is it possible to store track mutes per pattern? if not, i think i would like to see that implemented in some way.
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problem solved. all i have to do is dive back into the eurorack rabbit hole. the perfect solution
that is the answer to everything though. every time i have a desire for a fully featured synth, i remember that there is already a similar thing in eurorack, as i alluded to in my previous post. the differrence is that elektron machines are more than the sum of their parts. the way the individual components communicate and behave is what makes them special. they have gone to great lengths with the a4 to make that much easier with the multiple cv outs with pitch and gate, and 2 ext ins, but i dont find external oscillators with the a4 to be very useful. i’ve tried it in the past with euro and recently with some other monosynths and it doesnt seem to add much in my experience. i do like the idea that someone else i nthe forum had of building a mutable warps into their AK though. that i can see being a very useful addition with individual outs routed to both mod ext mod ins of warps, then two outs going back into the ak ext inputs and into OSC L or R
i know that its a great piece of gear, and i appreciate and love it. im aware of what it’s capable of. i’ve owned 3 now and spent a lot of time with them. i dont think it’s out of the realm of possibility to suggest that elektron maybe consider a different flavored a4 or digitone. no one else is going to make a comparable alternative, so if anyone fulfills this dream, it’s gonna have to be elektron. and i think mutiple versions of these “groovebox” multi-track synths would be the best possible direction they could go in. and furthermore, it would advance what it possible as far as modern music production. we know what can be done with the current sound engine, just imagine the possibilities of machines with alternate engines of varying tonal characteristics. i dont understand why more people dont see the utility in that concept. there is nothing like an analog four. the only way to make a more powerful piece of gear would be to add a different sound source, maybe more voices, and maybe more sound design functions
You know what else would be incredibly useful? You know how if your amp/filter envelope attack is slow it can feel off beat with the rhythm track? Why not have a function that allows you to set envelope attack and decay time in sync with the midi clock in 16th note, 8th note, 4th notes, half notes, and whole notes the same as you can with the lfo? that way you can just set your envelope attack to a quarter note and sequence the notes a quarter note behind the rest of the tracks and everything will land on beat.
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i think it would be cool if we could somehow have multi-segment cz-101 style envelopes which could be modulated (per-segment) with other looping envelopes or lfos
e.g. DHE for VCV Rack or U-He Zebra
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A “Random modulation” setting in sound settings would be cool. So you don’t have to give up an LFO to randomize volume or filter etc on each note.
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I have to mention this again, but the lack of an "int to main’ option is preventing me from using the A4 as my audio interface without getting a feedback loop when processing the signal in my DAW.
The Digitakt, Digitone, Analog Heat, and now the Syntakt all have this option!
Every time I want to process the A4 with plugins, I HAVE to do it through another audio interface. So far this means having to set up my digitakt or digitone when I want to record a track made solely on my analog four into my DAW.
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I would love to have a good cookbook, might make my own
Why not? I think a4 integrates very well with eurorack. You can buy a complex digital osc a zadar (seen that you want a multisegment modulator), add sounds to your a4 and save a lot of money.
Is going to cost you like a classic monosynth but is going to be way more powerful and customizable.
Because other than a 4 monosynths/4 four voice poly the a4 has a sequencer/arp/p-lock/effects and this are all things that are crazy expensive in euroland.
You don’t ike the a4 filters? Open up the a4 filters, use the one you like in eurorack and boom, you got a new monosynth with all the bells nd whistles that a4 offers
and given the direction elektron (and in general, the market) has taken I don’t think we are going to see something powerful/flexible like the a4 very soon.
What I like to see in a future upgrade would be easy to implement imho:
The ability to p-lock arp or arp as lfo destination, some kind of probability over the notes, something like 1:3 add an octave.
Oh and midi arp, c’mon. I already own an octatrack but I want to control melodic lines from one device.
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this for sure
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i think i just dont really understand how one would make good use of it outside of eurorack. it is cool that you can use filters and envelopes on it. so i suppose if you were to cv out from a4 to pitch freq input of osc, then use the vca and envelopes on the a4 track, it would be cool to am/sync/modulate it. but i dont have eurorack anymore, and triggering an external voice separately seems a little tedious or redundant. i would like to know how others do it though. i assume the problem is not with the synth, but with me. i think its great tht we can replace an osc with an external voice that can interact with the internal oscillators and other functions, but i just havent found a great way to utilize it yet. i havent seen that kind of integration elsewhere though, so i dont mean to say its inferior or poorly designed
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Yeah there is nothing like it.
Not many have tried to experiment this tecnique, usually modularists don’t like hybrid approaches and synth guys don’t want to mess with eurorack, but this makes everything more exciting because it means that there is a lot to be discovered.
