This tutorial has been the best ever for Analog Four IMO. Playing Chords now with that trickery! I just became your patron. Thank you very much for all these knowledge nuggets.
Yes indeed, that is what is happening here changing the tuning for a couple of chords, the p-locks that is. Also with sound locks you can add drums or other sounds in the gaps too
Wow, you have absolutely mastered this machine. I'm just now starting to get really quick and get the sounds I want out of my A4mk2. Learning some new tricks!
Very impressed!! I have the A4 keys and compared to other synths, it's a difficult little cat to get what you want out of it. Thanks for this as it gave me some things to consider and new things to try.
Great sounds man, subscribed! Really enjoy getting to look at your creative process with the machine rather than just a list of features. This looks like a real versatile synth, thinking of picking one up to help with the coming weeks of self-isolation! Could I ask... are you doing separate recordings for each track into your DAW using Overbridge? Can't seem to find any information of whether this is available with the MK2 and the Elektron website seems to suggest that Overbridge isn't available for the A4 Mk2 yet.
Hi Thomas - just digging through comments, didn't get notified on this one! Yes love my A4ii. I never record separate tracks, although I could if I wanted, I often just do stereo to my Zoom H6 out and about, but on the odd overbridge occasions I could do each track separate for sure... in fact did that on the mark one quite often in the past
Hi there Toby - it is called Sound Locks (in step mode you can press a step and assign any sound from the sound pool to that step), I actually explain it in some of the patches in my latest Weird and Wild analog four video just up
Nice ! I am working on the polyphony to create 3-note chords or even 4 notes for my pads, how did you configure the polyphony mode (poly config): 3 voices? And one in mono for the bass? allocation: reset, rotate, reassign? Thank you
Thanks Yn - I didn't - the point about this is that each track is mono, and the polyphony here is by using one track only. There are two oscillators and each one has a sub oscillator you can set to a 5th below the main oscillator. What I showed was setting one osc and it's 5th to 7 semitones up (G and C) and the 2nd osc to 4 semitones up (Bb and Eb), thereby creating a minor 7th chord. So Cm7, Fm7, Gm7 all work great then I used some parameter locks when I need say an Abmaj7 or Ebmaj7 to make those work by tuning Osc 2 to 5 instead of 4 semitones. There is a bunch of stuff in the manual for basic poly config stuff, but I tend to turn all of the tracks on to rotate, and just make sure I don't do any 4 note chords!
@@GaryHayes Thank you, I admit that it's a little confusing this story of polyphony on the A4 I will dive back into the manual, on track T4 I left the mono mode for my bass, the T1 (pad), T2 (lead, chrd, key), T3 (melodic bass) in polyphony mode (3 tracks activated), Affiliation: reset, and I find the result not great sometimes when the tracks overlap .... the only problem that I meet with this awesome A4, thanks again!
@@yannbzh100 Depending on how you have set each tracks polyphony these will then decide how notes are distributed - from the manual: RESET Picks the first available voice in increasing order, starting from track voice 1, for every new overlapping note played. ROTATE For every new coinciding note played the voices are allocated in a cyclic manner. REASSIGN Uses the same voice as last time for every note played as long as its unused. Otherwise the least recently used voice is used for the new note. UNISON Uses all voices to play the same note. Employs the adjustable parameters DETUNE and PAN SPREAD shown below.
I really appreciate your videos and I would like to hear your opinion on a minimal techno / trance uplifting package. I intended to buy an Analog Rythm MK2 and an Analog Four MK2, as well as a Roland MC 707 and TR 8S and for the bass line a mb33 mam, a Korg Xd rack, Electribe 2, Toraiz as- 1 this way i will have a varied range of sounds. What do you think? No Elektron and Roland duo? Certainly too much material I presume, I would like to have an efficient set with what it takes without duplicate material. Do you have any other suggestions? Thank you in advance for your response and advice
Thanks P13 - as for your setup not sure you need the Rhthm and TR8S, choose one. With the MC707 as your hub and sequencer then choosing the mb33 for bass is fine, the A4 can do some good bass too and still have 3 sequence tracks left, so you may want to consider adding the mb later. The XD will provide you with the trance poly and toraiz with quirky lead lines. It really depends on how big a sound you want and the balance between the Elektron sequencing method vs a straight groovebox style ... it would work quite well to have sections on the Elektrons and then back to longer song mode on mc707 ... but a big question really and only one you can answer by trying and watching endless YT videos
Thank you for your feedback and advice. You are right this setup seems to be balanced and common sense thank you very much. So Mc 707, Mb 33, Toraiz as-1, Analog Four MK2 and Korg Xd rack.
