--- In Doepfer_a100@yahoogroups.com , "Ken" <kenneth_harte@...> wrote:

>
> Thanks for all the replies.
>
> I guess I figured the RS-120 would be more about fidelity and the A-
> 188 would be more about experimentation. I guess it's horses for
> courses. I'll probably end up going for a A-188.

Now you just have to pick how many stages you want (unless you want to
swap chips from time to time). The RS-120 is only available with
moderate short delays for better or worse. Depending on the chip with
Doepfer you can have delays more usable for one purpose and less for
another. I actually wouldn't mind a really short A-188-1 since I have
the 4096 one.

>
> Does anybody have experience with the the A-188-2. Would I be as well
> to get that rather than an A-188-1 with a set number of stages.

It's not a replacement. To me it's another concept's implementation.
This time you can access the individual taps of a multitapped delay
chip, something quite uncommon if not unique in a comerical product.
The RS-310 is sort of Analogue System's earlier take, no deep access
at all beyond CV delay time, no stereo but substantially cleaner
sound. The A-188-2 is really interesting but it's even noisier and
harder to tame the artifacts on than the A-188-1

>
> Also does anybody have any suggestion for a good VCA. The A-131 VCA is
> good but can be a little noisy.

What kind of noise Just a high noise floor or something else like
signal leakage, hum Maybe you've already examined it closely but it's
worth checking your gain and signal structure in general. It could be
you are offsetting it with the gain knob and don't realize it, or
maybe you have a low signal somewhere that shouldn't be so low. I've
really never encountered audible noise out of the VCA that I wasn't
expecting. On the other hand sometimes VCAs seem simpler than they are
to patch in. I know I've gotten results I didn't expect because of
knob offsets didn't notice. There all those old stories about the
broken Arp synth that was really the VCA offset slider confusing someone.

I would guess the cwejman is higher spec, though I only have the VM-1
where the VCA isn't isolated. The ASystems VCA is nice that it has
both linear and "log" inputs though ergonomically it has an offset
knob where you think the non-existent output level knob should be
which threw me a few times.

nick