A4 Tips & Tricks

[pdp]

Aargh sorry, whats for shure is Adams advice (practice) is right. I dont use the hammer (a4) enough. Because of lazyness, possibility, but also because of fear of loosing stuff and I cant just turn on, move knobs and turn off.

You gave me the tip with " kit reload on change".
Thanks I know that well and have it enabled.(its in global> seq config)

But p locks are stored with pattern and pattern are always autosaved when i change to other pattern. Uff, my brain…

To make it more complicated i even know the on the fly copy reload paste…name new kit trick, ( not much practice, and yes it is dangerous and complicated)
as possibility IF:

I have a nice pattern with kit, i can not resist to turn some knobs and enter some trigs (shame on me) and i like the new pat and kit also and i want both saved.

So my question: first thing you do after turning on a4 is always make a copy of pattern and name new kit (to not loose if you like what you make?) or how you deal with that, how you organize, or you dont care?
What is your favourite vegetable?

I also shouldnt care too much, i dont do serios stuff anyway, i just want to be more motivated and less blocked to use the hammer or to buy another swedish hammer. (Good analog-y, a4 hammers enough already solo)

Again thanks for forum, now that i switched from iphone 3 to 5 i can see and use it again : )

[bigfrog]

This is my main dislike of Elektron equipment and the main reason why I like Overbridge so much.
With Overbridge I just save whatever is I am working in my DAW, when I change a sequence/kit and like it, I save it in the DAW.

Its too bad I cant do this with my Mono or MD.

[glitched]

Still having a hard time understanding exactly what you want to do, @pdp .

You claim annoyance with having to save new patterns and kits after you have modified them.
How else do you propose to save different versions of the same kit or pattern?

Ok, so you can’t load/name patterns to the one you’re working on, as you can with kits, but pattern save/load is extremely useful! Yes, copying the whole pattern to a new one is indeed the only way.

By the way, remember that the A4 has a kit memory-buffer, so you don’t have to save the kit every time you power-down.

Oh, yes; AdamJay mentioned a great technique: If you don’t want to “destroy” an original pattern by placing p-locks, etc., copy/paste this original pattern a couple times. Do your composition/performance/elaboration on the ancillary patterns. IF you like them, save the pattern. If not, reload. This way, you can have several versions of one pattern at your fingertips and one button combo: NO+Scene/Pattern (reload).

[LyingDalai]

I do believe you have a problem of workflow.

Basically, when you’re satisfied with a pattern, copy it and paste it to the following slot.
Now if you want to tweak a Sound, think of quick saving your current kit (Yes + Kit) and then save it as a new Kit.

Let’s do this with an example:

Let’s say I’m on Pattern A06.
I am comfortable with the current kit, I save it as “A06 ambient” for instance.
I play on Pattern A06 for a while… Once I have something I like I copy the whole Pattern, quick save the Kit if the tweaks suit me, and go to Pattern A07.
I paste previous Pattern, save the current Kit as “A07 ambient”, and now I can further mess everything up without touching anything to A06.

Try this for a while until it feels natural, that might help you to find your own way

[pdp]

Thanks im sorry to take your time and nerves.
I dont mean save, i mean save as ( and keep old pat+ kit)
And also some fear of losing stuff by accidently pushing wrong trig because of autosave.

Yes, thanks I see again copy paste before starting is the way to go.
Its just symtomatic that you dont mention how important it then is to also save kit with new name if you dont want total mess
or youre totally sure you just changed trigs and p locks.

BTWit seem not very known: there indeed is also the quite reliable but also complicated on the fly method ( cant test it now)
More or less copy pattern, reload kit( not shure there) + pattern, select new pattern, paste pattern, save kit to new name, save pattern.

Thanks befrog, sounds great if one day i will be motivated to buy a stable compu and learn a daw again i will be even more thankful for all your overbridge betatesting
for a stable and simple Ob
Have a nice evening

[LyingDalai]

No pb dear.
I’m just pointing out some methods that work for my own workflow, trying to help you see your way through this.

Indeed things would be easier for me if there were some slight changes, but as you and me don’t have any power on changing how these things work, only way I see is to learn how it works inside out and find your own path in this.

