Just got a A4 at a bargain price and wasn't sure if it was the best idea with Elektron's reputation for making complicated machines but your tutorial stuff really helps, very clear, friendly and just kinda nice. Shame there's not more. Thank you.
i've had one of these for 4 years and every time i've recorded something in i've been menu diving between filter and effects. If i'd known this before I'd have really saved myself a lot of trouble - so thank you for this, and i'm an idiot
I've had my A4 a couple of months now, and I'm still struggling to get to grips with its more advanced features. In fact, it gets quite neglected, and I blame this on the lack of printed manual (and myself being a bit lazy and lacking time). Your tutorial might be short and very specific, but it's absolutely brilliant for people like me! Very clear, concise and easy to follow. Really hope you do more of these. If you'd like a suggestion for a future tutorial, how about something on its ability to pattern chain for building longer sequences? Again, excellent vid, I for one really appreciate it.
Yes, not providing a printed manual is seen as a big no-no by usability professionals! Especially for a device that most of the time you'll be using independently of a computer. And not a very cheap device in this case!! A printed manual is NOT a luxury item. Oddly enough I've not used pattern chain on the A4 myself. When dinosaurs walked the Earth I used hardware sequencers to do quite complicated arrangements, so I could have a look at it. VERY glad you found this one helpful.
Hi. I read the section in the manual on Chain Mode with a view to doing a tutorial on it. It's really not well explained at all is it?! I tried out what I thought it was saying and reckoned it was a bit limited - or maybe I just didn't understand it fully?? Song Mode is also not well explained in the manual but is hugely more powerful. Even if you only used a small number of patterns and made up a simple song, it could be very flexible for what you want to do. Cuckoo does a good job of explaining Song Mode in his Analog Keys tut. It's quite a long video cos he covers it all, and you'd have to skip to near the end to get the bit about Song Mode. I'd definitely have a look at that. Analog Keys Sequencer Tutorial - CUCKOO In the meantime I've done a new tut on using FX in the A4. Elektron Analog 4 tutorial 2 - Effects
Seen From Space Thanks a lot for the follow up. Doesn't surprise me about the manual lacking all the info at all! I was going to leave learning song mode until later, but you've peaked my interest and I didn't know Cuckoo had covered it, so I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for the link, and I look forward to checking out your tutorial 2 very soon. All the best!
I would have never thought of having filter and filter enveloppe amount working against each other but it's brilliant. Thank you for your videos, I really appreciate your precision when crafting sound.
Love your videos Rob. Most well explained and well paced tutorials I have seen yet for the Analog Four. Thanks for your efforts! Analog Rytm tutorials would also be appreciated :)
+David Buitenhuis Thanks David. I don't own a Rytm sadly. I've just bought some Eurorack for the first time, so new £1k Elektron boxes will have to wait :o)
Bravo on the well done tutorials! And to top it off, you have a soothing narration style 😁. I'm geeking out over your octatrack / a4 dual stand. I must get one of those!
Thank you very much! The dual stand is home made. Quite difficult to design the upper tier so it doesn't block the important rear sockets on the lower machine. Depending on which sockets you use, it may or may not be suitable!
Clear and simple!! Very useful, thanks. What I'd like to see as a tutorial is how to use CV with others gears like the Korg volca for example. I'd also like to see tutorials for how to setup midi gears in chain with the midi thru. The sound pool also a nice feature. Again, thanks.
Posted the video on the Elektronauts forum and had several suggestions from there. Some of them, as well as some of the above, are for features I've not personally used on the A4! A bit of research is indicated obviously;) All suggestions are most helpful though. I'll give it lots of thought.
Seen From Space Your presentation style and clear and most importantly, visually concise, makes me want to suggest you could cover 24 different tutorials and dare even say such a collection would be worth whatever price via iBooks/Apps. The official A4 Ref. Manual has been not so helpful, unfortunately...had A4 for over a year now. Thanks.
Great tutorial, really pleasant to listen to as well. Love that little sequence you used in the vid. Any pointers (like intervals, etc) as to how to write melodies such as this on? :D
snoozehard This one's on a kind of modal scale. An old trick for writing melodies is use large intervals, not between every note obviously, but throw in an occasional 6th, octave, 9th etc. Syncopation is good too. Have accents on beat 2 or 3 or 4, put in a rest on beat 1 and so on. Use another part (e.g. bass or counter-melody) to fill around these rests and accents.
Hi Seen From Space. I really like your tutorials, have used them many times now and brought me somewhere Is there a chance you will make more of these?
Great tutorials. You should put them up on Elektronauts if you haven't already. I am sure most users still getting to grips with their kit would appreciate it.
thank you for this. Have you got any (or will you do) video tutorials of how to play A4 paraphonically or polyphonically? I have the rytm and just added the A4 love having individual control of the voices via the sequencer but i wondered whether i can plug in a keyboard and play triads etc? Any idea.. been looking about on web - you seem to be clued up!
