Sonic LAB Doepfer Dark Energy Synthesizer

A new desktop synthesizer from German modular synth manufacturers Doepfer. Single voice, fully analog.
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[@sonicstate]

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[@CandlegravityStudio]

I own this synth and can say it's my favorite synth right now. Just an amazing little piece of kit.

[@russdaren]

another great in depth review. good job!

[@charleshoppner4111]

Just found out about this one! The Six-Trak was my first synth and I still love it - very cool to hear the chip implemented in a monophonic synth, sounds really nice and fat!

[@lonelywolfy]

im thinkin about getting one of these. i just wanna say your videos are great! youre always very knowledgeable and clear and concise with what youre showing us and i really wanna thank you for that.

[@alexandrasings]

I love all of your reviews! Thanks so much!

[@TheInnocentSynth]

Thanks to you Nick i've just bought one of these beauties - brilliant review and reviewer, keep 'em coming!

[@sonicstate]

its pretty straight forward, you just setup a MIDI track and then select the Doepfer USB output as the MIDI output, or if you have a MIDI output device plug the MIDI out from that into the Doepfer MIDI in. There may be an additional setup step in the Doepfer to accept MIDI from the MIDI in rather than the USB in, bit that will be in the manual

[@edudzzaj]

Love your reviews and enthusiasm, thanks.

[@daftendz]

@sonicstate your a great dude...almost everything in my studio was inspired by your reviews...top job, keep doin what your doin!

[@chidamole]

This. Keep it up nick. Whenever I want to know about some gear your channels the first place I look as you give the info exactly as it should be done.

[@drkam6]

Excellent review, 10/10. Many thanks!

[@sonicstate]

No, it doesnt send out MIDI CC only recieves which can be mapped to two of the CV outs

[@verbenamusic]

Nick, I'm watching this from 2017 and I love the informal, vlog-style format

[@CoburnNeptune]

Thanks Nick! Always a good overview! I kind of like this sit down style better than the stand up ones...

[@weaponEX]

I clearly have a lot to learn ;) Thanks Nick

[@DiegoStocco]

Great demo Nick!

[@dep1001]

I really miss these Sonic LAB reviews!!!

[@metabog]

This is awesome. I'm gonna have a play with this on monday, and if I like it, I might buy it.

[@mattsynth]

Great demo, Thanks

[@AdamTheAd-vanc3d]

love the multitrack demo at 3.50 it really shows of this synths depth to an extent .

[@screendrem]

Wow. Great demo. If only I had a friend that understood synths like this guy. I want one.

[@malungtvnews]

great review cheers

[@Zinfidel1]

It's always great when KZbin decides to recommend old sonic state clips. That ending track went on for a few more years, at least. What desktop modular synths will be around in 12 years? ...... In 09, Doepfer had only been around for what, 14 years? I've been watching sonic state for 8 years!

[@lesscunning9651]

great informative demo.

[@mrserdy]

Awesome play

[@metabog]

We have it at our University. We also have a Mopho, and I have to say the Dark Energy blows the Mopho completely out of the water. It's got one of the nicest, juiciest, squishiest filters I've ever heard.

[@Subtronik]

Great demo.

[@JohnLRice]

Nice demo!

[@iNuchalHead]

4:09 LOL, Nick is cool.

[@sonicstate]

The CV outs can be patched into itself for additional control or external modular gear, the audio is out it also on 8th inch jack

[@kolakube123]

Nick, your a very good presenter. Far better than half them on TV.

[@TheATMOSPHERIA]

really very very great and INTERESTING!!!

[@sonicstate]

@sonicstate oh, and btw, I do show how to setup the Doepfer in the video

[@elliotdavidson7137]

Nick ... i cant believe i missed this review ! Love the hand shapes .. legend

[@sonicstate]

Yes if you just output the actual audio signal into the Korgs pitch to CV/gate correct

[@sonicstate]

Yes but you cannot tweak the scale either. Most older analogs need some kind of scale calibration to ensure that they have consistant octave scaling. I was using this to iillustrate the shortcomings of the interface for playing other synthesizers

[@mrr2816]

13 years ago.. Wow

[@eddy_sonik]

I LOVE ! 💙

[@Beatprisoner]

Nick rules! Great review, thanks.

[@seanmurray90]

i love sonic lab

[@moatl6945]

As far as I know Doepfer printed the false voltage on the first samples. Actually it should be AC 12 V, 400 mA.

[@edjwise]

Hi from 2021 I have followed sonic state since 2000.

[@elfwing5400]

Nice atmosphere. .

[@sonicstate]

The answer should be yes, but it depends on whether the Freqbox will respond to the same CV sacling as the DE. The MIDI-CV scaling is fixed to work with the DE so you can play it, in the demo, I demonstrate this by hooking up the MS20 and showing it doesnt talk to it right - this is because of the scaling issue. You should check the Moog CV spec against the DE to see.

