Possible shopping spree - your suggestions?

Hi there,

I’m a total noob and I’m pretty aware that my questions may find some (or most) of your heads shaking, but I finally got a grip.

I’ve saved 5000,00 Euros (which is a lot of money to me) and I’m ready to spend it on hardware. I’d like to take a plunge into the John Tejada/Robert Hood kind of terrain and I have no plans to take my musings to the stage.

Current equipment:
Mac, Ableton Live 9, Logic Pro X, Arturia Analog Experience, Teenage Engineering OP-1, NI Maschine, NI Komplete, Spitfire Audio Albion Series, Yamaha mixer, Focusrite Forte, some microphones.

Gut feelings: I’d like to invest in MachineDrum, Analog Four, and Octatrack, take lots of time to learn and surprise myself.

Based on your experiences - would you encourage me to spend the cash on these machines or should I consider anything else?

ANY feedback is thankfully appreciated.

How much free time do you have to learn the new machines? Elektron machines can be slow to learn if your not used them, particularly the OT. Might be wiser to get 1 at a time.

Pretty good choices my friend.
I’ve got the MD+ and absolutely love the beast. Never ceases to make me smile
I am right on the verge of an A4 as it’s proven itself as another deep machine.
I started a similar thread today about an A4 or a Cirklon and the consensus was both and an OT.
These chaps in here love the thing.
Everyone’s going mental over the AR announced last week so you may want to consider that too?
Well done for saving up 5 grand. Very disciplined of you!
You could alternatively lend it to me to put tiwards my fucking tax bill!
Good luck with it. These gentleman will helo you spend your money very successfully, Very quickly.

Can you play Keys?
Moog’s new Sub37 looks amazing.

Don’t be afraid to buy used, get more bang for your buck.

I agree that if you aren’t used to Elektron gear getting a bunch at once could be overwhelming. I would go for a used MDUW+, something w/keys (that Sub37) and learn those 2 first. Then a used A4, then a used Octatrack.

Whatever you do, buy one at a time. Learn it, and then add more. It is a lot easier and you’ll be better off in the long run and know what you need/lack/want.

Trust me :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Since you have an OP-1, have you considered an Oplab to let it play nice with the rest of your gear? ie be synced or control any hardware?

+1 for the 1 at a time. Since you have all the other stuff, maybe an OT to start? Or go for the A4 of you want instant gratification.

Yeah, don’t try to learn more than one Elektron at a time. Every time I see someone go on an Elektron shopping spree, they come to the forums with a bunch of questions, and after a month or two never seem to be heard from again, presumably because they are overwhelmed and sell them.

i’d suggest one at a time too. i think the MDUW is a great starting point. i’ve had people over who have never touched a musical instrument in their lives and are pulling out cool sounds within 20 minutes.

take your time with the purchasing. too many too soon and you with be overwhelmed with choices. once you learn one, you will have an intuitive sense of what belongs next to it. it’ll be whatever you haven’t managed to pull out of the current machine.

good luck =)

One major thing to consider is being able to sync these units with Live and if you investigate the forum you’ll see it can be a problem at times…Innerclock Sync Gen is the rock solid solution I found (and no….I am not a rep!) but it’s a bit pricey….Elektron gear is VERY deep and if you spend the time with the units you’ll see the palette of sounds is limitless…I love all my units and continue to be inspired by them three years later….

Grab the A4 for sure in my opinion. Its a great intro to the elektron machines and a great synth for a number of reasons. The octatrack is a blast but its definitely more menu remembering and takes longer to get used to than the A4. Cant speak for the machinedrum but im planning on getting one soon. Monomachine seems great too and i see them for $750 usd used.

I think the MDUW is probably the best introduction to Elektron sequencing as well, as it is the most straightforward (although I haven’t looked into the A4 in any detail…gotta keep my GAS in check). It still took me a good 6 months to stop being intimidated and confused by the Elektron way after getting my MD.

The Mono’s sequencer is a tad more complex, but I find it a lot more intuitive than the MD in some ways.

Another thing to consider is sequencing other gear, as the A4 only has CV, and the other boxes only midi. Looking at your current equipment is probably isn’t as big of a deal now, but it may be something to consider for the future.

Personally (and because these are what my workflow centre around), even if it might be a bit much to chew all at one, I would suggest an OT and A4 to start. Both machines are well rounded enough you can get quite a bit of satisfaction exploring just one at a time, and used together you get a vast amount of flexibility, ie: sampling drum grooves made on the A4 into the Ot and then laying A4 synth lines on top, processing OT outputs through the A4 effect and vice versa and of course sampling sampling sampling and MIDI sequencing:) The two of these machines together are more than enough to compose full tracks, gel well with other gear and not feel lacking in any department. After getting the hang of that, if you feel you need more, then look into getting a Machinedrum, or the new Analogue Rytm depending on which seems it would suit your workflow better.

Also, buying used gear tends to be a win win as if you end up loving it, you got it for a great price, if not you can sell it again and with any luck not lose any more than your shipping costs. Pretty sweet deal for getting an unlimited trial on a piece of gear IMO.

@all: Thank you so much for taking the time to reply and add your thoughts and expertise to the topic. It’s of highest value to me.

@smais: Starting in February, I will be taking time off for two years. I’ll be able to focus my attention to music. I’m planning to set aside 4-6 hours per day on learning new stuff.

@Chinchilla: Thanks a lot. I can’t really elaborate on this, but for some unknown reason, the Analog Rytm videos didn’t ring my bell. Just a feeling, no intellectual structure hidden here : )

@DeltaPhoenix: Yes, I am able to play keys. I control my melodic/harmonic stuff via midi interfaces, so - also because of the limitations of my small home studio space -I’m interested in rack and desktop gear. Nevertheless, the Sub37 caught my eye, too.

