Anybody have experience with Doepfer A-140-2

Looking for anybody that might be using the Doepfer A-140-2. I just received the module and connected in to my Rackbrute 6U and am wondering if there should be any light come one when I power things up. I've tried a couple different open locations on my Rackbrute 6U and made sure my ribbon cable was correctly aligned. I guess its possible it doesn't light up until something else is connected...not finding much information on Doepfer website (they only have a manual for the A-140 which is quite a bit different).

The dual envelope? The Doepfer website says the LED is for the output so it should light up once you send a gate into it.

The dual envelope? The Doepfer website says the LED is for the output so it should light up once you send a gate into it.
-- catwavez
Can you send me a link that you looked at...i went to http://www.doepfer.de/home.htm and didn't find anything on the a-140-2...saw something for a-140, but they look quite different.

The dual envelope? The Doepfer website says the LED is for the output so it should light up once you send a gate into it.
-- catwavez
Can you send me a link that you looked at...i went to http://www.doepfer.de/home.htm and didn't find anything on the a-140-2...saw something for a-140, but they look quite different.

-- jb61264

Here is where I found it. http://www.doepfer.de/a1402.htm

Hi JB61264,

For a test, what you could do is, set all A, D, S & R knobs to for example a small value, let's say at 2 but not at zero, please! As Catwavez already mentioned, make sure you provide a gate signal to the gate input and then for example connect the out of that ADSR to the CV input of a VCA. If you have a Doepfer A-130-1 or A-131-1 then connect it for the sake of keeping the test simple to the CV1 input.

Then feed the VCA with some music, try to keep the rhythm of the music and the gate signal you sending to the ADSR in about the same tempo and then you should hear something coming out of your VCA. Once that works, try to play with the ADSR knobs and you should get some results.

Make sure that the gate signal that you feed into the A-140-2 isn't too extremely fast. For the sake of this test purpose provide a rather slow gate and then test it. Once you can confirm the ADSR works, you can increase up the gate speed of your preference. Note that Doepfer ADSRs (at least the A-140-1 that I have) can't cope with extremely fast gates.

If you are looking for a nice snappy EG (that can handle fast gates) then consider the Hikari Instruments - Triple AD as a second EG and use your Doepfer dual ADSR for the more slower gate stuff. I am not saying that Doepfer can't handle fast gates, it can but perhaps not at super speed (if that's what you are looking for). At "super" speed, the LEDs might not lit up. At extreme low ADSR knob settings the LEDs might not lit up either hence my advice to start with a slow gate first and all knobs set to two (2) for example.

Good luck with the troubleshooting and I hope you can manage to get your dual ADSR work. Kind regards, Garfield.

The dual envelope? The Doepfer website says the LED is for the output so it should light up once you send a gate into it.
-- catwavez
Can you send me a link that you looked at...i went to http://www.doepfer.de/home.htm and didn't find anything on the a-140-2...saw something for a-140, but they look quite different.

-- jb61264

Here is where I found it. http://www.doepfer.de/a1402.htm
-- catwavez
Thanks, I did see this page but was hoping there was a PDF somewhere too like the links that they have there for A-140

Hi JB61264,

For a test, what you could do is, set all A, D, S & R knobs to for example a small value, let's say at 2 but not at zero, please! As Catwavez already mentioned, make sure you provide a gate signal to the gate input and then for example connect the out of that ADSR to the CV input of a VCA. If you have a Doepfer A-130-1 or A-131-1 then connect it for the sake of keeping the test simple to the CV1 input.

Then feed the VCA with some music, try to keep the rhythm of the music and the gate signal you sending to the ADSR in about the same tempo and then you should hear something coming out of your VCA. Once that works, try to play with the ADSR knobs and you should get some results.

Make sure that the gate signal that you feed into the A-140-2 isn't too extremely fast. For the sake of this test purpose provide a rather slow gate and then test it. Once you can confirm the ADSR works, you can increase up the gate speed of your preference. Note that Doepfer ADSRs (at least the A-140-1 that I have) can't cope with extremely fast gates.

If you are looking for a nice snappy EG (that can handle fast gates) then consider the Hikari Instruments - Triple AD as a second EG and use your Doepfer dual ADSR for the more slower gate stuff. I am not saying that Doepfer can't handle fast gates, it can but perhaps not at super speed (if that's what you are looking for). At "super" speed, the LEDs might not lit up. At extreme low ADSR knob settings the LEDs might not lit up either hence my advice to start with a slow gate first and all knobs set to two (2) for example.

