doepfer a-198 trautonium manual / ribbon controller price : $290.00

module a-198 is a trautonium manual resp. ribbon controller. the controlling element of the a-198 is a linear position sensor (length about 50 cm) that has available a pressure sensor too.



touching the sensor with a finger generates a control voltage cv1 that is proportional to the position of the finger. the scale (i.e. the relation between position difference and voltage difference) is adjustable with a potentiometer at the front panel. a hold switch is used to determine if the cv voltage is held after removing the finger (hold = on) or if the cv voltage jumps to 0v (hold = off). in the last case (hold = off) a gate signal is derived from the cv voltage whenever a finger touches the sensor (e.g. for triggering an envelope generator).

a pressure sensor located below the position sensor generates a second control voltage cv2 that increases with higher pressure of the finger. even for cv2 the scale is adjustable. a second gate signal is triggered as soon as the pressure exceeds a certain value. the gate threshold is adjustable at the front panel. the pressure sensor is made with conductive rubber (located below the position sensor) and works not as accurate as the very precise position sensor. the resistance of the conductive rubber changes with varying pressure and causes a variable voltage. but the coherence between pressure and resistance/voltage is not very accurate - except that an increasing pressure will cause an increasing voltage. even some difference of the pressure sensor behaviour over the length of the manual may be possible as the conductive rubber has tolerances over this length.

the sensors are located in a separate metal frame (length about 600 mm, width about 30 mm, height about 18 mm, weight: about 900 g, color: silver-grey). the connection between the module and the sensor frame is made by a 4 pin cable (same as used for usb connections).

typical applications:
trautonium manual, the string is replaced by the position sensor that is much easier to use and cheaper than the string. in combination with the subharmonic oscillator a-113, the trautonium filter a-104 and some auxiliary modules a complete trautonium replica may be realized. in combination with the quantizer a-156 exact semitone intervals are possible.

ribbon controller for any a-100 parameter (e.g.pitch, filter frequency, loudness, panorama, speed, modulation depth and so on)

remark: r2m (ribbon-to-midi) is the stand-alone version of the a-198 with midi and cv/gate outputs. r2m offers a lot more features than the a-198 (e.g. arpeggio, quantizing, gate function even in the hold mode, inverse scaling and many more). r2m is available even without manual so that an existing a-198 manual can be used. for details please refer to the r2m information.



this module has a maximum current draw of 50ma. it requires 8 te/hp worth of space to fit in a eurorack frame.

to view this module's user manual as a pdf file, please click here.