if you had to choose one, which one would it be and why?
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A4 MK1
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Mini Freak or Micro Freak
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Korg Minilogue or Korg Minilogue XD
…or is there an even better one for this price?
A4. You can make entire tracks in the box without anything else, and it sounds damn good.
16 Likes
I have A4 mk2 and Minilogue. Difficult choice but I would probably get the Minilogue because of instant results + keyboard. But it depends on your style of music I guess.
2 Likes
A4
4 tracks
FX track
CV track
It’s flexible.
Can be a synth, or a drum machine, and can do both really well.
I’m a fanboy.
12 Likes
A4 is in a different class to the other two by quite a margin, so easily that.
8 Likes
Preparing to compile the answers :
A4 = x votes
Mini/Micro Freak = y votes
Minilogue/XD = z votes
7 Likes
Digitone. Sounds great. Much easier to navigate than A4, which is rammed full of menus and submenus and involves so much paging around. A4 is not quick or intuitive imho.
I don’t know about the Arturias. People rave about them. But then people rave about the A4 too.
Korg absolutely suck at keys. So, if it was the desktop version, maybe that would be the winner?
YMMV
9 Likes
At the price one can currently get it for, nothing matches A4mk1. I own one. I sold my MicroFreak and would not purchase a MiniFreak; I contemplated a Korg Minilogue XD early on but decided against.
12 Likes
Really? To me, it seems like the only UI problems are the weird sticky pages: the mixer, the perfs… in themselves they’re fine, but they should exit when you hit [No] and return you to where you were before you engaged them. Or something. Anything but treating them like they’re a mode of the current track.
Actually, there’s an idea for a feature request. I’ve already put one in today.
OK, maybe it does suck. I’ve not used a DN. I find the Syntakt roughly as fiddly as the A4 (given the feature sets).
4 Likes
Depends on what gear you’ve already got, and as mentioned - styles / genre.
You might be able to find a Nord Lead 2 (keyboard), or 2x (rack) in this price bracket. 4 part multitimral, two more outputs than the A4 MK1, and 16 or 20 voices (Lead 2, Lead 2X resp). Also has nice drum engines. But no sequencer or fx.
2 Likes
I’d choose one of the Korgs, due to the exceptional microtonal tunings implementation.
3 Likes
A4 all day. I do love the XD also… but the A4 does so much more. It’s the Swiss Army knife of synthesizers.
6 Likes
Corrected.
8 Likes
A4 is special. It’s all you need, really.
Unless you want to do stuff it can’t do, in which case, Hydra Explorer.
4 Likes
I totally missed and opportunity to grab an A4MKI on reverb the other day for 480.
A while back I traded my MKI in for an AK, don’t regret it, however I’d love to have the A4MKI because of it’s form factor, and use it simply for drums.
3 Likes
Had both Minilogue and Microfreak.
Now mainly Digitone. Would give Micro another go in the future.
- if you plan to get something as a focused centrepiece - A4
- if your centre is a sampler that can sequence - Microfreak
(its expressive keybed is really fun, but midi cant record what you are doing, thus - sample) - If you want a synthwave machine - Roland 4d is similarly priced.
- if you dont care about arranging tracks and just want to design sounds - Hydrasynth Explorer
- if really into mono synths Dreadbox Typhon.
- if you are a lil weirdo guy like me, Digitone
From those three you listed my vote is A4. Especially mk1, i think its really pretty. I also almost got one used, but keys model is kinda huge.
p.s. Minilogue is probably the best if its your first synthesizer. Layout and depth are perfect for that.
2 Likes
A4mk1 is the best drum machine I know under $1K (okay, maybe the TR-8S is a contender). Even if you just regard it as a drum machine that can do some synth stuff, it’s a bargain.
DN has a lot to recommend it, for sure, and it can be found used for a good price also. I don’t think one has to be a “weirdo” to appreciate it, but sound design does require a certain level of intellectual commitment (though one can just use presets and sound packs, of which there is a considerable variety).
5 Likes
After using my AK as a drum machine for a while it started to get my attention as a drum machine powerhouse.
I recently had my RYTM repaired. Going through Transfer issues with corrupted samples and not being able to put my tracks back together seamlessly, the A4 started to look like a real contender to replace the RYTM for drum duties.
I just don’t use many voices for drums, and I kind of cant stand sample organization on the RYTM.
Plus the A4/AK drum sounds have a really wide pallet and seem to sit in the mix perfectly.
On top of that, the perf macros for morphing rhythmic sounds is really cool.
I definitely need an A4 to try all this with.
4 Likes
I don’t understand the A4 as drum machine god opinion. I tried with the MKII but hated it. Are we talking pure techno here? Because for the more hip-hop drums I’m into, I just couldn’t get it sounding right. DN was far superior in this respect and the voice stealing and unison aspect are chef’s kiss for drums.
4 Likes
It’s probably not for everyone.
I don’t make Techno either, but I do make music with limited drums sounds, a very simple approach.
After getting a couple of drum pack sounds a while back it was really obvious how much I like the sound of A4 drums.
I also like the 4 track approach with conditional trigs and sound locks.
Having the Keyboard and split configurations on the AK really offers a new way of performing.
Outside of that, not needing any sample management is a huge plus
I could easily make hip hop tracks on the A4, or any Elektron box
2 Likes