Good luck with the troubleshooting and I hope you can manage to get your dual ADSR work. Kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular

Awesome! Thanks for this, I did as you mentioned and its definitely working :)
Still wish they had some sort of reference 'manual' like Mutable has for their stuff...even if its just a page that has a brief label for all the connections and outputs...oh well, soldier on with the learning curve ;)

Yeah Doepfer is sort of great when getting into modular and sort of not so great at the same time. They are as true "modular" as you get, I think they pretty much invented it, and their modules tend to be on the technical side. Their instructions are always available but sometimes not the most readable/approachable. I've typically found their UI layouts, while always clean and consistent, to be on the needlessly unintuitive side in some cases.

Beyond that I've found with ADSRs in general that the LED indicators tend to often not behave entirely as I would expect, nor in fact the ADSRs themselves. I've found the Doepfer ADSR I have to be particularly, mm... uncooperative for my purposes, maybe we could say? ... and I prefer my dual Soundforce ADSR. But I've found ADSRs in modular generally to be a much different animal than they were in the digital applications I'd always used before -- way more sensitive and particular, often with what seem to be threshold points where a tiny millimeter of a dial turn will suddenly make a big difference to the sound even though the previous quarter-of-a-dial seemed to barely do a thing. That's often the frustrating thing for me, feeling like my "workable" area in each ADSR always falls into a very tiny range of the dial or knob. Those and EGs have definitely been a learning process for me as I've gotten into this hobby. That said when used creatively they've been a great tool ... but I don't always use them in the same straightforward ways I would in digital applications.

Anyway, all the advice already provided covers it pretty well, just empathizing with the struggle I guess.

EDITED Aug 21st 2021, 03:00

doepfer are great full stop! not just when you are starting out...

I think the more you want to actually do "modular synthesis" as opposed to "just connecting some synthesizer modules together to produce some sounds", the more simple building block modules are important, and even when "just... to produce sounds" the addition of simple building blocks into especially modulation is an inexpensive way to implement complexity - and doepfer are especially good at simple building block modules that mostly do exactly what they say they do

I have quite a few doepfer modules - mostly utilities and filters - and I consider them to be as good quality as any other manufacturer - I've not got an adsr though

maybe some of their modules are a bit poorly documented (possibly lost in translation from german to english) and the odd module doesn't work how you might expect, but the same can be said for almost all manufacturers

and whilst he didn't invent modular synthesis, Dieter did start the eurorack format

Hi JB61264, Eexee and JimHowell1970,

I am glad it works now :-) Nothing more disappointing as a module that might not work, thus so glad that you managed to get it work the way you want & need it!

Yes, I agree here with Jim, Doepfer modules are good and because most of the modules are so "pure" it's indeed, Eexee, good for starters and for a good learning curve however also for when you are beyond the starting experience. Their utility modules are pleasure pure to use and usually easy to understand.

I also agree though on the sometimes poor documentation. The older modules of Doepfer were actually good documented in both German and English, though indeed the English translation might not always be perfect in most cases it's good enough to get you going. Though I can read and understand both languages, I always start to read the English version first since I believe all (electronically and computer related) documentation should be world wide in English only (and no, my mother tongue is definitely not English related), but that's just my humble opinion as a technical guy. Only if I don't understand the English explanation, I check the German explanation to see if something got lost in translation, which is sometimes the case but not always. I found even for one or two modules (can't remember which one that were) where the English manual provided more interesting information than the German one. Recently for many newer Doepfer modules, I come to realise that the documentation gets of poorer quality or it's just not existing as JB discovered already for the A-140-2. That's a real pity indeed.

JB, for the A-140-2, you can indeed rely on the A-140-1 documentation, the principles are the same and after having read that, you will realise that the A-140-2 works pretty much in the same way however I agree, each module should have their own complete module manual.

Have fun with modular and kind regards, Garfield.

+1 on Jim's assessment of Doepfer. Sure, most of their modules are "primitives", which means that the circuits in them make up the circuit complement for more complex modules. But there's tons of potential situations when a "primitive" is just what the Dr. ordered. Dieter's making some great stuff to this very day...and there are some definitely unique offerings in their huge line. You can't write 'em off!