Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Dark Energy II Announced

Well, it looks like Dieter Doepfer announced the discontinuation of the Dark Energy today.

In the Doepfer Usergroup he stated that " the Dark Energy will be discontinued as the CEM3394 chip is no longer available and the negotiations with the manufacturer (OnChip, the Curtis Electromusic successor) concerning a new productions series of the CEM3394 were not successful so far. 
We think about a redesign of the unit (Dark Energy II) but it will be another instrument with a different sound and features (e.g. probably a 12 dB multimode filter with lowpass, highpass, bandpass and notch (like the A-121 Multimode Filter- (they will probably use parts of the DIY Synth circuit (e.g. the multimode VCF) for the Dark Energy II design) - instead of the 24 dB lowpass)."

Dark Energy picture provided by Marc Weerts
from the band 87PM
Logically this would mean that the A-111-5 Mini Synth Voice will also be discontinued since it has the same circuitry inside.

The Dark Energy did have a unique sound, mainly because of the linear filter FM.
There is no A-100 VCF available that offers this feature and even the VCO and VCA are unique.
The VCO is close to the A-111, but there is no A-100 VCA module available with the combined linear/exponential response of the Dark Energy/A-111-5 VCA.

Personally i do not think Dark Energy II will be the best name for a module like this and that they should go for another name instead, since it will be a completely different instrument with a unique character.
Feel free to leave some name-suggestions below or on the PatchPierre Facebook page.

Doepfer probably still has a bunch of Dark Energy's and A-111-5 modules left in stock*, but if you really want one you should get one before they are gone...

* Update:
From Dieter Doepfer in the Doepfer Usergroup:
" ...we miscalculated the relation of the Dark Energy / A-111-5 sales. The A-111-5 stock will last much longer than the Dark Energy stock. I expect that the Dark Energy will be sold out in 2-3 months, but I suppose that the A-111-5 stock will last one year or even longer."
Update II:
" ~ 4000 Dark Energy's were made, and ~ 300 A-111-5 modules "


Dark Energy sound demo by MarcJX8P


Find other discontinued A-100 modules HERE (updated feb.2012)
Curious what chip is inside your synthesizer?

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