Like others have said, the A4 is not the warmest sounding synth. BUT compared to the digitone, it certainly adds a whole lot of new sounds. If you like how it sounds in demos go for it.
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Do you think the Heat could bring this warm to the DN digital sound?
Absolutely. It would in the bass especially
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I will say you can get analog style sounds out of either the Digitone or the Octatrack. There are a few really nice threads on warm digitone sounds, like this one:
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I have seen this video, and I really like how AH changes the DN sound
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Iād get an A4 Mk1 for the amazing deal that it is used alone! (I got mine for 500ā¬, unheard of!)
That said, when it comes to live setups, there is definitely such a thing as ātoo muchā ā thatās too much gear and/or too many possibilities.
I feel constraints and decisions are crucial for a good live setup.
I had a fantastic live setup going at one point, that was already large but it worked out beautifully because each piece had its definite role and I know each of these pieces well:
1x Dreadbox Erebus for bass
1x Dreadbox Nyx for leads, arps & sfx
1x A4 mk1 for pads & harmonies
1x Digitakt for drums
1x Octatrack for harmonic/melodic samples and on the fly sample mangling
Then I added another synth voice and a mixer and stuff just fell apart ā where before I was fluent in creating music on the fly, suddenly I didnāt know where to startā¦and I spent more time thinking about how to overcome the last few limitations and squeeze all the āpotentialā out of my setup rather than becoming proficient with it.
All to say:
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A4 Mk1 is an amazing value-for-money proposition, I feel anyone interested in synthesis should own one.
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In terms of live setups, the risk of ātoo muchā is real.
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IF you expand your live setup do so deliberately with a clear idea of purpose and position of each piece in the setup.
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Donāt get caught up in routing fantasies, that shit will kill off your creativity & fluency. Embrace limitations & constraints as important part of your setup.
Good luck!
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damnā¦ I thought I was over it ā¦ 
that price for a damn distortion unit though
this is the point I think that I was going for. This says it perfectly!
there is absolutely something about being forced to work within limitations and constraints. When you have to work only with what youāve got, you not only become very skillful in using that gear to its fullest extent, but you also have to become very creative and figure out new innovative ways to introduce your sound to the audience.
For me it seems where I have too many options, I donāt know where to begin, feel overwhelmed, and then simply go back to doing the same old tricks Iāve always done. I lose the creativity and inspiration!
Fortunately, if you stick with mostly Elektron stuff for your set up, the workflow is relatable and the units play nice together, so at least an A4 or heat added in there wouldnāt be to much more to handle.
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But I donāt know if adding one more could start to be a mess.
Instead of A4 you could buy another analog synth and control it from the Digitone via Midi tracks.
Then you avoid having another sequencer to deal with.
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Welcome!
Do you have an Analog 4?
4 voices examples ? I tried Tetra, wasnāt my cup of tea, very boring to editā¦
Vermona Perfourmer? Limited midi control and pricey. Tooro ? Interesting hybrid little thing, almost same price as A4 with less featuresā¦
Ah the Medusa. Really interesting, having a sequencerā¦
Imho itās much easier to deal with A4 internal sequencer. Plocks, Sound locks, macros, Multi Map are huge features you donāt get with other synthsā¦
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I use the A4 with a Akai Force, and as @sezare56 says the sequencer of the A4 is a very big plus. A lot of things the AF sequencer can not do.
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Yes, thatās another issue. The Analog Heat cost almost the same that an A4 MKI.
I think AH was inspired by A4ā¦
Besides the lack or distortion choices, and dry/wet mix, A4 is a much more interesting analog fx imho.
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A4 is very powerful but I do agree when it comes to ambient warmthā¦ it lacks that specific capability IMHO. Ok maybe not the capability but even something mono/cheap like the Boog Model D would be better at adding warm smooth yet growling analog sound that reverb can take a long way.
Something else to consider is mixing warm analog with the DNā¦ this is notoriously not the easiest thing to do.
The A4 outside of warm growly context is a beast of a machine with an insane amount of capabilities and is absolutely worth the coin if the sound it makes suits your needs.
Disclaimer: I have an A4 and a DN
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Iāve come to love my A4 more and more over time, I found myself slightly biased against it due to the many negative opinions of its sound but I found it helped to not listen to them, to stop comparing it against other synths and work with it as its own thingā¦ Iāve found that it can do all the classic analog sounds while it not necessarily being its greatest strength but then itās capable of so much more due to its many unusual features and tons of modulation potential. Iām actually happy and I think it was intentional that itās such a stable / bland INIT sound as it allows it to handle modulation beautifully without getting muddy.
imo, it can do warm just fine, you just have to learn to work with its way of doing things rather than approaching it the same as you would a standard subtractive synth.
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Thanks @Petajaja . I heard that, compared to other analog synths, the A4 is easier to put into a mix. That could be also a good thing in my setup.
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Yeah I can see that being true, my default, the oscillators arenāt very saturated and so donāt sound very fat, theyāre not smiley curved but more mid focused (at least thatās what Iām hearing) This is great for me as mids are generally more were my interest lies but if you need hyped bass / treble, thereās many ways to achieved that.
This has been said a whole bunch around the forum but my ears have become very sensitive to it, itās very obvious to my ears now that the oscillators are saturating / compressing when theirs levels are set to 100 as they are by default, dropping them down to 50 gives a much cleaner output.
But yeah, I can see the A4 vs my Motas-6 that the A4 would be the easier of the two to create a sound to squeeze into an already busy mix.
Iāve got some really breathtaking pads out of the thing, I do think itās an amazing choice for ambient.
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The ops situation is quite similar to mine at the moment, so I hope the following overly long ramble may be of use to them.
I have the very good fortune of borrowing a mateās A4 MK2 at the moment. I already own (and was considering āupgradingā from) a digitone, and was investigating whether the A4 could fulfill the same role in my little setup.
Very briefly, it canāt. It doesnāt handle midi as well as the digitone, which forms the brain of my setup (DNās midi side is actually pretty good). You can get stuff done on the A4 but it is limited in this regard.
Sound wise, the A4 is great, so many options and interesting ways of creating unique sounds. Itās clearly an incredibly well thought out, mature instrument, and for me the MK2 form factor makes a lot of sense. I feel it is quite abrasive in a way - I was trying to make rich poly muted string pads but seemed to either roll off too much high or have the sound feel a little harsh.
So I kind of agree with other posters that āwarmā sounds are quite hard to achieve (not impossible however), with few sweet spots for these when compared to other mono synths Iāve owned. And compared to my sequential rev 2, which people say is fairly aggressive, the A4 is not as warm or rich.
However, its so adaptable and I honestly think the drums are brilliant (perhaps not for the metallic sounds) and certainly rival if not exceed my ar MK2 - thereās so many more options to adjust the sounds.
When directly compared with the digitone, I feel the A4 is more aggressive leaning actually and sometimes surprisingly colder. The digitone, when away from typical FM sounds (which I generally donāt like), can be warm and deep quite easily - more voices, tunable operators and sinewaves help in this regard I think. The DN is more unpredictable and I donāt feel as deep editing wise.
Whilst thereās a bit of cross over, they actually compliment each other really well. I had an A4 mk1 when I first got the digitone (swapped ill-advisedly for an octatrack) and was really productive with that pairing.
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Can you please explain this a little more?
To add to thisā¦ if you have an iPad/iPhone the Moog Model D app can be poly and it sounds absolutely fantastic. This is of course if you donāt mind sampling or loading sampled files into the OT for live jamming. I donāt think an iPad would be great live but thatās just me haha. It was free for a while but probs $15 now.
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