played polyphonically.

Or of multitimbral performance. Similarly, an internal inverter circuit can be patched in a number of configurations, to invert the output of the ADSR or of either LFO. Finally, the wooden side plates can be removed and several devices joined together.

At the moment this means several Dark Energies, but I can't help remembering what an extensive catalogue Dieter Doepfer has to draw from, then speculating about how idle he isn't The Doepfer brand might seem scary to newcomers, synonymous as it is with powerful, potentially unfathomable modular behemoths.

But a synth the size of a sandwich box won't intimidate anyone. Plus it's hardly a massive leap into the unknown, which is probably why the Dark Energy succeeds despite being fairly basic in spec.

In times gone by you would have hoped for a noise generator, more LFO waveforms, a sub-oscillator or even a second envelope in your monosynth. Today's virtual analogues have these things stacked higher than a dentist's Reader's Digest pile. And even hybrid instruments with analogue filters and oscillators gain extra advantage from software LFOs and envelopes, not to mention menus and memories.

Doepfer's approach has been to keep everything in the analogue domain, which keeps things simple. In his busy career, Dieter Doepfer has shipped products ranging from sequencers and sync boxes to MIDI gloves and other controllers.

With a single oscillator, low-pass filter and ADSR envelope plus two LFOs, its feature set looks fairly basic, but to encourage modular fraternisation, it adds a cluster of patch connections — gateways to an intense and beardy world In a departure from the more familiar silver, the Dark Energy is clad in chunky black steel and protected by wooden end cheeks.

It looks fab! The knobs are a step above any Doepfer I've met, being classy in shape and handling. They are rather too close together for an unreserved thumbs-up but, being reassuringly heavy, they aren't prone to unintentional disturbance.

There are 16 knobs on a standard Dark Energy. Glide is too important to be considered optional — how else will we recreate those bass slides? This Dark Energy is considerably less enigmatic than its namesake, the mysterious something that occupies the majority of the universe. Actually, we've heard from it before. Maybe a few knobs and patch points have turned my mind, but it appears that Doepfer, in his mad-scientist lab coat, has dipped the chip in acid — or maybe acieed!

With its pleasing, even response and a resonance that wails like a tripping ocelot, the filter should serve as a potent reminder that real analogue isn't pushing up the daisies just yet.

Having made the obligatory 'yeeow' noises, it was time to probe the filter's repertoire further. A tracking switch offers half, full or no tracking at all. So far, nothing too extraordinary. The scope for freakier electronica comes courtesy of an internal signal path patching the VCO's triangle wave as a modulation source for the filter. With no noise generator present, filter FM is quickly adopted as one of the main ways to inject some grit.

The VCO is as simple as they come. VCO waveform selection is slightly unconventional. A switch offers the choice of triangle, sawtooth or off. Then, to mix in a square wave, turn the pulse-width control away from either extreme.

As you turn the knob towards the middle of its travel, the wave widens into a warm, hollow square; keep turning and it becomes progressively thinner until it disappears. There is no way to set the levels of the VCO waveforms other than by this pulse-width adjustment. Low, medium and high frequency ranges may be selected, the latter hoisting LFO frequency to around 5kHz. The envelope is entirely conventional, with just one slight twist.