If you buy the Analog Four and the Analog Rytm first, you could try out the sample playback features on the AR to see whether they satisfy your needs. Then decide whether you need anything else with which to make your music.
5 Likes
not buying too much at once is always a great advice 
10 Likes
Id be reticent of buyingthe OT at the same time. I bought mine shortly after the AR and AK and it languished far too long on the sidelines as i learnt the basics on the other machines.
Digitakt would be a lot simpler to use by the looks, although as has already been said for what you say your needs are, its very simple to set the OT up to do that. And has a vast pool of exploration once you grow with it.
2 Likes
If you are considering to play a Dark-Trinity setup, you will at least end up having a fine consistency of sound-quality, handling, and versatlility over three boxes. Each of the boxes has it’s domain of strenghts … OT sampling and audio mangling, AK four synth voices/tracks, AR analog sound and sample playback. All three come with one of the most powerful hardware sequencers, which are operated quite similar.
IMO the OT is the most complex machine of the trinity, because it offers many different use cases in one box. I would say, the basics of each use case can be learned quite quickly. But then we have all those various machines, options, settings, audio/midi, parameters, locks, trigs, scenes etc. … there are many combinations possible, each track can be different and combined with the others, and this indeed takes some time to get one’s head around, and to fully appreciate and use the power of the OT … but it’s the quantity of options, which might be intimidating, it’ should not be the complexity. Just don’t try to learn everything as fast as possible or at once. Allow yourself to get acquainted with the various features … nobody learns to drive a car or play an instrument in one day
At the end of the day the most important question is, does the OT fit to your style of music, your ideas of sound creation, and your workflow? If you can say yes, then give it a try.
The difference between using samples on the OT and the RYTM is IMO that the OT is more of a sound-creation and mangling machine, where the RYTM gives us sample playback, which is more or less intended to support or augment its synth engines … but it’s not limited to this
2 Likes
Fwiw i use my Rytm pretty much solely for its analog side, maybe with layered samples here and there to get a certain effect. I havent explored the sample side too deeply but then i have an OT so i feel i dont necessarily have to.
Seriously, if you want a sampler to use initially as a one shot drum machine/ sample player then feed it your choice of samples and itll take you no time at all to get a groove going. Once youre comfy with the rest of the trinity then you can open up the OT as your needs see fit.
And if they dont, then you have a wicked sample based drum machine.
Believe me - youll buy the trinity with intentions of using this machine for that function then realise they perform so many others as individual units youll get carried away and end up using them in ways you never thought you would or even wanted. Any one of these machines is capabale of a whole sets in the right hands.
Were lucky lucky people for this lucury indeed 
My two-cents: do not buy more than one of these machines at once. Really get to grips with one first and then move on. Since you’re looking to incorporate samples, get an OT, wait for a DT, or if you must have synths, then an AR. Honestly, one of these machines is more than enough for quite some time. If you overdo it you might get bogged down as opposed to creative.
12 Likes
Mostly been using my OT for one shot samples and MIDI sequencing. Seems a bit overkill, but it’s nice to know there’s a whole lot more power under the hood just waiting to be explored.
Ditto on the one machine at a time.
1 Like
Whether it is advicable to buy the Dark-Trinity at once or piece by piece depends on how much experience you already have with sampling or with melodic or percussive synth sound programming.
If you are experienced with the various sound-creation concepts and methods already, then I would see no problem, to get all three boxes together, because the work flow and the logic of the sequencers is nearly equal for the AR and the AK and quite similar for the OT. The “system-level” function logic compares to each other too. I would say, once at home with one of those boxes makes it quite easy to understand the other Elektron boxes as well.
But if this is not the case, getting one after the other is indeed good advice to consider. Too much overload with new options and possibilities might easily kill the creativity and lead quickly to frustration rather then creating music and having fun
Fair point.
You need at least 2 hands for Octatrack so :
5 Likes
Wow. You’re on a roll with photoshop today, aren’t you.
1 Like
Reclycling. Enough for today.
1 Like
Sure you don’t have energy for one or two more hits?
Incredible … fireworks of fine Photoshop art today … 
2 Likes
6 Likes
The Octatrack isn’t difficult to come to terms with, assuming you don’t approach it as you would any other sampler you’ve ever used. I think that was my biggest frustration with the thing. This is one of those cases where being experienced in the Kurzweil, Akai, Roland, Ensoniq and Emu, etc way of sampler thinking is something that works to your detriment. It might be easier to approach this as a total novice. I’ll caveat this by saving you’ll probably have a different experience if you’re already familiar with the Elektron OS/vernacular paradigm. I was not, prior to buying the Octatrack and I had been using Roland and Kurzweil samplers since the 90s and was also a Kontakt user since v1. I love it now and it has a permanent place in my studio. Learn what it does really well (hint: A LOT) and exploit the hell out of of it.
1 Like
Where can I buy this Elvis t-shirt?
3 Likes
Ahh, so it was the King that pulled it off. I thought it was going to be Hendrix or Lennon as they would save lots of time cutting and splicing tape… 
