Sound explorations
I think the simpler way is to do the same in a different order. “Normally”, I am finding that only on the next day can I tell with certainty that no sounds or changes were lost - (especially tricky when it is about a wrong set of sounds, kind “what is that??”) but it appears that the right order is this
Imagine you have a pattern and kit saved. As you tweak the notes and sounds, you come up with a worthy new scene.
So to keep both the old and the new snapshot,
first, copy & paste pattern to a new one.
and only now, save kit as a new one
save the new pattern
When you now get back to the old one, it still plays changed, but you can revert to the last saved kit, which is the right one. In even if you don’t, saving the project should just restore saved kit automatically - not verified yet.
Cool It’s good to talk this through, thanks.
The device is easy to grasp - contrary to Octatrack, I heard. One very useful thing, you can play one tone, and in time meantime change the track and modify filter of another track. Ideally, there would be hold option with switching to another track not sending note release. But I have seen this work miracles, probably as a side effect, on one system some five years ago.
If you use a4 with overbridge, does it work stutterless? I am getting all sorts of issues making it not even possible to record improvisations to an ableton track. I am on windows.
biggest elephant in the analog room is…whenever u crafted a sound u like…save it!!!
patterns remain one thing, sound kits the other…
to harvest all it’s magic u must dive deep into it’s performance macro options…it’s endless but totally worth it…
dunno the latest firmware…but i think, a4 by now, should also feature the fill option…
that might be the easiest way to mute certain trigs while running…
A good try, and you can come up with interesting unusual effects, not only with drums. However, there are leakages of user tweaking into the locks.
Thanks, keep 'em coming. Looks like there are numcerous options. ideally, performance knobs could gate midi. This would keep pristine adsr of all the kicks that get through. MIDI gating rather than volume muting.
SOUNDS (KITS) VS PATTERNS, PERFORMANCE VS PATTERNS
Yes, sounds, or kits more specifically are handled separately from patterns but have performance settings integrated. This one is quite unusual, meaning that if your track evolves in a series of patterns & each has a dedicated kit saved - as it should as a matter of good practice. - patterns done later will tend to have more performance knobs settings configured, or have later iterations simply.
There are further implications.
If you have some good “performance” ideas later on, applicable to earlier stages, each of the earlier patterns that would benefit from these settings would require replicating all that stuff. No, you don’t even want to think about it. Let’s consider it a creative-boosting limitation
Anyway, turning a performance knob all the way right makes it possible to audition and weigh changes at random and pick the best findings.
One way to deconstruct sounds in a project is to audition a sound with the keyboard, then reset one parameter page (PAGE+CLEAR) then listen for the differences. You can flip back and forth by reloading the kit (NO+KIT, or parameter page PAGE+NO). This way you can compare the pages with their init values, then slowly dial in the values yourself to get a better understanding og exactly what they’re doing, one page at a time.
Yeah, replicating stuff like this is tedious, and is the reason I feel the A4 benefits more from planning ahead than the digi-boxes. To make this easier for myself, I often just stick to one kit and one or two patterns until I have a pretty much finished track, and only then make B-sections on new patterns and a new copy of the same kit. This also helps me prevent accidentally ruining patterns by forgetting to switch kits. Not ideal, but it’s the simplest way I know of.
Muting kicks with the FILL button works great. One disadvantage of this is that holding it down and turning knobs with the same hand is awkward. If you can dedicate an entire track to just play a kick, you can use a performance macro assigned to Amp volume or filter cutoff or Amp decay to mute the kick. What I like about this method is that your hand is free once you’ve muted the kicks, and you can perform using both hands, then reload the kit to unmute the kicks. Alternatively you could just mute the track normally, but then it won’t unmute when reloading the kit.
Not sure if you know already, but when you’re on the performance page, the trigs 1-6 will mute and unmute tracks 1-4 and the fx and CV tracks, respectively. One handed! Usually you have to press FUNC+TRACK to mute stuff, which unfortunately is a two-handed button combo.
Aside from that, I think you’ve listed out pretty much all the tricks I use and more =D
Yes, I can see how the device determines the workflow (and also the genres). Also, sticking to kit adds to a sense of continuity.
Toggle is better for muting indeed, and fill has its other applications. That would mean ‘shiftless’ midi kik mute at the cost of a track. However, for the genres a4 seems predestined, isolating kick is not a priority
Following guys’ advice above, I will have a look at how you develop songs out of curiosity because I was looking for more of a techno-in-a-box device.
One trick that has worked for me is to combine the kick and bass into one sound. Make a kick sound, but give it some Amp sustain and release so it doubles as a bass sound. Then you can set the envelope shape so it has an exponential attack, then use a performance macro to increase the attack time. That way you’ll remove the transient of that sound, but leaving the bass alone.
That would be the psy type, I reckon? I will give it a try, thanks.
Meantime, I have found the following:
func and double-fill locks the fill
since kick does not benefit from volume control it would be better to 0-1 it to fill, and 1-0 some snares buildup - and that can be linked to performance volume control, so that sometimes kick pauses with and sometimes without a buildup.
Thus, the buildup can be on-offed with fill and muted regardless if this with perf knob, and controlled for intensity with volume. Very useful given the midi real eastate puts limitations of intensifying with velocity.
TECHNO RECIPE
I have tried creating apart from a dedicated kik track, another kick per each step, then it soon appeared that 1, 5, 9 and 13 had better be emptied, although as I think of it, might be used for a hihat of some sort.
delay to 1/8, with a highpass, slightly overdriven but can be furter linked to performance
track 3 some xylophone - could be whatever but non trivial waveform
track 4 101ish bass, although I remember there was a 303 that did the trick much better
Instant techno. This is the kind of setup I have been looking for. And with elektron, it is all readily controllable.
What would be great is a proper 909 open hat to share track one with the main kik.
Any ideas on how to make one with the a4 synth?
The hats which are in the factory set are either a bit too modest or tinny. A juicy 909 type would be perfect.
I am amazed at how simple and effective this was. Someone wrote under that YT video that this was the real techno; whatever it means, I agree. The most authentic techno is more of Jeff Mills’ outasync Jimi-Hendrix nonchalance and less of tidied, normalised stems for traktor.
And you end up juggling with energy.
The layout of Analog shines when it comes to this kinda stuff.
The 909 hats are samples, in the 909. It’s quite hard to get the zing, swoopy, bit-reduced tone from a synth; but fun to try.
I don’t have a recipe. The next time I have a go, I’ll try using a random LFO, at audio rate, to tweak a filter just a small amount, and perhaps also sweep it with an envelope. It needs a little pitch change too, to my ears.
Yes, so that’s a difficult part. Possible to create something which will not sound bad until you hear some good matches from 909. I think this needs to be accepted as one of the instrument’s few limitations. There is enough music featuring roland’s esthetic anyway
oh yeah like @B_LD mentioned, I meant parameter page when I said page. PARAMETER PAGE+CLEAR resets the parameters on that page, and PAGE+CLEAR (the button that actually says PAGE on it) clears the current page in the sequence. I don’t remember what it does when you’re outside of grid record mode, though
It’s good to talk this through, thanks.
