This is seriously impressive.
Not sure I’ve ever heard the Analog Four pushed to this kind of a place before. Major props!
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Some serious skills, talents and vision on display here, this thing lives and breathes - well done! With a little bit of that Heat magic to boot. 
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Awesome work! A lil bit of Ageispolis in that first arp that comes in 
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Thank you very much @1zerozerozero1, @korpinen and @nfim! I’m really enjoying the Analog Four, it sounds so good and is a pleasure to use. Except for the screen, it’s small and sluggish 
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As the owner of neither the Analogue Four nor the Heat, I’d be fascinated to hear the track without the Analog Heat, so we can listen to what that’s bringing to your great mix. I’m guessing a fair amount of groove and vibe? Would be very cool if it’d be possible to hear the comparison…
2 Likes
Analog Four Sketch #3 Reflective Rim
This track was inspired by Solar Fields’ work on the Mirror’s Edge games. The Analog Four is REALLY fun to make music with! I started out trying to make interesting performance macro knobs, so I made a monotonous pattern just to have something to work with. By the end of it I was pretty much in a trance, just enjoying turning knobs until it bedtime.
This is the first time in a while I’ve made a 4 on the floor beat, and also my first actual use of kits. I usually just have a separate kit for every pattern, but this time the intro pattern had its own kit while the 3 main patterns shared a kit. This was very handy because the macro knob settings would carry over to the next pattern instead of being reset, so transitions were smoother.
All audio is coming from the Analog Four, with some light processing through the Analog Heat and a bit of mastering with Maximus (multiband expander). Everything was recorded in one take, no overdubbing.
Thanks for listening!
10 Likes
I’d like to do a video on the Analog Heat showing how I use it, and demonstrate the differences on old patterns @Tchu and @1zerozerozero1 
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Ivar, I’d like to suggest the use of direct jump.
Choking patterns one against each other can be extremely fun as well, and something only the Analog series offers.
Sudden changes in FX parameters can be used creatively, and once you have practiced a bit you can really master the oddities and use them to actually say something.
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Thanks for the tip! I’ve been thinking up ways to use direct jump to do cool things. I’ve sort of been using fake direct jumps on the Digitakt and Digitone by having the change length at 16 on a 64 step pattern to switch to a different “ending” pattern in place of the last 16 steps. Being able to change patterns without losing my place in the patterns is gonna be really fun to play with =)
You can go breakbeat with this, but also find interesting way to add variation, question/answer between a few phrases…
Similar to OT Scene switching without the fader, but with patterns too
Analog Four Sketch #4 Trajectory
I tried making a patch that was both a kick and bass to save on voices. I also turned it into hihats with noise and a saw-shaped LFO. The snare ended up being a separate sound, but I managed to squeeze the kick, snare, hats AND bass into one track, leaving me with 3 free ones to do everything else. Most of the track is actually only using 3 voices, but the parts with the high and long pad sound uses all 4 voices.
As usual, I was very close to just abandoning this track after listening to it to death. I have to strike while the iron is hot, and if too much time passes without finishing it I usually abandon it.
All audio is coming from the Analog Four, with some light processing through the Analog Heat and a bit of mastering with Maximus (multiband expander). Everything was recorded in one take, no overdubbing.
Thanks for listening!
11 Likes
Digitakt+Analog Four Sketch #1 Analog Trip Hop
Yet another track I was ready to throw away after spending a lot of time making a b-section that was too out there. I was gonna start a new track using the Digitakt and Analog Four together for the first time, and gave this pattern one last try, and this is what I ended up with
The Digitakt is providing the main drums, extra hihats, strings and piano. The Analog Four plays the chords, lead, main hihats, and extra drums. I was surprised I didn’t have a proper bass sound; the chords were bassy enough with some resonance boost from the keytracking 2nd filter. The Analog Heat (off screen) helped glue everything together with some EQing and saturation.
All audio is coming from the Digitakt and Analog Four, with some processing through the Analog Heat and a bit of mastering with Maximus (multiband expander). Everything was recorded in one take, no overdubbing.
Thanks for listening!
7 Likes
Digitakt + Analog Four Sketch #2 90s Flavor (March 13th 2021)
Yet another trip hop beat using the Digitakt, Analog Four and Analog Heat. This time I wanted to try running my Digitakt’s drums through the Heat once before pairing it with the Analog Four and running them both through the Heat together.
All audio is coming from the Digitakt and Analog Four, with some processing through the Analog Heat and a bit of mastering with Maximus (multiband expander). Everything was recorded in one take, no overdubbing.
Thanks for listening!
7 Likes
always enjoy your music.
how about digitone and analog four for drums and percussion, digitakt for tonal things? that´s something i would like to hear from you, just an idea.
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Thank you @catchy1! I might try it one day, but I don’t think I’ll use all three machines together very often. I remember using the DT+DN+OT combo being such a slog to set up and tear down, not to mention syncing the projects across three machines. But synths for drums and sampler for melodies sounds like a fun idea
Analog Four Sketch #5 Malleable
I ranted here in The sound of the A4/AK... like or dislike? - #419 by Eaves the other day about why I like performing on the Analog Four. I explained a couple of performance macro tips, one of which was to use two macro knobs to control the delay and reverb. The idea was to use one knob to increase the intensity of the effects and the other knob to hold them back, which let me experiment with crazy sounds while preventing them from spiraling out of control.
I tried this idea on the sound on track 1. The default sound is this hihat-like noise sound. Turning up knob #1 increases the intensity of the hihat sound, while introducing a distorted saw-like sound. Knob #2 adds more and more bass to the sound, turning it into sort of a kick and bass, while also introducing a clear saw-like note and a downward pitch at the start. This setup made the sound really malleable and fun to play with, hence the slightly too long and repetitive track.
All audio is coming from the Analog Four, with some light processing through the Analog Heat and a bit of mastering with Maximus (multiband expander). Everything was recorded in one take, no overdubbing.
Thanks for listening!
7 Likes
So…when can we expect a concept album or at least an ep that would tell a whole story using tracks, interludes, ambient bits and all the good stuff ?
I’ve already told you on YT that your music is very cinematographic and it would be pretty cool.
But maybe you’ve already done it and i need to purchase your discography.
i think i will anyway.
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It’s been something I’ve thought about doing several times, but every time I’ve started working on something I realize how much thought and planning it takes! I’d like to give it a try some day, at least a small EP. Thanks a lot, man!
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Digitone Sketch #26 Relearn (March 30th 2021)
It’s been a while since I’ve used the Digitone. Going from the more “traditional” subtractive synth that is the Analog Four to FM synthesis took some getting used to. The Digitone doesn’t have the Performance macros that the Analog Four has, so making gradual changes requires a lot of track selecting and page switching. It has such a different approach to sound design, that some of my favorite tricks don’t transfer over between those two grooveboxes.
A trick I’ve been using a lot on the A4 that used here was to give the drums double duty as percussion AND melody. The snare in this track has a ton of resonance that I p-locked to play a simple melody, and I also used a saw-shaped LFO to give the long release on the snare to give it a rhythic effect. That way I could squeeze a lot out of 1 voice, leaving the 7 other voices to play the bass, arp and lead melodies.
All audio is coming from the Digitone, with some light processing through the Analog Heat and a bit of mastering with Maximus (multiband expander). Everything was recorded in one take, no overdubbing.
Thanks for listening!
13 Likes