Year for year a few dozen modular users (and those striving to get there) pay a visit to an unusual workshop conducted by Dieter Dopefer in Munich. And year for year that technician from Graefelfing (a small village outside of Munich) uses the opportunity to speak not only about musical basics and specifc modules but also about the latest developments pertaining to the A-100 system. So also on the November 15th 2014 in the Hieber Lindberg Music Store.

But first lets submerge into the atmosphere of that workshop …

What about new A-100 modules? Well, there’s the A-110-2 VCO, for example. A low cost basic VCO. Waveforms: sawtooth, triangle and rectangle with PWM, 3-position octave switch (instead of the rotary switch of the A-110), Hard Sync input, Soft Sync input, linear FM input!

A-110-3 and A-110-4 are THRU ZERO VCOs. Based on sinus (cosinus) waveforms, these modules are great tools for west-coast sounds. And they also allow for true FM!

The “Matrix Sequencer” is still in planning status, but it’s on its way to be further expanded and enhanced to include new features …

This A-157-1 8×16 Trigger-Matrix is the trigger sequencer unit with 8 tracks, 16 steps each – PLUS 4 additional buttons! These buttons will be programmed with various functions (e.g. half speed / double speed / various play modes …???). However, the new features have yet to be decided on.

The whole package contains:

A-157-1: button/LED matrix with 8×16 (+4!) momentary switches and LEDs

A-157-2: 8 trigger outputs with display

A-157-3: standard control unit for A-157-1/2, inputs and buttons for Start, Stop, Reset and Clock

A-157-4: enhanced control unit for A-157-1 with still to be specified features (e.g. memory for 128 trigger sequences, separate Clock/Start/Stop functions for each row or groups of rows, forward/backward/pendulum/random, shifting of tracks relative to the other tracks, …). This is planned for early 2015 (A-157-1/2/3 only), price ~ ?, so far no planned release date for A-157-4, a stand-alone version (Dark Flow) is also in the development stage.

We love the A-127 Triple VC Resonance Filter. Now there’s a new sub-module available. The A-127 Breakout-Module offers the following functions:

additional notch filter for each sub-unit

separate outputs for lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch for each sub-unit

separate audio input with attenuator for each sub-unit

“Old” A-127 modules need some internal modification in order to be able to use the breakout module. New A-127 units, however, are already fitted with the modification.

All in all, the Dieter Doepfer workshop was more than instructive and many a visitor had a déjà-vu in the course of it. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Musikhaus Hieber-Lindberg for the organization (with special thanks to Martin Machwitz and Stefan Leberfinger of the synthesizer department), as well as Dieter Doepfer and all of those participants who made this workshop such a success.