Unless of course I am forced to spend most of my time chasing down Overbridge issues that have insisted on thwarting my every attempt to do the screen capture video. 
I basically only use Overbridge to recordā¦but Iām always shocked when people have issues. Iāve used it with no issues on Win 7 and Win 10 in FL 11.x
Anyway, hope you get it sorted! (Also a tad ironic you report this in the āinstant gratification seems lackingā thread! )
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Hi Scot, nice to see you here, Iām (hopefully) just about to buy an AK, looking forward to your tutorials. I also thought the AK sounded quite similar to a Prophet 5 in some of the demos I have heard.
Does Dsi use same kind of components ?
I read about FPAA for A4ā¦?..
I realised yesterday that with the pulse width applied to Tri wave you can have a Saw. Thatās just perfect for my needs.
Unfortunately, Overbridge has been chronically problematic for me, but I thought I had it sorted out, so itās probably due to something Iāve done while messing about with C6 and SYSEX transfers, something I hadnāt attempted until a couple of nights ago. Yeah, funny that itās in an āinstant gratificationā thread! I rarely use Overbridge, as I have decent converters in my primary interface and I have no problem programming the Elektron instruments from their front panels.
Hey! Good to see you, too! Yeah, the A4 can certainly be made to sound quite Prophet-5-like, though of course with less polyphony (by 1 voice). That will be the second tutorial I upload, after the prog lead sound (Iām trying to simultaneously explain basic analog synthesis in the videos so that neophytes can come away with some knowledge that will apply to other synths, too. Probably too basic for a learned lore-master like yourself!)
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From what I recall, DSI commissioned custom Curtis chips based on the chips used in their old designs. I donāt think the A4 has anything like that under the hood, so it wonāt likely have exactly the same character, but it can be made to make similar sorts of patches, since the synthesis architecture has pretty much everything a Prophet-5 had in it and more.
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Iāll second the Overbridge issue: on a heavy patch, there was extreme lag on some parameters until the voices faded out. Iād love to be able to completely disable the audio streaming; doesnāt seem to let you do that from the Overbridge Control Panel.
Machine is a beast, FYI: E3 Xeon (3.6GHz/4-cores) with 32GB of RAM, SanDisk Ultra II SSDs, etc. doing nothing but running an instance of Reaper with 1 Overbridge 64-bit VST loaded in a single track.
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Hope you get it sorted man. And totally agreed, I find software slower for me personally far slower and less inspirational than programming from the front panel. I think its a muscle memory thing for me. With software I never seem to get past basic programming as just clicking everything is some how different from learning the workflow of something like the A4.
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Had some fun last night playing with the presets and the sequencer in a manic fashion. Did a factory reset after I blew away all the sounds on the +Drive.
I did start clipping it with a simple 16 part single voice sequence on track 1 (āClean Bassā) and then an arpeggiated tweak-fest on the second track using several different sounds was clipping a fair bit until I muted that track. Lowered the volume on track 2, but still was clipping, so not sure why.
Thought maybe the Overbridge streaming wouldāve added some overhead, but the factory reset shouldāve set that back to USB-MIDI Only.
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Yeah, I did. I had changed just enough settings to make it misbehave. I put everything back and was able to record the entire lengthy Overbridge session with my screen capture software this morning. I am editing the tutorial now, in fact. Iāll hopefully have it uploaded before the day is out.
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I get where the OP is coming from, and the somewhat tedious challenge to get the A4 / AK to play nice. But itās a tricky beast, since its design isnāt just the patches, like almost any other synth is. It really lies in the combination of a sound, the sequence on its track and the performance macros.
Letās say you fire up an init patch. Just go with the default waveform (saw or square or whatever it is). Do nothing. No filtering, no fx, donāt go tweaking the amp.
And start instead from the sequence. Build a 16-step something. Play with the conditional triggers, the fill, to create variation just from these sixteen steps. Then, hit the macros. Do something easy, like apply filter cutoff to one macro, resonance to another, delay to a third.
Now, with all this, youāve already got something more organic going than almost any other synth in such a package can offer. And youāve not yet touched the standard editing features that youād reach for directly, with any other synths.
Once you approach the instrument from that direction, you maybe will reconsider what a sweet spot means for the A4, and how much of it lies outside the patch itself, and how approaching it from another angle, one that might suit you better depending on your background, could work for you.
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Indeed. This (like any Elektron) offers so many sweet spots, really. There are so many ways to approach the machine. For me, coming from a loooong background in analog synths, the synthesis architecture, while quite capable, isnāt what makes it special. I have lots of great analog synths. What makes it special is all of that other wonderful Elektron-specific stuff that gives plain olā subtractive synthesis new life and new dimensions of play.
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This needs to be stickied somewhere. Next I sit down to a make a track, Iām going to give this a shot. I really feel like if you arenāt p locking the shit out of your patches or using the performance macros at the very least there is basically no reason to own the A4āgo get a Mopho x4 or something instead.
Elektron instruments really are a āyou get it or you donātā instruments IMO
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Hence the Digitakt 
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Very much agree. You need the right mindset or youāre wasting your time. If it wasnāt for Overbridge I probably would be moving on my AK just now and going with something more suitable (to me) like the Deepmind 12.
Itās weird, I totally got on great with p-locks and the likes first time around I had Elektron gear 2 or 3 years ago. Since picking up some pieces a few months back Iām just going round in circles with it!
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While the AR is very much instant gratification, I struggled hard with the A4. So hard that I sold it after using it for nearly one year.
I took the money to get me a Dominion 1. Now THAT beast is instant gratification for sure.
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I think its a good thing to have some instant gratification synths and some that arenāt so much. Iād been missing that, actually, and recently made a purchase to remedy the situation. Not that I canāt dial up whatever I want on the A4 fairly quickly these days, but some days it nice to just make some satisfying noise within a few moments of sitting down. The A4 really doesnāt fill that niche for me as much as I love it. There is certainly something to be said for a knob-per-function monosynth that just bangs no matter where you turn the knobs.
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I agree. Sometimes I want to get right in and play, other times I want to explore endless sonic possibilities. As such my studio runs the gamut from instant sonic nirvana (Minimoog) to the polar opposite (Kyma) with most stuff (like the Elektrons) sitting somewhere in between. For me, the A4 is as close to to instant gratification as an Elektron unit has come, but still sits somewhere in the middle area. Not totally immediate, but neither is the synthesis engine something I really have to think about. Now the AK would probably feel a heck of a lot more immediate to me, as I would be more include to get some widdly in while I patched.
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How is everyone incorporating other polys with their AKs? Overbridge/DAW?