The ribbon controller is the oldest expressive interface in electronic music and still one of the least compromised. No keys, no frets, no discrete steps — just position along a strip, read continuously. Doepfer has been building them since the 1990s, and the company has now released the A-198-2, a substantially revised successor to the long-running A-198.

Its arrival also closes out the batch of six modules Doepfer announced ahead of Superbooth 2025 — all of which are now shipping, more than a year later.

What Changed

The original A-198 was a Trautonium-style ribbon: run a finger along the strip, get a control voltage proportional to position, plus a gate while contact is made. Simple, effective, and fixed in its behaviour. The A-198-2 keeps that core and makes almost everything about it configurable.

Switchable quantisation is the headline. You can now toggle between quantised and unquantised output either at the module itself or from an external control-voltage input. That matters more than it sounds. Unquantised, the ribbon is a glissando instrument — portamento, sirens, vocal-style scoops. Quantised, it becomes a scale-locked melodic surface. Being able to move between the two mid-performance, under CV control, turns one gesture into two instruments.

There are nine user-programmable quantisation tables, displayed on a one-octave keyboard graphic on the panel. Rather than a fixed menu of major, minor and chromatic, you define the scales you want and recall them.

Gate generation has been reworked too. There is a new hold mode, and retrigger behaviour can now be switched on and off at the module or via external CV — useful when you want a legato slide across the whole ribbon rather than a fresh gate at every finger placement.

The positions of the two control voltage outputs are now adjustable, in five steps for CV1 and seven for CV2, and parameter settings can be stored rather than dialled back in each session.

The MIDI Output

The addition most relevant to readers outside the modular world is the optional MIDI output. A ribbon controller with a MIDI port is no longer strictly a Eurorack device — it becomes a controller that can address plugins and hardware synths directly.

Doepfer has not published a detailed MPE specification for the module, and prospective buyers should check the manual and confirm with the dealer before assuming particular channel behaviour. What is documented is a single continuous position value plus gate, which is the natural fit for a monophonic pitch-bend-style stream rather than the multi-channel note allocation that MPE defines.

That is not a criticism so much as a description of what a ribbon is. A single strip reads one contact point. The expressive richness comes from the resolution and continuity of that one dimension, not from polyphony — which is precisely why ribbon players tend to pair the instrument with monophonic or paraphonic voices.

Why Ribbons Still Matter to Expressive Players

If you already play an MPE controller, the appeal of a ribbon is the absence of a note grid. On a Seaboard or a Continuum, pitch is continuous but the surface still suggests key positions, and the instrument usually snaps to a note on contact before letting you slide away from it. A ribbon offers no such reference point. Where your finger lands is the pitch, full stop.

For anyone working on glissando technique, microtonal material, or the kind of vocal-imitative lines that made the Trautonium famous, that lack of a safety net is the point. It also makes the new quantisation switching genuinely useful: practise locked to a scale, then unlock it when the part calls for it.

The MIDI output means you can point a ribbon at an MPE-capable plugin and use it as a single expressive voice inside an otherwise MPE session — one line played with true continuous pitch, sitting alongside chords played on a conventional expressive surface.

Price and Availability

The A-198-2 is available now in two configurations:

Both are offered in Doepfer's classic silver or in a black vintage-edition finish. The module-only option exists because the ribbon strip itself is a wear part and some builders prefer to source or replace it separately.

With the A-198-2 out, all six modules from Doepfer's Superbooth 2025 announcement — including the mini analog sequencer and the fluctuating random voltage module — are now available.

More information: Doepfer · Perfect Circuit · ModularGrid

Sources: Synth Anatomy, Doepfer