Easiest way to apply a trance gate/stutter to an evolving sound?

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Just getting to grips with my new A4 (Mk1) but I’m not sure how to do this.

I want to manually apply a volume gate/stuttering effect to an evolving sound (something with a gradual filter sweep, portamento or even a note pattern).

I can see how to apply a regular stutter with an LFO but I’m not sure how to do this manually, where I’m hitting a key/button to set the rhythm myself.

#2

Read up on “trigless trigs”.

3 Likes
#3

Thanks, will do :slight_smile:

#4

Just checked them in the manual, they seem to have the required effect but I want to do this live by manually playing a note/pressing a button, not by entering steps into the sequencer.

Is there any way I can do this, or am I misunderstanding how they work?

#5

Now read about FILL. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#6

Thanks! Good job I set aside today to learn how to use this thing… :slight_smile:

#7

Another cool feature but I don’t think it does what I need…

I want a button to act as a simple morse switch, so I can press it rhythmically and have long or short bursts of sound (with the evolving tone still going) and it looks like this will just play existing triggers with a pre-set pattern.

Is there any way to do this? I guess if all else fails I could use another MIDI controller to momentarily set MIDI channel volume to 0/127 but that’s not ideal and I was hoping it could be done in the A4.

#8

Ah, now I get what you want to do. Yeah, using an external controller is the only straightforward way to do this specifically, I think.

#9

Ah, ok. Thanks for the tips, saved me some time trying to figure that out!

It’s certainly a quirky machine, a fair few things missing that I’d expected it to be able to do (doesn’t seem like it was designed with live performance in mind) but in searching I’m finding out all sorts of other cool stuff.

And it sounds so amazing I’ll forgive it anything at the moment :slight_smile:

#11

I’d love to know what you meant here. I’m considering getting an A4. I have an AR and it’s absolutely designed for live performance, so it’s set my expectations for the A4. What have you found you couldn’t do with it live that you hoped to?

#12

Sorry that was a bit of a sweeping statement there!

It’s great for live performance for playing with patterns/parameters on the fly, especially with the performance knobs and assigning things to the modwheel/aftertouch etc. to change multiple parameters at the same time.

I think I meant it seemed to be more suited to programming patterns using the triggers than realtime recording via a keyboard (which felt a bit limited at first, my setup means I control most stuff via external controllers and the A4 isn’t right next to me most of the time).

I posted that after I’d just got it but very happy with it after I figured out its strengths :slight_smile:

#13

Thanks for explaining!