Doepfer Dark Time Red

Its great!

Very nice little unit, good build quality as you would expect from Doepfer.

Handy customer service when I request a user Manuel in English, they were good to send me one in the post.

Recommended for the light hearted and dark-timmers QQ

no rating for sound, s it doesn't produce any ;-)

Well made but too expensive for what it is

Build quality is excellent. Durable steel case and good looking wood sides. However, the functionality of the sequencer is basic and the editing the less used features should be easier - frequent shift button operation required! Trips to te manual are often necessary.

I would recommend it only if it was two times less expensive. The price is too high regarding the Doepfer's not impressive functionality. Of course, it does not produce any sound - hence one star in this category.

Sequencer

works on its own or with your DAW clock including start/stop function. what else u need?

Old School Excellence

I am into ambient atmos soundscapes only. I now have three 3 DDT sequencers - yes I could have bought a very high end synth instead, but no thanks - why, to replace my hands & extra, in order to free up my hands for handling the knobs and switches. I love the DDT because it is human in that it requires accepting the erroneous behavior inherent in pure analog sequencing. The DDT allows external modular clock without a hitch even to a tempo below 1BPM of my tracks. The DDT can send out MIDI and CV/GATE simultaneously and there's switches for 1v/2v/5v and -1oct/0oct/+oct and linear vs random as well as monophonic and duophonic sequence. No menu, nothing, what a blessing just switches like the good old analog days. I keep my three 3 is a crowd as a happy family. Yes I had beatsteps and keysteps, both pro and not-pro, but ditched them all. Yes DDT is not cheap, yes it's build like a tank to last any disaster, yes it looks cool too.

The best sequencer I used.

You can be really creative with it.

low standards - no support

Got the product and it's in theory a great gear for step sequencing.

However is very defective in its construction, not the unit in particular, as knobs are not calibrated i.e. if you dial at 5 you'll obtain different notes on different steps even in note quantize mode.

USB connection is a bit unstable in Windows10, works fine on Mac.

The instruction manual is incomplete.

I wrote to their tech support inquiring about the issues and their rude answer was = knobs are like that, the manual is perfect if you don't like it send it back to where you bought it and try to get a refund. Unbelievably careless

A simply incredible sequencer

Very good value for what it does, worked out of the box and came with a very informative manual. Don't think there's much more to be said, I bought it to set up with my pre-midi synths and it has been an effortless experience. The separate S-trigger cable made my Doepfer made using it with my Korg MS-20 and MS-50 as sample as could be. Great company, great product.

versatile and great, but lacks Midi to CV

Dark Time is a versatile analog style sequencer. The newer models can be jumpered to output a higher voltage to use with synths such as the Buchla 200e.

The user interface of the Dark TIme could be clearer, it's a bit hard to play it intuitively -- it helps to add colored vinyl caps to the switches to make it easier.

that said it is a stunningly versatile sequencer that does a lot of things and does them well.

Some quirks:

- it does not convert incoming Midi to CV

- there are a few (semi-) hidden functions, using a shift function, sort of. This is ok for most things, I don't like that shuffle and pulsewidth are on the same dial - it's too easy to accidentally adjust the pulsewidth (note length) after adjusting shuffle, often causing you to lose notes.

- the knobs are not the same angle at the same value, which can be confusing, but you need to tune it.

- doesn't do ratcheting - the Berliner Schule style of repeating steps - that would be something amazing for a Dark Time II.

- 2x16 switches are a lot of switches to check, even tough the Dark Time offers some great performance tools, it's easy to lose track of settings.

Nothing major, just a few things you need to get used to.

A lot of fun.

I use this in combination with my analog synths.

Love this sequencer. Hands on, good quality, the looks.

can't miss with this one !

tweaky box

It's small, very capable and fun. Analog sequencers are just great for making looped themes, basslines and crazy bleepy phrases. This has both midi and cv/gate which makes it very versatile, although the two synths I most wanted to connect this to (MiniMoog and Synthi) will not work without special leads and mods.

The diddy toggle switches are maybe a tad unwieldy for those with bigger fingers, and the stop option being endlessly available across all the steps might not be the best choice of function as it is all too easy to just stop..