A4 MK II, Locking Up

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hi all,

Before I waste anyone’s time, I wanted to say - I’ve spent HOURS in the manual, digging online, combing the forums here, and doing everything I could to figure this out on my own. Literally, more than 12 hours invested into this. So, please forgive me if this is a dumb question (I am very much new to the A4.)

I purchased Thavius Beck’s course, and started it, but when I turn on my A4 and try doing anything, there’s something happening that just shuts me down. Here goes:

I start the A4 MKII (newest firmware version 1.51), start overbridge (I’m on a Mac), and I can load a preset, hit a key on the A4, and it’ll play the sound. However… after playing just a few notes (as in, less than 10, this cyclical, filter-sweeping sort of sound starts up, at about 100 bpm. It continues to cycle, and, over the course of about 20-30 seconds, becomes so loud that I have to kill the volume on my Apollo interface to protect my monitors. It continues just cycling this odd, filter sweeping sound over and over, until I reboot. It’s as though I have some setting on which causes it to overload and go into self-oscillation. I’ve gone through the Osc 1 and 2 menus, Fltr, etc, and I can’t figure out what’s causing this. As I said, if I reboot, I can clear it, but after I’ve played a few notes of any preset, it starts cycling up again, and I get the same result.

I really feel that this is just some obvious setting, like a filter setting or something, but I just can’t find anything that’s causing this. If anyone knows, I’d be grateful. Right now, this thing has just gotten the better of my efforts to research/diagnose it on my own, and I’m completely shut down, unable to do Thavius’ course, etc.

Thanks for any help!

#2

Are the delay settings cranked and causing it to go into self-oscillation?

1 Like
#3

Yeah, sounds like the delay self oscillating, keep the feedback below 12 o’clock to stop this happening.

#4

Hi and thanks for the suggestions regarding the delay. Unfortunately, that’s not it. My delay settings are definitely not cranked up. However, now there’s a new issue: No sound at all from the AR. I have overbridge on, and have the AR sitting right next to it on the desk, and it’s working fine. Peak lights show in the Overbridge control center when I trigger notes on the A4, but no sound. I have a kit selected. Tried various kits. Checked track volumes. I did a factory reset. Still no sound. I uninstalled/reinstalled overbridge. Nothing is helping. I can now get no sound from the Analog Four MK2, and comparing all the settings to the AR sitting here - they’re the same. Overbridge is selected, etc. My unit is only about a month old, and it’s given me problems like this since I got it. I’m wondering if it’s a bad unit. As you can see from the time of this post, it’s 3:00 a.m. here, and I’ve been on this thing all night trying to make something work. Nothing is working, and I have the Digitakt, and Digitone, plus the AR sitting right here and all are working just fine. Elektron devices have a real knack for making one feel stupid at times. Any suggestions? Thanks!

#5

It sounds to me like you’re doing an awful lot of integration with a device you’re still unfamiliar with.

Unplug everything. Cut the USB, overbridge, midi, audio interface, everything and just plug in some headphones. Load up a brand new project. Just play the init patch for 30. Any problems? If not, try tweaking some things, one at a time. Just get a feel for what does what for an evening.

Then, the next day, add one thing. Like just MIDI. Try sending notes to the AR. Then getting notes from the AR. Then syncing their transports or whatever.

The next day, unplug all the midi stuff and connect to overbridge… etc. etc.

3 Likes
#6

Hi jemmons, thanks for the advice. I will do as you suggest. Bear in mind, however, that while I am new to the A4, I already had a Digitakt, Digitone, and Analog Rytm II, so I’m not that new to Elektron. The other 3 devices are working fine. The thing making me so suspicious about this unit is that it worked, I shut down, and it stopped working. Days later, it worked again, then I shut things down, and next day, (with absolutely no changes) it doesn’t work. But I have NOT tried just running through headphone with everything disconnected, so I will give that a try. Note that I DID (repeatedly) try creating a new project and using the init patch - no luck there. But, I’ll give what you said a try. If that doesn’t work, I’ll likely be on the phone with Sweetwater later today. I was up after 3:00 a.m. last night trying everything with this. It’s becoming just a bit of a nightmare at this point. (Because I so love what this thing sounds like, and so badly want it to work.)

Thanks!

#7

So, I tried what you suggested, jemmons, and the result was interesting and disappointing: I got sound out of 3 of the tracks, (not track one), but the moment I tried to play a pattern, the miserable self-oscillating into overload death spiral started up. I rechecked the delay, amp, envelope, oscillators… everything. Nothing there that should be causing this, and it’s happening on any track that will play sound. Considering everything I’ve done, I just gave up and called Sweetwater - they’re being kind enough to send me a replacement - which 99 percent pleases me, but 1 percent concerns me because, with Elektron, when something isn’t working right, I have pretty much always assumed it was something I was doing wrong. So… it’s difficult for me to process the notion that a piece of Elektron gear could actually be defective. Anyway, if this happens again, I’m going to feel very, very stupid. Fingers crossed it won’t.

Thanks for the help!