Elektron-Users

Anyone here woking with this two?

impressions?

thanks!

I had both since day one. What would you like to know? They are both nice machines but very different. The raw tone of the tempest is much warmer and fuller, but the envelopes on the a4 are quicker. A4 has a much better sequencer, but the tempest has velocity sensitive pads. The tempest has samples and sampled waveforms, but the a4 has great FX.

Thanks for your answer!

Well I'm using the tempest with my mpc 2500 / Evolver / 303, so I want to add another machine that can add more synthesis but also more functionality to the setup.. As I never used any Elektron unit I been doing some research and seems that Analog Four could bring this to my stuff..as you mention seems that the fx section and sequencer are very interesting..I am aware that its a different sound that Tempest.. Do you consider it is different in a positive way?

I also consider a Sub or Slim Phatty but these do not provide the functionality, portability and tools that Analog Four does,,as I am building a new live setup..

How good it's the midi sync as slave? ...Are you satisfied with the machine?

Thanks again

About the sound, it depends on what sounds you like. I wouldn't recommend it for fat bass sounds (although it can be done but is a little tricky as it requires the right feedback/drive settings), but it's awesome for plucky sounds, arps, dubtech chords, that kind of stuff. The multimode filter is pretty nice, but I'm not really fond of the lowpass filter.
The FX and sequencer make the biggest difference. You can even sequence the FX section on a per-step basis for crazy sound fx. Routing the tempest thru the inputs is also very nice, you can use the FX of the A4 on the tempest.

The OS is very stable, but it does have some strange things. For instance, it has amplitude modulation, but most of the time I don't hear any difference when I switch it on. The same goes for the notch filter, barely noticable. And the filesystem is a bit of a pain when working on multiple projects. It basically consists of a bunch of patterns grouped in banks. There is no such thing as a project in the A4

The sync and midi department is super tight. Much tighter then the tempest to be honest. Please note, the sequencer notes do not output midi, but turning the knobs do send CC's. So you can't use it to sequence external gear. I think they did this on purpouse to sell more octatracks

mmm all right very useful info thanks..

well all the issues you mention..I could live with those, except when it comes to the bass side of things..that is defently an issue for me..

of course I can get one of the moog´s for this.. but as mentioned before I was looking also for the tools that analog four have..

maybe monomachine would be more fat for this??

or the fat bass side of things it´s not really an Elektron thing?

any other suggestion ?

SBSIX wrote:


The OS is very stable, but it does have some strange things. For instance, it has amplitude modulation, but most of the time I don't hear any difference when I switch it on. The same goes for the notch filter, barely noticable.

When you switch in the amp mod on an initialized patch you won't hear anything as the waveforms are set to sawtooth and you won't get any amp mod from these (or the triangle waves) without tweaking their pulse widths, the more you turn the more pronounced it will become.
Start with an initialized patch and set osc 1 and 2 waveforms to pulse, keep the levels as they are, now press and hold a note.
Switch to osc 2's second page and switch AM1 on, you'll hear the waveform thin out with some slow phasing going on if you have oscillator drift activated.
Now switch to osc 2's first page and mess with the tune knob in the top left corner and you'll definitely hear some amp mod.

Yes, the notch filter is subtle, it can take the edge off a frequency that you might like softening and can sound nice with an LFO modulating it but you always wish it would take you further.

Zky wrote:
mmm all right very useful info thanks..

well all the issues you mention..I could live with those, except when it comes to the bass side of things..that is defently an issue for me..

of course I can get one of the moog´s for this.. but as mentioned before I was looking also for the tools that analog four have..

maybe monomachine would be more fat for this??

or the fat bass side of things it´s not really an Elektron thing?

any other suggestion ?

I bought a vermona mono lancet for this. Awesome little beast for bass duties. Bigger sound then a minitaur if you'd ask me. I don't know the mono in person. Could be their fm machines go quite deep. Also, an octatrack can make huge basses with the right single cycle waveform.

And thanks porcupie, ill experiment further with the AM. But its still a bit weird isnt it? AM between 2 triangles should result in glassy tones innit?

SBSIX wrote:


And thanks porcupie, ill experiment further with the AM. But its still a bit weird isnt it? AM between 2 triangles should result in glassy tones innit?

Well, since the triangle wave needs roughing up with a bit of wave-shaping via the pulse width knob it'll lose some purity but when you dial in the right frequency with the modulating oscillator's tune knob you can head in that direction, especially when coupled with some filtering.

This thread inspired me to do an all AM sound design session yesterday and I was getting closer to glassy than I would have expected with this form of synthesis but the bells were sounding fantastic and then there's all that weirdness that you're talking about, you can get really creative with that stuff.

I think the analog 4 gets really big bass. using two filters makes things different than some synths, and harder to get sounds right but it also makes it completely flexible.