Monday 20 July 2009

Doepfer A-156 Dual Quantizer Demo



It's one of Doepfer's oldest modules and not something I really thought I needed. But, having spent a weekend playing with the A-156, I've got to ask myself 'Why the hell didn't I get one of these years ago?'.



Patch Notes:

1) SEQUENCE FROM ENVELOPE. Plan B Model 10 loops, envelope to A-156, End Out to Wogglebug clock. A-156 Trigger to VCS. Wogglebug stepped output to A-156 transpose, M10 VC-Timebase and VCS VC Fall.

2) GLISSANDO 1. Pitch CV slewed by VCS, then to A-156. Trigger out to A-143-1.

3) GLISSANDO 2. Kenton Pro 2000 II provides auto-portamento. CV to A-156.

4) RANDOM. Wogglebug woggle out to A-156, trigger to Borg filter in LPG mode.

5) KINETIC GATES. Pitch bend via MIDI joystick to A-156 (chromatic mode) and VCO. Trigger to Borg (LPG).

6) SEQUENCE. LFO to A-152 Voltage Addressed T&H/ Switch. Digital outs to mixer, four stage sequence to A-156. Trigger out multed to main envelope and A-160/ 1clock divider/ sequencer to fire kick, high hat & bass.

7) DUAL Q. LFO clock to Q1 & Q2 trigger inputs and A-160/ 1 CLK DIV/ SEQ. /2 > EG1, /16 > EG2.

All patches feature manual toggling of the A-156's mode switches and, maybe a bit too much, EHX SMMH delay.

While not as stable or versatile as my Kenton Pro 2000 II/ Sequentix P3 combo, the A-156's ability to generate sequences from LFOs, envelopes, joystick sweeps and random sources, coupled with the fact that it outputs a trigger on each quantization, makes this a very useful and musically inspiring module.

6 comments:

Faxed said...

I have an 8HP gap in my modular reserved for one of these!!

I love the idea of turning an LFO into a pendulum sequencer, and am very excited to pair it with the Smooth and Stepped outs of a Wogglebug (whenever that purchase happens...), set to different scales.

Nice!

Faxed said...

The first and last examples were especially pretty, btw! I need one of these.

Navs said...

Cheers Pete! I had exactly the same idea,("how strange the change ...") but unfortunately you can't have Q1 set to major and Q2 set to minor. Bummer.

Cyril said...

I love this one, great examples !

DinSync said...

what are you using for vco in these examples? thanks, Jay

Navs said...

Cripes! Can't remember exactly but, at a guess, I'd say the clips with a linear FM sound were the AFG, dual oscillator examples were probably the Cwejman VCO-2RM and the thwappy sawtooth through LPG sounds were Plan B M15 & M13. That's my typical palette.