[quote="" andreasroman""]
If you were “meh” to begin with, what made you buy it? Were you first impressed, then less impressed when you got it, and then impresssed again?
I’m curious as I’m sort of not impressed by the A4 right now, but I look at what it can do, I look at the quality of Elektron’s output in general, I listen to demos where some actually are really nice, and I realise that it’s in there in the box, I just have to dig to find it.
Still, compare to the Tempest - it took me about 30 seconds and I was like “Goddam”. And the Tanzbaer, took me just one shot from the kick, and I was like “What in the name of all that’s holy”.
Some instruments just reveal their potential right away. Others take time.[/quote]
It looked good on paper. Mind you, I bought it after the poly update, so I haven’t had to bare the growing pains.
4 voices, multi timbral, Elektron sequencer with polyrhythms, p-locks, micro timing. The fact that each voice has two sub oscillators with several options for each made me view it as a 4 osc/voice synth, and I still do.
I had a Rytm, and A4 seemed like the perfect companion. Watched a couple cuckoo vids. Seemed great.
The thing that was holding me back with it was feeling constrained by the 4 tracks. Eventually, I got around it by making my own sound pool for sound locks with some great patches that allow me to push past that limitation. Also, as I was nearing the end of the first month and not really loving it so I decided before returning/exchanging it, I would really buckle down and focus on making s few tracks with it, and (most importantly) hitting the lock limit on the Performance mode. Forcing myself to do this unlocked some things with A4 that just hadn’t clicked before. The things I was writing with A4 soon became more complex and more interesting to my own ears.
Then, I decided to try hitting the p-lock limit on a few kits I made patterns with, but only p-locking in the OSC section. Again… level up.
So then I decided to keep it. Soon after, I found a good deal on a used Nord Drum1, which I now sequence via A4’s 4 CV outputs as triggers. Midi sends program change too, so it’s a great pair. ND1 Mono output is no sweat, as I can p-lock pans and fx sends to each of the external inputs, independently, on the FX track. I still have a free external input to send through A4’s lush stereo FX.
Funny thing is I was feeling constrained by 4 voices, but now I have 8 voices when you include the ND1 on the CV track.
Also, A4 synthesizes some amazing drums. I have a couple sample chains in my Rytm that are 100% A4 drums.
