I bought an Analog 4 9 months ago thinking that it would be a good bet if I don’t wanna/can’t spend money on anything else. Hoping that the A4 would be a good one and only piece of equipment.
Now someone is selling an MD Mk2 non-UW for 450 Euros (490USD) near me. That’s 40% of what the stores are asking for it (Thomann). The current owner bought it second hand from a shop 3 years ago. I am so tempted to scratch together money I don’t have to get it!
A few things I wanted to ask though:
Would anyone talk me out of getting a non-UW MD? I mean, I know the sampling would be great, but just comparing the price to other drum machines…
Do you think the non-UW MD has a restricted, very specific palette of sounds?
Anyone else here successful and happy with only an A4? OR
Any ideas of how I can make the A4 work for me as an only piece of equipment?
The price seems quite cheap, no?
Gear lust is scrambling my brain, so I hope this post is clear enough.
Cheers
David
PS: I hit CTRL+Enter by accident and this post was published before I even nearly finished writing it. Sorry about that.
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[li]Good price, assuming it is fully functional. If you ever need to resell, you’ll probably get your full investment returned. A low risk investment. Nothing to lose.[/li]
[li]MD adds drum synthesis of a different timbre to A4’s warm, round sound.[/li]
[li]MD offloads some drum synthesis from A4, opening up A4 for more sounds, and polyphonic patch use.[/li]
[li]MD adds external MIDI sequencing if you want to add other gear, something A4 lacks as it only externally sequences via CV.[/li]
[li]MIDI LFOs! MD’s 16x LFOs are freely assignable. You can have all 16 controlling parameters on your kick, or spread them about however you wish. You can also send them out externally to your A4, and build on A4’s already powerful yet more limited quantity of LFOs. Therefore, you can get more interesting synthesis out of your A4 by plumbing in MD’s MIDI LFOs.[/li]
[li]A4 has a different more interesting reverb, and MD Mk2 could send a few tracks over outputs C/D to A4’s EXT input for reverb/delay/chorus of a different flavor. In this way, your existing A4 makes MD better.[/li]
[li]Conversely, you can plumb A4’s headphone output into MD’s input to layer on some crunchy digital FX.[/li]
[/ul]
I use A4 + Rytm, but if I had to let go of the Rytm, MD is the first partner I’d look to.
as much as i love the UW version- thats a REALLY good price. Hell, you could flip it later to upgrade for a UW version later. I permanently have out of the a4’s outputs into the input of my MD for sample purposes.
the EQ section of the MD wasnt specifically mentioned here … it rocks! … u can really make the room shake with the MD … the A4 kicks must be earth shattering, also you can use the MDs compressor…
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as always been mentioned, the inputs and outputs of the MD are very well designed and supposedly sound darn good… so, you wouldnt really have to worry about losing a4 analog warmth. but ur milage may vary…
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also: all these tracks on the MD will do fine in terms of freein up A4 drum tracks… I am talking about the factory samples in there…the hats are especially well made , really close to studio drums…
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also u have a sine and gnd for clics and pops, or just a thumb on the off beat does a lot of body to a track…
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so does noise…
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LFO fuckery as metnioned before…more than enough of them …
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and once you put ur hands on the CTL … you will never let her go…
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the limitation of not bein able to upload samples to the MD is not thaaaaat much of a deal braker… uploading samples, sample management, are a pain in the ass imho.
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.go for it! … I buy her off of you for 400 when u r done playing around with her
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also, I just realize now… the MD hat inputs, and the A4 has CV out… I am sure you could trigger and sequence or even arp some sounds in the MD with that…
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DO IT…
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if u r still uncertain… go to the product page from elektron, when they released the MD few years back…these sounds and tech specs stood the test of time to a enormous (not entire) amount…
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MD has test mode, do that. take ur time while testing her! … if the knobs are not rubber, but the usual plastic, it is well worth buying and upgrade ! .
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450 euro for Lfo and EQ for A4, plus some hats, kicks , plops here and there… almost no brainer
That’s a great price for MD Mk II - go for it. A few years ago, I would have said UW is worth getting and you will regret getting a plain one. Not so much anymore…with so many sampling options. Yeah, non UW MD is still a beast of a machine!
AdamJay: The midi information was really helpful! What a beasty combination MD+A4.
Phesago: Thanks for the financial perspective. Calms my nerves. Been thinking that too, but wasn’t sure.
Trabant: Big thanks for you thoughts! Just two little follow up questions:
So good to know that there is a test mode!
But could you rephrase that last sentence for me? I don’t understand why the knobs could be 2 kinds of material, and how that is linked to worth/value/not sure what you meant.
You mean the CTL-AL I’ve seen on youtube, which affects all tracks?
Is it really that much fun?
Poonti, you really see a lot of sampling options out there?
I mean sure, there is the Octatrack, but other than that I can’t think of so much… MPCs I guess; The volca sample doesn’t record; the Kaoss Pad is more like a looper…
It now looks like an altogether good choice to just get it and see where it takes me
Just contacted the seller and hope he’s still got it and can keep it for me till I can come and get it.
Excited for my Christmas present to myself
Poonti, you really see a lot of sampling options out there?
I mean sure, there is the Octatrack, but other than that I can’t think of so much… MPCs I guess; The volca sample doesn’t record; the Kaoss Pad is more like a looper…
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I meant sample playback options - live sampling, yes, is more limited. But for drums/percussion sample playback is mostly going to do the trick.
Bear in mind that there is no microtiming in the MD sequencer. You can get around that with the swing trigs but it’s a drag. Also everything you play in Live Rec mode will be quantised to the grid.
Are you talking about upgrading just the knobs, though, or upgrading to a UW?[/quote]
just putting new knobs on it! … upgrading to a UW is too fucking expensive imho … the upgrade will cost 300 euro …
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