[@modulosonoro221]

They should bring out an analog reverb/delay unit and call it Dark Room.

[@sonicstate]

@livininTBSkliniek maybe so , I do know that the texture in that is from a sample CD that they also found a use for. Heck, we may have even used it first!

[@ozeking7393]

Amazing！！！

[@sonicstate]

@r5t6y12 I dont have it in front of me, but it is possible to just output the raw oscilator wave without running it through the ADSR for a constant tone, its often called the INITIAL LEVEL, but I dont recall what on the DE.

[@jasonbailey7126]

stop making me buy stuff....

[@bboymac84]

Jason Bailey 4real!!

[@hairychris444]

Had one of these for years due to reviews like this one. It's an absolutely fantastic little unit...

[@sokotta14]

i know right lol=

[@rg7120]

It does only have one main oscillator, but pulse width modulation will give you the detuned sound most people want from two oscillators. You modulate stuff with the LFO. But you don't modulate the phase of a sine wave with a square wave "with 10 times larger frequency" (not sure what you're trying to say), the LFO can modulate filter cutoff, pitch, or pulse width. The LFO would be at a much lower frequency than the audio oscillator, that's why it's called a low frequency oscillator.

[@carbonatedbrainsauce]

It is funny that a Korg was used as an example for interfacing external gear. It is one of the few companies that use a different scale for the control voltage, most other analog synths use the 1v/oct scale.

[@vladimirussachevsky1315]

I can’t believe this is more than 10 years ago time flies... now the Mark III is out and it’s almost $600

[@schepler2]

"And that's your lot!" (We'd never say that in America, so I think it's cool.)

[@berniesanders5419]

I was thinking the same thing, love British mannerisms

[@brianrodman1033]

One thing I love about KZbin is getting to hear different phrases and slang from England and other countries in Europe.

[@sonicstate]

yes, but its at least three times the price possibly more.

[@bytex666]

You can hook it up to ANY synth that has a midi output. Your D-50 too.

[@qwikfikz]

Doepfer - THE MOST underrated, underappreciated synths in history

[@NuisanceMan]

Underrated: THE MOST overrated word in history

[@adriaantje113]

Nice

[@NullStaticVoid]

I owned mine for a 3 or 4 years before I understood what all the knobs do. You really need to get 2 so you have 2 ENVs and 2 OSCs. But you can still have a lot of fun self patching just one. Also, IIRC all the important bits are Curtis. OSC, Filter and VCA.

[@cesarvidelac]

It would be nice to hear the Dr. Who theme on it, or a Gary Numan song also :) Very nice!

[@narki86]

That is one filter with an attitude! Doepfer really is about quality!

[@urukai95]

no, you can use one of these: thomann.de/gb/doepfer_a110_standardvco.htm you can add every module from döpfer to the dark energy via CV. if you do i recommend you also their mixer: thomann.de/gb/doepfer_a138b_mixer_logarithm.htm so you can use all 4 waves from one A-110VCO at the same time, because the mixer has 4 inputs and one master output. the output should be routed back to the dark energy audio input. its like you have 4 more VCO's.

[@ropeburn6684]

DOPE FER

[@bliss000]

@KelMckeown1 The A-100 is the same. The synth will produce a constant tone unless you have an Env hooked up to a vca.

[@hawklord2112]

i have an SH-32 - very different from the dark energy but a whole hell of a lot of fun..

[@gvp999999]

Any chance of a review for the Dark Energy 2? Wouldn't mind seeing a Waldorf Rocket review either! Cheers.

[@MauricioJara]

Isn’t that synth loop at 0:00 in Radiohead’s Backdrifts?

[@sonicstate]

I would say yes, if you have a budget, this will give you at least a start, although it is prewired - true modular synths are not so they wont make a note until you have patched the vco->vcf->vca. There's always software of course, plenty out there, some of it's free too

[@MarctheDarc]

Excellent review - will you soon be reviewing the Dark Energy II? If possible with some form of comparison to the sound of the exchanged bits, and the inherent strengths and weaknessses here of? In the market for something like this and could use some pointers towards what's good and what's not, and why... Cheers ^^

[@Synthiefrau]

I love my dark Energie. In summer comes "dark time", dark time is in the same design the sequenzer for the dark Energie.

[@TottoXzip]

I have a question. I have a arturia microbrute and a microkorg. But ive been interessted in learning patching (and also i find that dark energy got some good effects) so im wondering, is this a good start for beginners?

[@spoddie]

The MFB Kraftzwerg is similar but with 3 osc. I read an interesting comment, two Dark Energys is fairly close to an A-100 Basic System 1. You do miss out on quite a few modules but it's also half the price.

