Doepfer Dark Energy II - Manual (Page 7)

7
Introduction Dark EnerGy II DOEPFER
As soon as the power adaptor has been plugged in, Dark Energy II will power up. The LEDs in both LFO
sections will now light up and alternate between red and green. The LED on the back panel will flash inter-
mittently for about two seconds and then stay lit permanently.
First contact:
Turn the volume control of your amp / mixer fully off BEFORE powering Dark Energy II up. Turn up the volu-
me control of your mixer / amp slowly and play a key on your keyboard. You ought to hear a steady tone
now. Choose a comfortable volume. And now - Ladies and Gentlemen, we´re floating in space:
Welcome to Dark Energy II !
The sound currently generated depends on the setting of all knobs and switches. It will be the easiest to
create musically useful patches if you start with this basic setting and „compose“ your sounds step by step
from that point onwards.
We will now have a brief look at Dark Energy II‘s sound generation and sound-modelling modules.
A detailed description of all functions will follow later on.
Now that you have tweaked all knobs and switches to their initial settings, you will hear a simple and steady
tone.
The oscillator generates a simple square wave that is audible at the audio output, yet without being modi-
fied in any way. Now turn the VCO tune control and move the octave switch: You can control the tuning and
the pitch range of the tone.
As soon as you crank up the FM control, you will notice an „automatic“ change in tuning: LFO1 is selected
as a modulation source and its control voltage generates a periodic change in tuning or VCO frequency
respectively.
Now turn the „LFO1 Freq.“ control. You will hear a change in the modulation speed or LFO1 frequency
respectively.
Now let‘s have a brief look at the filter section (VCF): Turn its „Freq.“ pot slowly counter-clockwise. You will
hear the sound becoming gradually „duller“ until it becomes inaudible. Now turn the „Freq.“ pot to 12 o‘clock
position and crank up the XFM control slowly. You will hear a periodic modulation of the timbre by LFO2.
Again, you can alter the modulation speed using the LFO2 Freq. pot. Play a couple of keys and change the
settings of the envelope section. You will notice a change in the loudness contour of the notes. When you
turn the „Source“ switches in the VCO and VCF section to the „ADSR“ position (the knobs FM and XFM
have to be cranked up to at least 10 o‘clock position), the envelope will control not only loudness but also
pitch and timbre.
Please note:
Dark Energy II‘s parameters mostly interact with each other in some way or other. That means, there is
often more than just one way to achieve a specific result. In other words: If you want a certain parameter
to generate a desired result, it might be necessary to set other parameters to another specific value. This
might be a bit confusing from time to time. An example:
If the ADSR‘s sustain knob is at its maximum, turning the decay knob will not have
any effect on the sound. All ADSR controls will not have any effect on the timbre of a patch as
long as the „Source“ switch of the VCF section is set to LFO2. The same goes for the „Source“ switch in the
VCA section.
If you really want to make use of Dark Energy II‘s full sonic potential, it is important to understand the way
the parameters interact with each other. Please do not panic - explore systematically each parameter and
its interaction with others. There´s nothing you could blow up, and normality will be restored soon if so-
mething seems weird to you.
Please also note that the VCO needs at least 20 - 30 minutes warm up until it‘s tuning remains stabile.
If analog subtractive sound synthesis is totally new to you, please refer to the section „Nuts and bolts of
sound generation“ on page 26 in this manual.