Hi. I haven't done a tut covering this in particular. It's easy enough: polyphony is set as part of a Kit. In the Kit menu it's under POLY CONFIG. Ticking one of the 4 boxes next to VOICES sets that track to be polyphonic. Any or all tracks can be polyphonic as long you're not trying to play more than 4 notes at the same time. There are 4 ALLOCATION options which are a bit more complicated to explain. Page 18 of the manual covers this. The A4 is actually polyphonic, not paraphonic which generally means only having one set of envelopes, even though the oscillators can be split across more than one note.
On the A4 performance page when I touched a knob that was corresponding to a track performance, say T1, I could also edit the level with the Level knob on the left of the screen. Then simply turning another knob to change track performance of say T2, I could also edit the Level of T2, without having to push Trk 1 or Trk 2 buttons on the right...now I have to push them to edit that Track's Level...weird. Anyone knows how I can get it back to how it was before? I can't find any info on that in the manual.. Cheers!
I really want this analog 4 . Iam probebly gonna sell every synth and pedal effect i have to get it lol . I had rytm couple of years ago . I never undrestand why people said it hard to use as I find it fairly easy to work with ! now again people say 4 is difficult . I dont know! how do u compare rytm and four in terms of difficulty in learning ?
+Geir Skatdalen Thank you! Cuckoo does a good job of explaining the sequencer in his Keys tutorial. You have to skip about an hour in to catch just the sequencer. Quite a long video. th-cam.com/video/LfH0-0HDAzE/w-d-xo.html
cheers for this mate. ive found your tutorials very helpful. wondering if you can do a cv setup tutorial? im having lots of problems with the microbrute.. its driving me crazy..
Nicholas Perry Not got round to buying the CV cables yet! Sorry about that. There's Elektron's own tut: th-cam.com/video/RNhktrHHyew/w-d-xo.html Don't know if you've tried that one?
Excellent tutorial. I still don't get one thing: Why they didn't put larger display into A4. Whole point of this machine is to use it without the computer and it's quite difficult to read all parameter changes from this tiny display.
Toto Toto Yes it is odd, given the price of the thing too! My biggest usability snag is I want to use the performance controls with both hands, but then my left hand blocks my view of the display.
This is a huge help, thank you! One question, whats the EXT in the upper left of the screen? Doesn't that normally display tempo number? How did you get EXT?
God damn. Only watching and hearing all this vanishes all my doubts about buying one tomorrow. The thing is that now when our russian economy is somewhere between buttchicks all this gear that we're buying abroad for dollars and euros has a double price. Literally. Same salaries, but prices for gear are 1.5 or 2x bigger. "just deal with it". I keep telling that money is just a source for my happiness or hobbies, but still you can feel pain of russian music lovers and producers. And I'm here obviously not for wailing). Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'll definitely need lots of tutorials and staff as I never had a chance to play with synth or something. I'm 30 now and I'm just starting this path into music production. Scared as fuck. Hope I'll dig in all this.
Oh dear sorry to hear it's all so expensive. With the A4 you do get a lot for your money! So it will keep you busy for years with not much need to buy other analog synths, effects or sequencers.
Just got a A4 at a bargain price and wasn't sure if it was the best idea with Elektron's reputation for making complicated machines but your tutorial stuff really helps, very clear, friendly and just kinda nice. Shame there's not more. Thank you.
i've had one of these for 4 years and every time i've recorded something in i've been menu diving between filter and effects. If i'd known this before I'd have really saved myself a lot of trouble - so thank you for this, and i'm an idiot
I've had my A4 a couple of months now, and I'm still struggling to get to grips with its more advanced features. In fact, it gets quite neglected, and I blame this on the lack of printed manual (and myself being a bit lazy and lacking time). Your tutorial might be short and very specific, but it's absolutely brilliant for people like me! Very clear, concise and easy to follow. Really hope you do more of these. If you'd like a suggestion for a future tutorial, how about something on its ability to pattern chain for building longer sequences? Again, excellent vid, I for one really appreciate it.
Yes, not providing a printed manual is seen as a big no-no by usability professionals! Especially for a device that most of the time you'll be using independently of a computer. And not a very cheap device in this case!! A printed manual is NOT a luxury item. Oddly enough I've not used pattern chain on the A4 myself. When dinosaurs walked the Earth I used hardware sequencers to do quite complicated arrangements, so I could have a look at it. VERY glad you found this one helpful.
