Tabula rasa advice

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Like a lot of people I struggle to get my head around the filing system of the A4. I searched the forums and found the tabula rasa system posted by Void. It looks useful! Could someone confirm how I install this and then use it? Does it set up the 128 patterns and kits in all 128 projects? When I then go in and create a new pattern, do I have to save the pattern, the kit or both? Say I make a pattern and then want to make a new pattern using the same sounds, what is the best way to do this?

Thanks!

Function + Clear clears all preset patterns/kits instead of one
Tips & advice on copying & deconstructing patterns/kits on A4
Does tabula rasa work on mkii as well?
#2

I think it works like this:

Saving:
You select a pattern. It is already linked to a kit (that’s due to the script).
Patterns are auto save, but you can save them when you’ve got steps and p-locks you enjoy, and then later, after messing with it, you can hit reload (No + F/Pattern) to return to the state you manually saved earlier.
Kits need to be saved to make sure your changes to the “sounds” (patches) don’t get lost.

If you want a new pattern with the same sounds, you go to a different pattern, go to “load kit” (in the menu accessed by Shift + C/Kit) and select the same kit as in your first pattern. Changes made to the kit while on either pattern are transferred automatically to the other one.

#3

Can anybody give me a link to tabula rasa? I cant seem to to find it on here.

#4

I’m not good with Latin, at all (it may as well be Esperanto for all I care - I) much prefer living languages)… and no this is not the real link, but this was bugging me for several years now, so I finally clicked on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa

Makes sense now! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

2 Likes
#5

I found the link. I thought it was in the files section for some reason but it doesn’t appear to be uploaded there.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/50830178/tabula_rasa.syx

#6

If I wanted a complete clean A4 - no preset sounds, no demo patterns, nothing on the +Drive - entirely clean, all over.

Is this possible?

I’ve found threads on part of the subject, but no single thread that just says: “This synth is now clean.”

Can it be exorcised from top to bottom?

1 Like
#7

Try whatever is under the startup menu. Hold down function while you turn it on.

You can just load a blank project but look for tabla rasa which links patterns and kits in a logical manner.

#8

Manual :

EMPTY RESET
To perform this operation, press the second [TRIG] key. All kits, patterns, Sounds and songs will be erased.

Is that what you want ?

1 Like
#9

Yes! Thanks. Very much.

#10

So you want an Ot + A4 ? :slight_smile:

#11

Yes, that’s the end game.

I need one instrument with enough depth to allow me to design sounds, compose and write complete tracks. Doesn’t have to be sonically complete, but in terms of basic structure and sound, it needs to work on its own. I’m going through singular instruments for this purpose, and it’s time to try out the A4 now.

Then, I need a recording environment where I can add sonic depth, as well as creative variations - and bring this to stage. The OT is unmatched in this aspect, and I also know it quite well since before, so I’d be up and running with that in no time.

But I won’t get an OT until I have sufficient material to record and work with. Which I’ll have, once I settle for an instrument.

Ideally, I’d like the Analog Keys. I’m a keyboard player and I really write better tracks with a keyboard at hand. But I don’t have the space for it, so it’ll be the A4, hook it up to a keyboard every now and then for writing the basic structure, then editing the track on just the A4 and stuff away the keyboard. Then, record into OT for further depth. And then, to stage and studio.

I realise I’ve misjudged the A4 / AKeys. I’ve never liked the way it sounds. But when trying it out lately, I’ve wiped the kits and built sounds of my own, and then I just love it. So it’s just the presets I don’t much enjoy, not the fundamental sonic character of the synth. Man, I’ve been wrong. And I’m glad I was.

So I’m gonna wipe the A4, get that Next Level soundpack (cause that, I really like), do a few sounds of my own, and take it to town, just like grandpa did way back when.

2 Likes
#12

I came to a similar conclusion,plus a lil Blofeld for better polyphony.
I really like the Tk49 with my Ot - A4. Very efficient synced polyphonic Arp, pads arpegiated, so you can arpegiate Ccs!

20161216_014008.jpg3264Ă—1836 1.45 MB

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#13

Very cool. That is exactly how I perceive my setup in the near future.

How does it work with an external midi keyboard, and parameter-lock specific notes on the A4? What I enjoy most with the Keys is that I can lock a note to a key when I change the details of a song, and I was unsure if that’s an inherent feature within the Analog Keys specifically, or if the A4 responds to any keyboard, in much the same way.

So I’m jamming away.

Wait, wait - that C3#, I want to change that to a G3#- man, that’s gonna do the trick. On the Keys, I just push and hold the trig button and the G#3, and boom, that note on that trig becomes a G#3.

Can I do that on the A4, with an external keyboard as well?

#14

Yes, of course.
And it takes into account the velocity, unlike A4 mini kb

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#15

Thanks. I expected as much, tho you never know.

Boom! One A4 ordered, directly from Elektron HQ through my local sugar daddy.

Apparently, I’m getting a Christmas present as well :slight_smile: you Elektron guys, you :slight_smile:

#16

:content:

#17

Can you p-lock a chord?

#18

Yes indeed.
You can e.g. hold a trig and push up to 4 notes. Or Live Rec and hit 4 notes.
They get plocked in the Arp menu but used as chord if you have enough voices set in the Ploy config.
These notes are of course used if you set the ARP on.

One thing though : say you’re on Live Play, you hit a chord either on ARP or Poly mode, this chord gets plocked.
But if you add a note, only this note is recorded, so if you release the chord you don’t have what you were listening, unfortunately.
Maybe this should be declared as a bug, somehow…

The other thing that is a pity is that you can’t get smaller than the 64 steps rate for plocking notes…
Maybe one day we’ll see arise some kind of automated ARP lock that would enable to do so. But so far, only one note is recorded.

#19

Merci :wink:

You surely meant Live Recording.
The problem is the same with Ot I think. Step sequencer vs linear sequencer…

#20

Oui, Live Rec is what I meant.
Step sequencing is pushed to the limit but I would still love to see this addressed : e.g. is I play a not between two step an ARP is plocked so that I get my middle note.
On OT you can plock this (manually though, not while playing) but not on A4.

About recording the additional note in Poly… Seems I’m wrong !