I’m on my third A4 and each time I sold one it was because I thought other synths could do what it does and sound better/bassier/fuller etc. But the fact of the matter is that no synth (besides a bespoke modular system x4) does what it does.
What turns a lot of people off at first (myself included) is that it’s standard “init patch” sound is fairly bland, compared to, say, and MS-20 or AS-1. There is a reason for that. As stated by others on here, it is a f’ing MODULATION MONSTER and as a blank canvas the basic tone needs to be tamed down… if it had the welly of a Moog osc and filter it would get out of control and unusable in a composition very quickly.
Yes the sweet spots can be tricky to find at first. Due dillegence and research are required, reverse engineering other’s patches, tutorials etc. But once you find one (like say a beefy bass, phasey string or tight kick patch) save it and boom there’s your starting point for future sounds.
Same thing with performance mode. Come up with knob assignments you like that suit your workflow, save as a template kit and it’s ready to go.
That said, it doesn’t mean it is the best synth every job. There’s certain sounds that an AS-1 just does inherently well which would be difficult for the A4 to approximate. Which is why I have both
What I think turns a lot of people off is it’s not an instant gratification synth. But lots of classic instruments are like this, you get out what you put into them.
So true…to me it’s not a “Moog” (which is usually my instant gratification synth) but funnily enough The cv and MIDI out of the Elektron sequencer in the A4mkii is currently employed to control as many parameters as possible of my Sub Phatty, which has become 100 times more interesting thanks to the A4mkii sequencer…my DFAM, Sub37 are each taking sequencer data from my DT…
The complexity of patches/kits, to me is alot like an old Roland JV1080 where you have to plan the hell out of the kit and the parameters you want to assign ctrl short cuts to…but that complexity breathes life into each patch in an interesting almost organic way, where they take on a life of thier own and surprise and teach as they form personalities of thier own… Taking you to school… just as you think you are leading the charge, your brain explodes with new ideas and possibilities…
The pulse wave shape on the AK has a lot of 2nd harmonic that a true pulse doesn’t - compare it to the 1 octave down sub. This is a legit weakness imo, since you don’t have easy access to that hollow osc sound unless you use a sub, and then you need to jump through hoops to get pwm
Exactly. An example of that is after a few months of making complex patches to make as much modulation happen as possible, starting off with a fresh kit with my performance knob assignments (“standardized” to interesting parameters) and being amazed at how knob tweaks translate when those new patches are loaded. Many times I would have to reverse-engineer MY OWN patches to figure out what was modulating what again
Although I have had far more experience with, and basically prefer digital synths, I think that there is a further point to be added to your list and that is the actual accuracy of the oscillator waveform.
My admittedly limited expeerience suggests to me that the more accurate the analogue oscillator waveform is, say a perfect saw wave, the more likely that it will sound no different to a digitally generated saw wave.
I suspect when people say certain synths oscillators sound nice and buzzy from the go it is probably because the waveform is not accurate (plus obviously also not a stable accuracy) so extra harmonics are introduced.
I remember watching the Sonic Lab review of the Neutron, which personnally I have never played, but Nick commented heavily on how impressed he was with the raw sound of the oscillators. Considering the amount of synths that have been through that man’s hands that must say something about the degree of difference simply due to the oscillators.
AFAIK there are differences between waveforms on different synths when meassured with an oscilloscope, but when you listen to the pure waveforms, the differences are rather small.
Edit; Here are some analog synths compared to plugins.
Compare for example VCS3, MS20 and Prophet 5 square waves.
AFAIK the Neutron is based on Behringer’s copy of the CEM3340 VCO so this demonstrates the point I was making that it isn’t just about the oscillator, lots of synths use that chip both the Behringer version and the other versions and of course the CEM version.
The 3340 itself isn’t particularly remarkable in any of its incarnations, all of its wave shapes are fairly typical, unlike say a TB-303 or Monotribe VCO which have more unusual approximations of the shapes.
Yes it is certainly possible that if I personnally tried the Neutron I may not hear anything particularly impressive about the oscillators. No intention of satisfying my curiosity either.
