Tag Archive for analog synth

synthetizers

DSI Mopho Review

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The Mopho , by Dave Smith  , is a little yellow box with a very powerful synth inside.
As you can read on the manual , the Mopho is a MOnoPHOnic synth with a full analog audio path, this is the main difference with the other DSI monosynth, the Evolver.

The Mopho was born as a single voice from the Prophet 08, with added sub oscillators.
The carachter and presence of the synth is the same of the big brother but the Mopho has a plus , a more powerful bass because of the suboscillators.
The synth structure is simple: 2 DCO with subs(1 oct down, 2 oct down) , the classic DSI Prophet Curtis lowpass filter with 12/24 dB slope 3 LFO, 3 ENV with delay.
There are no effects , but the synth has the Feedback to sound more raw and aggressive.
Another interesting function is the Filter Audio Mod, in simple words dco1 can modulate the filter frequency creating FM sounds, very interesting when the filter is near to self oscillation.

As all the other DSI synth the Mopho has a 4 track motion sequencer that can control every parameter you want, in order to create, sequenced phrases, evolving textures or powerful rhythms.

The last interesting thing is the Audio in to process external sources thru the synth engine.

The mopho has  a different layout from the other DSI products, it has ten knobs with 5 of them assigned to classic controls as pitch, filter cutoff, resonance, attack and decay/release (useful for a realtime tweaking without getting into menu)  and 4 are “assignable parameters”.

The editing on the machine isn’t super fast as you have to scroll the menu, but if you get into it , it can be quite easy, however using the free editor making a patch is really fast and simple.

The strenghts of the mopho are the powerful sound, the 100% analog timbre that reminds the Sequential Circuits Pro-One , the realtime controls and the dimensions, and not to forget the Price!
The down side is the editing on the machine that can be overlooked by the ones who like software editing or who use an external controller/programmer.

The Mopho is a good machine for those who are looking for powerful analog monophonic sounds for classic tasks as bass or leads but is also a good machine for who is working on more experimental sounds thanks to the motion sequencer and modulation capabilities as the fm filter mod.

modulars, synthetizers

my eurorack modular synth evolutions…

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Just to keep you tuned about my eurorack modular system, this is my actual configuration:

  • Cwejman VCO2RM
  • MFB OSC 02 Triple VCO
  • Doepfer A138 mixer
  • Analogue Solutions SY02 Multimode filter
  • Doepfer A120 lowpass filter
  • STG Soundlabs “Post-lawsuit” LPF
  • Doepfer A145 LFO
  • Livewire Vulcan Modulator
  • PlanB Model 10 Polyphonic Envelope
  • MFB Dual ADSR
  • Doepfer A132-3 dual VCA
  • Analog Systems RS500E EMS Synthi filter

Eurorack

retrò & vintage, synthetizers

Yamaha CS01

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Yamaha CS01

The CS-01 is a funky little synth!
It may seem a toy but is a real analog synth in a small case.
The structure is quite simple, justa simple LFO, a “VCO”, VCF and ADSR.
I wrote “VCO” because even if the yamaha labeled it VCO but it is in fact a DCO.
The sound of the oscillator is however real analog, and “phat sounding” in a typical japanese way, and it reminds the classic analog sounds of the early 80’s.
The oscillator offers a good selection of waves (TRI, SAW, SQUARE, PULSE, PWM) and feets(4′ 8′ 16′ 32′ and noise).
The most powerful is the sound of PWM, which is really fat and “wide” sounding.
PWM has its own speed control too (indipendent from lfo).
The LFO is only a tri wave useful for vibratos and wah effects, its not extremely fast, but works well for all the classic sounds.
VCO also have a “glissando” instead of portamento/glide, which means that it can jump from a note to another passing through the notes in the middle.
The VCF is a 12dB lowpass with resonance and EG depth.
The resonance is controlled by a switch that turns it on or off, but it’s possible to modify the control to have a real resonance control adding a knob.
On the MK2 model the filter use a different structure (it has a 24 dB slope instead of 12) and has the resonance controlled by a slider.
The filter is, as other  old yamaha monosynth, very smooth and “bubbling”, even with resonance tutned on the filter never eat the low frequency range, offering a wide variety of colour even as a bass machine.
The CS01 is mainly a bass and lead machine, the bass is always rounded, and punchy, for the classic 80’s arpeggio or for techno bass sounds.
On the lead side it can sound quite minimal and smooth or rich using the pwm, it can also reproduce easily the classic retrocomputer  sounds !
Despite the toys look with the built in speaker this a lightweight classic 80s monosynth that can do most of the analog mono-sound without any problem of space in the studio and being very reliable.

