If the A4MKII sounded like the MKI

I really enjoyed reading this thread and dear god my eyes have just popped out of my head!!!

I have an A4 but I think it’s overkill for my set up so I’ve taken it away to see how I fair. My gorgeous OB6 does what it does and if I could get my A4 to give me the same smile and happiness I get from my OB6 then I would have smiles for miles and miles and miles and… yeah, I could write that forever. Hehehehe

How on earth do you like them the same?

Could you please enlighten me! I would love to know!!!

I would trade you my Sub37 and A4 for you OB6? I’d love another one of those bad boys!! Serious offer!

The OB6 and the A4 are very different of course.
The A4 is very punchy, really love those env because they are so versatile. By comparaison the OB6 env are nice but they are less snappy than the A4 (to my ear anyway).
To me they are very complementary because the A4 is darker and more lofi , the OB6 is kinda hi fi and more bright.
Its very easy to add movement to the A4 to compensate for the more static DCO. I think its easier to make the OB6 sounds good but there is great satisfaction working with the A4. I also very like the multimode filter combined to the LPF of the A4 to make “Yamaha CS” kind of sounds.
I think its fair to say the OB6 sounds way more alive than the A4 but its much more limited.

I would add, the Sq80 is one of my favorite poly right now. Its gritty lofi and warm at the same time. I guess i like darker synth.

BTW Thanks for the offer but with both A4 i think im fine :slight_smile:

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I went to the shop to cancel my MKII order, and grab the AK.

Staff guy: “good call, the AK is better at the moment.”
Me: “Huh? Wha?”
Staff guy: “lots of bugs in the MKII, it’ll be months before they iron them out.”
Me: “I’ve not heard about these bugs .”
Staff guy: “oh neither have I, but there always are.”
Me: “So, anyway, I’ll take that AK please.”
Staff guy: “oh sorry, that’s a demo only.”

Have you ever just wanted to slap someone?

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A good Sales person would give you that dann Demo unit. A Sale is a sale. Did you ask for His Manager?

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But then what would he play on breaks? :joy:

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Well I’ve had the AK for a week now (or two weeks? Time moves in strange ways when you get a new synth).
All I can say is I’ll probably be getting an A4 mk1 next week too.

Moog affectionados look away! Because with a decent valve preamp the AK sounds every bit as good as the Voyager! (Which doesn’t need a valve amp; whatever.) And AK/4, obviously, much more flexible.
I’ve already contacted the guy who’s renting my Voyager and offered him a more permanent deal :star_struck:

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Interesting, what valve preamp do you use ? Any suggestion ?

I couldn’t wait for NAMM any longer and I just ordered an A4 MK2 for a good price. My second Elektron box after the DT.

I’m like, VERY excited! :sunglasses:

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I use a KC550 :neutral_face: and A&H zed6 :expressionless:

The preamp is an ADL600 Presonus belonging to a buddy, which I played the AK thru last weekend. Looked it up on ebay, Super expensive!

Though I must say, I get a bit of extra warm’n’gooey playing it through an MXR Phase100 and/or Moogerfooger Clusterflux, at respectively low mix levels.

But I’ll be doing the retail scene in the next week, uhm’ing and curiously stroking my chin as I survey a selection of potential preamps. AK in tow.

I’m looking to buy the A4 mkii what price did you get it for and where if you don’t mind me asking

You won’t find one cheaper than Juno:

Yep, Juno is by far the cheapest!!! It’s almost a bargain at this price!

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Ya I live in Canada

No because what made me sell my MKI was the fact that it lacked power. Everything I did on it was as my friend said “too polite”. The fixed overdrive and improved bottom end totally shattered that. Now it’s one of the best sounding modern analog synths outthere. I’d easly take it over an OB6 or any other expensive modern analog synth any day of the week.

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Damn, the presonus is really expensive. I discovered this one from EHX : https://www.ehx.com/products/lpb-2ube, pretty cheap, but maybe I’ll simply buy a Heat.

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So after playing with the MK1 and MK2 for a while here are my impressions of the MK2 compared to the MK1.

Some of my custom patch sounds different on the MK2 and most of the time they sounds worse , though not always :slight_smile:
I was trying to understand why and here is what i found :

1- Patch that use feedback sounds very different on the MK2 . To be honest i think the MK1 handle feedback better , more bottom end and less buzzy though maybe i could make some adjustments so they sounds more alike. I use feedback alot and this is a bummer to be honest. So patch that dont use overdrive can sounds very different.

2- Overdrive : Well i was expecting that and most of the time using negative value for overdrive on the MK2 fix this issue.
I really like the new overdrive though and its a welcome addition.

There are bugs on the MK2 ! On some of my patch i cant adjust the LFO amount to Zero and on one of my patch i cant adjust the noise level ! Also it seems legacy filter setting (resonance boost) is checked by default even if my patch as this setting to off. The LPF is different on some setting, its not better just different. Also sound lock is (to me) useless right now because you cant see all the parameters. They really need to fix that .

I dont know what to think about that bass boost. Sometime it makes my patch sounds kinda boxy and its not always what i want. Im not sure what they have changed there and on severals patterns i have to apply a little but of HP to cut some bass because it sounds muddy. I guess it was to be expected because those where programmed on the MK1 model.
Also sometime i feel the MK1 is a little more raw sounding im not sure why.

So, do not expect that all your backup will translate very well !
To be honest i would have keep the MK1 right now since overbridge is not ready yet for the MK2 and i dont think it sounds better just different. At first i was thinking the difference where minimal but there is some even if most of the patch will sounds mostly identical , it really depend what kind of sound.

So is it worth it to buy the MK2 ? (this is just my opinion)
Well lots of people are ditching their MK1 for very low price and TBO i think its better saving all that extra money for something else but :
1- The new encoders are awesome ! Really make a difference.
2- Better screen
3- Much better workflow + more outputs.
4- New distortion is great

Also i have decided to not keep both A4 and one must go. I can sell the MK1 but at a very big loss :frowning: or i can sell the MK2 and keep the MK1 and still losing money but im not gonna loose that much compare selling the MK1.

Will try to post some example when i have the time on my soundcloud.

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Yep. I’ll probably end up with something just like that.

Thanks. Makes me feel totally at ease buying the “outdated” gear.
I haven’t gotten around to using Overbridge yet, mainly because I overcame the issue of the small screen by pointing my iPhone7+ at it on a tiny stand :mortar_board:

Like you said earlier, keep the Mk1 for percussion, Mkii for synth duties. No need to sell the Mk1 at low price.

The only thing that I miss from the mk II are the indiouts. Kinda wish I knew a pro ”modder” to make me indiouts for my mk I :diddly:

Finally plugged my trinity in for the first time ever (why it took this long I have no idea?! Always just used em separately) and after setting up an initial config on the OT, it was immensely fun and gratifying! I got everything I need right here for a long time to come… These boxes work damn well together, and they actually all sound abit different to each other. Oddly enough, the processing I apply with the OT mk II sounds very much on point as well…

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