Hi everyone,
I am looking at purchasing a polyphonic synth that would pair well with an Analog Four and a Digitone.
My idea of “pairing well” means this synth would have a distinct sound and should not overlap with the A4 or the DN but rather would complement/extend pallette of possibilities. Keybed or not, doesnt matter.
Looking forward to suggestions of people with more experience than me 
Blofeld?
I have MicroFreak for “distinct” sound. It’s great addition to A4 and DN, but it’s paraphonic.
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Some more info would help:
- what style are you making?
- what you want to achieve with this new synth?
- sounds like you’ll largely be sequencing it?
- what roles will the A4 and DT be playing (seeing as they’re technically polyphonic synths already)?
- budget?
- have you done any of your own research?
Maybe, just maaaybe, we can avoid another pointless list of everyone’s favourite synths and get you a useful response…
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thanks for the narrowing down questions!
what style are you making?
- so, I’m a guitarist and I tend to experiment a lot lately with jamming on dark synthwave. stuff like this
- “style” itself - I havent found my own style yet, but I’m working on it!
what you want to achieve with this new synth?
- i guess im lacking experience to properly answer this one. Havent found my style yet to point to a specific desired direction.
sounds like you’ll largely be sequencing it?
- correct!
what roles will the A4 and DT be playing (seeing as they’re technically polyphonic synths already)?
- good question. I dont have these two yet, I’m trying to gather information as to what would be best to pair them with. As to roles, I would need more experience with combining synths to be able to answer that, and I’m new to synths in general now, just trying to figure out from other posts what how are people pairing stuff. If you ask me, “ok, why did you pick the A4 and Digitone then?” - my criteria for picking A4 and Digitone is “according to other posts I would get a huge array of sounds out of these two, so what would the community add to them to form the ultimate trio of synths”, but i guess “ultimate trio” is also based on desired sound, etc. So, something as flexible as possible?
budget?
- 2k € max!
have you done any of your own research?
- “what-synth-to-get” variants of my question pops a lot on reddit and a lot of people seem to suggest the Novation Summit is a great choice in general, but if for example it overlaps with the A4 I would spend the money somewhere else. Since i don’t have the A4 yet, I can’t really tell about overlap and such. Other recommendations point to OB-6 but thats out of budget.
Thanks for your patience!
Hmm, why considering buying another new synth then? I guess this would be an opportunity to gain experience with the A4/DN first (which take time) before you buy another synth?
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I’d recommend a Nord Lead 2x or an A1, both of which are four part multitimbral so can be sequenced by the DN’s four MIDI tracks.
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I agree with the others saying to work out what you like and don’t like first. The Peak or Summit don’t overlap with your gear, but you should figure out why yourself. Make some tracks first, then figure out if you need a poly. The A4 is very capable, do some sound design, make some music, and that’ll help.
This is only my experience, but my setup includes a KeyStep as my keyboard, the A4, DT, and Peak (a few others), and I really like it. It’s compact and capable. The Peak’s modulation offerings and oscillators are very different to the A4. Peak has a full mod matrix with multiple envelopes, whereas the A4 has more “dedicated” LFOs/modulations sprinkled throughout. If you don’t know what those mean, work with the A4 first until you do!
While GAS is motivating, don’t let it outpace your knowledge, else you’ll end up with a bunch of stuff without the skill to use it in a fun way, and it will become intimidating and frustrating.
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Thanks so much, you are right! Perspective is what I needed! 
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OK…?
Don’t make a shopping list then, rather make music. Why then A4 and DT in the first place anyway?
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Erm…don’t want to be rude, but it’s the opposite. Both have a full featured Modulation Bus, however additionally the A4 has on top extra modulations in the different Synthesis sections, e.g. PWM in the Osc sections etc.
I think it’s been picked up above… having not bought DN or A4 yet, this is all speculative rig-building / list-making and seems a bit daft.
I’d suggest that if you’ve been experimenting with dark synthwave already, you must have a method of doing that? (Software synths, apps or something?) So you could continue doing that whilst focusing on what sounds and synthesis styles you use most. And if you’re still determined to buy hardware, maybe pick up one piece which you LOVE the sound of and feel really drawn to. Then live with it for a while and see how you go!
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yes you are right, so far I get by with using Ableton / Push2 and UHE Diva for the synthwave-ish flavour 
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Cool! Stick at it, find the sounds you can’t live without. And work out what synth could replicate those sounds in real life, and if the expense of buying it will give you enough more than the software / is worth it
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Roland JU06a/System 8
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You could try a cheap-ish midi knob bank and create a dedicated midi map for diva. Itll take time but having a midi controller that simply controls 1 synth can actually make it feel like a bit of hardware at times. Also its a lot cheaper of an experiment! 
Push is cool but not enough knobs/faders for me. Its definitely more of an ableton controller than a midi controller if that makes sense.
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makes perfect sense thats also my impression on the Push 
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I wasn’t meaning to minimize the flexibility of the A4. Maybe I’m explaining it unclearly, but Loopop makes a lot of the same comparisons that I do, saying how you get “free LFOs” for things like pitch without using LFOs, which you don’t get with Peak, but Peak has more LFOs and oscillators (which can be used for modulation) per voice. Both are overflowing with modulation options, but the way you approach it is different, which is what I meant. With Peak/Summit, you treat it almost like a modular, tying piece to piece through the mod matrix, whereas the A4 workflow is very “function” based.
My primary point is, they are very different in how you make a sound, and play different roles… you can’t have a modulating 8-voice wavetable in the A4, meanwhile, you can’t get 4 different layers playing at once on the Peak/Summit (not to mention the sequencer, scenes, etc…). Kind of like with vehicles, both a car and a truck can get you somewhere, but both are different experiences.
I love both machines and would never see myself selling either, but the process sitting down to make a patch is quite different between them.
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No Problem, maybe i took it the wrong way. I actually own both synths and they are just Made for each other.
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