[pdp]

Thanks a lot for the nice and detailed answer. I was too slow writing. Will try it, it seems similar, same, maybe bit more secure as the quick on the fly thing i wrote above. Thanks and i will practice a bit and try to feelmore secure.
Symtomatic i was referring to d. s answer,
Nice evening to both

[Ryan]

I just wanted to add something on here:

you can sequence FX parameter locks on the FX section(I believe switching to this track will automatically turn grid rec off, turn it back on- plug away)

You can mute the fx sequencer for the menu values to play at their displayed values, and then turn the Fx track on midway through performing for the fx-p-locks to turn on. When turning off the FX track values will remain at their last p-locked setting, return them to their initial value by pressing a key while on the Fx track

[DarkDialectCZ]

Hi all !

im proud owner of elektron products, and not lo long ago i bought A4,
i also have MnM where i like to “break” notes, with lfo…
usually i set lfo to pulse, trig and with speed and multi i can bend even short note,
but on a4 iam not able to find nice speed / multi / depth which would make similar effect… to me it seems like it goes to quickly to high values?

is there any way how to slower the lfos ?
or does any of you do any similar “tricks”?

***i think im not targeting finepitch only pitch
maybe thats the case

cheers M.

[Taimi]

I bought analog 4 and wonder is there benefits if i connect my two mono dreadbox synths to the inputs of analog 4. Can i use effects on those synths and some other ways mangle/edit the sound?

[avantronica]

You can substitute the A4 oscillator(s) on a given track for an external sound source injected pre-filter so it’ll subsequently pass the FX if you want

You then just need to work out whether you want the A4 seq to control the external device pitch by using the CV outputs

You can’t do as much to an external device source as you can with an internal oscillator in terms of sync etc

If you don’t need the extra filtering/amp-options of the A4 then just bring the external inputs straight into the FX - the CV outs (if any spare) can still be used to mod a CV synth

[DarkDialectCZ]

to answer my question - slow lfo i was looking for, can be achieved by MUL ٠1, ٠2, ٠4, ٠8 etc

there is this “point” which i never noticed… always was using only x1 x2, or 1k… etc…

as my usual experience with elektron gear, there longer you have it, the more treasures (for you at that time) you find…

***also found “INF” pattern reset counter not long ago…
thanks

[guga]

found this one on the AR and it’s working on the A4 too so i thought i would post it here as well

in Perf mode, holding Function+track will arm the track(s) to be either muted/unmuted. the track(s) will then be muted/unmuted when Function is released but …before releasing Function, pressing Tempo will allow to release Function with nothing happening; only pressing Function again will then mute/unmute the selected track(s)

Perf mode:

• hold Function+select track(s) to be muted/unmuted
• keep holding Function, press Tempo
• release Function
• press Function again when needed

tested on A4 MKI 1.24

[Skandini]

Hi!
Can I connect an external effects pedal to A4 and use it as a sand? I want to send one of four tracks to it but not all 4. (H9 harmonizer 2 in and 2 out)

[avantronica]

yes - whilst it’s not a tip per se - you would isolate the chosen track from the main mix through the audio config menu - then bring the effected track back in to the A4 Mk2 inputs

[Skandini]

In the audio routing menu? Can you please in more detail? How should I connect my pedal? in Ext In?
Or do I need to ask such questions in another thread?
Thank you!
UPD: I’ll probably think well and write a separate post-question about my hard-routing))

[avantronica]

The Mk2 has stereo TRS outs for the individual tracks, connect one of those into the H9 using a TRS to TS/TR cable, then feed teh output of the H9 back into teh external inputs

The Voice Routing menu (search manual) will allow you to determine whether a Track goes through to the main outputs or not, it just toggles them on/off

You would take the track you want to H9 effect and remove that from the Main because it would double up and create audio issues otherwise - unless you could bring the wet only signal back - in which case ignore the voice routing suggestion

there are topics on chosing the correct cable type - e.g. https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_sssnake_sk3153_insertkabel.htm

If you have no panning on your A4 track you can use a mono cable to go from A4 to H9 and bring stereo back

[Skandini]

Thank you very much! I’m going to experiment!

[Skandini]

Sorry last question. That is, if I connect the pedal in this way, then I can send any two tracks to the pedal (for example 1 and 4) and then all together it will go to the main output? I pictured correctly?
Thank you!