Still no end to soloing the A4… Quickjam of the day.
[Cross-post from current sounds – better quality here.]
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sick TB patch !
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Thanks!! Glad you like it. 
With the ‘right’ approach, the A4 does fantastic with 303 type sounds.
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Analog keys fx LFO med mera
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They had a demo unit in the Bax Music shop I visited recently. Plugged in my headphones and had a great time experimenting, an hour passed in no time. Not that anything usable came out of it, but still 
Could’ve been a lot of ‘That guy STILL hugging that thing?’ looks, but I didn’t bother to check. Got my Holy Trinity together at last, only want to save for a Heat +FX to conclude the hardware rally, but that A4…NO! Bad boy, RvdKraats! Bad boy!
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And then it and another track appeared here… that’s some great company to be in.
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Spent some time/thoughts to built a (to my ears) convincing acid patch. Shared a few sounds over here:
Let’s hear what you say! 
The long read
A few details about design choices made that may be of interest:
- All 303 demos I looked at had a steeper exponential volume curve when using accents, which is most likely due to the distinct circuits for vca and accent. I tried to achieve a similar behaviour with two envelopes and the steeper one kicking in when increasing velocity.
- Saw wave is actually TRI with PWM set to max either left or right. This makes a little dirtier sound than just using SAW.
- Square is OSC tuned +12 and uses only the SUB -1 OCT. Simply because this is a more symmetric square wave.
- You could easily use filter 2 set to hi-pass to reduce bass frequencies a little, but I came across a different trick that sounds nicer: Set filter 2 to 24db hi-pass leaving it completely open and crank up envelope DEP to around 32.
- There’s some meowing possible but hardly any of the fierce dog’s bow wow.
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Not all 303s do that. Not all X0xbox’s do it. Mine doesnt. And thats fine, because I dont like that noise anyway.
Worth noting, the accent doesnt just increase amplitude. It also closes the filter a tad. So you can map velocity you either cut off, or mod depth. (Or how ever you are doing your accents on the A4. I aint got one, so no idea)
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Hey thanks for an insightful perspective. Really appreciated!
- The dog can stay in the shack – just stating what’s sonically possible with the A4.
- Accents are mapped through velocity. They reduce filter decay a bit, add a tiny amount of resonance and env depth and in my special patch increase the volume with the secondary envelope. I thinks that’s it.
It’s absolutely crazy that you have so many modulation options available in that box.
Edit: I remember some years ago I saw your Digitone Acid video. I took some notes back then. 
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a4 mk1 is my swiss army knife its a drum machines a polysynth a soundcard a mixer an effects box a sequencer for other gear - love the little thing - and it stands on its own as a one box stop to make most things well enough too - only gripe is that red writing in low light
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It’s also interesting to note that (at least on my Xoxbox) the square wave isnt very square at all. The vertices are straight, but the horizintal line is wonky as hell.
I used an oscilloscope to find that out. And also note that you can make a geometrically perfect square wave with digitone. And, you can make a wonky square wave with digitone.
My latest acid musings have been using the electribe EMX1. Which is VA. Sure, you can use the straight saw or sqaure, but I think its more fun to use wave folding, or ring mod to get some movement in the waveform. I havent had the oscilloscope out on the EMX1 yet, so just doing it by ear at the moment.
Not A4 I know. Mod me.
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A few tips and a video from @darenager about 303 in the following thread:
One it refers to:
And a bonus one to keep digging the rabbit hole:
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Thanks!! Always good to reference the old stuff.
You know me. Been there. 
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Down tempo Dub-Tech trip on Elektron Analog4 and Analog Rytm.
Dub Chords routed through Roland RE-201 Space Echo.
Reverb added on 1010 BlueBox.
Recorded in a single Take directly on 1010 BlueBox.
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It might be a very noob question : I made a basic song arrangement through some patterns, saved my kits, and my performances macros. I played it multiples time on my studio, I save the projzct multiple times too.
Last week end I wanted to play the song and to my surprise most of my performances setup is now gone.
Not a big deal as I can make it again, but I 'M wondering, did I miss something in the saving process? Should I save the kits independently from the project?
Ambient jam with A4
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That’s what I do, saving Kits then the Project.
You might want to make sure this is absolutely needed by testing this thoroughly.
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Yeah you absolutely have to save the kits separately to the project. yes+kit is your friend.
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