Are you talking about Sound Locks? While playing, press record and you go into step mode and while pressing the step you can assign various sounds from the SoundPool or dozens of parameters - not sure if that is what you are asking?
Yes I have the digitakt too. Very different animals. Digital vs analog, 8 track sampler (and 8 midi) vs just 4 analog. The sequencing is the same, especially p and s locks etc: The digitakt for me is a drum box, sample looper, raw synth generator and 8 track midi sequencer, the analog four is more of a true instrument, in that it has analog character.
@@giovannidebiase6850 Now only if I had affiliate links! :) Enjoy if you get it, I find it much more friendly to get ideas on than digitakt, or many other instruments in fact
@@GaryHayes I have had many synths and got rid because they are difficult or simply can't do things I want. Eg the Jupiter xm has a ridiculous intelligent arp that just gets in the way, no real-time recording...could have been such a good synth. The Roland mc707 has an artificial sound and adjusting the synth sounds is tedious. Waldorf Blofield is simply lacking in function knobs. Any suggestions? 😁
@@giovannidebiase6850 Very hard to recommend as it all depends on the type of music you create, how you like to make it etc: I prefer much more immediate creation now vs using a daw or programming lots of sequences and patterns into machines. For real time control I love the Volca analogs like the keys or modular, also the Minilogue XD analog poly and Hydrasynth for the live controls over every aspect of the sound. MicroFreak has some nice real time control as does the Analog Four mk2 (although just one menu level deep) ... In the past I have liked the BassStation II (but wasn't keen on the sound in the end) and things like the System 1 from Roland. But I preferred real analogs as much as possible now ...
If Digitone has 4 oscillators per voice it can separately tune then yes, but I haven't used a digitone for programming, the A4 here is using the two subs alongside the two main oscillators.
Hello!! I Get the possibilty to choose different preset sounds when using the preset save. Bur when i make a new project all the fields to choose different sounds are blank. (This is what you do in the beginning of the vid) how do i load in different sounds to have on different trigs?
Thanks Stefan - it is about copying sounds into the sound pool to make them available as Sound Locks. So go to Sound Browser and audition sounds then clock the right arrow and choose 'copy to... Sound Pool' ... here is a little video explaining this th-cam.com/video/6YrbFkQAYSU/w-d-xo.html
This tutorial has been the best ever for Analog Four IMO. Playing Chords now with that trickery! I just became your patron. Thank you very much for all these knowledge nuggets.
Awesome, thank you HM! Inspires me to do more!!!
had mine a week, and this video has blown me away...... stunned at the speed and versatility. thank you
Glad you liked it CS - appreciate the listen
Your A4 tutorials are awesome... Thank You !
Glad you like them! - I should do more!
Chilling, in a good way, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! - hope you found it useful, A4 can be a great workstation!
Wish more modern synths sounded like this
Agree Bryan
Thanks
Welcome BK! Much Appreciated!
Glad I found your channel. I'm learning the analog 4 as my only synth and your music is an inspiration
Welcome aboard! Chris P - appreciate the thanks and good luck with the A4, my desert island synth :)
Never thought of the ability of making a 4 voice chord of one track, with p-locks you could change them to per step. Very cool.
Yes indeed, that is what is happening here changing the tuning for a couple of chords, the p-locks that is. Also with sound locks you can add drums or other sounds in the gaps too
Hi Gary - was nice chatting on Sunday afternoon and thanks showing me your cool gear :-)
Hey nice to meet too. Didn't have the A4, MicroFreak or Volcas in the gallery, but you know those machines!
very helpful.
