Does anyone here use their A4 to make 808/606/CR-78/KPR-77 type drum sounds?
I’ve read in a couple of places that drums are not the A4s strongest suite, however I can’t find anyone going into more detail.
I’m sure this is a common use for the A4 but I’m struggling to find good demos.
I’m 95% sold on the A4. Good snappy, ‘vintage’ drum sounds will seal the deal.
Cheers!
check out DRUMA by darenager , just use the search function. Great sounds IMO.
sorry cant embed shit today!!!
It can make some good drum sounds, but at least I haven’t been able to get anything vintage sounding out of it. It has a very modern sound character. Some very powerful kicks though, and good hats.
Haven’t checked out the Darenager kit though.
The A4 has super snappy envelopes which are well suited for drums. It’s a lot more suited for drums then a tempest for instance, because of the envelopes and multimode filter. The pack from darenager is a perfect example of what you could get with the A4 on drums.
Sounds like the Darenanger stuff is along the lines of what I’m after.
Still not entirely convinced tho. Largely it’s the lack of ‘sizzle’ on the hat sounds that I’ve heard, and the initial crack/attack sound on tom, snare, and bd sounds.
Dunno maybe I’m being too finicky. Percussion is after-all only a small part of the A4 
I use allot of 808 and 606 sounds, and want to move away from sample packs. I guess I could always build a small modular rig to handle percussion stuff and drive it with the A4 CV outs.
trust me, you will not be disappointed with those types of sounds, it is very very versatile as a percussive instrument, there’s so much that can be done with the SoundLocks and kit sounds to really layer things up - it easily quashes my RYTM GAS
I can second the support for Darenager drum sounds i use them whenever i need an evil kick or various other percussive sounds.
Then only thing i can’t get the a4 to produce is a really meaty 707 snare.
Maybe you guys have some tips?
You might not be able to achieve this. The 707 isn’t an analogue drum machine. All the sounds on the 707 are samples.
With regard to the thread topic, the different envelope shapes are quite important for getting snappy sounds. Some of them are specifically designed for percussion
+1 for Daren’s DRUMA. Those are great
Cocker what do you mean by some envelope shapes being designed specifically for drums? Are there ADSR presets on the A4?
You simply won’t be able to reproduce that kind of hats/cymbals sound on the A4 because this type of sound relies on six square-wave oscs tuned enharmonically which are then passed through two parallel band-pass filters.
The AR seems to use this kind of architecture for its hats and cymbals though.
Seriously, if you keep asking questions about how fit the A4 is for drums you’ll look back on these comments and go, why did I ever doubt it 
there are more envelope shapes in the A4 than virtually any other synth I know, only a waldorf may have some additional modes or extended shapes, but for every possible way to do conventional envelopes the A4 has them all and some are really cool, it’s a powerhouse - shame they don’t loop or have delay, like DSI stuff but other than that and including the one shot lfo shapes, all bases are covered
There isn’t one voice in a RYTM that is more powerful than the ones in A4 (leaving aside sample play) … go figure, it’s not tailored to do cymbals, but you’ll get passable stuff there, all else is on the money and so much more than just a TR mimic
Druma is essential to hear the potential 
Really usable sounds, yet there is still an infinite playground for percussion sounds
I have to disagree with the specifics of that statement, but in general you’re absolutely right.
The key to great percussive sounds are fast envelopes with the “right” shape, and the A4 has plenty of both.
The AR will be able to make some sounds you can’t make on the A4, but then again the A4 can make a whole range of sounds you can’t make on the AR.
However, the main point here is that for a “general purpose” subtractive analogue synth, the A4 is extremely well suited for creating percussive sounds. I don’t think there are many synth of this type out there that can do a beter job at it.
Thanks for the Druma love guys 
BTW you can make very similar to the 6 squarewave cymbal/hat sounds on the A4, even though you don’t have 6 squarewaves - check out x0x cymbal and soft ride amongst others in Druma for examples of that kind of sound.
I think the A4 is a great drum synth, and the Rytm’s biggest competition might well be its own sibling, on analog drum sounds at least. (not sequencing)
Finally for anyone who is anti presets I did not design Druma to be canned presets, think of them as shortcuts and time savers which just happen to be perfectly useable as-is, indeed a lot of very high profile and respected names in Techno, Minimal and House have bought them, as well as some of the most talented forum members - you know who you are!
More stuff coming soon!
I have to disagree with the specifics of that statement, but in general you’re absolutely right.
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if i had to take an elektron based one voice synth to a desert island i know which box i’d extract it from irrespective of the groovy sample playback and distortion/compression
I’ll certainly buy them to take a look at how you’ve put the sounds together. Have you considered writing and selling a small companion booklet that explains the details of and motivation for your sound design choices?
On the AMP and ENV pages, if you look at the top right parameter you will see the SHP parameter. There are 12 different shape characteristics. Some have linear rise and fall, some exponential rise and fall and some other combos of both. The little dot on the envelop shape means it will retrig from a zero.
Check out Appendix A of the manual for a few notes.
Thanks all, very informative.
I think I’ll take the plunge and see how I go. I recently read the classic SOS article about programming percussion sounds on synths. No doubt coupling that knowledge with one of the preset packs out there for the A4 will give me what I want.
+1 for druma…very affordable and even if you mostly like/design your own sounds they are great shortcut/starters
I still preordered a rytm, I’m a voice hog and hate giving them up for percussion