This guy is an example:
I’ll post something the next week, but I’ll open a new thread, because I’m going off topic.
You don’t really need to go modular, you just need a small 60 hp case and some strange digital osc like a shapeshifter.
Or something like:
This is a good alternative to eurorack, you can load it with user oscillators like in the minilogue xd. This little thing has a giant library of oscillators, there are some similar to rings/plaits etc. and it costs 100 dollars. You can have a new monosynth every day 
Trying to replicate what the a4 offers in eurorack is going to cost way more than 600/700 (for an used mk1), I mean two lfos, env, fx, p-lock, sequencer, filters, vca. This thing is brilliant even if it has its limitations.
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&
are the reasons that i sold my small 84hp euro setup and went back to mostly elektron (digi/rytm/a4/octa)+a poly+monosynths
i actually was talked into a nts1 recently and i liked the tape delay, corrosion, and some of the sinevibes verbs but wasn’t worth it for me to keep. the oscillators (i had almost all of the paid for fx/oscillators for the nutekt, i think. so i have tried most of them) sound good in the minilogue though, so i’m sure that is a good idea. now that i think of it, im not sure i even set the oscR external input track to “send midi” and set the midi channel to the ext synt’s midi ch so it reflects the sequence on that track, but that would be kind of perfect. i always forget whether or not osc sync, am, fm, pw works very well with the external oscillators but i should try it again. shapeshifter would be cool too. but i cant go down that rabbit hole again. there’s way too much i’d want. i cant even get those berhginer 2500 modules because i know i’ll want to fill the rest of the rack in no time
wasn’t there some sort of kick trick or something where you send a trigger from the cv out back into an external osc? or maybe an audio rate lfo? that sounds interesting. i cant remember if i ever did that or not
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I’m not sure if this has been mentioned or if it’s doable now or can be…
I’d like an option to turn the 16 triggers into a keyboard instead of using the small tiny ones for sound previewing and what not.
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Why not make screen black and parameters white on the MK1 version like it is for MKII version. I think it just reads better and would be great to have over the white on MK1.
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I don’t have a MkI anymore, but I have this general feeling that the display would then seem to refresh more slowly if they did that. I would be curious to know why they haven’t, it seems like a good idea otherwise. It would be nice to have an option for that in the settings.
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Hi there… I have not had my A4II very long and I have much to learn about production altogether…. I already have feature requests… just to be clear, I absolutely love my A4, I am just beginning to see what it can do and the possibilities are boggling. But exciting…
I am often exploring micro- fine timing for polyrhythmic sort of swing effects so these issues may only be for me, I don’t really know if they are realistic or possible or actually already available but undiscovered by me ….
first off is the LFO phase start. Could it be a phase shift, so I can tune its phase when free-running? As a phase start parameter it is only useful really for the note trigger setting.
Also, I am a bit disappointed by the delay time setting resolution, some functions like the filter frequency have two decimal places; 100 times the resolution.
Could there be a proper wet/dry parameter on the FX? I automate this a lot in Ableton to swing the delay emphasis.
And the external inputs, could they be two distinct mono channels? I know they can be panned and used in this way, but it seems it could be more elegant.
Ultimately, I feel I would like to design my own Elektrons! I love the A4 and will likely get Rytm at some point … but I look longingly at the little digi boxes that sit in your lap. I grew up on volcas and still love to sit and twiddle where I like. I upset the RE808 community by asking if it could be put in a dinky box like the boutique 808…. I think I might have to get a Syntakt …
Maybe i don’t understand the question correct, but I thought they are, no? I have two different mono signals (from two different devices) routed into the external inputs and both channels in the FX channel are separated from each other. I’m using unbalanced cables.
Could you let us know how things are connected and what the desired result should be?
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It’s not that specific and I have not explored it much, just that in my Ableton it comes up as a stereo channel input only. I am only just getting going with Ableton really so I cannot be sure my observations are valid….
I would like to use the two channels for separate mono sources like you describe, you make it sound simple enough so this is probably just my inexperience. Thanks for responding 
Hmm…seems like i really don’t understand your question right or overlooked something. I tought you were pointing at the inputs inside the AR, not in Ableton. I don’t use Overbridge, sorry for the misunderstanding.
I don’t know about you all, but sitting down to my A4 (MKII) after using the Digitone for a while, I always miss the lights on the track buttons that show the trigs firing off. It always helps me visually spot which track has which part playing at any given time and comes in really handy. Would love that on the A4 since there are basically no changes on the whole machine when a pattern is playing other than the little flashing “playhead/bar” lights in the bottom corner. I feel like that would be a great addiiton to the box. To update it in existing hardware, maybe a brightness bump to track buttons on trigs? Or maybe it could be an “alt” state if you hold func down maybe the track buttons flash on trigs? Just some thoughts. =)
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