I would have returned my Octatrack Mk2 if it weren’t for his tutorials.
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Thavius Beck is better
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Unfortunately he has no real tutorials on the MKII version of the A4 which is quite a bit different. BUT he does have plenty on the Octatrack at least.
I am making progress and have most of it figured out! Just need to better understand how to use song mode, chains and the sequencer better. It is way easier to learn than the older MD I was using before.
Totally agree! In fact while using both the Moog Sub 37 and the A4, I noticed how much better suited the A4 is for EDM, trance, house, and industrial type electronic music than the Moog. Plus it is light and actually easier to use to build patches and tracks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Moog but for electronic music the Elektron is the way to go unless you have big bucks for a Virus, Nord, or Eurorack modular system.
I saw a video by NIN synth master Alessandro Cortini who uses Elektron gear and a Buchla in his studio for industrial electronic music that he works on with Trent Reznor. Here is his live rig and note the Elektron OT!
Trent on the other hand is an old school Moog guy.
I was able to build tracks tonite that I can use as the basis of live sets in a small footprint single box that is smaller and lighter than my Macbook with Ableton Push and faster workflow for me based on working with both systems.
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Right now my setup is A4MKII, ARMKII, Digitone, and a 104HP 9u Buchla inspired/wavetable eurorack system and I make dark techno. I could put a sub37 in there but I don’t think there is any room sonically for it if I’m thinking about using all this for a live rig.
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sorry, but I think that’s nonsense.
You give the tool too much meaning
Cortini uses all sorts of stuff. He also made albums solely on a TB303 or an MC202.
There is a video about Trent where he’s talking that the Voyager is his favourite synth.
But look at his studio. He owns tons of stuff, and most likely uses it. Fagile is full of Nord lead and Nord modular. He also talked a lot about Native Instruments usage, A big part of Hesitation marks was written on machine.
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IMO there is a simple reason for this. Let me try to explain it with an example from another art.
If we draw a polar bear standing on ice with a carcoal pencil on a warm pastel coloured sheet of paper, the piece of art will have a warm character to it, despite the fact that the bear is living in a cold world. If we draw the same image on a blank sheet of white paper, the image of the polar bear will seem to be as cold as it would be natural for the beast.
Any Moog I have played was like the pastel coloured sheet. Even if I try to make it really angry, it always seems to succeed to be very harmonic and musical. If I set up a sync sound, the Moog keeps some sweetness to the sound and never get’s the aggressiveness of my Arp Odyssey. Moogs sound lovely, because it’s in their genes, electronically speaking, and they are limited to this sweetness somehow.
The A4 is more like the white coloured sheet of paper. If we keep it white, the sound will be clear and distinct. But compared to the Moog, the A4 gives us more freedom to create very different timbres, because we can colour it in so many ways, which are not possible on a typical Moog. The only draw back, if this even can be called a draw back, is that the A4 will not sound like a Moog, a Prophet, or a Jupiter-8 etc.
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Exactly. The moog sound is great but not versatile. A4 is like a toolkit.
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I had a Moog Sub37 for years. I made complete tracks with just that synth, multitracked and recorded in layers. It’s no problem to tame it with whatever’s required to make full songs with it. Like any other sound source, just work it right and it’ll fit.
But it’s kind of pointless, cause if you wanna use a Moog for bass, lead, layered chords, arps and drums - the lot, or close to it - you’re missing the point of the Moog.
It’s supposed to take its place in the room, to act front and center and be loud, even when it’s warm and soft. Tone it down, slap on EQ, limiters and stuff, sure - but why then even use it? Cause if you use it that way, you’re robbing it from much of the Moog character, and then I agree with others here - there are other synths better suited for that purpose, the A4 not the least.
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I disagree! All these preconceptions about what a Moog should and shouldn’t be are unhelpful in your goal of making music. There’s this sort of reverence surrounding their synths, and I get that the history is important, but at the end of the day surely it’s just another machine at your disposal to be bent into whatever sound you choose rather than the classic ‘warm, sweet, upfront’ character that comes most naturally.
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Yep. That works too, of course.
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For some reason there seems to be very little videos on the A4MK2, there seems to be more hype around the ARMK2
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@SoundRider the picture is well painted, nice analogy. 
@socaldreamer I was actually considering the Minitaur since it I also desperately need a full bass to compliment the A4… Honestly I find the Digitakt really nice for drums, p-locks make things waaay cooler than they would be without it haha.
@Adam9 @kwamensah good to know that it’s hard to mix, makes me more comfortable with the idea of not having it haha 
But yes this is exactly what I was saying, the fact that you can make the moog just play a chord and it fills the entire thing without the need to fit more musical elements in to further deepen the sound.
@andreasroman @Anfim @Ray-Ray_Velouria
Guys what I meant was that I’m not asking for the classic moog sound, but for the deeper sounds u can get with these nice synths whether it’s a moog, arp-odyssy, prophet, juno, jupiter…etc heck there are even digital synths that have a really deep sound and not necessarily an intense character.
anyway my entire point was sort of a joke, i know if what I asked for the ‘A16’ with this character was real, it would cost some 15,000$… My point was that if such a synth existed and I owned it, I would probably never buy another synth lol.
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I’m using a Minitaur alongside my A4 and AR2. It works great in that context. It sits perfectly sonically, and is very easy to dial in. The only thing I really dislike about the Minitaur is the lack of a screen (to see preset number).
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How to you control it? CV from A4?
Totally agree. I owned a moog for years and am glad I flipped it for another analog mono synth. I don’t really think moogs are as divine synths as some people would make them out to be. Heck, I remember feeling quite disillusioned when I heard a mate’s Basstation II for the first time: just as good yet cost peanuts compared to a moog.
I think moogs are mainly fetishized because they killed westcoast synthesis somewhat and introduced the synth as a ”keyboard player” instrument back in the heydays of all this elektronikswolksmusik biz things in the 1500 BC
Having said that, I kinda dig the present day direction moog has taken, with the mothers and all. I am sure Bob would dig it too if he were still around.
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Absolutely, but this has nothing to do that Moogs have a fine sound character in the first place. Let’s look into guitar-world … Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker, and other brands … despite the hype those companies craft and sell amazing instruments.
There are often excellent alternatives on offer. Nobody needs to use a hyped instrument to make amazing music, but to use one is no draw-back either 
BTW … Elektron gear isn’t exactly a steal either, isn’t it?
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I’m done with moog actually. Haven’t touched my Subsequent37 for several weeks, and sold a Voyager in Feb.
Then today as I was packing my synths away (going off on assignment soon) I decided to have a quickie with the Subsequent37 and a little bit of BigSky.
Suddenly I’m all about being “moog” again, and a few hours go by face down in knobs; 
Then it hits me, I’m just recreating sounds I’ve been making ( better) on my AK, A4, and Nord. And with Elektron I’m getting complete sequencing ability, and the Nord is phatter and creamier and polyphonic!
After this photo I put the Subsequent37 in its original box, ready for eBay.
Minitaur librarian is the only thing I’ve used a computer for in music. But works a treat.