synthetizers

Doepfer MS-404 review

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Doepfer MS 404

The Doepfer MS404 was designed as a TB emulator with a lot of added features in a period  full of cheap and expensive tb clones.
The 404 in fact is not a clone but has a clear personality and can be considered more a single VCO monosynth.

First I want to describe the structure of the synth: a single VCO , with saw/pulse/PWM or noise with a 24dB ladder filter, a VCA with accent and a adsr Envelope generator and two indipendent LFO that can go up to audio frequency!

The VCO seems to be the A110 “standard vco” available as a module for the A100 modular system, but opening the case , I read on the board “HI END VCO”,and that sounds strange because I did not see any CEM3340 as on the A111 “hi end VCO”.
The VCO section has 5 knobs and 3 swithches.
Knobs are: GLIDE, TUNE (fine tune) , LEVEL (LFO1 amount) FREQ (LFO1 rate).
the switches select:

  • saw/pulse/none
  • vco/noise/none
  • pwm/fm/none
  • rate (hi-mid-low)

The VCF section has 5 knobs :

  • Frequency
  • Envelope
  • Modulation level(LFO2)
  • Modulation Frequency (LFO2)
  • Emphasis (Resonance)

and 2 switches : one for the filter tracking and omne for the LFO2 range (hi-mid-low).
The VCF is the same as the A120 MOOG ladder filter eurorack module for the A100.

The VCA has a knob control for the accent amount and the envelope is the classic adsr.

speaking about the sound the 404 has a distinct doepfer carachter, it sounds exactly as the A100 modular system, no audible differences.
The synth behaves as a tb clone if the added features are not used, and with the emphasis quite low.
When you rise the emphasis it takes squelching in a more hard way and at self oscillation it can produce a sine wave , musically playable switching the filter tracking ON.
the PWM sounds awesome, I like it very much, because it does not intend to clone but has a “new minimal sound” very interesting for those involved in minimal techno like Ritchie Hawtin…
It does not sound nor similar to a Roland SH-101, this is more acid and hard, the SH is fuller on low frequencies and smoother.
The interesting feature that makes the doepfer  ms 404 a distinct machine is the use of fast lfo to modulate VCO and VCF.

The LFOs are derived from the A145 (doepfer A100 system) and have a range switch that allows very low oscillation to fast audio range FM.
That’s interesting because the filter is a 24dB Moog Ladder type, a filter that has a fast reaction to modulations and can create incredibles sounds if modulated in self oscillation or nearby…
Using the other LFO on the VCO can create some interesting noise or FM sounds useful for percussions, drones etc.
One thing to say…
The waveform orf the LFOs are fixed, triangle or square and you can choose the one you want to use only using a jumper on the board, there are no external switches.

The impression I had playng the MS 404 is really good.
This is a interesting bassline synth , not so good at emulating the classic TB sound, but this is a good point!
Other than that can be used as a classic monosynth with a great modulation capability, and many sounds with a small amount of functions and knobs.

There is also an audio in (with gain) to process external audio signals  and a cv-gate interface (in/out) so the 404 can be played trhu cv by an analog system/sequencer or can be used to control other cv-gate synth.

I prefer the 404 to a Basstation , for example ,  it sounds more interesting and “analog” and is not the “wannabe everything” emulator.

ms404 schematics

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