UPDATE: Folks have asked for comparisons with the sync off. So here you go: • Mindphaser: Sync vs. m... A comparison of two complex VCOs: the Hexinverter Mindphaser and the Make Noise DPO. 00:00 Intro 00:22 Mindphaser 16:46 DPO
The Mindphaser definitely sounds cleaner. I looked at Frap Tools Brenso before going for the DPO because in the end I wanted more West Coast sounds. Had a Synthesis Technologies E370 before that…tried digital/wave table…just like the grit/grain of the DPO.
Yeah the e370 and west cost definitely are not on the same spectrum. The Mindphaser and DPO are both analog which makes it a much closer comparison. However, the best word I can find to describe it is that the DPO has this "rubber" sound to it. It's one of my first modules and still sits in my system today. As far as I'm concerned it's irreplaceable, but the Mindphaser indeed clicked my interest.
I opted for the Instruo CS-L. The amount of Modulation you can get out of the CS-L is absolutely amazing. Surpases the DPO & the Mindphaser in my opinion. But hey,,,,i certainly wouldn't mind having the MP. If i ever sold the CS-L for some reason, i may be tempted to give it a go. Awesome Video. i use this as my sound reference.
Man if anything I would ask that you do a comparison with the sync on but playing with the follow rate both manually and with CV control. One of the most distinguishing sounds of the DPO is that lag you can apply to the synced oscillator using the follow circuit. At least in my opinion that Follow circuit is the one thing that is unique to the DPO compared to all the other complex oscillators out there. Great comparison none the less!
watch the follow knob, as in this position left osc is trying to "follow" right vco. "FOLLOW If you patch a sequencer or keyboard controller to the VCO B 1V/Octave input and set the Follow control to full clockwise, VCO A follows the pitch tracking of VCO B. As Follow is decreased from full clockwise, VCO A lags further and further behind VCO B to the point of not actually following. At full counter clockwise Follow, VCO A is independent of VCO B. If you patch into the Follow CV Input, then the associated potentiometer becomes an attenuator for the incoming CV (as on the Optomix CV ins), allowing for external control over how VCOA follows VCO B."
The way I think I would sum it up after listening to this, is that I would (infact I will) choose the DPO because it does what the MP does and more, and sounds better in a wider range of places, but I will still want the MP because what it does, it does better than the DPO... Does that make sense? Well it does to me lol. Great video, as always! Thanks :)
Any reason you had sync on for the entire demo? I've also got a Mindphaser and I much prefer how it sounds with sync off. At least to my ears It's richer and thicker that way.
Because without sync on the modulator doesn't track the incoming note, and so it sounds dissonant? Is there a setting I'm missing? I'm bringing in the note to the 1v/oct input on the carrier (right VCO). If I bring it in to the modulator, then the carrier doesn't get it and track.
@@JohnSchussler No you are not missing anything. I guess I should have mentioned that I mult the 1v/oct instead of using sync when I need tracking. Unless I want sync of course - but sync(afaik soft sync in this case) has its own sound and is very different from just copying the 1v/oct, especially(I think) when the modulator is set to a lower frequency than the carrier. Actually the only feature I am missing from the Mindphaser is a button to copy the 1v/oct to the modulator - so that I wouldn't have to use an extra cable and a buffered mult when I need tracking.
@@Bestmann3n Ah. Got it. Now that you've pointed that out I'm trying it, and it does indeed sound different. Looks like I'll need to do a follow up vid....
I had one, didn't like it much. The waveshaper section is tame and the modulator is set up primarily to provide vibrato. Not particularly flexible. I just bought a mindphaser, arriving next week. I thought the video could have done a bit more than just run the same sequence from start to end. Like to hear some drones and external modulation. And no FX.
@@ritec Nope, still available AFAIK. Mind you, might be hard to get because of the Covid component shortages that are affecting everybody in the electronics industry, but....
Mindphaser has a quality 'pro' sound to it. The dpo strikes me as flat/one dimensional. Yes mindphaser is new and the dpo has been around for some years now, but just goes to show that sonic progress is still being made.
Beg to differ. To my ears, the DPO sounds richer, more versatile and less synthetic. Actually, I find the mindphaser to have an almost digital quality to its sound, which is not a bad thing at all but points to the fact that indeed, the mindphaser is much more precise in its modulation circuitry. Does it make it sound more or less "deep" or "dimensional"? I don't think so.
Personally I feel like they are both worthy of consideration if you are after a complex oscillator in your rack. I wouldn’t say that one is better than the other but they are both sonically different and it depends on what you are after. The Mindphaser has a more precise and I guess you could say clinical sound to it. The mid and high end sound lovely on it. The DPO on the other hand has a more natural and characterful sound, and the Low end sounds beefy and deep. I don’t think you could go wrong with either and I dare say if you can afford it then it’s worth having both. Two different beasts.
It’s hard to tell he had the mind phaser hard synced the entire time so it might get gnarlier with enharmonic modulation frequencies. He had linear and exponential fm running on the dpo the entire time so it’s kind of hard to actually tell what they sound like in the “same” patch
@@ModernDevotion The DPO was also Hard Synced the majority of the time apart from the last few minutes when he switched it to lock mode. I did notice he had the carrier modulating the modulator OSC and totally agree it’s far from the most scientific of comparisons. Neither particularly shined in this comparison. I don’t think they are ever going to sound exactly the same due to the sum of their parts (DPO uses vactrols in its circuitry for example) and Mindphaser has Phase Modulation. From the videos I’ve listened to regarding the Mindphaser and my experience with the DPO (I own neither btw) my honest opinion is that they are both amazing and compliment each other beautifully.
@@ChrisAdante true I think the fm on the modulator was the only big difference on the two for sake of comparison. My buddy is one of the folks doing calibrations and final assembly on the phasers and hearing some of the stuff he’s shared it seems like either of these guys will get ya to all the messy dirty tones one could desire. I’m still leaning toward dpo if only for the fact it’s a few less hp 😂
