Doepffer Ribbon Controller, Or Kurzweil Expressionmate

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:54 pm

I'm wondering, I miss my old CS-80 ribbon controller.Nice and long, not like that shitty little strip on Roland VAs'. Has anyone got knowledge on compatiblity of either of these two items? I'm hoping that my European Pulsarians will chime in.

Strength Through Superior DSPs,

husker · Post by **husker** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 4:58 pm

Hi Jimmy,

I have the ExpressionMate, but don't use it too much as my Alesis Andromeda also has a (better feeling) ribbon controller that I use mostly. The EM has a very sophistocated midi controller box, and can be programmed to do just about anything (with some difficulty).

What specifics about 'compatibility' were you after?

Cheers, Wayne.

p.s. i looking at selling the ExpressionMate if you're interested.

[ This Message was edited by: husker on 2006-01-08 16:59 ]

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 7:24 pm

Just bid on one on ebay for 38 USD. I'm sure it will go up. If I lose I will give you a jingle though. I wish to use it with Oberheim MC 3000, or Keystation Pro 88. BTW that A6 is a great synth. Almost bought one, but the asking price was too high back in 2001. Besides I got too much stuff, but can't stop buying. I sware I've been buying synths since 1973, the Oberheim SEM, and haven't stopped since. Thank God CWA is here now.The virtual world is so much cheaper.

Strength Through Superior DSPs,

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:04 pm

in Doepfer you can trust...

here's the <a href=http://www.doepfer.de/pdf/R2M_man.pdf>manual</a> for the ribbon controller as pdf
<a href=http://www.thomann.de>Thomann</a> sells them for 249 Euro and does international shipping (at least Europe, not sure about US tho)

if I remember this right it's more sophisticated than a 'regular' ribbon controller as it was part of a 'Trautonium' project (the instrument responsible for the bird's sounds in the respective Hitchcock movie)

cheers, tom

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2006-01-08 21:05 ]

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:18 pm

under saftey instruction for the doepfer:

"Never use the instrument in the immediate proximity of interfering electronic
devices (e.g. monitors, computers) since this could create disturbances within the
instrument and corrupt memory data."

sensitive little fella i guess.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:41 pm

not at all, Piddi

as you can see from the following quote these are general terms supposed to cover all their gear

Keep the top side of the instrument free in order to guarantee proper ventilation,
otherwise the instrument could be overheated. ...
• ...Make sure that during transport and in use the instrument has a proper stand and does not fall, slip or turn over because persons could be injured.

well, such text makes it highly probable that Doepfer is doing US business themselves...

cheers, Tom

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2006-01-08 21:42 ]

Mr Arkadin · Post by **Mr Arkadin** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 10:50 am

Well i have the Expressionamte but have recently been thinking of getting the Doepfer. The Kurzweil i got at a blow out $159 so was a good purchase but its menu system seems over-complex and it seems to crash my Cubase quite a lot. The Doepfer looks much simpler and is very reasonably priced (£150 here in the UK) and i hope it doesn't crash my sequencer.

i love my Expressionmate but tend to keep it 'out of circuit' most of the time until i want to start doing Odyssey-type pitch bends - maybe it just generates too much data (or maybe i haven't set it up properly due to the complexity of the menus).

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:04 pm

Thank You Astro, and Fellow Pulsarians. I agree that Doepffer is designed to my taste better, I only miss having the same function I used on my old CS80 for octave jumps (Josef Zawinul solo on a Remark You Made), and pitch bends ( King of Pain the Police) for my examples. So the Kurzweil is a little overkill, and if it crashes Cubase, I don't want it. By the way Astro, Celmo sent me a 16 voice Bluewave. Now my DX200, & PPG 2.3 E.Piano emulations are to die for. It reminds me of when I sent the outputs of my old DX7 through the inputs of a modular synth, and tweaked the filter and envelope a little, only much more depth with the Bluewave sound. Man how I love this platform.

Truly Addicted,

Jimmy V.

[ This Message was edited by: scope4live on 2006-01-11 16:05 ]

[ This Message was edited by: scope4live on 2006-01-11 16:06 ]