Elektron-Users

sdesign wrote:
I'd agree with that. While you can make something that sounds like squelchy acid, when you program the same pattern with slides into both the A4 and a 303 (or TT-303 or x0xb0x or soft clone), then the A4 just doesn't sound right. Infact, the A4 pattern doesn't even resemble the 303 pattern. I've played with this a lot trying to determine why the same pattern sounds so different and it seems to be down to the slide.

Would it be an important point for the A4 to exactly mimic the slide of the 303? Isn't that what the x0xb0x is for?

The homie @boboter is my main man when it comes to gear consultation. That's why I'm seriously considering cancelling my pre-order. I actually NEED a lot of gear right now, and DONT have a lot of money. So a mono/poly/drum synth for under 500 is a pretty good deal. I really dig the way you can write automation to each osc on the Bass. Drum looks cool, but I;m trying to multitrack my drums in the future, so this would make great samples and the sequencer looks really fun, but for 140 why not grab it if your already getting the bass and.....keys looks the coolest. Automation madness, and I love the "chord modes". I have a fondness for chorders and the like. Still on the fence. Money might be better spent towards a Sub Phatty. And damn, gotta get a quadrinity or at least my Octatrack back.

sdesign wrote:I'd agree with that. While you can make something that sounds like squelchy acid, when you program the same pattern with slides into both the A4 and a 303 (or TT-303 or x0xb0x or soft clone), then the A4 just doesn't sound right. Infact, the A4 pattern doesn't even resemble the 303 pattern. I've played with this a lot trying to determine why the same pattern sounds so different and it seems to be down to the slide.

I'd be quite interested in hearing some side-by-side comparisons, eg post a new thread on the Elektron Gear subforum. I had to fiddle around with settins on the A4 for quite a while but eventually I hit a combo that sounded like classic acid, ie that sounded like those on a lot of my favorite records.

Perhaps what's different is that I ended up tweaking the note lengths to match up with the slide?

On the subject of A4 slides, I notice that on the last few updates the slide has changed, it used to sound a lot better in my opinion, at least on the patterns that I made before.

I don't think it is crucial that it mimics 303 slide, but it seems kind of broken at the moment...

Yes, tweaking slide amount and note length does help create an decent acid-like pattern but the A4 patterns still seem to have a different feeling / groove to them compared to a dedicated TB clone. It's not obvious to me why but I think its down to the slide.

Well after playing 2 days with the Drum and Bass volca, they are very limited and I personally got bored with them pretty fast.

Then, switching back to Analog4 was like a revelation after the bass volca..

Overall, the only thing good about these boxes is the price. If you have Analog Four and Machinedrum / octatrack, you already have what these volcas offer you.

Just my personal experience.

^ Yeah, was thinking that might be the case. I don't have the Volcas, but I do have a Monotribe, and it's just going to be more of the same limitations IMO. I'll put my Volca money towards an A4 later this year...

dataline wrote:
Well after playing 2 days with the Drum and Bass volca, they are very limited and I personally got bored with them pretty fast.

Then, switching back to Analog4 was like a revelation after the bass volca..

Overall, the only thing good about these boxes is the price. If you have Analog Four and Machinedrum / octatrack, you already have what these volcas offer you.

Just my personal experience.

thanks dataline, you comfirmed what I imagined just listening to the demos
I think this products are packing too many stuff for the price so compromises have to be done...

I think they did the best they can with the monotribe just because they kept things simple...
1 cheap analog oscillator can sound good, but when you pack 3 of them you can´t pretend it sounds like a minimoog or any expensive analog one...the mix just went muffled in some way, loosing presence and definition...
I think the mix of sound sources is a critical factor that quickly shows this difference

this all also shows how good elektron did it with the A4...you can get premium analog sounds and even mix 4 of them (each with up to 5 sounds sources) into a full sequence with fx and all, and still make it sound amazing!

if you see to the features/price ratio of the A4 vs the volca range I think the A4 is a far better investment

@Dataline - I appreciate your quick review-post. To be honest, I've been kind of on the fence about the longevity of these lil' dudes.

I think I am going to pull the trigger on two of them still. The beats and the keys. I don't have a "proper" tweakable drum machine (even if it's just slightly tweaky) and I've had wet dreams of sampling the Keys for what ever reason. Excited for at least that reason.

dataline wrote:
Well after playing 2 days with the Drum and Bass volca, they are very limited and I personally got bored with them pretty fast.

Then, switching back to Analog4 was like a revelation after the bass volca..

Overall, the only thing good about these boxes is the price. If you have Analog Four and Machinedrum / octatrack, you already have what these volcas offer you.

Just my personal experience.

Well, did you really expect theese boxes to compete with the Elektrons? For beginners, students and others with low income/no income theese are great. I won't buy either since they won't bring anything new to the table for me personally, but I'd definately be picking up theese if I was new to this and on a budget

Now the real question we all want to know: When is the AnalogMachineDrum coming?