Hi. I read the section in the manual on Chain Mode with a view to doing a tutorial on it. It's really not well explained at all is it?! I tried out what I thought it was saying and reckoned it was a bit limited - or maybe I just didn't understand it fully?? Song Mode is also not well explained in the manual but is hugely more powerful. Even if you only used a small number of patterns and made up a simple song, it could be very flexible for what you want to do. Cuckoo does a good job of explaining Song Mode in his Analog Keys tut. It's quite a long video cos he covers it all, and you'd have to skip to near the end to get the bit about Song Mode. I'd definitely have a look at that. Analog Keys Sequencer Tutorial - CUCKOO
In the meantime I've done a new tut on using FX in the A4.
Elektron Analog 4 tutorial 2 - Effects
Seen From Space Thanks a lot for the follow up. Doesn't surprise me about the manual lacking all the info at all! I was going to leave learning song mode until later, but you've peaked my interest and I didn't know Cuckoo had covered it, so I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for the link, and I look forward to checking out your tutorial 2 very soon. All the best!
I would have never thought of having filter and filter enveloppe amount working against each other but it's brilliant. Thank you for your videos, I really appreciate your precision when crafting sound.
+Axel Rigaud Thanks you very much!
Thanks a lot Mr. From Space! The tempo and information density of you tutorial are just right for me.
That's good to hear. Thanks very much.
Very nice tutorial. Almost tempting me to look into getting an analog 4, despite not really needing one!
Look forwards to more!
Love your videos Rob. Most well explained and well paced tutorials I have seen yet for the Analog Four. Thanks for your efforts! Analog Rytm tutorials would also be appreciated :)
+David Buitenhuis Thanks David. I don't own a Rytm sadly. I've just bought some Eurorack for the first time, so new £1k Elektron boxes will have to wait :o)
Just brilliant. Great pace, amazing example, and thanks for sharing your creative sound design tips. Very inspiring!
+EricksonSoundLabs Thanks very much for your compliments!
Bravo on the well done tutorials! And to top it off, you have a soothing narration style 😁. I'm geeking out over your octatrack / a4 dual stand. I must get one of those!
Thank you very much! The dual stand is home made. Quite difficult to design the upper tier so it doesn't block the important rear sockets on the lower machine. Depending on which sockets you use, it may or may not be suitable!
Very clear and well explained tutorial. It would be nice one where you walk through of how you build your beautiful patches from scratch. Cheers
I had thought of doing a sound-design-from-scratch video. A few other requests to consider, but will bear this in mind. Glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for this clear tutorial!! I had to know this quickly and the manual was not really helpful in explaining how to program the performance knobs.
What a wonderful tutorial!! Can't wait to see what else you do.
Thank you very much! Got another couple of tutorials in mind:)
Fascinating synth machine I just picked one up I have still as yet to sync it up to my mono-station for perimeter/ sound lock madness
great tut. beautiful sounding demo/sound
EXACTLY what I needed! Thanks for making this!
Clear and simple!! Very useful, thanks.
What I'd like to see as a tutorial is how to use CV with others gears like the Korg volca for example. I'd also like to see tutorials for how to setup midi gears in chain with the midi thru. The sound pool also a nice feature.
Again, thanks.
Posted the video on the Elektronauts forum and had several suggestions from there. Some of them, as well as some of the above, are for features I've not personally used on the A4! A bit of research is indicated obviously;) All suggestions are most helpful though. I'll give it lots of thought.
Thank you! Been waiting well over a year for such a video tutorial. Know that it's most appreciated! Hopefully more to come? Subscribed.
Well I'm very glad it's of use! Yes more to come. Any particular topics?
Seen From Space Your presentation style and clear and most importantly, visually concise, makes me want to suggest you could cover 24 different tutorials and dare even say such a collection would be worth whatever price via iBooks/Apps. The official A4 Ref. Manual has been not so helpful, unfortunately...had A4 for over a year now.
Thanks.
ok thanks very much.....so how do you make one of the knobs alter ALL the trackS???
Great tutorial, really pleasant to listen to as well.
Love that little sequence you used in the vid. Any pointers (like intervals, etc) as to how to write melodies such as this on? :D
snoozehard This one's on a kind of modal scale. An old trick for writing melodies is use large intervals, not between every note obviously, but throw in an occasional 6th, octave, 9th etc. Syncopation is good too. Have accents on beat 2 or 3 or 4, put in a rest on beat 1 and so on. Use another part (e.g. bass or counter-melody) to fill around these rests and accents.
Hi Seen From Space. I really like your tutorials, have used them many times now and brought me somewhere Is there a chance you will make more of these?
+wouter van dam I'm cooking up a new Octatrack tutorial at the moment:) Very glad they're useful to you!
Excellent tutorial and useful tips, thanks for doing this.
Great tutorials. You should put them up on Elektronauts if you haven't already. I am sure most users still getting to grips with their kit would appreciate it.
