I have been admiring and enjoying the sound of Elektron products for some time. My music is very much about live performance, and I’m drawn to the A4 and Keys for their intense tweakability and multitimbrality.
My question is this: Keys has a 37 not keyboard with aftertouch. I already have a Novation BS2, which has aftertouch. Would the A4 receive aftertouch data from an external controller, or just note data? The A4 is $400 less than Keys, which does count for something, but my main consideration is size, as i try to keep all my gear set up neatly in a single case. Are there any other midi/external gear surprises i should be aware of? I already know neither will send midi out
Things you will lose by going A4 instead of AK…
[ul]
[li]37 Keys beneath 37 handy LEDs that dance around during a played sequence.[/li]
[li]Individual stereo voice outputs[/li]
[li]Joystick (pitch, mod, breath each assignable to 5 destinations)[/li]
[li]Big Patch Encoder Knob[/li]
[li]A slight, sometimes noticeable, sometimes not noticeable bump in bass frequencies[/li]
[li]The annoyance of having to check it in as undercarriage luggage when using air travel.[/li]
[/ul]
You can still use the pitch wheel, mod wheel, breath controller, and aftertouch from an external controller. If you’ve got a keyboard/ controller with assignable faders you can even make those parameters sticky, which is not possible with the joystick
I personally think the Keys is much more fun than the A4. I can work much faster on the Keys, which to me is great in a live jam situation. But it’s 3+ times as big as the A4. It’s a bit of a downer to pack the Keys in that Elektron backpack, realizing you could have packed it with 3 units instead of 1, he he…
The Analog Keys has got a External Midi mode, which makes it really handy for playing external synths live. The external midi can also be used in sections of the keyboard in Multi Map Mode. Which means you can play an external synth with your left hand, and an Analog Keys sound on the right.
I’m also in the same situation… not that I’m playing live that much, but I’m planning ahead. I’d like a setup that’s compact and easy to take on tour. Even considering playing everything on an Octatrack + OP-1 to be as compact as possible…
Don’t wanna hijack the thread, just ask a question here - Cuckoo, why the OP-1? I’ve seen what you can do with it so I know you got the skills, but of all the things you could bring live, why this one?
The reason I’m asking is that on and off, I consider getting one myself, liking the dirty sound in it and it being so compact. But I owned one before for a couple of months and never quite got over the threshold.
thanks for the answers, Adam jay & Cuckoo! Clears everything up! And Cuckoo, I’ve seen a bunch of your videos, very expert and informative and cook sounds too!
all told, I think it will be the A4. If I felt like paying with the BS2 maybe it would be a different story but the BS 2 has become my main axe recently, so I would keep it as the central beast, likely run the a audio thru the A4 and switch between them inside the A4. Seems the most elegant way to do it.
One other small but nice thing on the keys… the function button is next to the track buttons so you can mute/unmute tracks with one hand.
The sequencer trigger buttons are bigger on the A4 which I like.
The LED’s above each key are also unexpectedly valuable on the AK. You can see exactly which notes are being played by the sequencer including chords.
If you only intend to sequence, then the A4 is fine… but if you intend to play notes in realtime live then the Keys has a big advantage… even over the A4 with a midi controller.
I currently have the A4 with an arturia key lab 49 and its a right old pain setting midi up correctly and can see the keyboard led’s being useful when using step sequencer, considering exchanging it for a keys, question how do the keys feel playing?
Fantastic ! Light enough for me - great for fast response - Compared to my Kurzweil wich is to heavy ( witch is not so great for fast percussive playing ) - but I’m a bad keyboardplayer. The leds are a great help. Can’t you test it somewhere ?
Don’t wanna hijack the thread, just ask a question here - Cuckoo, why the OP-1? I’ve seen what you can do with it so I know you got the skills, but of all the things you could bring live, why this one?
The reason I’m asking is that on and off, I consider getting one myself, liking the dirty sound in it and it being so compact. But I owned one before for a couple of months and never quite got over the threshold.[/quote]
I think reason number one for the OP-1 is portability. Reason number two is the fun factor. I think if I pull out the OP-1 for a sort of freestyle jam on a gig, it’ll raise the fun factor of the gig Sometimes a lead synth is all I’d need, especially if I’m singing. But it’s difficult to travel lightly… It all depends on what kind of music I’d like to play. If it’s mostly improv, the Rytm and the Keys would be the natural choice for me. If it’s playing full blown songs with vocals and all, I might swap the Rytm with the Octa. And if I want to fit everything in one bag, I might have to swap the Keys with something smaller. If relying on live sequenced stuff it’d have to be the A4 then, I guess. But I think it’d be really sad to play a gig without a proper keyboard…
20 goto 10
Infinite loop
I just wanted to say thanks for all your tutorials on the A4, I always enjoy your videos for their quirk, musicality and well explained concepts. I was wondering if you would be up for doing a tutorial on specifically explaining and managing the library +drive, pool etc as I’m still finding it incredibly hard to get my ancient 46yr old brain around it. and yes i’m a subscriber of your channel on Patreon. :0)
I know what you mean about the infinite loop! I was thinking of getting a Keys in place of my A4. I’m still on the fence. Pro’s and Con’s to each.
