It could well be.
I have to admit: I know this the wrong forum to be on to make this statement, but I don’t actually know a great deal about the A4.
Is playing it an excessively menu-dive based experience?
To be honest, yes. But you can set up 10 performance macros per track which can make it so you don’t have to switch parameter pages. These macros can be copy and pasted en masse from track to track, and in that way you can kinda program it to be a more direct instrument if that’s your use case.
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Being entirely honest, mate - as much as I’m really intrigued by the prospect of the 4 voices, I think I probably need something more knob-per-function than that at this stage.
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That’s totally valid, I’m kinda in the same boat. The weird thing is I found that that kind of analog totally doesn’t mesh with my current sound because it isn’t weird enough, hence the desire for the 0-Coast.
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I can totally appreciate that, as daft as it sounds. Ultimately the 0-Coast is exactly what I thought it was going to be all along - the issue is that I’m forced to confront the fact that I’m just not as weird as I’d like to imagine I am!
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Ideally you would (both) combine the deliberate meticulousness of the A4 and its parameter locks, tempo synced LFOs and performance macros with the wild almost untamed madness of the 0-Coast for an optimal minimal setup that spans east and west coast.
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Not being able to help it (being weird) is a bit of a double-edge sword. Knowing how weird or not weird you are though is an important process.
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I can absolutely see the appeal of that! Essentially I want to be west coast but the closest I get is using the 0-Coast for Buchla bongo style noises whilst having a Moog play bass. It’s by no means a bad situation but it feels like owning an amazing car and only using it for reversing.
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So true - and curiously something I found incredibly hard to admit to myself (and was very reluctant to do!)
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Don’t be too hard on yourself. The 0-coast is a gateway drug for modular. Congratulate yourself on all the money and time saved, and remember that there’s nothing wrong in wanting usable weirdness.
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Aye. 0-Coast is massively flexible but there’s a reason why I have two of them, because sometimes StackCables just aren’t enough for getting the fullest out of it. For example, having only one sine wave LFO and one attenuverter section is not enough. But cross-patching between them or another (semi) modular is bliss.
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Ha! That’s a much more positive way of looking at it! I’m starting to realise (after going through a lot of synths on the way) that my needs are pretty simple:
2 oscillators with a nice filter and some interesting modulation - ideally with S+H for maximum oddness potential
That’s basically all I want. Plus the fewer the patch points the more likely I am to use it.
I do love that idea/approach that you have - it’s like a micro Shared System or something akin to having created a kind of 2600 out of 2 Odysseys.
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And they may change over time, but not necessarily in a way that favours a particular device.
It’s nice to have a place like this where we can wax eloquent about the virtues of our favourites, but the downside is that it’s too easy to make people feel like they’re missing out, or that they’re somehow deficient if something doesn’t work for them.
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I feel as though I’ve been in a sort of synth Groundhog Day where all I really did with the 0-Coast is discover what I already knew from owning an MS-20 Mini for years: lots of patch points and almost endless possibilities are largely wasted on me because, unless I want to borrow patches from other people who know what they’re doing, I’ll largely just use them normalled anyway.
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I hear you. One thing I particularly love about 0-Coast is that they’ve made it so you can’t damage it by plugging in something “wrongly”. I gather that’s not the case with proper modular gear and you can damage things by patching incorrectly. But with 0-Coast I’ve had multiple sessions patching in a stupid amount of cables just to see what would happen. Main outs to tempo is still a favourite of mine, for example. Makes the whole thing do unexpected stuff beyond comprehension.
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Ha - don’t apologise at all! It’s at best a speculative trade post, anyway, plus discussing the nature of why such a great unit isn’t for me is really appreciated as it helps me understand better what I do want (and why).
I have got some lovely, bizarre sounds out of the 0-Coast, especially when I’ve used stackable cables, but I don’t think I’ve really touched on a fraction of what I can do (and really haven’t been all that adventurous with the patching!).
On a side note: quite how they managed to effectively Frankenstein a half-dozen or so modules (or bits of them) into such a coherent instrument whilst retaining a very distinct, singular identity is a staggering feat.
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Very much so! Some people see it as a gateway into modular but, for me, it’s the perfect balance between options and functionality (especially as its a midi to CV converter and it can so easily integrate with DAWs and midi gear) without overwhelming the uninitiated user. Though I am going to add a Strega and rebuy a SubH for cross-patching. I still have very little interest in full-blown modular.
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I have much more fun with Strega + 0-Coast than I had with my modular…
@PeteSasqwax it takes time to fully know the 0-Coast, but once you do it’s such a beast. Imagine you have a Dreadbox Erebus (which looks a bit like your description): 0-Coast would still bring a lot of power on the table!
I used to love it because it was bringing me in territories I ignored I ignored. Now I use it like a Swiss Army knife, it’s basically several modules in one coherent box.
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Yeah, I think there’s definitely a lot of instances where semi-modular is very much “quite modular enough, thanks very much!”
In my case, like @plragde suggested, it has been a gateway to realising (or maybe finally accepting) that modular really isn’t for me - so maybe it’s actually a gateway into fixed architecture synths!
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