Hello! I’m playing live exclusively with the A4 as if it were a groovebox. But I’d like to add some new timbre so I’m trying to find a way to put some sample layers in my A4 drum sounds. I usually use 2 of the 4 tracks for drums, the A4 can send out the midi triggers of those tracks, so it would be very good if there is a sampler that can receive those midi data and modifies different parameters depending on velocity values, such as changing the sample sound or filter cutoff (velocity is the only midi cc that A4 can send). Maybe the 1010 black box can do this job, but I don’t know.
Well i hope you understand, I do not speak English very well.
Here is an example of how I use the elektron analog four:
I had a sort of similar need for more drum tracks for my A4 and ended up getting a digitakt, primarily as i though familiarity with Elektron workflow would help me learn the DT… and to a large extent it does.
I must admit i have not had enough time to do a lot of recording on both devices together but they seem ot be a good match, and hopefully will act as a decent pair for simple live dubby techno jams
If you get a device that can sequence, you really only need to send transport start/stop and clock/bpm. I use the A4 this way with Model:Samples and Model:Cycles - and sequence drums etc on the sequencers of the other devices.
Something to consider with a sampler is the polyphony
Eg
Digitakt is only 8 note and each track is 1 note
Old samplers were likely 32/64 note polyphonic , so if you do melodic pads etc you can easily do chords without hassling over 3 separate tracks
Modern samplers also note detect etc.
So if you want drum samples ( which are often short samples ) a digitakt or similar might be fine though there is no modulation matrix on digitakt .
Doing melodic pads / atmospherics with more notes … deluge , 1010, even the new 404 mk2 would work ( unless you want proper sequencing )
Akai seem to be doing good things atm , Their devices cover a wide price range and seem well supported firmware wise , and Ofer modern hardware features , you could sequence elements using cv from your analog 4 in addition to midi sync
There’s the Akai MPC (One, Live or Live 2 would work), then everything else follows after it.
I’ve been slowly building up my favourite A4 sounds/kits into my MPC. The auto-sampling feature is superb. And, with the latest 2.10 update of the MPC, it’s become an even better partner to the A4 (and every other synth/sound source I own)… the randomisation implementation on the MPC is fantastic with A4 sampled sounds.
I have a Digitakt and Analog Rytm Mk2, love them both, but they don’t come close to the MPC when it comes to acting as a sampler, and a poly sampler at that. It even smokes the Octatrack.
If you just want to add sample playback don’t overlook the Model Samples. It is a superb machine.
I personally have many Elektron machines because I love the sequencer and I value my time - it saves me time not having to learn the systems of different manufacturers.
Digitakt would perhaps be best if you want to sample one-shots from the A4. Octatrack will handle loops better.
The blackbox will be the smallest and has a nice feature set but all the menus turned me off when I had a chance to play with it for a few moments. Maybe I would get used to it with more time. If you are sequencing it from the A4 perhaps you wouldn’t spend as much time interacting with it and it wouldn’t matter.
If you like those analog drums you could get a RYTM. It has many performance features that none of the other Elektron machines have. It also does samples just fine.
Obviously the Octatrack has its own strengths… but it’s limited as a sampler by the fact it’s only got 8 mono tracks.
If the aim is to live loop parts from the A4 and be able to use it in the background for other parts, etc, then the OT would be a good choice. Also as a standalone performance mixer it’s pretty cool.
But if you want to be able to stereo sample the A4, or seq/arrange it with more flexibility (meaning your sequencing options/style on the OT would duplicate those on the A4), there’s not a lot to touch an MPC.
Interesting comments on the MPC. I’ve never been a fan. I love the 808-style sequencer too much. Surely it’s a capable device though, lots of music I love was made on them.
There’s a tendency for the YouTube content around the MPC to be very much generic hip hop chopping/looping… that was my impression when I first got mine tbh, but it doesn’t take long to realise that it’s capable of anything you as the user can imagine or throw at it.
Actually i had a OT a while back but never really got to a point where it was musically useful. If I were more of a actual musician an not just playing around with knobs as a hobby, I would totally go OT but with my limited time DT and A4 seems like as complex as I can handle
Thank you all for the answers!
Yes, my idea is not to add new sequencers, just use the A4 and layer samples on the synthesizer sounds. For example, I use the lfo cv trick a lot to make my kick drum sounds, but it lacks high frequency tones, so I want to layer a sample on it. Same with my hats/snare track, on the A4 I just use white noise and filter. My idea is to enrich the sound palette.
A sampler with a modulation matrix would be useful for me, so I can direct the midi velocity to different parameters. I’m going to read the MPC live manual.
Perhaps the simplest and cheapest option is the model: sample
Another way to go could be Analog Rytm for both. Right now I use it as an analog digitakt, but there seem to be some cool synth things you can do as well. Definitely not as deep as the analog four but reading stacking samples on analog drums the AR jumps out to me.
Personally I think I’d say OT, you can run A4 into OT, then Cue outs from OT into A4, lots of fun to be had there, you could also use OT midi sequencer to have fun with A4 multimap.
When you say you want to layer a sample with your analog drums I imagine a classroom full of RYTMs raising their hands frantically, “OO OO Pick me! I know how to do that!!!”