Maybe for traveling light, an Xkey might help? I currently have my OP-1 and Xkey 25 connected via the Octa to the A4 as an experiment (with an iConnectMIDI4+).
I think you’d need an Xkey 37 though…which actually has a REAL MIDI OUT din connector. I’m thinking of getting one of these too, partly for the extra keys, partly the DIN & pedal input.
wowza - i like that product, almost exactly what i’d love to get - DIN and aftertouch, shame it doesn’t have a more conventional mod wheel (unless there’s a way to latch values) - sweet - hope it’s cheap … erm, nope - blimey, it’s been out for a while too !
It has a sustain input and an expression input - so you can use that for a more conventional mod wheel or expression pedal that sticks in position and routes to mod.
F@&k it… Screw all other machines. Analog Keys is king!
I’m in the process of making Analog Keys-only tracks of all my songs. It’s totally possible to play a straight up gig with just the Analog Keys. I’ve just been making a new batch of drums and percussion, and I’m finally getting the hang of it! To be honest, it would be such a relief travelling with just one machine. Of course the Octatrack would be the natural choice if only going for one machine. But the Analog Keys is cooler Or just the Analog Four and a joystick even There is something about the analog headroom that I like with the Analog stuff…
The OP-1 might squeeze in a bag nicely with it though? and give you back some more voices on the Analog Keys? Ruins the workflow a bit…and then more stuff in order to clock them together, with power supplies etc.
OK, scratch all that. Your “Keys only” sounds much simpler!
How are you performing on them? What type of music, etc?
I have them both too, and it’s tempting, for keeping it clean. Easier to mute and u mute stuff if they’re truly on their own tracks. With just one unit I have to sneak stuff into three tracks, cutting each other off here and there, and keep all rhythms on one track. But I’m amazed it works. By putting a lot of sounds in the pool it’s easy to put any sound anywhere
I think, should I involve another unit, I’d like it to have another sound. Like the Monomachine, the Rytm or the Octatrack. But I’d hate to bring the Octatrack along and not use it for something cool!..
Whenever I start thinking like this I always end up with a lot of gear on my list!
So I’ll keep it tight for a while… and see what comes of it. AK only. It’s the king
Heh, I am getting to the point where I nearly have a whole set worked out on just the AK. I am an indie-schmindie song guitar-based song writer historically and it’s been really refreshing to go electronic.
It’s taken about a year for me, being new to these concepts - The main challenge though is that to do it all in one box you have to learn use the voices judiciously and my original expectation for polyphonic pads backing a guitar has been forgotten somewhat. The only downer is that most of the time the drum tracks have to be minimal, which is not a huge issue, but you don’t want all songs sounding the same, compositional style-wise.
I can set up maybe three patterns with slightly different kits (to provide variation through the song), perhaps one of those patterns is the chorus or break then I can flip between them, drop tracks in and out for texture and hey presto…
…once the song bit about how sh!t life is blah, blah, blah is done I can’t help morphing it into an acid/dnb/psychedelic/pre-post-retro/techno rave meltdown that goes on for three time the original length of the song. And I’m just there with a big grin on my face.
How are you performing on them? What type of music, etc?
I have them both too, and it’s tempting, for keeping it clean. Easier to mute and u mute stuff if they’re truly on their own tracks. With just one unit I have to sneak stuff into three tracks, cutting each other off here and there, and keep all rhythms on one track. But I’m amazed it works. By putting a lot of sounds in the pool it’s easy to put any sound anywhere
I think, should I involve another unit, I’d like it to have another sound. Like the Monomachine, the Rytm or the Octatrack. But I’d hate to bring the Octatrack along and not use it for something cool!..
Whenever I start thinking like this I always end up with a lot of gear on my list!
So I’ll keep it tight for a while… and see what comes of it. AK only. It’s the king :)[/quote]
hi,
The type of music is hard to say, because I change all the time - but a part of it is dance orietated - another polyfonic melody stuff without beats etc…
I work in different ways - and I’m still discovering. I’ts great to make a song full off different chaines on both machines and Jam with the chains. the AK is the masterklock most of the time. sometimes I make an intro in 1 of the m and start in song-mode to arrive at a spot where I bring in the other andd pass to chain mode on both from there.
The great advantage is that you can mix different patterns from both machines. I like to make patterns where mthe melodys fit when I run them together on both instruments so I can jam without worrying that it sounds bad. This can give great resuts a l’improviste.and I love to use very long sounds that span multiple patterns - this eats up a whole track - so I’m very happy to have 8 and there’s the advantage of having 2 X FX
for shure for Delais. + Now I can dedicate a whole track to kicks if needed.
Sometimes a lead synth is all I’d need, especially if I’m singing. But it’s difficult to travel lightly… It all depends on what kind of music I’d like to play. If it’s mostly improv, the Rytm and the Keys would be the natural choice for me. If it’s playing full blown songs with vocals and all, I might swap the Rytm with the Octa. And if I want to fit everything in one bag, I might have to swap the Keys with something smaller. If relying on live sequenced stuff it’d have to be the A4 then, I guess. But I think it’d be really sad to play a gig without a proper keyboard…