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Dark Energy delivers old-school sounds.

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• Review

Dark Energy is a single oscillator analogue mono synth, with built-in MIDI-to-CV convertor and a USB port to integrate it in to the 20th century digital studio.

Cosmetically speaking, Doepfer has managed to build a very attractive little box, with its dark black steel, cherry red wooden ends, elegant rows of knobs and compact switches. The components feel nice and sturdy to tweak, but as there isn't that much real estate their careful arrangement means there's just enough room to wiggle switches without accidentally hitting others.

Also in the box are half a dozen short mini-jack cables to patch with, a USB cable and mini-jack to 1/4-inch for the main audio output. You can plug in a keyboard or sequencer through the MIDI In port round the back, connect the USB for MIDI over USB (plug and play), or trigger it analogue via the CV/Gate through the inputs on the top panel. Also round the back are four CV and one Gate output, a PSU socket and a Learn button.

While Doepfer list this synth as having a 'triangle based core', with a choice of the aforementioned triangle, or a saw wave, there's actually a little bit more going on than first meets the eye. When the three-position selector switch is in the central 'off' position you are left with a pulse oscillator, while the PW knob adjusts the symmetry of the square.

It produces an even square with PM in the middle, and this means you can effectively switch off the pulse wave by turning the PW dial to either its max or minimum position. Without the pulse in the mix, you can choose to go with either a pure saw or triangle waveform, or dial some of the pulse back into the equation.

Below it is a dial for PWM, sources are either ADSR or LFO2, and in case you were wondering, both LFOs' modulation is bi-polar and the red/ yellow flash indicates positive and negative direction. The VCO switch selects the range between three octaves, and the basic tuning can be set with the VCO knob, which smoothly sweeps over an 11 semi-tone range.

Dark Energy has a few tricks up its sleeve for expanding its tonal range, one of which is analogue FM. Chose between ADSR and LFO1 from the internal sources or patch something else in from your modular rack via the input on the front panel.

"The 24dB low-pass filter features keyboard tracking and is self-resonating, so it doesn't require the oscillator to get it sounding."

The LFO speed ranges from several minutes all the way up to 5kHz, which brings it nicely into the realms of audio rate modulation. This produces a wonderfully rich range of tones, from buzzing and flapping to biting, metallic klangs and robotic talk boxes.