Glad it helped! Cheers mate
Excellent video! Great track as well , would have been lovely a closeup of the A4 screen for better following what you’re doing
Noted! - although many of my other tutorials have a closer view. Cheers
@@GaryHayes yes! Have seen a couple of them , great content
Wow, you have absolutely mastered this machine. I'm just now starting to get really quick and get the sounds I want out of my A4mk2. Learning some new tricks!
Yes takes a few days, weeks, years - but becomes second nature after a while!!
As usual, really informative and instructive - really helped me understand my A4ii so much watching these tutorials. Thank you.
Appreciated Greg - although very rudimentary I hope it gets people over the first wall :)
That's a nice and so cool lesson. Thanx Bro
My pleasure! SC!
Very nice
Thanks
Excellent as usual mate
thanks BBQ
Excellent tutorial and Loved the sounds!
Thank you! Cheers!
Very impressed!! I have the A4 keys and compared to other synths, it's a difficult little cat to get what you want out of it. Thanks for this as it gave me some things to consider and new things to try.
Couldn't agree more! - But that is certainly why I like it, cheers Jeff!
@@GaryHayes Cheers Gary!
thank you.
You're welcome
Great sounds man, subscribed! Really enjoy getting to look at your creative process with the machine rather than just a list of features. This looks like a real versatile synth, thinking of picking one up to help with the coming weeks of self-isolation!
Could I ask... are you doing separate recordings for each track into your DAW using Overbridge? Can't seem to find any information of whether this is available with the MK2 and the Elektron website seems to suggest that Overbridge isn't available for the A4 Mk2 yet.
Hi Thomas - just digging through comments, didn't get notified on this one! Yes love my A4ii. I never record separate tracks, although I could if I wanted, I often just do stereo to my Zoom H6 out and about, but on the odd overbridge occasions I could do each track separate for sure... in fact did that on the mark one quite often in the past
Hi, at the beginning. How do you load two samples in one track (kick and hat) )?
Hi there Toby - it is called Sound Locks (in step mode you can press a step and assign any sound from the sound pool to that step), I actually explain it in some of the patches in my latest Weird and Wild analog four video just up
@@GaryHayes Hi thanks now it works. Great 😃👍
Nice ! I am working on the polyphony to create 3-note chords or even 4 notes for my pads, how did you configure the polyphony mode (poly config): 3 voices? And one in mono for the bass? allocation: reset, rotate, reassign? Thank you
Thanks Yn - I didn't - the point about this is that each track is mono, and the polyphony here is by using one track only. There are two oscillators and each one has a sub oscillator you can set to a 5th below the main oscillator. What I showed was setting one osc and it's 5th to 7 semitones up (G and C) and the 2nd osc to 4 semitones up (Bb and Eb), thereby creating a minor 7th chord. So Cm7, Fm7, Gm7 all work great then I used some parameter locks when I need say an Abmaj7 or Ebmaj7 to make those work by tuning Osc 2 to 5 instead of 4 semitones. There is a bunch of stuff in the manual for basic poly config stuff, but I tend to turn all of the tracks on to rotate, and just make sure I don't do any 4 note chords!
@@GaryHayes Thank you, I admit that it's a little confusing this story of polyphony on the A4 I will dive back into the manual, on track T4 I left the mono mode for my bass, the T1 (pad), T2 (lead, chrd, key), T3 (melodic bass) in polyphony mode (3 tracks activated), Affiliation: reset, and I find the result not great sometimes when the tracks overlap .... the only problem that I meet with this awesome A4, thanks again!
I tested to have a 3-note chord on an audio track (eg T1: pad) I must have 3 active voices
@@yannbzh100 Depending on how you have set each tracks polyphony these will then decide how notes are distributed - from the manual: RESET Picks the first available voice in increasing order, starting from track voice 1, for every new overlapping note played.
ROTATE For every new coinciding note played the voices are allocated in a cyclic manner.
