I just bough an A4 used, and it’s my first ever analogue synth. I know it’s a much discussed topic if that’s the right choice and I guess it’s not but I got it for a good price and couldn’t resist
It’s overwhelming to say the least, but I look forward to getting to know it better. As I bought it used it’s full of songs, sounds, patterns, and so on and I think it will be good for my understandig of it to go back to zero and start over, although I’m a little confused as to the best way to get it back to it’s original state? Factory reset, blank state, format +Drive and so on… how do I get it ready for my own exploration?
Thanks for any input, and starter tips would be very welcome as well!
Congrats on your purchase! I think you made a great choice, for learning synthesis as well as for deep sound design once you get the hang of it.
Before you do your factory reset, I’d recommend digging through the sounds/patterns that are on the machine already to see what you can learn from it all. One of the best uses of presets or pre-installed content is to be able to analyze what’s there and see which settings get you to which result. If you find some stuff you like, make some mental notes about what settings you see.
I’d also definitely recommend doing a YouTube deep dive on A4 sound design. I’ll link a video here that I enjoyed, but really any/all videos are helpful in one way or another. You never know what small tip you’ll pick up or what might inspire you when you see how someone else works.
there’s tons of info in this forum, but i recommend getting a handle on the whole projects/kits/tracks/sounds thing and saving your work. i’ve burnt myself multiple times not getting it right. it’s easy to mess up. the a4 is deep, so don’t feel bad if it’s a little frustrating at first. it can do a lot. congrats on the acquisition!
I’ve already had a ton of fun with it just messing around and I must say I’m surprised at how good it sounds with fairly low knowledge of how it works yet. I’m already spinning down a rabbit hole of YT-videos, so thanks for pulling out a good one, I’ll watch it right away!
You can just create a new project and start from scratch.
But I’d keep other sounds and projects, just to wander in them once in a while and learn from what you like most…
An empty reset doesn’t delete stuff from the +drive. It just deletes the RAM content. To get rid of the +drive content completely you need to format the +drive.
Factory reset, listen to the demo patterns, read the manual, learn about patterns vs kits vs projects, dig deep into the sound pool, performance mode and trig conditions, read the manual, get some sound packs (Richard Divine’s for example) to reverse engineer what they have done, get creative with the fx and cv tracks, read the manual, get Overbridge, make an album.
I think the Overbridge plugin is a great learning tool because it holds much more visual information than the screen, for example it shows you a nice visual representation of the oscillator-waveform and how it changes when you turn the pulsewidth-modulation dial.
No, you made a great choice. Don’t feel like you have to master or even use all of what’s there. It’s your synth, if you want to do straight four voice poly and nothing but, you’ll be happy. 4 monsynths with crazy sequencing? You got it. For some it’s just a drum machine. And a zillion other configurations. But nobody ever could use and master all the possibilities, I’d wager. So you might just stake out a corner of it, and go deep there. Either way, it’s great fun. It can be a bitch, no question. But once you understand, it’s quick and easy almost always.
This. There’s a lot packed in. I’d try and break things down into smaller chunks; learn the basics of the layout, the sequencer, the synth architecture, etc.
Most importantly, learn how things are saved as sounds, kits, projects, and so on early, so you don’t lose your work (that seems to be a rite of passage for every new Elektron…). This was the most difficult area to get my head around, and seems to trip a lot of others up.
