Although I love the Elektron paradigm, I’ve never got along much with my A4. Even linked up a with a nice midi-controller, everything always seemed a little disconnected for me. Maybe it was my midi-controllers shit pitch/mod joystick.
I found a local deal on an AK that I couldn’t pass up. While the A4 was mainly relegated to linking up with some CV gear that I have. The keys is quickly finding itself the centerpiece of my small & shrinking studio.
Substituting an AK for my master-keyboard and A4 unit is a big space-saver on my desk. I went from 49 to 37 keys, hardly a big deal for me.
The sequencer being able to ‘show’ you the notes that are playing with the lights above each key is so useful. The tiny one-octave buttons of the A4 simply couldn’t be very helpful. Being able to quickly reference sequenced-chords and test changes is super easy now. You can quickly one-hand-mute a track and pick up soloing perfectly because you know you’re going to start on the correct key/octave.
I could keep going. This is a completely different, and way more gratifying instrument than the A4. Anyone want a good deal on an analog4? (I’ll only deal locally - denver area if curious)
I don’t have experience with a4 to compare but so far I’m really digging my AK. Haven’t had nearly as much time on it as I’d like but the features you mention definitely help it all come together. I’m sure I’d dig a4 as well but I like the all in one aspect of the AK. Though I’d love the small a4 form factor for jamming in different places round the house and coupling with OT for shows. Can’t have everything though
I went from A4 to AK and have to say it’s a HUGE difference.
“Sad” I’m going to get another synth with keys. So I think I’ll have to trade my AK for A4 again.
I don’t want to loose all the soundscaping possibilities but don’t have enough space for the “big one”.
the only thing that would be a little frustrating W/ AK is the number of voices which are a bit low for a keyboard and 2 hands ^^ (even if I control A4 with microkorg but MK has a little keyboard not too “comfortable” to try BIG CHORDS (BTW chords are reserved to my MK))
(sorry I’m trying to keep my GAS away :’( )
I was surprised how well the AK fits the bill for a master keyboard. You hit the button near the joystick. Then I pick one of 8 midi track on my octatrack to send midi wherever I need. For me that’s usually virus in seq-mode. Fulfills all my polyphony needs.
Set your Octatrack to auto-channel and pick a channel. I have all my trig-channels set to off.
Set your AKeys ext-midi channel to the same one you picked for your Octatrack’s auto-channel. (button FUNC + (midi ext) )
Connect your AK midi-out to your OT midi-in. Now when you toggle into MIDI-EXT mode (down by the joystick) your AK is in external mode sending midi on your chosen channel.
I’m assuming you have your OT connected to other gear and your midi-channels are set up as needed for your OT’s midi-tracks. Make sure that the midi track you want to control is selected on your OT and your AK is in midi-ext mode. Your AK should be acting as a master keyboard for your OT or anything connected to your OT.
Hope this helped. There’s a thread about making the OT, AK, and Tetra play together nicely that I got most of my info from. I subsisted the virus for the tetra.
For those of you worried about the size of the AK vs A4. Don’t forget that you pretty much need an external midi controller to have much fun with the A4. My AK is actually a space-saver compared to my A4 + keyboard. If I need a small live setup, everything will get sampled on to the OT & RYTM; AK will stay at home.
I plan to add an AK this fall for composition, exclusively, and will also use at the odd local/regional gig. Will keep my A4 for gigs that require airline travel, and it will receive Sysex dumps from AK, mirroring all sounds, projects, and settings…
The individual stereo voice outputs are a big plus for me, as I pan voices all over the place when using sound locks, and prefer to record through the analog outputs instead of Overbridge. While I wish the joystick could be recorded into the sequencer, as it is highly addictive AND effective, recording the joystick performance as audio will be good enough.
After fondling a friend’s AK, one thing that surprised me about was how compact the AJ is. For some reason, the relative dimensions, and photos of it had me thinking it was much longer and wider than it is. I previously thought the sight and reach to screen and encoders would be an annoyance, but I think that after a year of heavy A4 use, I know my way around the synthesis interface well enough that I don’t need to hover above the screen the way that I am used to on the A4.
Also, the smaller step buttons were less of annoyance than I anticipated.
Lots of preconceived notions were dismissed.
I too went from the A4 to AK. Didn’t last long and sold the AK. For me, it isn’t a strong choice as master keyboard - 3 octaves isn’t enough - and it was always a bit of a faff to get under the skin of midi mode when it was all hooked up to my other Elektrons (at the time).
I was considering trading in my A4 for an AK, because I like to play my sequences in and the A4 “keys” single octave is painful.
…but of course, I could just use an external keyboard. I might head in that direction instead. Just need to make sure that I can simultaneously midi-through external clock from Octatrack, which would be master.
My experience is that my live playing style is often not well recorded by a step sequencer. I seem to be too groovy and it happens regularily that I play two notes into one slot of the step sequencer, which causes the second event to overwrite the first and this kills the musical idea instantly.
This said, I would recommend to check out with another external keyboard first that your playing is well recorded before swapping the A4 to the more expensive gear.
To play the AK live, the keyboard and the joystick are great and I don’t want to miss them
My experience is that my live playing style is often not well recorded by a step sequencer. I seem to be too groovy and it happens regularily that I play two notes into one slot of the step sequencer, which causes the second event to overwrite the first and this kills the musical idea instantly.
This said, I would recommend to check out with another external keyboard first that your playing is well recorded before swapping the A4 to the more expensive gear.
To play the AK live, the keyboard and the joystick are great and I don’t want to miss them :D[/quote]
Thanks!
I guess one question is - how easy is it to transfer stuff over to A4 for gigging if I were to have both A4 and AK, but left the AK at home?
My experience is that my live playing style is often not well recorded by a step sequencer. I seem to be too groovy and it happens regularily that I play two notes into one slot of the step sequencer, which causes the second event to overwrite the first and this kills the musical idea instantly.
This said, I would recommend to check out with another external keyboard first that your playing is well recorded before swapping the A4 to the more expensive gear.
To play the AK live, the keyboard and the joystick are great and I don’t want to miss them :D[/quote]
Thanks!
I guess one question is - how easy is it to transfer stuff over to A4 for gigging if I were to have both A4 and AK, but left the AK at home?[/quote]
Try and hunt down something like a Novation X-Station. Can pick them up cheap second hand and they act as great controllers for the A4. Cant remember from memory if you can use the joystick on it in the same way as the AK but you can certainly map a whole lot of shit to the knobs and faders. And it works fine with an OT chucked in.
As for transfering stuff between the two. From my experience (a complete A4 backup and loading into the AK) it was a little on the slow side but worked fine so with a bit of prep you wouldnt have a problem there.
I use XKey37 from CME.
It’s plugged to iConnectMIDI4+
The thing I was looking for with this keyboard was the ability to switch MIDI channel I’m sending notes to, so that I play the A4 on Chan.15 and switch to OT on Chan.16 easily + without the need of a computer.
This keyboard is pretty cool for this easy MIDI channel switching + a few other things…
It’s such a coincidence that I just created a thread about my problems with step recording chords on the A4 using it’s octave range of buttons last night. I’m coming to the conclusion that I need a midi controller of some sort. I’d like to minimize cables as much as I can; is it possible to connect directly to the A4’s USB port with some sort of keyboard, and have the A4 power the keyboard? Anyone know of any keyboards that have really good battery life?