[@billytdakid]

This synthesizer seems to have only one independent sound oscillator. Does it means that to synthesize more compound sound I need few of these device. For instance if I want to modulate the phase of base sin wave with a square wave with 10 times larger frequency at once do I need two of them?

[@ThinkingAtheos]

Can you use the doepfer as a midi controller via usb for synth vst's, since it has only midi IN?

[@livininTBSkliniek]

maybe someone else noticed it, but in the intro you can hear Radioheads ''Backdrifts''. (intro)

[@KelMckeown1]

I've just taken delivery of one of these. it seems to be stuck on infinite sustain and plays a tone even when no midi is plugged in. any clues please?

[@WakemanFan90]

Is this a great way to start out with modular synthesizers? (i have only studied in books, not actually used one)

[@billytdakid]

You can plug it to a midi keyboard (which has standard midi input jack) and play live music, otherwise you can only synthesize sounds which you can use in a sequencer or PC-DAW as far as I see on the video.

[@nakedcellist]

Thank you for a great review.. I am now hesitating between a dark energy and a mopho. Do you have an opinion on that?

[@fubokuen]

You might be referring to the analog MS-20, as the MS2000 is an older VA synth.

[@insaneinthebrain1978]

hey,maybe a stupid question but is it possible to use the dark energy on my guitar pedalboard? lookin forward to get some answers! thx....max

[@sonicstate]

Nah, we've had it for ages, just hevent used it all that much

[@analogue71]

Just got mine. Very sweet little synth indeed, sounds great, looks great. A bit disappointed by the very wobbly power-connection at the back though, this is certainly not solid enough for use on stage, this clearly is my indoor synth ;-) Great demo by the way, you convinced me to actually buy it.

[@albedoshader]

@joystickmusic: A little tip from a German: The "oe" in Doepfer is pronounced the same way as the German "ö". An "ö" sounds very similar to the "ea" in "search" or the "ur" in "curse" or in "surge". It's NOT an "oo"-sound!

[@albedoshader]

@albedoshader: I forgot to say: don't pronounce the "r" part of the "ur", of course. Just the vocal part. :) A better rendition would be: D-ur(the r not pronounced)-pfuh or D-u(r)-pfair.

[@VincentsVideoVisions]

This looks like an awesome little box. The only thing that i don't like is the fact that the jacks are in front... you'd be reaching over your patch leads to tweak knobs, which seems silly. But all in all it seems like a hell of a deal for $400, and Doepfer always makes good stuff.

[@ScottOneil1970]

to cool

[@robinweber9640]

I'm cool. How can I help you?

[@YannGuillermou]

i don't get how you set the amount of modulation for example if you want a slight vibrato

[@michaelmontanaro4603]

hi soniclab, amazing video, but does it have sounds on its own or do you always have to connect a instrument or sequencer to it? Also, is the DarkEnergy II same as this? Thank you!!

[@Letryk]

Hi there! Is there a way to control or better to macro control and sync the Lfo speed?

[@r5t6y12]

Ok, I have a question about the ADSR. As KelMckeown1 states his unit plays a tone constantly even when there's no midi plugged into it. If that's the case then why have ADSR at all?

[@treetrouble]

you could use it with the MS-20 by using the MS-20's frequency-voltage converter (in the bottom row of inputs), no?

[@yoda101]

I guess it looks like a fun lil thing to toy around with, but its hard to call it a synthesizer considering it only has 1 oscillator.

[@thecryptkicker5]

soooo, I was on the fence about getting a Slim Phatty because it can't really get beautiful arps, or at least that I have heard? Finding this though, it does arp and leads wonderfully. But I'm wondering if that's because it's only one voice and I keep hearing the two voices of the SP's? I already have a bass station ii which for me kicks the crap out of the SP for bass anyways. But what are anyone's thoughts about getting beautiful arp sounds from this simply because of the one voice or is it because it has more minute modulation, such as two LFO's, to dial in those specific sounds?

[@Jimmy_Sandwiches]

"you can drive this from a midi interface or your door" - now thats unusual ;)

[@sonicstate]

no not really, its not the size its the quality, as any young lady will tell you... ;-)

[@fpsoundpacks]

Download over 230 Analog Four/Keys patches here: sellfy.com/p/GEUz/ Visit my website for more information: www.floppydiskpirates.com

[@LUIGIGOR]

very good video and great analog synth...sorry, (I'm italian language) but I didn't understand if it can send midi controls to be recorded in a soft sequencer. Many thanks

[@narkolapin2662]

Hello, I need to open one of these engine for a friend of me to remplace a switch. Do you know how hard is it ? thank.

[@Thundercube_Music]

This thing must be a dream to program...no menu diving!