Eurorack gateway device - DFAM?

I need to make music. After a few weeks without any synth or drum machine, I’m very likely to go grumpy, depressed and will pay less attention to what people say in conversations. Not even joking.

@tallrobphilp the way I see, unless you still gotta save for a house or kid’s education, free yourself from guilt, you worked hard for your money, you deserve the time off and you deserve to spend it with instruments that are worth your time if you can afford them. You sound responsible enough, I mean, look at the Your Setups thread if you need to be reassured about what you spent :wink:

2 Likes

@tobee I could be that guy who bought 2 techno systems in a couple of days!! I bet he’s having a great time though.

2 Likes

I’d keep the DT and add a semi-modular that has midi in, like the Microvolt, 0-Coast or MS20 mini.

That way the two can interact without extra gear. I think you’re being too hasty about ditching the DT - you’re likely to get bored pretty quick with just a single drum synth, and having a sampler on hand will massively expand your options while still using the one synth’s sonic palette (if you choose to restrict it to that).

Sampling/sequencing can be awkward at the beginning but it’s such a fun way of discovering new timbres in existing sounds.

Here’s a vid of someone using a DT and 0-Coast to great effect:

3 Likes

I was bought up to be very sensible and frugal. Practical expenditure is guilt free and acceptable. Now i too have to feel guilt free in spending money on a pursuit that seems very inward and selfish. A bit of money is acceptable. But a lot is indulgent. I know exactly where you are coming from. Having to justify things is not the right way though i feel. terms like…You deserve it
You worked for it…bah!
These are meaningless to someone bought up to be sensible.
No you’ve got to just let go of ‘Money’ as an honorable thing. Its not. Use it with disdain and give it no respect. Be yourself. You are not on this planet just to make money. I hear you bud!

1 Like

Oi! leave me out of it! :smile:

And i would suggest a mother 32 to begin with :slight_smile:

I have to also add I am currently getting the silent treatment, so perhaps I’m not the best role model to follow :smile:

1 Like

Thanks for all the support folks.

One thing that has come up here is that some people think that the DFAM is “just” a drum synth, but if you watch some of the videos around you’ll see that it’s actually a pretty powerful and flexible synth voice in it’s own right. It can be used for drones, basses, leads, percussion sequences, more traditional synth kick/snare/hats etc and everything in-between. When it’s combined with it’s own internal sequencer and the patch bay it’s capable of some pretty wild results without any outside help.

Thanks for the pointers to other semi-modulars, I’ll have a look.

@DavyP All meant with affection! Regarding the Mother32 - it looks great but perhaps better for melodic sequences and no so hot for thumping techno madness?! The DFAM, it could be argued, is more flexible with multiple oscillators and envelopes etc. I’m sure they’re a formidable combo but I think the DFAM might be a better single-box starting point for what I’m interested in. Based on your Techno System purchase perhaps we’re aiming for the same sort of stuff?!

1 Like

All sounds mother 32

Mother 32’s are a bit of an entrapment i feel. Get one of these all ins

2 Likes

that look’s good, going to read up on it now :slight_smile:

Sounds like you’ve already made up your mind to get a DFAM. Go buy it and make some noise

2 Likes

I personally love the DFAM… made 100s of loops with it for the Digitakt… but for the same money might I suggest pairing a Doepfer Dark Energy MkI (used) and MkIII (new). Together they give two complete semimodular voices (like a scaled-down A100 system) that have different sonic signatures and can be used to modulate each other, all in a very small footprint. You can also make some CC parameters be modulated via the Digitakt with velocity, LFOs etc that make them very powerful for sound design.

Well I’ve ordered one for delivery tomorrow so I guess the decision is made. Seize the moment, or something like that! For the record - my wife told me to go for it. I’m a lucky man.

3 Likes

The DFAM is a machine that won’t disappoint.
Good decision.

1 Like

Hi ,
I didnt had time to read the whole thread, but I might have some tipps for your initial question. In my studio I have among others the DFAM as well as five other semimodulars, a large doepfer rig and all the elektron stuff.

