Settings for vintage/roland/step sequencer/acid feel?

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

First of all; Yes, i know the A4 is much more than this. And i vastly appreciate its sound design capabilities. I’ve gotten some really great pads and intricate arrangements out of it. BUT:

Lately I’m looking to replicate the immediacy of my more fun, immediate synths like the SH-101, Volca Bass, 303, and a lot of vintage/basic step sequencers.

I’ve gotten somewhere by setting the note length to 1/32 (as it seems most old school step sequencers behave this way), but looking to get closer.

The A4 gives me direct control over many parameters that are locked/fixed in older/simpler synths. i’m trying to nail those parameters down (but having trouble identifying them) for a tweakable monophonic step sequenced sound. Like old school acid fun, turning the filter, env depth, decay, resonance, etc. Basically just want to create a template patch for this step sequencer sound where the fixed values are set and i know which parameters to tweak for fun. I’m getting bogged down and having a hard time differentiating.

AMP and Filter envelope parameters seem crucial. But i’m relatively new, learning subtractive synthesis in the past 2 years. SUSTAIN is particularly troublesome. What are the ADSR settings on very simple synths that dont give you control over sustain (or any other ENV params)? or are they AHR type envelopes? or AR envelopes? probably varies between old synths, so more importantly, how to do i replicate this ENV behavior? i have tried turning sustain down and just using attack and decay with mixed results.

One nice thing i’ve noticed is that the A4 will auto-tie the notes (not trigger the envelope) if they overlap AND the following note is a slide. thats nice.

I’ve also noticed that the slide behavior of old synths lengthens the previous note for you, something that i have to do manually on the A4 which takes away from the immediacy and makes the sequencer feel much more tinker-y. i know that this is part of the nature of the elektron seq and i appreciate the possibilities it opens up, so its not a critique or anything. but are there better ways around this?

many questions in here, thanks for reading and i welcome any thoughts, tips, settings, and especially .syx files for study! thanks in advance to this great community.

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#2

For a good 303 sound, you could look at the Analog 303 Kit

And utilise performance macros. Macros give you quite a bit of that immediacy.

Not sure about that, but somehow 1/32 notes do really sound right in the A4/AK.

Slide behaviour is also tricky, because there are two types, constant rate and constant time.
Constant rate.
Constant rate means notes that are further apart will take longer to slide, with constant time, slide time is the same for all notes.

Most synths have constant time portamento, though.

#3

You’re completely right about the 32th notes, that’s needed for 303 like behaviour (except for slides, where the first note needs to sllightly overlap the second, in addition to a slide trig)

In my experience modt synths use constant rate, whereas the constant time (regardless of the interval) is what the 303 uses and is more rarely implemented. (Also only glide on legato notes).

The last defini g characteristic is the accent behaviour, which does 3 things:
Increases env to amp
Increases env to vcf
Decreases decay of said env

This is crucial to that acid vibe and only seldomly implemented properly on 303-style variations

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#4

Ok, good to know. I thought it definitely was the opposite.
Anyways, just wanted to point out that when trying to emulate a particular synth, it’s also important pay attention to how portamento is implemented on that synth.

Unfortunately we can’t use a macro on the A4/AK to control velocity or other mod sources. Would have made it easy to mimick accent behaviour. Using the velocity in the note page (deactivate velocity to volume in the settings) is probaply the best approach.

Just checked how the envelope is set on the Analog303 Kit (which is a really good 303 emulation btw, really nailed the sound), he has A=0 D=63 S=127 R=31 env shape 2 for the amp envelope. So sustain is all the way up, the filter envelope has zero sustain, though (A=0 D=30 S=0 R=35, env shape 2).

So amp has full sustain, but with the filter closed, nothing coming through.

Which reminds me of how you can set the amp to gate on the SH101, so when a note is played the amp just immediately opena up, when you release a key, it closes. Like a square shape.

But I’m sure you can find quite some extensive research on how some of those synths worked, especially 303.

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#5

I know, I made it myself :wink:, but thanks :joy:

Dont just study the parameter pages to understand the sounds, but see macro- and velocity mappings as well!!

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#6

Haha :joy:
@studface was curious about envelope settings, so I thought I’d just post it in case he doesn’t want to load the sysex^^

Really convincing 303 you made there btw.
I used it in a 303 challenge once and people really thought that my track actually had a real 303 in it :upside_down_face:

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#7

Great info here, thanks!!! i will definitely load up this sysex for study.

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