Trading A4 an Octatrack. Just wanted to chat about it :D

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hey guys I just wanted to chat about my motivations and hear some thoughts on my specific situation. Anyone else made a similar switch?

I’ve been loving my A4 actually but I’m not in a position to have multiple boxes. I bought it with the intention of using it primarily as a drum/crazy percussion synth. I can honestly say its performed wonderfully for this. Two random examples of the kind of sounds I’m talking about here:


I actually owned an OTmk2 very briefly but wasn’t ready for the elektron workflow at that time. My time spent with the A4 and learning to wrap my head around the whole kit/pattern interaction and its other quirks has kind of opened my eyes up to the OT once again.

My main and only synth is a Prophet 6 which covers “traditional” synth duties better than the A4 ever could. Its my go to for that immediately great sounding inspiration. (This isn’t a slight on the a4 at all, its just not its strength.)

At the end of the day the A4 still feels more like a musical graphing calculator than a hands on synth to me personally. Again, not a slight. Its the nature of the very powerful beast. Good sounds are still one digit from bad ones and since I’m using this for more rhythmic/percussive duties rather than melodic, I think it makes sense to make a move to the OT.

I’ve just got it in my head that if I’m going to have that kind of technicality and fine tuning in a machine I’d rather opt for the OT as my only Elektron box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiIOGJuxl4Q&t=1446s - this vid really sold me on the OT. Longer samples are cool but just hearing what it can do with short clips of noise gives me hope I can do everything I do on the A4 and much more.

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#2

Are you thinking MK1 or MK2?

OT + Prophet 6 will definitely do plenty and that combo is certainly more powerful than the A4.
MIDI LFO’s and LFO designer will certainly give the P6 the “weirder” capabilities the A4 is known for.

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#4

Probably MK1 just for the price. And that’s exactly what I was thinking man!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIdjPrBlg6c& this is me when I had my Rev2. I loooved manually twiddlin knobs for percussive kinds of exploration.

I kind of thought the A4 would be like 4 voices of that experience and while its many amazing things, its not immediately satisfying to twiddle on the fly if that makes sense. Its fun to sequence on the fly in interesting ways for sure but little things like riding the decay of an analog voice aren’t especially musical.

Now, the idea of conditionally sequencing various CCs of the P6 rhythmically while still being able to live tweak the knobs in front of me is pretty exciting. Also being able to simple record that experimentation back into the OT for future mangling when I’m in a “single box on the couch” mood.

E: Let me ask you and whoever else something specific. I think I’ve seen you around enough conversations of a few of these boxes and you seem to get what I’m looking to do. Even though I’m using the A4 for glittchy percussion duty, it does have a really nice sonic edge to it that sounds very “Analog” yet still cold and techy.

I didn’t really consider the OT much because on paper I didn’t think it would sound as good but after digging deep into the demos, some of the stuff I’ve heard from it really does have that same sound. I think its just the Elektron sound.

That Max Marco filter ping sounds every bit as good as my A4 percussion does. Anyone have specific thoughts on any possible sonic edge I might be giving up if I switched? Disclaimer, I fully realize I am approaching that fuzzy “Mojo” territory that’s pretty stupid but its still worth considering as I do enjoy the quality of sounds I’m making on this A4.

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#5

cool demos :+1:
gave me inspiration to rediscover my A4 which i abandoned recently

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#6

Thanks bud!

One thing you might enjoy trying: Avoid using sound locks to fill your patterns with varied sounds. By choosing the Plock a kick into a snare or whatever else you not only come across interesting stuff you wouldn’t have thought of, but you also retain the ability to edit track wide parameters that effect the whole track, not just the “base” sound if you’ve added sound locks.

#7

One last WIP I’m messing with right now since this is like the epitome of how I’ve been using my A4.

#8

sounds like a stem from a ready production) don’t tell me it’s like a single track on the a4.

thank you for the tip! this also includes trigless plocks which i totally dismissed.

my 2 cents regarding the topic: at some point you’d want to sample some loops from A4 to OT to see how it’d do, i suspect…

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#9

thanks bud! All 4 tracks used. I leave my a4 jams a bit empty on purpose so I can fill them in with a couple of overdubs from the prophet.

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