probably the wisest conclusion
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Blimey, you must get good exercise doing squats to tweak the mix wizard below knee height
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The little guy in my profile pic is my studio engineer:)
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Got an as-1 the other day, it’s great and on clearance for 500NZD from the rockshop… https://www.rockshop.co.nz/shop/pioneer-dj-toraiz-as-1-desktop-monophonic-analogue-synthesizer-dave-smith-instruments.html
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Hi all!
I thought I’d report back, after all the advise given here. And maybe someone later can be helped from reading this here.
I snatched up a really good priced A4.
I can say I really couldn’t be happier with it. I already had listened to a lot of sound examples of it, and indeed it sounds great - plus very versatile - and also especially workflow wise I’m gelling with it enormously.
First of all, the fact that I can just mirror my workflow from my other Elektron boxes helps me a lot.
Second, the way all parameters are bundled in the different menus helps a lot to get a better overview, instead of everything at once.
I really like how the kits function. I can make slight alterations, and save them. Or I can stick with the same or a previous kit to keep the same sound that I changed during a song, similar to OT’s Parts. It’s sort of the best of both worlds: being able to store separate versions of sounds per Pattern in kits, like DT and DN save all parameters per Pattern, but also having the ability to morph sounds during a song throughout different patterns, like with OT’s parts.
In the end one post from a few years back that really helpt me in my decision, and that I fully experience the same, is this post by @tdmusic in which he said a lot of things that resonated with me, especially:
I’ll be saying goodbye to the BS2 (and an expensive effects pedal that was overqualified for my needs) to fund the A4. But I feel it’s a perfect decision. I’ve done more patches from scratch on the A4 during the last few days then I ever did on any piece of gear. Exactly what I was hoping to get this for.
Only the Poly settings and the Arp are still a bit of a mystery to me. In that regard, to me, the Digitone makes more sense automatically, the way DN automatically allocates its voices. But hey, it has 4 more so that is a bit of an unfair comparison. Plus I started this thread looking for a Mono synth, so in that function the A4 offers already three bonus mono voices more then I asked for:)
Thanks for all your advices, including suggesting the A4. I don’t know if I would’ve went for the A4 otherwise but I think it’s the perfect fit for what I was looking for!
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Happy I could help! 
Reminds me my A4 has been gathering dust for too long, must crack it out again, always surprises me when I do. Enjoy!
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Do it;)
Thanks for taking the time to write up your post back in 2017. It really helped me. I always feel a bit guilty for not gelling with a piece of gear, thinking I should just get more skilled in it. But in the end it’s also about enjoying the ride, and gelling with certain piece of kit more than another. I think you were exactly right that the A4 is a great synth to learn synthesis on. A lot of knowledge I acquired earlier is actually clicking right now, with the A4. In that regard its interesting that everyone always advises one-knob-per-function synths to beginners - I’m not sure if that’s always the best way to go. With a synth like the A4 you still can patch everything yourself, but at least to me it helps a bit better with its well thought out menu pages / parameter clusters.
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Yeah, this really surprised me too! I’m pretty sure using the A4 kind of helped me gain a “quantum leap” in my understanding of synthesis, now I can fairly comfortably dial in basic sounds whereas before I didn’t really know what I was doing and was fiddling with knobs. Could have just been a timing thing but interesting that you said the same!
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I guess an A4 is not too far away from knob per function actually.
You have knob per function for each page. Changing page takes just another button click 
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Haha I completely could picture you excitedly but uncontrollably moving sliders and knobs around on the Microbrute, was exactly my experience.
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Indeed:) You too thanks for thinking along!
Haha, you made me think of a recent sentiment, anyone who thinks the A4 is menu divie needs to take a trip back to the 90s.
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Congrats, great decision!!!
Re polyphony settings, which aspects are mysterious to you? maybe we can help.
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Hi, thanks!
Well mainly is that it seems there’s a bit more need to consciously think about where you are stealing voices from. With Digitone it always just happened automatically without problems, because I don’t use too many polyphony/chords usually.
For the A4 I don’t fully have it down yet how to apply settings following this part of the manual:
RESET Picks the first available voice in increasing order, starting from track voice 1, for every new overlapping note played.
ROTATE For every new coinciding note played the voices are allocated cyclically.
REASSIGN Uses the same voice as last time for every note played as long as it is unused. Otherwise, the least recently used voice is used for the new note.
UNISON Uses all voices to play the same note. Employs the adjustable parameters DETUNE and PAN SPREAD mentioned below.
It seems, reading this, that it might be necessary a bit more to think about what is playing where, and then manually select one of these options. Especcially choosing between the first three.
But reading this again it looks like “reassign” might be the best option for automatic allocation. Having it re-use the same voice, or otherwise the one used the longest time ago? What option do you usually use? Or do you always think about the specific context of the tracks, to choose which one applies best for that situation?
PS the drawings in the manual don’t really help😂 Do you remember those? Look them up if you’re looking for a good laugh/riddle haha. (Or I’m just too simple for them:)
PS2 I also have no idea what the downsides are for choosing a lesser ideal option for a situation. I can imagine maybe it cuts running notes off if voices are all in use? So with these options you could choose which notes you are most willing to be cut off by voice stealing?
Which one is more capable of making a sub-bass so deep my house will shake?
(Or, none of the above, Moog Minotaur?)
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Yes exactly that! You have four note polyphony with the A4 and you can „distribute“ those four notes across the four tracks as you like. There are two (I believe) options to choose from in regard to where voices come from when you play polyphonically:
Option 1: all notes follow the sound of the track you‘re on - so for example if you have a pad sound on track 1 and track 1 is selected and you play a chord, all four notes use that patch - so it‘s like playing a regular polyphonic synth.
Option 2: each note follows the sound/patch of the respective patch - so the first note in a chord will use the patch of track 1, the second note will use the patch of track 2, the third note will use the patch of track 3, and the fourth note in your chord will use the patch of track 4. This can be useful if you want to modulate individual notes in a chord.
Personally I use Option 1 almost exclusively, it just suits me better.
Now let’s assume you use option 1 for polyphony and you have a nice pad patch going on track 1 and you sequence a chord progression consisting of four note chords.
Now you switch to track 2 to add a bassline to it. The A4 can handle four voices max, so by adding the bassline, one note from your four-note chords on track one will have to be dropped. The options you listed above let you choose WHICH note gets dropped.
My tip here is just experiment. Choose an option and start composing then see which of the modes suits your playing & composing style the most.
Also note that each track of the A4 has two oscillators and a sub oscillator, so you can also play with that and “trick” your way to more voices. An example: if you program a patch on track 1 with the two oscillators tuned seven steps apart (so a fifth), you cover two notes of a triad with a single voice (the root and the fifth). Now if you choose option 2 for polyphony, you can copy the same patch over to track 2 and tune both oscillators to the same pitch…if you now play two notes, eg the root (which will come from your patch track 1) and the third (which if you choose option 2 for polyphony will come from your patch on track 2) what you will hear is a triad (because: track 1’s osc 1 playing your root, track 1 osc 2 playing your fifth and track 2 osc 1/2 playing your third). Now you can use track 3 & 4 for mono duties each.
My point is: the A4 is SUPER FLEXIBLE and will follow you where you want to go if you experiment with it a bit and get to know it with time.
As it does a lot, my tip is that you start at the beginning, try to program a few patches that you like, play around with them and connect to the A4 this way. The more you do this, the more your needs and ideas will drive your decision making on how to use the A4 (rather than leading with its potential).
I hope this makes sense to you
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Without filter resonance, all three.
WITH filter resonance, not Minitaur.
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Dreadbox Erebus will make your neighbours come screaming.
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Yes it makes a lot of sense. Will have to experiment to find my way around this more fluently, but in theory I think it makes sense all. Thanks for explaining. I hadn’t thought about the option of combining two tracks for polyphony at all, in the ways you described, was still only thinking of voice stealing - will have to experiment definitely to find out the additional options with that.
Don’t take my advice too strong, cause I’m the one here asking for advice in this thread. But didn’t want to just skip your question. In my current experience with BS2, and A4 since last week, I’d say I’m happier with A4 because if it’s versatility and elektron sequencer/workflow. But purely for bass the aptly named BassStation does really shine. No experience with the Moog.
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