So the DFAM fits very well to the Mother 32, because there you get a MIDI-Interface, an LFO and a small mixer tool, that broadens the possibilities – and its much cheaper than buying all this in modular gear. Buying another Moog Case with 60 hp looks nice, but will come quite expensive (and 60p will become quickly become to small). If you plan to expand the dfam with other modular gear, Id recommend to get a bigger case: a cheap and light TipTop Audio Mantis will do the trick, or get sturdy 9P case from Doepfer.

you can plan your system on modulargrid.net (login with a free account)

If you want to extend the DFAM with modular gear, I would suggest to get an Expert Sleepers FH-2 (8 HP + 4 hp for the din midi extender) first as a midi interface. With this you can play the dfam with any MIDI or software-sequencer. even with an iphone if you wish to.

You will also appreciate an I/O-Module to connect Speakers and a Headphone on the front, the Befaco Out V3 does this and only uses 4HP. For FX and other functions stuff to play around, the expert sleepers Disting mk4 is also a no brainer with only 4 HP.

So these 3 modules will cost you a little over 600 bucks and use 20 hp. Plus the case (300 to 500 bucks)

then you can expand on this basis. A Make Noise Maths serves as a mixer, lfo, attenuator, Envelope generator etc. and is a very popular swiss army knive (20 HP, 300 bucks)

if you wanna spice up the sound with some extreme VCO, take a look at the Noise Engineering Basimilus Iteritas Alter (12 HP, 250 bucks). To mix this with the DFAM and have some dynamic control, a Make Noise Optomix comes in handy (8 HP, around 200 bucks)

So you see, it gets quickly large and expensive. just one full 84 HP row in a modular rig can cost 2000 bucks, and often these systems have three to five rows in the end.

You can also go another route: Buy a Digitakt and let the DFAM just function as a source for Drum & Bass Samples. This combination offers lots of fun and sound design possibilities for a relatively small package and price. If you already have a digitakt, why not combine it with a digitone ? this is a killer combination in my opinion.

Also check out the free Software VCV Rack: There you can test and patch different type of Software modules.

Cheers,
Goat

7 Likes

Thanks for the suggestions @goatofneptune and great name by the way. I do have a Digitakt already and I may have a play with sampling DFAM as yourself and others have suggested.

So the DFAM arrived this morning and I’ve had a quick play for literally 10 minutes (I’m supposed to be working from home) and at the risk of sounding naive I think I can now see why there is some fuss around analogue now I’ve used my first piece of analogue gear. It sounds very organic and unlike anything else I’ve used before. The tiniest tweak of a single knob and it can have a noticeable and dramatic effect. Not necessarily better but certainly something different to my ears. I had to be a bit careful with the volume of my speakers, which frankly probably aren’t up to the task!

Fun times ahead.

2 Likes

Congrats and have some fun!

I’ve been up all night sequencing an 0 Coast from my OT :slight_smile:

1 Like

This was the main reason behind my DFAM purchase: feed my OT and MPC. No regrets :heart_eyes:

Have a play with the patches suggested in the manual (those carton overlays), they might not be your thing, but they provide interesting insight into how to use the patchbay, if you have no idea how to do that (I was in that situation).

Enjoy :slight_smile:

1 Like

Seriously invest in some decent speakers. Your losing 50% of quality from Moogs if you dont.

1 Like

congrats, you shurely will have some fun. Modulars operate with a much higher Voltage, so you should use the rear output of the dfam, when conneting it to the digitakt. if youre looking for a “cheap” midi-cv interface, keep in mind that the popular doepfer dark link doesnt transmit midi clock. make shure when you buy one that it explicitly supports midi clock. If you plan modular extentions, the FH-2 is the most versatile around.

Otherwise I would recommend a good chromatic tuner (not a cheap one for guitars) like the Korg OT-120 that uses a wide range of notes. Its quite difficult to tune the DFAM exactly. Better sample it and do the exact tuning in the digitakt.

Here is my experience: I have a Pittsburgh Modular SV-1 Black box. I love it, it sounds great. It can do percussive sounds as well as the lovely sounding 2 oscillators (it has an analog noise output) . It has a very handy Midi interface module, and will be the main synth voice in my future rack. It want to add:

  • Disting MK4
    -Turing Machine Mk2
    -Pamala’s new workout
    -Basimilus Iteritas Alter (a percussive techno monster)
    -ALM MUM 8 filter
    to go into a make noise skiff - might want to add another Disting
  • But I have certain things I want to do with it and maybe not so open-ended…