How many of you use two Analog Fours in your setup? I’m toying with the idea of getting a 2nd unit just for bass duties.
When I had two, I used one for drums and a single mono synth line. The other one for 3 or 4 track poly, and (if available) another voice for sound locked fx sounds or another mono synth line.
A 2nd unit for bass duty is a great idea because UNISON HUGE
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I didn’t even think about using it in unison, but that’s a really great idea. Some of the soundpacks for the A4 have sounds that are really detuned. I’ve written several songs using these sounds, and need to write bass parts for them now. I figure with a 2nd A4 I can use the same (out of tune) soundpacks for the bass parts.
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For some kind of Bass, Unison is clearly the way to go.
2 voices generally is sufficient (keeping Detune & Spread from zero for clean Bass doubling power or detuned and spreaded style bass with values then)
UNISON DETUNE sets the offset (0-127) by which the selected unison voices will be detuned. Decrease or increase the offset with the [LEFT] and [RIGHT] arrow keys.
UNISON PAN SPREAD set the width of the pan spread (0-127) around the center point of the unison sound. Use the [LEFT] and [RIGHT] arrow keys to set the value.
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I’d rather take a 2nd A4 instead of an AR.
I thought about Deepmind 12 rack, but I’d prefer a 2nd A4.
I agree that Unison is of course efficient, I’d love poly with 2 A4, even playing on same channel to have poly + dual Unison with same patches, or on the fly settings…
Many possibilities. 2 A4s can be used as one, with a simple keyboard with A4 Multi Map, or keyboard with advanced midi settings or with a midi processor.
My Elektron priorities are a 2nd OT, maybe DN…
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All this sounds great. I wish there were more videos on advanced usage of the A4. I’m finding it uninspiring and the lack of tutorials and advanced type videos kind of discouraging. But I have ZERO synthesis knowledge. I know it’s a good unit, I’m just not good. I wish I knew what William was referring to.
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So you need to invest time in Sound Synthesis, it will unlock any synth for you then with practice of what you learnt. At some point, how to appreciate a synth and choose one again another… it take time, but you will not regret and save a lot of money by learning before (to buy any synth) sound synthesis and obviously probably substrative synthesis.
I know it’s a fear for a lot… and the workaround is to know first expansions and soundbanks you like and use it as start point…
Judging by your avatar smiley I guess you are in acid/house/techno (but I may have wrong)
If you have the A4 learn basics of sound synthesis then do the courses I will give you but instead of using Ableton like it’s the case in the quantize courses apply it to the Analog Four and search and find tricks to make it happen on your A4… your A4 is the king Analog Synth for STAB, maybe you will skip Kick design on the A4 but it’s perfectly doable at least for practice, PADS & ATMOSPHERE well well absolutely a king analog synth for that as well… that’s why I give you this courses in case you already have an A4
Also don’t fear at the beginning to use 4 voices for one SOUND (Poly chords or Unison, it’s better to ENJOY the A4 first and then to use tricks to save voices to make more sounds with it I mean don’t stick with MONO by telling you meh I would like to have 2 or 3 different sounds with it… Do Sound Design on the A4 with your mind focus on the sound design and not voices economical strategy in mind …
I would enter in the world of the synthesis and start by learning/practice by ears with Synthorial it has a price but you can sell it when you finish it like a game and you can save bucks by buying it under plugin boutique (87€ instead of 130$) :
Then i would go with Quantize Courses STAB & HARMONY that’s will be a second good entry you will learn scale, chords in the context of designing STABS (every electronic music kind of stab) :
https://quantizecourses.com/video-courses/stabs-harmony-video-pack/
I would go then on the basics of designing a Kick :
https://quantizecourses.com/video-courses/kick-drum-design-video-pack/
Then Drum Programming (skippable therefore… no problem with that) :
https://quantizecourses.com/video-courses/drum-programming/
Then PADS & ATMOSPHERES :
https://quantizecourses.com/video-courses/pads-atmospheres-video-pack/
Then MELODY & RIFFS :
https://quantizecourses.com/video-courses/melodies-riffs/
Finally after that you can try and practice what you learn in music shop on every synth in your budget, take your time and see which one you really like … Filters, Shaping capabilities, how it react and sounding on the whole spectrum, Mono vs Poly (or poly capable like the A4 at the cost of voices)
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Why a second OT
Don’t you have 2 too ?