@KrisM: I’m already trusting you : ) Will look into the Oplab!

@JES: Interesting thought. I had the feeling, A4 and MD were good for getting a head start, and OT would be the beast that would take a whole lotta more time and effort to control.

@Accent: I absolutely understand, thank you.

@kirlian & AlephNull & Accent: Stimulating points of view. Being the noob I am, I thought (apart from sequencing capabilities): Drums - MD, Bass/Melody - A4, Sampling/Loops/Sounds - OT. Maybe there are more shared areas between those instruments than met my eye.

@jagielo: Never thought of clocking problems, due to almost no experience with hardware (apart from acoustic instruments) going into the DAW. I will look these things up immediately!

@NRain: Very inspiring in all kinds of ways - big thanks! Just to get that clear in my mind: Would you say, that - in terms of doing minimal stuff - you would feel the A4 to be of higher instant and long term value than - say - the MD?

Personally I only have a relatively short lived experience with the Machinedrum. I had one, never really fully gelled with it, then when the Octatrack came out I purchased one and then decided to sell the Machinedrum to fund another Octatrack.
In my opinion, the MD is quite well suited for minimal techno and glitchy style stuff, though I’m sure others feedback on the subject would be more informative. IMO, the Machinedrum does require a decent buss compressor to really make the sound shine.

I guess without knowing what sort of minimal style music you are interested in making, whether that be techno, downtempo, chill, lounge etc it’s hard to say which would be best as all the machines have specific strengths. I will say that the OT offers the largest sonic pallet, obviously because it’s sample based, but unless you have other gear to feed it samples with, it can be a bit more of a challenge to say for example come up with a melodic bassline, lead or an atmospheric pad without resorting to a 3’rd party sample pack, however you can fully manipulate a premade sample beyond recognition and sounding great but a lot of time it seems more a happy accident than a deliberate direction. The OT also offers the most advanced sequencer of the bunch and can sequence external gear quite nicely.

The A4… well, unless you are adept at synth programming, that is kind of a happy accident machine too. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: ! Lots of sonic possibilities and very tweakable, fun fun, even though it does kickass drums, the 4 track limitation really needs a drum machine or sampler to accompany it for maximum pleasure. For minimal? I guess that depends on the definition. I don’t think the A4 would be my first choice as a atmospheric evolving pads sorta thing but it really can cover a lot of sonic territory if you know what you are doing, and the sequencer is excellent as well.

I would say that if you are one of the “chosen ones” lol, whom the Octatrack interface and workflow makes perfect sense to, it, coupled with a nice sample collection is the most immediately gratifying, versatile and capable box of the bunch. My 2c.

get ONE at a time … if you start with alalog4 the learning curve is steeeeeeper!

so here my 2 cents

get a USED MD, mark1, non UW non + drive as CHEAP as you can… you will be able to sell it at a later stage, I promise :wink:

after fucking around with your new toy after 2 weeks you see why too much could be overwhelming.

5000-500/600 for a used md is best for start IMHO

if you get the A4 more cash is spent and learning curve is as i said much steeper. and the A4 isnt widely available cheaply since it is newer

coming from the MD you will be able to understand a fair bit.

dont DONT get both at the same time.

right now, dont try to hoock it up to Ableton right away, just audio record your stuff into ableton…

check the thread in sandbox on the LAB 2 Steps… there you see what is possible with the minimal apporach… here a track that i made using just half the MD i recommended to you -… https://soundcloud.com/totgetanzt/mnml_lab_gltch

to all other elektronauts… we are the sweetest forum on the internet!

Buy 'em all buy 'em now.
Before your gear money goes to a mechanic or bill collector or bartender or Girlfriend.

The “learning curve” is, to me at least, one of the joys of these machines.

Octatrack 1x = 1185
Analog four 1x = 1049 (hurry up, they will go up 200 very soon)
Analog Rytm 1x = 1459
JP8080 1x = 400
Sub phatty 1x = 900
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4993,-

I wish I had that money to spend in gear… Wait, I think I already spent it! :joy:

I would recommend first of all the Octatrack and AnalogFour. A Sub Phatty would also be cool, I have one, but I would rather suggest starting a modular system. Get yourself a decent 6U case and some modules, and you’ll have lots of fun controlling it with the A4, routing it through the A4, creating amazing sounds in between, to feed your Octatrack… That’s what I did, anyway. In that’s what I spent my 5000 euros or so in the last year. (Like you, I also started with lots of virtual synths, Komplete, Maschine, OP-1…).

^ thats a big leap

i basically bought my machinedrum first, but that is cake to get your head around. next month my octatrack arrived. and i love it. definatly still learning some ins and outs months later. took me a good 4 months just to fully understand its architechture.

3 months after (before i undertsood the octa completely) i got an a4 mnm combo off of perfect circuit.com which was 15% off. and no tax dispite shipping to ontario canada from california (beats me but saved me 300 bucks)

a4 isnt very steep of a learning curve, but its hard to “control” sort of. it doesnt operate quite the same as most normal analog synths. its unique in this way which often leads people to the conclusion that its just not the sound for them.

the monomachine isnt quite as “grab and go” as the a4. presets are harder to manage. but the sounds you can muster out of it can be very satisfying. i think this would be a good idea for minimal as it plays a bit more as a “rhytmic synth”.

at the moment i have the octatrack as master. i have and a4, mnm, md, and ms2000 all clocked and accepting program changes. also i have midi in from ableton where i send the octatrack my midi from my mpk49 aswell as any vst or max4live. and audio out from octatrack is monitored in ableton for recording. it all works smoothly.

after all this, besides maybe a blofeld or a minibrute,

Remember that if you really dig in, the MD is a very capable all in one box. So is the OT. Have fun!