How "musical" is the A4?

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

I would like to hear opinion on this, the sound of the A4 and how musical it is for you.

I could rank my synths in terms of musicality, whatever that means, probably subjective.

But usually, for me, Roland synths are the most musical. Next is Modal Cobalt/Argon. Novation Peak is pretty musical (though a little too polished). UDO Super 6 would come next, it has a classier smoother tone. Waldorf Iridium and even M are less musical.

What determines this, I don’t know. Brightness? The type of filter? Harmonics?

Less musical synths does not equal less good. Maybe they are better for moodier sounds, berlin techno, darker vibe etc. It’s all about having a wide range of sounds, if all synths sounded the same owning a lot of them would be pointless.

So with this in mind what do you think? Is there a difference between MKI A4 and MKII A4?

What could of music do you use your A4 for, and what synths usually accompany it?

#2

It is definitely subjective but I think the musicality or lack thereof depends mostly on the person using the instrument.

There’s not much in the analog world the A4 cannot do if you put in the effort IMO.

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#3

I honestly don’t know what this question asks. They all make noises; music is noises, space & time; the end.

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#4

I think a whole lot of this subjective synth assessment comes down to the percentage of time you get a sound you like out of it. Like I feel like part of the reason the Juno is legendary is because it was a single oscillator and it was impossible to get that muddyness of two detuned oscillators, for better or worse. So it always sounded “clean”.

So I feel like having wide open possibilities is directly in conflict with instant musicality. This also has a whole lot to do with the interface as well. I think for these reasons the A4 feels more “mental” and less “physical” than some of those more on the surface keyboard synths, which could lead to a feeling of free musical expression on those keyboard style synths.

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#5

It’s a rabbit hole and subjective but even raw sine waves can differ from synth to synth.

Flipping between the Jupiter 8 and Juno 106 filters on the System-8 changes the musicality of your patch.

Maybe a synth with two filters (like the A4 or some Waldorfs) help give it a dark character. Maybe their saw waves aren’t as bright as other synths…

Access Virus famously has a dark sound but I gather that may be to hide aliasing in the upper registers.

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#6

So would you say all your synths sound the same? If you own more than one of course. If it all about features rather than sound for you.

A4 is definitely a “features” synth.

#7

Growing up, ‘musical’ was most often used to described people. “She is more musical than her brother,” etc. But typically it meant being able to pick up musical instruments faster, to learn songs, to sight read, that kind of thing. In other words, to mimic other musicians better. Under this sort of definition of ‘musical’, the A4 kicks ass. It is highly flexible and able to mimic pretty much anything.

But the original post by Acidizer seems to be taking ‘musicality’ to refer to sound quality, expressiveness, and depth. Then I would agree that A4 is not quite there, though the more I use the A4 the more expressive power I hear in it. On the other hand, my Pittsburgh Modular SV-1b exudes expressivity and depth—it is inescapable.

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#8

No, not at all. I’m fairly keen on determining a character for them. My jibe was more about the definition for “musical” (or lack of it). I feel there’s an implied “sweeter sounds make better music” behind your original question, but I’m in the John Cage & David Byrne camp “silence and setting are music too”.

I’m lucky, I have some great synths:

  • Matriarch has such a joyful vibe; it’s like salted caramel - you just want more of it. It’s so striking I usually play it by itself as a mediation. I’ll work on bringing it into tracks more next year
  • Syntrx is darker, fizzier, grainier; the spring gives it a physicality. I currently use it more for “features” because its matrix mixer lets me integrate external FX, and the trigger and joystick let me play it without keys or a sequencer in my drone project. In that setting, the fact it’s not as bright and shiny as the others helps it fit with the other instruments in the project
  • MS-20 is unruly and muscular, scratchy and intense
  • Juno 106 is bright, confident, comfortable
  • A4 is more neutral . I use it as my main melodic and harmonic composition tool. A lot of demos show it off to be more interesting than I can make it :smiley:

I wonder if a better framing for your question would be more like “which character synth do you like the most, and why”… or “what do you use each synth for?” etc.

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#9

Yes I would say “more musical” kind of feels like saying “better” which is why I said it doesn’t.

I think some people want their synth of choice to be all things to all men but I think that is a negative not a plus point.

Are darker sounding synths less musical? :thinking: Who knows but they have their place. Is the A4 a dark synth? It’s all relative.

For me the A4’s character matters less than a more ‘normal’ synth since its strength lies in its insane programmability possibilities. That’s also why it’s lower polyphony matter less also. Usually I would be asking for at least 6 voices on a polysynth but this is a different animal.

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#10

Beside the “features/groovebox” aspect of the A4, I guess it’s musicality really begins with gainstaging. Writing quick or refined loops, with sound design art, performance tortures, void reverbs on top, leads by itself to big/dull noise. But when matching fine levels on the mixer page, it sings and it grooves and scream to be structured along différent patterns, and to be saved and played again and again.

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#11

Yeah Neutral is kind of where I would place the A4. When I first got it I almost felt disappointed by the sound. It could easily be mistaken for a VA synth at first. But when you start implementing the Slide and Glide trigs and start moving everything then you can really hear where the analog kicks in. There’s just something inherently analog to me once you start modulating stuff.

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#12

…most “musical” truu analog but digitally supertight mirical controlled 4 individual mono synth at once in one interactive groove as groove and breath can plus fx alive box, i’ve ever touched…

and for the 1000+ times, nope, there is no such thing as a difference in naked sound essentials between mk1 and mk2…

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#13

How musical is the A4? Not musical at all

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#14

Deep and musical are two different things, maybe even opposing things based on more intelligent discussion above.

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#15

You misspelled “parochial.”

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#16

Nope just the opposite. I think some synths are more musical than others, I did point out this does not mean they are better but you got defensive anyways.

The best sounding synth I own (by far) is not my most musical (Super 6).

#17

I don’t think any of my instruments are any more or less musical than others. Just different.

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#18

Can’t tell what is more “musical” until we define what “musical” means, beyond the difference between
bright and dark, of which any decent synth can be both, so I’m a little lost as to what we’re actually talking about.

Like, my Polivoks has lovely bright sawtooth oscillators, but it’s fucking superb at dark, moody and industrial sounds and is a piece of piss to use. Does that make it more or less musical than something else? I don’t know.

Most of my mission, musically (and not necessarily consciously) seems to have been to take nice musical instruments and make horrible unmusical noise with them. So maybe synths aren’t musical in any measurable way at all, maybe it’s the user, and, if that’s the case, then musicality is just too subjective a term to even begin to a apply value to it.

Probably.

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#19

the A4’s natural character leans to a bright, reedy signature. It can make beautiful metallic sounds like cymbals / hats and stuff with sharp transients with its super fast envelopes. Not to say it doesn’t have bass, the filter can supply tons of it, combined with those quick envelops it can spit out big massive kicks too. That said, the easier things to achieve on the machine are going to be bright and brassy. It has tons of harmonic complexity and loves to be paired with thick, drifty mono synths like a Moog.

To me, those timbres that the A4 excels at are vital and give my music tons of energy. Is that musical? To me it is. It has very tight and precise tuning with its DCOs so a lot of people take issue with its precision and claim it sounds digital. You being a Roland fan, should have no issue with that considering that the main characteristic of the Junos / JX synths were their tight and solid DCOs.

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#20

Well said.