Many reasons, more tracks, fx, lfos, control of midi tracks by other midi tracks.
One for looping, one for master fx.
Free to do more things, use Ot as a synth and I really want more lfos.
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Being a Bass player, one of the first things I tried on my A4 (about two weeks after I got the AK) was to set each track as a Bass string, E, A, D, G. Just something I always wanted to try so I could play heavy leads on the Bass guitar; with a luscious bass arpeggio underneath.
Basically I was going for that rich/luscious/dream pop sound you get on bass when you play arpeggios across 3 strings holding each for sustained resonance.
Didn’t put a whole lot of time into it, but a few combinations adjusting filter resonance and the low pass filter on each track sound (LP1 for G string, LP2 for D string, normal for E and A) kind of gave each a different timbre, but there are I’m sure lots more ways to emulate the different string gauges.
Definitely revisiting this when I get the time 
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I ended up buying a white edition Moog Minitaur. I figured I could make use of the CV track on the A4. I watched quite a few YouTube vids on the Minitaur, and was impressed with the sounds it was capable of.
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I’ve always got as many Analog 4s as I want. Multi track recording is a beautiful thing 
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In the last 2 days I purchased both the Analog 4 MKII and the Analog Rytm MKII. I’m wondering whether anyone uses 2 Analog 4’s with their setup? I 'm asking because I love the A4 sounds so much and was looking for a 3 OSC Analog synth to hook up to these but I thought why not just buy another A4 for more voices… question is… OVERKILL or not?
My setup is:
- Akai MPCX
- Analog 4 MKII
- Analog Rytm MKII
- Roland MC-707
- x2 Novation Circuit Monostations
- Behringer MS-1
- Waldorf Kyra
- Waldorf Quantum
- Arturia Keystep Black
Basically thinking of going all out Elektron… was gonna buy Octatrack but I have the MPCX for sampling
I’d say it’s not necessarily overkill cause you only have to use as much of it as you feel like but the reality is when I underuse a box I get a sort of guilt about it which actually hinders my creativity. Overwhelm yourself with possibilities and you just end up feeling like you’re wasting stuff. That or I end up rewiring things a million times.
imo have a very serious setup on your hands there, it sounds like great fun, but as far as instruments you certainly don’t need anything else. But if you do insist and add something it’s not gonna make much difference if it’s an A4 or a boog. I’d go for something different
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Yeah I see what you are saying there. I think the synths I have alone are total overkill. I only use Quantum and Kyra for sound design and Ambient stuff. I was hoping to keep my live setup ALL MODULES using an Arturia Keystep for playing stuff.
I just NEEEEED parameter locks hence I asked if x2 A4’s were Overkill.
My wife gave me £1200 for Christmas to buy a synth haha so I could maybe stretch that to £1500 tops but I want 3 Oscs and a sound module no keys.
Look at this… price is Amazing to…
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I’ve been eyeing these up for absolutely ages. I think they took a bit of a grilling from internet haters on the drop so the price is low low low. Sounds great to my ears and it would add something unique. I’d grab that and an effect
I wouldn’t think it would be overkill but it might be a bit annoying on the workflow or at least for me I think it would be too much dealing with kits and such between the machines, backups and trying to decide if I want totally different sets of kits or duplicates. Sure would be nice if they had made something the equivalent of just a voice expander module for the A4. I would strongly consider digitakt or digitone + an analog synth with patch saving for the ability to sequence patches and CC per step. Probably my own gas leaking because it probably doesn’t quite fit what you’re looking for but the 01/IV - 4 Voices Analog Drum Synth by the division department seems like a perfect little 4 voice analog to sequence from other gear. It wouldn’t have patches to sequence though. @ess just put a nice little video on instagram of it in action. Chromatic drums synths can be quite lovely.
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I have the 2 Novation Mono Stations here which save patches and have sort of parameter locks, was planning to feed them in to the A4 or AR.
What I’m really looking for is a 3 osc Analog synth for stabs n stuff. I already have keyboards etc BUT it’s small modules I’m looking for. I had Digitone last year it’s very cool indeed. I like the Heat MKII as well.