Tips for Skank with A4

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
1

Hi !

I’m working on skanks with the A4 (to make a reggae riddim).
Something that should sound like a synth/guitar/piano skank…

I have some troubles to do that.

Because i dont want to “eat” all my polyphony, i only want to use 1 tack (maybe i can use a second one if i can’t do otherwise).
.

  • I start with the keynote for osc 1 / sub osc on 5Th
  • I add a semi-ton detuned osc tho make a 3 note chord.
  • At last, i add some chorus/reverd trying to make it sounds better !

Result is not really what i wanted to do :s

Can anyone share some tips with me to help me making it sounds better ?

Thanks !

2

I’ve been playing around with this too, and am by no means an expert, but have had some decent results by swinging it a bit and keeping the duration short and release time 0. Also, you can do the reggae bubble with an organ-type sound on the e-and-a parts of each bar, the ‘and’ being an octave higher.

3

I’ve had som nice results for dubby stabs with loads of LFOs modulating for example cutoff frequency, subtle pitch changes etc. Definitely makes the sound come more alive.

4

also LFO to delay parameters, I mainly do this on my OT but same principle applies

don’t forget you can plock trigs on the FX track on the A4 so you could for example change the delay timing and send on a certain trig on the FX track

using such techniques can automate the speeding up/slowing down of delay timing

I’m usually sequencing some external gear because I find myself running out of voices on my A4 if I’m doing poly on 3-4 voices…you can get creative like you did with the osc and sub-osc and/or be creative with trig placemen/timing…but sometimes I find it easier to just sequence another piece of gear and then apply effects (then again, I have an OT so that changes things up a bit on what can be done)

5

:confused: What do you mean by the ‘e and a’ parts of the bar?

6

^ Often that means the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarter note. As in “1 ee and a, 2 ee and a” …

7

Some people count out 16th notes by saying ONE-EE-AND-UH TWO-EE-AND-UH etc. So the “e and a” means everything off of the downbeats.

8

Some people count out 16th notes by saying ONE-EE-AND-UH TWO-EE-AND-UH etc. So the “e and a” means everything off of the downbeats.[/quote]
the question would be how do other people count it? :slight_smile:

I count it like above as well, but I was a bass player first (not a keyboard player)

lots of playing on off beats in reggae…one drops and whatnot in drums as well

9

Great tips,
my skanks are more evolutives now !

thanks

10

Oops, 16th notes sound more like it, not quarter notes.

11

or 8ths on the “and”? :slight_smile: