Hey,
I’m thinking about buying the new Dreadbox Abyss to work with the Digitakt and Analog Heat. Does anyone have any advice with this setup or thoughts? Id like to know.
I love the sound of the Abyss and think it would go well with the digitakt and the Heat. Or should I go four another multi voice analog synth?
Thanks
I would suggest it’s not ideal with the DT as it has a very limited MIDI implementation - if I were buying a synth to pair with the DT I would want one with a thorough implementation that responds to a lot of CC’s. Just my opinion and that mightn’t be important to you. Nice sounding synth though and Dreadbox gear oozes quality.
What about a MK1 Analog Four? Have you considered that?
Yeah I have considered it but I’m put off by the menu system and reviews saying it’s hard to use to start with as the mkii has been improved in this respect.
Hard to use? I fly around that machine like a ninja! Prob the easiest to use imo.
“Hardest” was the OT (for me).
Ok sure I’ll check a few more reviews of the A4 mki.
What kind of music are you trying to write? What type of sound are you going for? What type of workflow do you enjoy? Are there any budgetary concerns? All of those questions have to be answered before anyone’s opinions or advice could possibly be useful to you.
A4 isn’t hard to use at all. It is not the best sounding synth in the world, but it does have a lot of range so it is a good utility player. Makes great drum sounds, FX-type sounds (highly modulated stuff), good bass… The filters are a little bleh for lead sounds, and lead sounds generally are only okay (of course some will disagree here). Pads are fine sounding but a little one-dimensional. Overall I think it comes down to how much you can expect from one synth, and for something designed to be multi-timbral and jack-of-all trades, it needs to be “sterile” to a certain extent or the sounds will run into each other.
I agree, the A4 is a cakewalk compared to the octatrack. I learned the A4 in a week. I had the OT six months and couldn’t get it to do what I wanted.
Thanks I’ve done more research on the analog four and I was obviously wrong on its ease of use which is great. I do love the sound of the abyss and maybe I could use the analog four mki to sequence the abyss.
My budget for a new synth is about £1000 - £1300.
The music I make is very electronic a mix of pink Floyd and daft punk electronic music.
Thanks.
Worth looking at the Roland System-8, the Novation Peak and the DSI Prophet Rev2 8-voice in that price range*. All can be quite classic sounding and also produce a wide range of high quality sounds. The Peak especially can get quite “out there”. I feel all of those would give you a lot more range than the Abyss (being only 4-voice single oscillator), but maybe the Abyss sound is particularly appealing to you. It is quite characterful.
*(Some people would add the Deepmind 12 to that list but I’m not that into it)
Bear in mind you could also buy both an SE-02 and an SH-01A or System-1 (latter two do 4-note poly) for less than the price of the Abyss.
Good call, very hands on, deep synthesis options, FX and full midi spec and in a small form factor.
Thanks on the suggestion of the Novation peak. Is it a better option for either version of the analog four?
Also would the Digitakt and analog Heat work well with the peak?
Thanks again.
Personally, I think the Peak is a better synthesizer than the A4. I think it sounds better and I think you can do more with it. But that’s a personal opinion. The A4 is multitimbral, where the Peak is not - so if you want to make a live composition, you might get more from four separate A4 monophonic voices than one Peak patch despite eight note polyphony (Digitakt can only sequence four notes on one step in any case - though it might work to double up on two midi tracks, it’s probably not that intuitive). You might also find more synergy between the A4’s internal sequencer and the Digitakt - matching up pattern changes, and so on.
But the Peak is very controllable via midi and will respond to p-locked/LFOd parameter changes very nicely. It’ll be great for creating sample material as well. It has a strong feature set - three oscillators, lots of modulation (including oscillator FM), good effects, etc.
To be honest I’d say everything works well with the Heat. 
But actually the Peak has loads of overdrive options already built in - it has pre-filter drive, post-filter drive and a distortion effect.
This demo gives a good indication of what the Peak can do, and goes to some interesting places:
Great thanks. So maybe a drum machine like the Arturia drumbrute could be a better bet than the Digitakt in that case?
I don’t know what your production process is but unless you control everything with a DAW, you’d need something to sequence things from. How do you like to put tracks together?
But regardless, I don’t think the Drumbrute is that great-sounding a drum machine. Certainly if it was between that and the Digitakt - Digitakt all day. Completely different level. And if you want a conventional drum machine, my vote would be for the TR-8 over a Drumbrute in that price range.
In that case I will definitely stick to the Digitakt.
The abyss will be harder to use than the a4. The menu is fine. It’s usually people that arent great at programming, or are just those that stick to presets that complain about it being too hard to use. It suffers from the same Internet mentality that the blofeld does in that respect.
It’s also a great partner to the DT.
Thanks so my synth choice is definitely down to either a analog four or Novation peak. Sequencing is important to me but I could always get that elsewhere if I go for the peak.
grab the dreadbox , they sound amazing 
reminds me a little of studio electronics , very vintage sounding stuff , can’t rate the other stuff but the analog fours raw oscilators sounded very thin IMO almost like starting off with a vst, what about the dreadbox nyx and something else say mfb club though the abyss sounds gold to my ears though obviosly not so much in the cc department, we got hands n rubber bands though!