"Must-have" outboard effects to go with your AK

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hey all,

First post. About to pull the trigger on an AK, which I’ll be using as part of an ambient experimental/noise/psychedelic funk trio.

Idea is that me, the drummer, will be getting my Geddy Lee on and building up a wall of Elektron goodness that we’ll jam along to live; I’ll probably setup drum pads to trigger MIDI stops and/or mute events so I’m not having to one-hand it.

I’m drawn to the AK because of the 4 separate outs. I’m envisioning running it into my Qu-24 mixer so that I can audition sounds/tracks in my cans and then fade up the individual tracks when it’s audience-worthy.

Question: I’ve listened to tons of demos, and the onboard effects do sound quite good, but I’m wondering if I should invest in some other stomp pedals like another reverb (Strymon, etc.), a phaser (Small Stone, etc.), compressor, or distortion. I have an original Big Muff that should be fun to annihilate one of the tracks with, could look at a Roto/UniVibe for that leslie speaker effect.

I’m more partial to classic 70s synth sounds, if that helps.

I know this is all totally subjective, but I guess it’s mostly the verb: is it huge enough?

#2

There’s an issue with your plan - the individual outs come out dry. FX are only on the master bus because they’re wired as sends. If you want to use the individual outs you’ll have to use your own FX (no bad thing tbh, more flexibility).

1 Like
#3

Check out OTO BAM

1 Like
#4

Oi.

Could also make for one helluva sonic roundhouse to the temple with a wet stereo mix on top of the 4 individual outs, all treated separately.

#5

Winning attitude right here! :smiling_imp:

#6

Went with the Small Stone phaser and RV-6 reverb (Strymon seems way overpriced). That plus the Big Muff, Fuzz Face, the Streichfett and Moog Minitaur slaved to the AK, and I can see some faces melting in the front row.

#7

Strymon Deco
Strymon El Capistan

Sound so good!

#8

In due time, my friend, in due time. I’ll probably fob the Rv-6 over to the guitar player when I have a bit more cash; he likes sloppy seconds.

#9

I use Native Instruments RC24 and RC48 for reverb into my low latency focusrite clarett…whoa mama I can get some space. As long as you have a good low latency sound interface and a spacey reverb you can keep playing for days.

I also use Ableton Chorus / Flanger.

Additional filters could be from my restyler or voyager audio in.

#10

Cool, except all of this will be nailed to a giant wooden door I’m going to prop up behind my kit…computers are not welcome here.

#11

I also said Moog Voyager for Audio in filter effects processing.

I also said resyler for dual filter, plus overdrive, plus transient design. This is a hardware filter by Rodec / Sherman.

For hardware effects I also use my Boss / Roland BR-864 for guitar effects for my leads and basses. :grinning:

#12

Sounds fun!

#13

Argh, I can’t wait to get this thing. How Moog-ish can you make it sound? I tried finding videos, but came up short.

#14

I think i can get mine to sound like a Moog occasionally, but it has a different analog character. The filter is the key here, and there are some choices in the AK, with some tweaking you can get nice results.

#15

Cool, I’m going to drive my Minitaur with it, so should have all the basses (:grin:) covered.

#16

Moogerfooger phaser is awesome on anything especially analog synths and so is an echoplex.