Is buying an Analog Heat in 2023 still relevant? Is it still a legitimate way of mastering your tracks? For further sound design? For experimental uses? Or do we expect any kind of an upgrade soon from Elektron?
It depends if you are looking for what the Analog Heat offers.
It’s very powerful for all the reasons you state, but it is very niche.
I own one, and I am looking forward to hearing how it sounds with a new synth I gave coming in.
It’s the PWM Malevonant. And it’s already supposed to be a raw ass synth. Adding even more saturation with added LFO and filter. That’s worth it for me.
I argue that musical devices do not have a relevance to times but to the user. People are still buying Juno 106’s. Or the original 808. All market failures, not that the Analog Heat is a failure, but there is a market “over saturation” with effects and plugins. (See what I did there?)
But most of those are either in the box or lack the control the analog heat has.
I’ll just say, if you know… you know. And if you’re looking for one, you’ll probably buy it.
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It was still relevant last year.
In 2023 I’m not sure…
I had one, didn’t make it for me.
For “mastering” it lacks a real compressor. I think it has a kind of limiter. Doesn’t seem documented. The dry/wet setting is usefull, combine with filter, but I didn’t particularly like the results.
So concerning sound design I found the drive circuits too soft, or too clean. I prefered Analog Drive gain for heavy distortions. I may have keep AH if it would have been possible to trigger lfos and envelopes via midi.
I have a real mastering tool : Finalizer +. Eq, Multiband Dynamic Eq, Expander Gate Compressor Limiter.
I also have a Syntakt, 2 Analog Drives, so it can cover AH features.
I’d rather buy an OTO Boum than buy an AH again.
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I couldn’t tell if this was a joke thread by the title.
I think the AH is great, but I don’t usually use it on the master like many people do. I have it on a send and mostly use it for sound design, running chunks of audio through it, for all kinds of filtering and distortion. I’m in love with the envelope follower.
I would say it’s relevant to me. Speaking of relevance, why is this in the Octatrack category? Is the Analog Heat relevant to the Octatrack in 2023?
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Has been a source of frustration for me ! (Used to guitar envelope filters behavior).
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Yeah, I come from a guitar background myself too. I didn’t exactly like the AH env follower at first. It took a few weeks to get a feeling for it, but man, it’s powerful. I like how there are different modes: attack-release, attack-decay, and follow.
What you mentioned about triggering LFO over MIDI sounds like it would be a really nice feature though. Now I want that
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What do you mean by “relevant”? It’s a boutique device with a fairly steep price tag. That being said, it’s amazing and hard to find similar options that can do what the Heat can do. Not sure when distortion / overdrive and filters will ever be not “relevant” in modern music.
Maybe you mean will this be useful in my music? Relevance has no relation to anything here.
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Nothing comes close to what it does in terms of various distortion and modulation features. I do wish that it had more inputs and outputs to allow one to modulate and split different boost/OD circuits to multiple synths.
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Analog Drive for example.
Analog Heat distortions are very clean, with a thin grain. Not my favorite types of distortions.
Concerning filter modulations, I prefer Syntakt, with its sequencer.
Not the best for me. Matter of taste.
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AH MKII is getting old…2018 
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My bad. Fixed it.
I mean is it still something interesting to buy or are there other options out there that make it obsolete? Or is Elektron preparing an update that will make it obsolete? A new device adding a proper compressor and limiter would be killer for example.
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well I bought mine on sale so was not that bad considering what a good distortion pedal costs.
It’s not a compressor or limiter. If you want a dynamics processor, buy one of those. I use a compressor in conjunction with it.
I find it very interesting to use still, yes. I use it all the time. The only Elektron gear I still have, actually.
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Depends on use and taste…
OTO Boum, Sherman Filter, Akai MFC42, Hyde Distortion Filter, Electrix Filter Factory / Queen…
Finalizer also distorts interestingly.
or some dedicated gear (compressor, distortion, filter…)
I ended up liking the sound of my plugins better (Decapitator, Softube Tape, Filterfreak) so I sold my Heat. I also hate saffron and it’s my girlfriend’s favorite spice. You catch my drift.
I would probably go back to the Heat if I ever went Dawless, but that’s a whole other story.
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I would say the same thing, unless you’re trying to be DAWless ( relevant in 2023? ), there are much easier and cheaper ways to achieve the same results with plugins. Check out Arturia’s Cold Dist Fire or Dist Tube Culture. I liked the sound of both these plugins more than I liked the sound of AH, so I ended up selling it.
The AH is not relevant anymore. Everyone has stopped using saturation, filters, and EQ’s in 2023. We have all gone back to processing audio through jars of pickles and spiritual energy.
Off topic, but if anyone has an AH that you are no longer using, send it my way so that I can properly dispose of it.
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Yes, and it will be as long as we stay using electricity as energy source and jack plugs or jackplug adapters will be available. If working in a 100% daw environment there are a lot of substitutes to achieve a likewise effect.
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lol cans and jars lol
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pickles yield best results
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