A couple of months ago i decided to sell of a lot of my gear to buy a Rytm, and I’m really happy about my decision.
But I’m in need of a proper good synth (and a midi-seq since i sold my md), I bought a ms20 mini two weeks ago - but within a week I realised that it wasn’t the synth for me. I sampled it a lot and ended up selling it yesterday.
Over the last year I’ve been thinking alot about getting a A4.
But when i found out about the feedback possibilities - my mind exploded. But there isn’t that much about it out there other than a couple of topics.
My plan is to use it for ambient, drones, noise, soundscapes, techno stuff and so on.
Pros for ambient, drone, noise. Good analog distortion, reverb and delay decent levels of sound sculpting and modulation possibilities. The sequencer is good for short techno and dance oriented stuff but 4 bars is a little short for my liking in terms of longer structured stuff. The perfomance mode is not quite as good as the RYTMs in my opinion but is still going to be very good for something that evolves slowly over time and is ambient/drony.
The latest OS allows for more “generative” type sequences using the % trigs etc though so that pretty good.
Personally Id say if you have the inclination save up for the AK, it adds several fun possibilities and is a more “playable” and inspiring instrument than the vanilla A4.
You may also consider a good old Monomachine : with the price drop you may find some good occasions on second hand market.
And this synth is really a beast. I think it’s a bit overlooked…
What was the key points in your choice of selling the MS20m ?
What are you looking for as a synth ?
I owned a monomachine a couple of years ago and liked it a lot - It is indeed very nice and deep ! But I think that is sounds very digital, which is not bad but it’s not what I’m looking for. I had tons of fun with it, the fm machines are simply fantastic !!
The ms20 mini was a bit of an impulsive investment, I got it at a good price. But i sold it because I didn’t have a midi-seq other than my computer, I didn’t think it was that fun for stuff, other than noise and bass. And it was my intention to sample it and use the samples on the Rytm. My record my music/tracks in one takes, so I would have to focus a lot on the ms20 to get it moving.
I’m looking for a synth that is very versatile and can do a lot of different stuff, most of all, and the build in razor sharp elektron seq is a big plus for the A4. Also when i get more gear, then I’ll be able to seq it using the A4.
I see what you mean.
I found Monomachine gets really better with some FX behind, you loose your digital feeling and just focus on the beauty of the sounds…
A4 is another playground, but quite much fun to be had there, for sure
4 tracks is not much, but with soundlocks you get over it.
People generally say the MM is the hardest Elektron to tame, but I found that the A4 is waaaaaay deep, there are so many ways to add modulations that you can easily overlook some (now I like starting from scratch to avoid being fooled by a performance or a velocity setting I forgot).
The a4 is almost a perfect match for that, if not for the sound atleast in the “bang for the buck” regard. The a4 is a bit more harder to master than the rytm, but if you allready had the MnM it should be no problem.
It doesn’t have to be 4 bars when you have Chain mode immediately available. Also the performance mode can be controlled by rytm’s pads, see a recent thread here
It doesn’t have to be 4 bars when you have Chain mode immediately available. Also the performance mode can be controlled by rytm’s pads, see a recent thread here[/quote]
I’m sure that true, but I could also just control it form a DAW. I was talking about the easy to use options.
Anyway Id say to the OP go for it, the A4 and AK are both great machines. The only machines I own that I like more are my AR and my DSI Pro 2.
But I’m in need of a proper good synth (and a midi-seq since i sold my md),
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the A4 cannot sequence midi gear, it can only sequence two CV devices.
If you can live with that then you’ll be rewarded by a depth and freedom of sound design which surpasses that of feature-packed VAs, the synth engine is a perfect fit for your needs.
first i got AK, then MD and OT, and OP-1 was intended to be a traveling partner for OT, but lat week I sold this tiny robust brick, which sound I couldnt make pleasant and changed it to H9 MAX and AF and I have to say that this is a tool and it sounds amazing and OP - is fun, but to my ears it sounds like… well made digital hell. Synth is about sound imho. Get an AF no brainer!
p.s. for midi I guess AK will do the work, but why not save up for OT then? imo AF + OT is way more flexible setup.
pps and I think i made a mistake by falling in love with all those elektrons very fast and got almost all of them and made myself almost a beggar without knowing one piece deep enough, but I guess no one here will blame me for being elektronut. XD
and combine it with every gear you want. A combination of a hardware sequencer and synth should stay in the price range of an A4/AK.
The A4/AK is a very modern and versatlile analogue synth with loads of modulation options, which outnumber most of the other synths in the market. The sound is fantastic. If you don’t look for a Moog, ARP, DSI, or Oberheim clone, you will not be disappointed
You can set infinite note times and then take the trig off before the first sequence ends and you get infinite droney land ready to be filtered and tweaked on the fly… nice to try it between tracks too with a note per voice, setup a macro and tweak, or just one with all four voices. dont forget OB too, you can have a midi track sending in the notes at whatever length or time you desire
It doesn’t have to be 4 bars when you have Chain mode immediately available. Also the performance mode can be controlled by rytm’s pads, see a recent thread here[/quote]
Chain is easy to use. Set up pattern 1. Set up pattern 2. Select chain mode, load pattern one, hold down chain and press right arrow. Select pattern 2 (select meaning bank then the pattern in question). Done. Press play, you now have 8 bars
What other gear did you have hopes of sequencing?
The CV track is quite flexible, and can be used to sequence a pair of analog mono synths, or one mono synth with some CV LFO automation. It also works for spitting voltage triggers to drum modules (Jomox, Nord Drum). Lately, I’ve been using the CV track to sequence / send 4 triggers to an affordable Roland TM-2 .wav drum module that is loaded with several GB of analog drum machine samples, and using the A4 external input to add FX and pan automation to the TM-2 outputs.
The feedback OSC is very powerful. The input OSCs and neighbor OSC routings, combined with the linear FM and trig probability put it over the top. With all these features, plus the sound locks, and the massive list of LFO and ENV destinations, A4 is my favorite synth by large margin.
