Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8: Filter Unit Joins the Intriguing Eurorack-Ready Line
4,2 / 5,0 | 
Dubreq’s Eurorack-compatible Compact Portable Modular range gains the Stylophone CPM DF-8, a filter unit with two separate filter types.
Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8
Just as Dubreq did around this time last year with the CPM DS-2 drone synth, the long-running UK company has today announced the Stylophone CPM DF-8, a standalone filter unit that is also Eurorack compatible.
The chief selling point is that it has two filter blocks, each with two choices: the 2045 24dB/Oct lowpass filter from the CPM DS-2 and the proprietary GEN R-8.
Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8: Filter Types
The Stylophone CPM DF-8 appears to be very flexible in term of filter types, so let’s look at these individually. Each block has a switchable highly resonant filter with the following selectable modes:
- Four types of GEN R-8 (12dB/Oct) filters with lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch modes
- One type of 2045 (24dB/Oct) filter with lowpass mode
- Three combination types (12/24dB/Oct) with bandpass+, band reject+ and notch+ modes
Cutoffs can be linked between the two blocks.
Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8: Envelopes
Along with the two filter blocks, the CPM DF-8 features two ADSR envelopes with linear and exponential curves and looping AR modes. You can link envelopes between the two filters.
Additionally, you can trigger the envelopes in four different ways:
- Analog CV trigger/gate signal input
- Audio signal input with adjustable trigger/gate threshold
- Manual trigger/gate button
- Auto-repeat AR envelope loop mode
Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8: Sample & Hold and Delay
There are no LFOs to be seen but the CPM DF-8 does have a sample and hold circuit, with sync input and adjustable slew.
There’s more in this surprisingly complex unit. You also get two VCAs with envelope inverters, two white noise sources, three envelope depth attenuverters, and four bypass switches for the filters and VCAs.
In terms of effects, it has the same PT2399 tape-style delay with modulation as the DS-2.
Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8: Eurorack Ready
As you can see, this is more involved than your usual Stylophone instrument. It may be useful to think of the DF-8 as a Eurorack module more than anything. To that end, it sports 14 modular patch points for audio, envelopes, filters, VCAs, and S&H. It also comes packed with a Eurorack power bus connector and will take up 42HP of case real estate when installed.
Should you wish to use it standalone you of course can, with a built-in two-watt speaker and six AA battery compartment. You can also power it with an external power supply. If you have a DS-2 (or any of the other possibly forthcoming models) you can lock them together with the side ribs on the case.
Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8 Price and Availability
The CPM DF-8 looks like another winner from Stylophone. With the white noise and resonance, you can surely use it on its own for sci-fi noises and whooshes but it will probably make more sense when paired with an oscillator. One thing that I’d like to know, however, is if it’s normalled at all, and if so, is that a basic serial signal path? Do you need to patch to access the S&H circuit?
There’s no price point yet for the CPM DF-8 but if I had to guess, it would be similar to the DS-2, which sells for around $279. There’s also no release date yet. Visit the Stylophone site (link below) to sign up for the mailing list. The CPM DS-2 drone synth is currently available from Thomann*.
More Information
- Dubreq Stylophone home page
- All about Stylophone
- All about synthesizers
- All about Eurorack
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One response to “Dubreq Stylophone CPM DF-8: Filter Unit Joins the Intriguing Eurorack-Ready Line”
The DS-2 uses a 12db/octave 3320 lowpass/highpass filter. The 2045 used here a different is 24db/octave lowpass filter.
(https://www.gearnews.com/stylophone-cpm-ds-2-synthesizer/)