Hi. Yes I do put them on Elektronauts. A new one (on drones) uploading as I type:) Thanks for your comment.
great tutorial! as mentioned, very welcome with the lack of a printed manual.
not a fan of PDFs.
thanks for your tutorials!
Most welcome Sir.
Another great tutorial. Thank you!
are the parameters such as the freq cut-off digital? as in, little steps instead of smooth and analog?
curious cat here. can you use midi cc to manipulate the encoder that has been assigned to a special parameter?
thank you for this. Have you got any (or will you do) video tutorials of how to play A4 paraphonically or polyphonically? I have the rytm and just added the A4 love having individual control of the voices via the sequencer but i wondered whether i can plug in a keyboard and play triads etc? Any idea.. been looking about on web - you seem to be clued up!
Hi. I haven't done a tut covering this in particular. It's easy enough: polyphony is set as part of a Kit. In the Kit menu it's under POLY CONFIG. Ticking one of the 4 boxes next to VOICES sets that track to be polyphonic. Any or all tracks can be polyphonic as long you're not trying to play more than 4 notes at the same time. There are 4 ALLOCATION options which are a bit more complicated to explain. Page 18 of the manual covers this. The A4 is actually polyphonic, not paraphonic which generally means only having one set of envelopes, even though the oscillators can be split across more than one note.
thank you!
Excellent!
On the A4 performance page when I touched a knob that was corresponding to a
track performance, say T1, I could also edit the level with the Level
knob on the left of the screen.
Then simply turning
another knob to change track performance of say T2, I could also edit
the Level of T2, without having to push Trk 1 or Trk 2 buttons on the
right...now I have to push them to edit that Track's Level...weird.
Anyone knows how I can get it back to how it was before? I can't find any info on that in the manual..
Cheers!
I really want this analog 4 . Iam probebly gonna sell every synth and pedal effect i have to get it lol . I had rytm couple of years ago . I never undrestand why people said it hard to use as I find it fairly easy to work with ! now again people say 4 is difficult . I dont know! how do u compare rytm and four in terms of difficulty in learning ?
Afraid I don't have the Rytm and haven't played one. The A4 is certainly easier to understand than the Octatrack!
F Piuz the four is cake dude
Genious!
Will you do the sequencer in episode five?
+Geir Skatdalen Thank you!
Cuckoo does a good job of explaining the sequencer in his Keys tutorial. You have to skip about an hour in to catch just the sequencer. Quite a long video. th-cam.com/video/LfH0-0HDAzE/w-d-xo.html
Excellent thanks.
cheers for this mate. ive found your tutorials very helpful. wondering if you can do a cv setup tutorial? im having lots of problems with the microbrute.. its driving me crazy..
Nicholas Perry Not got round to buying the CV cables yet! Sorry about that. There's Elektron's own tut: th-cam.com/video/RNhktrHHyew/w-d-xo.html Don't know if you've tried that one?
Excellent tutorial. I still don't get one thing: Why they didn't put larger display into A4. Whole point of this machine is to use it without the computer and it's quite difficult to read all parameter changes from this tiny display.
Toto Toto Yes it is odd, given the price of the thing too! My biggest usability snag is I want to use the performance controls with both hands, but then my left hand blocks my view of the display.
This is a huge help, thank you! One question, whats the EXT in the upper left of the screen? Doesn't that normally display tempo number? How did you get EXT?
+J Costello That's external clock. I've got it permanently hooked up to the Octatrack which does the master tempo. Very glad the videos are helpful!
God damn. Only watching and hearing all this vanishes all my doubts about buying one tomorrow. The thing is that now when our russian economy is somewhere between buttchicks all this gear that we're buying abroad for dollars and euros has a double price. Literally. Same salaries, but prices for gear are 1.5 or 2x bigger. "just deal with it". I keep telling that money is just a source for my happiness or hobbies, but still you can feel pain of russian music lovers and producers. And I'm here obviously not for wailing). Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'll definitely need lots of tutorials and staff as I never had a chance to play with synth or something. I'm 30 now and I'm just starting this path into music production. Scared as fuck. Hope I'll dig in all this.
Oh dear sorry to hear it's all so expensive. With the A4 you do get a lot for your money! So it will keep you busy for years with not much need to buy other analog synths, effects or sequencers.
Thanks for the video! Thats very helpful
"...and after saving knob 'A' becomes itself again." ;-)
Anyway, nice tutorial, nice music.
good stuff, I would also like to see pattern chaining mode :o) Cheers
great - thanks!
Thanks for this
Thanks !
+Seen From Space what patch did you use for this? Sounds lovely!
Cheers!
It's one I edited specially for the demo. I don't tend to use factory patches on any synth in fact. Glad you like it!
Thanks.
Very Nice Video :)
thanks man, very helpful
thank jou
THX!
great, thanks