I do have some notes on two things that I think are missing but should be present as appendices for this to really be useful for newbies: first, an overview of the available ranges and sweep curves for the different effects parameters and some heuristics on how to set them intentionally (things like choosing delay setting based on note lengths, how to decide what to do with the shelving filter in the reverb, etc). Besides this, the theory underlying a lot of your effects decisions and how/why you refer to various effects as ‘comb filters’, ‘resonators’, etc. A lot of this is peppered throughout the book but an appendix with these tips would be a helpful resource. I like the format the way it is, but those fundamentals and a reference for what a specific term means explicitly is important to have someplace.
At least links to more detailed resources and some paragraphs to put the pieces together would make this a lot more helpful for people who see straightforward standard effects available and don’t yet know how the given parameters can be used to craft their own multi-effect.
For instance, let’s take chorus. There should someplace be a proper explanation of the fact that chorus is a short delay to create phase (and therefore, stereo) separation between the original note and its copy and that the vibrato LFO modulates the pitch of the echo. That’s in the effects fundamentals appendix, alongside the definitions of a resonator, comb filter, etc in a way that makes plain how a delay effect’s time and feedback can be set to create resonance and comb filtering and how to choose those settings.
Then in covering the way the chorus works in the A4, a full parameter description (you can parrot what’s in the manual but it’s helpful to have these things someplace without going to a new document) is a good start but you can expand a lot beyond what they say in the manual. The elektron official manual only gives a mapping of delay settings to times and doesn’t explain the range of the chorus phase LFO (speed at 0, speed at 127), but we can presume that reverb and chorus pre-delay follow the same time mapping as the delay effect itself and try to create a sense of intention around how to use them that way. The synthdawg manual suggests that traditional chorus delay lines range from 5-15ms and larger times over 20ms widen into a doubler effect, but at 120bpm a 128th note (setting of 1 for delay) is 15ms, so it seems that by using anything over 1 in the chorus pre-delay you are getting into doubler territory. Into longer more classic “delay effect” settings then you’re really making a modulated echo rather than a chorus. I haven’t sat at my A4 and proved that to myself, it just follows from the parameter descriptions. So some guidance on what various parts of that dial in the chorus are useful for, how much you should send to the chorus for different results, and how different speed and depth settings can impact it would be a useful section to have.
The last set of ideas I think that are missing are these incredibly powerful features that can really turn the A4 into an even more expansive processor than you’ve already made it with your effect ideas:
- Exploration of using the A4 either completely or partially as an external effects processor using neighbor and feedback oscillators
- Using it as a filter bank. Elektron give some details in the manual but some performance tips etc. can help this be a lot more useful for others who might not recognize how interesting this could get. I know Kimura Taro has explored this a bit on his website as well.
- CV modulation and using loopback CV from the CV track to mod parameters on the FX track or feedback/neighbor tracks.
All that is just my 2 cents but I know you are priding yourself on the deep focus you’ve placed on the A4 and its capabilities and those are some ways to make this document worth a lot more to those who buy it as a learning tool. I imagine it would nearly double the overall scope of the book, but if you put all of that information in one place it would be a skills rocket ship for new A4 enjoyers.
