I’ve been so inspired by modular techno lately. For example by Tunegirl or @tumulishroomaroom
I’m trying to approach this with the A4. The A4 has snappy envelopes great LFO’s and plenty mod option. Connecting the CV out to the the line in of the A4 also seems very interesting.
I’d love to hear any tips and tricks.
Here’s my attempt in letting the A4 sound like modular (Techno)
Best thing about the A4 are the audio rate LFO’s, which tend to make modular style sound design circumstances. Also, try the multi-mode filter with high resonances.
Hard to say … if we stay with “subtractive synthesis” and don’t want high frequency audio-rate modulation I tend to say yes.
But there are a couple of modular sound-devices, which have their particular method of creating sounds. Listen to modules like “Cursus Iteritas Percido” from Noise Engineering or “Sofia” from XAOS Devices. That’s not possible with an A4 or other similar synths.
Depends what your modular sounds like 
It’s a hard question to answer.
It won’t sound like a Piston Honda or SWN, and it doesn’t have a Mimeophon or Euclidian LFO’s. Similar to what @SoundRider is saying.
But if your rack is mostly subtractive mono synths and traditional effects then yea absolutely!
It’s kind of its own thing IMO. I’ve recently picked one up and currently it is being used in place of my rack - so I won’t knock the question, but it works for me primarily because my voices can be largely replicated on the A4 and I don’t make West Coast stuff. I’m also playing with a Minifreak at the moment which also covers some of what my modular does.
Biggest difference for me is the lack of knob per function - A4 is a lot less hands on, it’s something you program rather than patch, which is a very different experience. Although the Performance mode helps cover some of that in a nice, non-destructive way. Plus patch recall. It’s a very powerful box but for most people I’d see it more as a way to consolidate desktop mono synths rather than a traditional modular setup.
The A4 has some polyrythmic ability which can provide a similar feeling of some patch made on modular.
Each voice is a dual oscillator with optional external input while on modular there is only your bank account as limit. It can trig CV/Gate so possible to feed external signal in.
The dual filter with overdrive is quite nice and has it’s own character.
The 2xLFO are really versatile and may provide lot of flexibility similar to a modular.
The three enveloppe with editable curve are really nice.
I would imagine that plugged into a modular rig, the A4 might find it’s place.
But still, it’s a rigid box ( which is not a bad thing ) compare to a modular system.
And it cost way less than a similar modular system.
The A4 has one advantage over many other boxes and modular gear as well and that’s a Elektron sequencer and the capability to have on each note a different timbre or patch and modulation, which can be saved and recalled easily 
To rebuild this with modular would be very expensive, if not impossible, just considering the amount of possible p-locks
But to work with modular is not only about timbre as I said before. There are many modules, which support very different modulation and sequencing options.
Or - have you ever tried to route the sound of a VCO to the VCA first and then to the VCF? Can make quite a difference. This kind of freedom makes me love modular gear.
This said … each world has its strengths … 
Presumably the A4’s neighbour oscillator mode makes this possible (it’d take two tracks and quirky filter & amp settings).
depends what modular means to you. i got an a4 myself and enough modules to say that they are totally different beasts…
Regarding sequences, don’t overlook the ARP to get some weird rhythms out of single trigs: you can deactivate some steps in the arp, and this added with arp randomization of the input notes + 3 offset notes can go crazy pretty fast.
With A4 you can set an envelope to oscillators levels. A4 is not as flexible as a modular, but still has quite possibilities. It is a synth that is relatively modular, in a way ^^
And think that you can route a track in another one. If we limit ourselves to a single voice and pass the sound from one track to another, that makes a crazy amount of modulations!
Sounds great! Although I don’t do much with modular (anymore), the experience still inspires everything I do:
I believe we all mean different things when we talk about the sound (?) of modular. For me, it’s about sounding organic and ‘rugged’. A4 has two LFOs, but it actually has a lot more LFOs that can be used to make things more organic, namely the two PWs set to be very slow and in small amounts.
I’d say it even can do a lot of sounds akin to a Piston Honda, since the A4 has PWM, AM and FM
It really depends on which modules are used. You could build a modular rig that sounds like anything!
Didn’t know that the A4 also has those quirky waveforms in 3D like the Piston Honda has
I feel like for that sort of modular techno, shared modulation elements that are sent to a mult and then attenuated differently and dispersed is often give that organism type feel to the movement, then there is also the ability to have a full mastering chain in euro and push your gainstaging in creative ways and modulate that stuff, bring those elements deeper into the creative process. Sometimes you might split a sub oscillator off of lead part and gate and filter it separately and get musically related rhythmic sub content happening that is more incidental to pushing the tools of the medium than directly coming up with a part.
A lot of this you can recreate with A4 but you would be more purposefully limiting yourself in various ways or going out of your way to emulate shared sequences with differently tune oscs and such. Obviously the gainstaging mastering side of things you are gonna be on greater limits that building your own chain and breaking your signal chain wherever. Giving up a voice to process another voice has a lot of potential but you also are giving up 1 of 4 voices to do that.
… three doodles with one voice, let’s call them “Kolbenfresser”.
That’s interesting. Never knew this existed.
NEI This setting is only available in the OSCILLATOR 2 menu. It will route the audio of the multimode filter output of the track preceding the track being edited. This audio can then be affected by the AM,the filters, the overdrive and the amplitude envelope of the track. In this way track 1 can be sent to track 2, track 2 to track 3, track 3 to track 4. For a completely serial routing, turn down the LEV setting of the routed track completely. This setting does nothing on track 1.
holy smoke! sounds like you have a sound pack ready for the A4… or are you willing to share those doodles anyway?
The A4, by dint of its extensive modulation and routing options, is the closest thing to modular in the Elektron lineup. I think it can sound like a modular, but not mine, because I already had an A4 before I started buying modules, and I tried to reach for sounds and options I didn’t have already. But for modular techno… based on what I’ve heard, I think you can get fairly close to much of it using an A4. It might take some work, though.
some more doodling around … this is fun!
added a kick and some hihats, one track left …