STG Soundlabs Sea Devils Filter Demo

Play MP3 clip: STG_Sea_Devils_Filter_Demo.mp3

During my last visit to Schneidersladen in Berlin I scored a very nice module from the bargain bin: An STG Soundlabs Sea Devils Filter. It is a three pole (18dB slope) diode ladder lowpass filter with signal input, ouput, 3 filter CV inputs (one with attenuator) and resonance CV. While testing this module at Schneiders I was really impressed by its character. It is both fat and vintage sounding as well as really precise in its response to external CV modulation. It reacts gorgeously to sequencer lines, envelopes and LFOs. It does however get quite growly with audio-rate filter CV modulation. Anyway, with low resonance you get a monolithic, huge sounding bottom end. Cranking up the resonance results in wonderfully "plucky" sounds, and as soon as resonance reaches self-oscillation you end up in creamy & bubbly acidic musical territory. This filter has so many sweet spots it's a real pleasure to use. Build quality is excellent. The knobs are large and sturdy and have a firm yet smooth action. I can say I am really happy I got this module.

STG Soundlabs Sea Devils Filter

For this demo I took my trusted MFB Kraftzwerg's 3 VCOs, tuned them two octaves apart and pitch-modulated them with MFB Megazwerg's 4-step CV sequencer. This sequence is getting some random transposition via Doepfer A-149-1. The 3 VCOs were then fed into the Sea Devils' input. To modulate the Sea Devils' filter cutoff frequency I used a mix of different CV sources: Electro Harmonix 8-Step Sequencer, Doepfer A-140 ADSR Envelope, Doepfer A-171-2 VC Slew Processor plus some manual tweaking. The Sea Devils' output was then fed through the MFB Megazwerg's delay. No other FX or EQ'ing was used.
In the beginning resonance ("response") is set to zero. I gradually turn up the resonance until the filter starts self oscillating at the end of the demo.

Modular EBM Drum Patch (Doepfer + MFB)

Play MP3 clip: Modular_EBM_(Doepfer_+_MFB).mp3

Recently I asked myself if you could use a A-149-1 Quantized/Stored Random Voltages module as a noise source for audio. Answer: Yes, you can! But wait, what do random voltages have to do with noise? Well, noise is nothing but random sonic events spread out over the audible range. The A-149-1 spits out random CVs in sync with an external clock that can be way up in the audio range. However, at a certain point when the clock signal gets too fast the A-149-1 stops operating. But still it is fast enough to create some nice lofi-ish digital noise timbres. I used the lower "stored random voltages" section since here the distribution of values is more wide-spread than in the upper half. So, what can you do with noise? Make a snare drum for example. I quickly came up with a snare drum patch sounding pretty much sick & destroyed, using only an MFB Megazwerg AHDSR Envelope and a Doepfer A-133 Dual VC Polarizer serving as VCA.

Doepfer A-149-1 + A-149-2

Now that we have a snare drum, why not make a bass drum as well? For this I used a Doepfer A-143-9 VC Quadrature LFO as a sine oscillator providing the body of the kick. To achieve the clicking attack sound I layered two envelopes modulating the snare drum's VCA: Doepfer A-171-2 VC Slew generator provides a decay while a Doepfer A-140 Envelope acts as a bread-and-butter ADSR. Now to add some more spice I utilized a Doepfer A-149-2 Digital Random Gate module to randomly open up the VCA in addition to the envelope. The A-149-2 is an expansion to the A-149-1 described above. It outputs random high and low voltage states synced to the upper half of the A-149-1. A great combo by the way! The result is a sine sub-bass that comes in randomly between the bass drum hits. I also added some random pitch changes to the sine wave via the Doepfer-A149-1's upper half which provides voltages that are quantized to semitones. Very handy.

MFB Drum-07 Hihat / Cymbal module

For hihats and cymbals I used the MFB Drum-07 module which is the modular version of the MFB-522's hihat and cymbal section with some slight changes plus CV-able parameters. It has been discontinued and I highly recommend you pick one up if you can find it as it makes some wonderful sounds. I treated the hihat with some Doepfer A-114 ring modulation and the cymbals with bandpass filtering using MFB Megazwerg's multimode filter. 

