Previewing Sounds on A4 and MIDI Keyboard

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hi everyone,

I am currently using an A4 mk1 being triggered by a MIDI keyboard. When I want to change/audition a new sound (or preview it ) I have to play the A4 “keyboard buttons” to hear the different sounds and banks. Only when I press “yes”, and load the new sound, can I play it on my keyboard.

Is there a simple way to use my MIDI keyboard to preview sounds without having to use the A4 button-keyboard or go through so many button presses? Perhaps just a simple turning of a knob to select a sound and play via MIDI…?

#2

Set your MIDI keyboard to transmit on the A4 auto channel.

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#3

Thanks for the message - I tried that, and it didn’t change anything for me.

Just to confirm, my MIDI keyboard is playing the “loaded” sound properly. I would like to audition sounds with my MIDI keyboard without having to:

  • either double click the track button to bring up the sound browser, or:
  • press function and then press “sound”
  • and then press “yes”
  • and then dial up a sound, and then press “yes” to load the sound,
    …and only then can I preview the new sound using my MIDI keyboard. Obviously that is a lot of presses just to try out a new sound on a keyboard. I was writing to ask if there was a more efficient way to do this without so many key presses?

Thanks in advance if anyone can help :slight_smile:

#4

The most efficient way has already been laid out - if you double tap track, then an external keyboard on auto channel will work for auditioning (no need to press yes - but you will have to manually scroll through presets on the device, there’s no way around this)

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#5

as iguai wrote, it should work when using auto-channel… it does for me, at least.

are you sure, you are using the “concept” of auto-channel in the right way? (your external keyboard plays the track you chose on the a4 with the track-buttons)

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#6

Ahhh! OK, thank you. It sounds like there is more to this than I thought I knew. I am at work now, but I will try again later today using your notes. I sincerely appreciate you both taking a moment to point this out :smile:

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#7

Thank you iguai, avantronica, and nionmu. I did just now get the A4 to operate in almost a perfect manner for me! It is nice to be able to scroll through sounds while playing a MIDI keyboard to audition.

avantronica wrote: “you will have to manually scroll through presets on the device, there’s no way around this…”
That is too bad, but a limitation of the machine I guess. Now I am curious what the Program Change Messages do? I am going to try to sync them to my MIDI keyboard and see what that does…

Thank you again for the help.

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#8

only going to change patterns I’m afraid, which will in turn possibly load new kits (and therefore possibly new sounds) … but there’s basically no way to browse better on the A4, the AK got a dedicated wheel (but still no MIDI support, which will never happen)

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#9

Thanks for taking the time to guide me, avantronica.

A very friendly and helpful reply!

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