Octatrack and Analog Four combo

Elektron Gear Octatrack
#1

As much as I hated my Octatrack MK2 for the 1st few days after initial purchase, a few months later of constant banging I fell in love with it to the point where I decided to buy a companion for it… the Analog Four (also MK2). Mainly as a replacement for a couple of Eurorack modules. It’s on the way now but I am already thinking about how I can utilize both in tandem so I have a few questions:

  1. I really like OT sequencer, especially arpeggiator and the ability to mangle it with LFOs. Is there any major difference between OT-A4 sequencer/arp? I was thinking of using A4 synths as Thru machines on OT, but I am not sure if that’s the way to go…

  2. CV/Gates… can I control A4 soundengine with Modular Sequencer? Can I use both, external sequencer and the internal one at the same time?

  3. This question is mainly to the most experienced audience - I guess it will take me a few months until I discover most of the features however, what is the most optimal routing/setup for A4 and OT? How are you guys using them both on stage for (mainly) improvised sets?

#2

Yes. A4’s (arp) parameters can’t be plocked or lfo controlled. You can plock notes. You can play arp with external midi notes.
OT’s arp modulated by it’s lfos, trc trigs, adds lots of variations. You can use both.

Control in 1 and 2 can control 5 parameters each. I guess you can use both, as with macros.

Depends on needs I guess.
You can send OT CUE in A4 Inputs, and use it’s fx, plug A4 Main to OT with INAB. You can plug 2 A4 individual outs to INCD (you can use these tracks as fx too, filter / overdrive).

You can also plug the 4 individual outs, or just the Main…

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#3

That’s a quite misleading formulation. I guess you mean plocks without a note here, isn’t it? And which parameters cannot be controlled by the LFOs?

The A4 inputs can be used as oscillator source. So in addition to the fx you have the complete synth section available (cross modulations, envelopes, filters etc.pp.).

#4

I have an OT, A4 and a small modular setup. Pretty powerful combo to me, though I’m still wrapping my head around it. I have sequenced the A4 from the Octatrack, but lately I’ve just been syncing em up and using them on their own. Right now, it’s set up like this…
Octatrack- master clock to A4
A4 CV clock out to Pam’s New Workout.
Still messing with different combos, but that certainly works. Right now, everything is patched into my audio interface, but I’m thinking of patching the modular into OT for mangling

Have fun with your new setup!

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#5

I was talking about A4’s arp parameters. Confusing I admit. Edited.
I didn’t see “sequencer”. Differences are not easy to detail comparing to OT!

Yep.

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#6

Don´t forget the neighbourtracks…the A4 can be setup with the help of the neighbourtracks, so that it works as a 8x Filterbank System.

Page 73, 15.3. in the manual:

Thanks to the neighbor routing, all the filters of the Analog Four MKII can be used for providing an immense
mono filter bank consisting of 8 filters plus 4 overdrive circuits. The setup can be either serial or parallel.
It can, of course, be set up for stereo filtering as well. In this scenario, 4 filters are available for the left and
right channels.

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#7

But not 8x Sherman Filterbanks of course. :wink:

#8

Oh oh…the good ol’ Sherman…

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#9

Thank you for all your suggestions. For now, I want to patch Octatrack MAIN OUT into A4 Ext In. A4 MAIN OUT supposed to output all A4 sounds + OT sound. I am a bit confused on how to set this up properly.

What I’ve done so far is:

OT Main OUT L/R —> A4 Ext In L/R (stereo). —> A4 MAIN OUT into speakers

I am getting signal from Octatrack but I am not sure how lol. I cannot use FX or internal ENV on OT sounds though. It’s behaving like if it was in DIRect mode. Just OT sound going through A4 Mains. I can use all Tracks on A4 in the same time, but I think I will need to sacrifise one track, for example T1 to create a “thru” (OT style) track for OT, and then setup infinite trig etc. to get this work properly? How am I supposed to configure it please? I was checking the manual, I’ve set OSC Wav to R and OSC2 Wav to L but I’m not getting the results. OT is still passing through A4 like if it was in Direct mode (even if I mute all 4 tracks) and I can use A4’s internal synth on T1…

#10

Page 73 of the A4 manual explains the setup of EXT-IN when you just want to route the audio to MAIN out (+ add some fx to them).

When you want to use the signal from EXT-IN as oscillator source, so you can use the filters, envelopes and the rest than you’ll need to sacrifice a track (as you already found out). But note, that in this case you need also corresponding trigs on the track, because the EXT-IN gets used like any other oscillator source is used. And don’t forget to turn the volume of the FX track/EXT-IN page to 0 (like explained on page 73 in the manual). Otherwise you would hear both.

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