MFB Kraftzwerg

Chiming in later we have some delay via MFB Megazwerg with CVed delay time and random freezes. Last not least you'll hear a bassline coming out of good ol' MFB Kraftzwerg. Nothing like a rough EBM bassline going along with your modular drumset. Enjoy!

Doepfer A-110-2 Basic VCO Demo

Warning: This is a hardcore technical modular synth post! I recently got my hands on the first copy of a Doepfer A-110-2 Basic VCO Eurorack module that was ever sold worldwide. It showed up at Schneidersladen in Berlin and I was the lucky one, the first one!

Doepfer A-110-2 Basic VCO and friends

The A-110-2 is the follow-up to the A-110-1 which has been selling for many years now. The A-110-2's basic features: Three waveforms (saw, square and triangle), 3-way octave switch, exponential FM (with attenuator), linear FM (without attenuator), pulsewidth modulation (with attenuator), hard and soft sync. It is only 8 units wide which is really cool. I decided to make a demo showcasing the basic and raw oscillator sound as well as two more musical snippets demonstrating various features of the A-110-2. In all examples whenever all three waveforms are presented they appear with their original volume in relation to one another. Warning: The audio files are big! Format: 44.1kHz, 16 Bit mono.

Let's start with the basic waveforms. You are hearing saw, square (50% duty cycle) and triangle in a range of 7.5 octaves. For pitch I used a Doepfer A-145 LFO (triangle waveform) through a Doepfer A-156 quantizer, set to output only 5ths and octaves:

Doepfer_A-110-2_Waveforms_Saw_Square_Tri.wav

Now let's add some pulse width modulation to the square wave. PWM source is a slowly moving sine wave LFO:

Doepfer_A-110-2_PWM.wav

The A-110-2 has a nice feature: Linear FM. In this patch a Doepfer A-171-2 VC Slew Processor serves as the source for the modulation with a frequency modulated sawish triangle waveform. The result is not as dramatic as with Exp FM. Again saw, square and triangle:

Doepfer_A-110-2_LinFM_Saw_Square_Tri.wav

Now for exponential FM. Modulation source is the Doepfer A-171-2 with the same configuration as in the Linear FM patch above:

Doepfer_A-110-2_ExpFM_Saw_Square_Tri.wav

Let's take a look at hard sync. With each of the 3 waveforms (saw, square and triangle) you first hear the A-110-2 slaved to a steady-pitch master oscillator while being pitch-modulated by an EHX 8-step sequencer. After a few seconds I add some LFO modulation via the EXP FM input. You can hear the timbre of the slaved oscillator changing along with the LFO swings:

Doepfer_A-110-2_HardSync_Saw_Square_Tri.wav

Now it's soft sync. I must admit that I haven't managed to fully wrap my head around the theoretical implications of soft vs. hard sync. All I can say is that soft sync does not reset the waveform to 0 when the master oscillator finishes a cycle (unlike hard sync) so you won't get any such dramatic changes in timbre as in hard sync. Interestingly modulating the slaved oscillator's frequency does change the perceived pitch as well (again unlike hard sync). Same modulation as in the previous clip:

Doepfer_A-110-2_SoftSync_Saw_Square_Tri.wav

Now let's go "all in". I have put together two patches that are more musical than the above examples to showcase what the A-110-2 can do if you combine all those nifty features. What you hear in clip 1 is all three waveforms cycled through a Doepfer A-152 quad sequential switch (accounting for some clicking audio glitches here and there) with some random resetting. I have added PWM, Lin FM and Exp FM from various sources as well as hard sync. No filtering, just some amplitude modulation via MFB Megazwerg VCA (AHDSR modulated):

Doepfer_A-110-2_All_In_1.wav

The following patch circumvents the VCA completely. However, there is some amplitude modulation on the saw wave. Later in the clip I start tweaking some of the parameters. Again, no filtering:

Doepfer_A-110-2_All_In_2.wav

I hope I have managed to give you a good overview of the Doepfer A-110-2 basic sound and its most important features. Enjoy the demos!