Dark Energy or Mopho?

I thinking about getting a secondhand small analogue synth which will be Dark Energy or Mopho. Anyways just wondered which one you think is better? Cheers.

Maybe you can try both in a shop and get an informed opinion.

OT: did you shop sunglasses on top of a picture of Anders Breivik and made it your avatar?

if you like the hands on apoprach and your planning to get more analogue/modular gear in the future get a Dark Energy

if you want a wider pallet of sounds with a wide selection of presets and can handle programming with a software editor get the Mopho

I think dark energy is better, the Dsi mopho sounds cheap to me and I don;t think they are on the same level for comparison, DE is like $300 more expensive than Mopho. Make sure you know the difference between the new DE and the old one, people say the original version is better.

how dare you question the Bro-ness of The Bro

German VS American?

German!!!!!!!!

Dark Energy it is then!!

What soundwave said.

I had both. Sold the Dark Energy and re-bought the Mopho as a keyboard. I didn't dislike the DE, but it was a gateway into a modular system that outpaced it pretty quickly. DCO or no, the Mopho is a bass monster.

I've got both. The DE is normally used for wild and spontaneous SFX, or filthy bass through an amp and/or pedals (via Big Muff pedal the sound is kinda prodigy-esque, very thick). It really feels like it is lacking a sequencer and more oscs. Workflow for me is usually record amp/preamp output for a couple of minutes while mangling the sound and then chopping up the best parts. All hands on, except midi note info from ableton.

I prefer the mopho, a little. Two oscs plus two sub oscs, and noise. Great sequences can be made with it. Excellent bass sounds, percussion. It's more tameable, more versatile. Workflow is usually flick between the free standalone editor and a £10 VST I bought, going nuts with modulations and the four inbuilt sequencers. Zero hands on. Is enjoyable seeing how nice a sound you can make which is completely mopho only, then once you add verb/delay/other fx it really comes alive.

No-one ever mentions the knobs on the mopho are absolute shit and unusable. They are stiff, turn in large clicks, jump value unexpectedly, and require over 360 degrees turning to scale through the range of a parameter. Also, only a few paramaters are CC controlled, the rest are NRPN which is a problem for ableton. The VST helps with this as you can map your midi keyboard to it's controls. To use the VST though, the midi ports need to be disabled in ableton and this could cause you other problems potentially. You could avoid all that hassle with just using the standalone editor but then you won't get automation or preset recall within ableton, and the editor can get buggy sometimes. In a nutshell, expect hassle setting it up in your daw initially, as like I said you will not be editing it hands on.

The DE knobs are too close together, still workable but it is tight in there. My USB cable can cause the DE to hum in some situations... have found ways to minimise it in certain situations but no full fix. Because I amp it usually, any noise or hum is exaggerated a lot. No sync of LFOs to tempo without a sequencer such as the Doepfer Dark TIme. You can take photos of the DE or use the online patch designer to save presets but the reality is that most of the time you wont bother your arse.

http://mkdr.net/m/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=28 - Mopho VST Editor

http://dap.askdesign.org/ DE online patch saver

Mopho - Versatile, presets, tameable, great modulation options, fun sequencing.

DE - Wild, hands on, get the optional glide, more one off unpredicable type sounds.

Either way they are both excellent.

EDIT: Get the mopho keyboard if you can. Also, the DE 1 has a 24dB/octave low pass filter vs the DE2 12dB/octave multimode filter. DE2 has a filter mode knob instead of:

LM: linear FM (frequency modulation) control to modulate the VCF by the triangle of the VCO in a linear (!) manner

Is up to you but imo get DE1 over DE2.

Bropho

Sorry to be a dumb asshole that doesn't pay attention to what you ask in the first place, but that's how I'm put together. Wait a couple of months, save some bucks and get the ms20 mini.

  On 4/5/2013 at 7:39 PM, Gocab said:

Sorry to be a dumb asshole that doesn't pay attention to what you ask in the first place, but that's how I'm put together. Wait a couple of months, save some bucks and get the ms20 mini.

yeah i agree.

but whatever you do, don't get the mopho.

I don't have the MS-20 mini yet(I'm hearing they ship in mid April), but I'd agree to an extent to say at least wait until you can get an idea of the sound beyond previews.

Also the knobs on the Mopho Keyboard are much better. The desktop knobs are indeed shit.

  On 4/5/2013 at 1:37 AM, NZT said:

My USB cable can cause the DE to hum in some situations... have found ways to minimise it in certain situations but no full fix.

I had the same problem. "Fixed" it by switching to a MIDI cable.