REASSIGN Uses the same voice as last time for every note played as long as its unused. Otherwise the least recently used voice is used for the new note.
UNISON Uses all voices to play the same note. Employs the adjustable parameters DETUNE and PAN SPREAD shown below.
@@GaryHayes Thank you again and congratulations also for your photos! magnificent ...
I really appreciate your videos and I would like to hear your opinion on a minimal techno / trance uplifting package. I intended to buy an Analog Rythm MK2 and an Analog Four MK2, as well as a Roland MC 707 and TR 8S and for the bass line a mb33 mam, a Korg Xd rack, Electribe 2, Toraiz as- 1 this way i will have a varied range of sounds. What do you think? No Elektron and Roland duo? Certainly too much material I presume, I would like to have an efficient set with what it takes without duplicate material. Do you have any other suggestions? Thank you in advance for your response and advice
Thanks P13 - as for your setup not sure you need the Rhthm and TR8S, choose one. With the MC707 as your hub and sequencer then choosing the mb33 for bass is fine, the A4 can do some good bass too and still have 3 sequence tracks left, so you may want to consider adding the mb later. The XD will provide you with the trance poly and toraiz with quirky lead lines. It really depends on how big a sound you want and the balance between the Elektron sequencing method vs a straight groovebox style ... it would work quite well to have sections on the Elektrons and then back to longer song mode on mc707 ... but a big question really and only one you can answer by trying and watching endless YT videos
Thank you for your feedback and advice. You are right this setup seems to be balanced and common sense thank you very much. So Mc 707, Mb 33, Toraiz as-1, Analog Four MK2 and Korg Xd rack.
What is the step formula for this when setting it up. Shift and page you have options to get this kinda sound to play on the steps?
Are you talking about Sound Locks? While playing, press record and you go into step mode and while pressing the step you can assign various sounds from the SoundPool or dozens of parameters - not sure if that is what you are asking?
How does it compare to the digitakt, which i aleady have? Worth buying on top of?
Yes I have the digitakt too. Very different animals. Digital vs analog, 8 track sampler (and 8 midi) vs just 4 analog. The sequencing is the same, especially p and s locks etc: The digitakt for me is a drum box, sample looper, raw synth generator and 8 track midi sequencer, the analog four is more of a true instrument, in that it has analog character.
@@GaryHayes......( sound of wallet being opened) 😆
@@giovannidebiase6850 Now only if I had affiliate links! :) Enjoy if you get it, I find it much more friendly to get ideas on than digitakt, or many other instruments in fact
@@GaryHayes I have had many synths and got rid because they are difficult or simply can't do things I want. Eg the Jupiter xm has a ridiculous intelligent arp that just gets in the way, no real-time recording...could have been such a good synth. The Roland mc707 has an artificial sound and adjusting the synth sounds is tedious. Waldorf Blofield is simply lacking in function knobs. Any suggestions? 😁
@@giovannidebiase6850 Very hard to recommend as it all depends on the type of music you create, how you like to make it etc: I prefer much more immediate creation now vs using a daw or programming lots of sequences and patterns into machines. For real time control I love the Volca analogs like the keys or modular, also the Minilogue XD analog poly and Hydrasynth for the live controls over every aspect of the sound. MicroFreak has some nice real time control as does the Analog Four mk2 (although just one menu level deep) ... In the past I have liked the BassStation II (but wasn't keen on the sound in the end) and things like the System 1 from Roland. But I preferred real analogs as much as possible now ...
Are your recording live over more than one chained patter, rather than just 4 bars?
it is one pattern but on an 'inf' loop, meaning I can have polymeters going easily, a 3/4 against a 7/8 or a 4/4 sliding over each other
Is this chord creation technique possible on the Digitone?
If Digitone has 4 oscillators per voice it can separately tune then yes, but I haven't used a digitone for programming, the A4 here is using the two subs alongside the two main oscillators.
@@GaryHayes Thanks, I think it might be limited comparatively. I have to look into it more.
Hello!! I Get the possibilty to choose different preset sounds when using the preset save. Bur when i make a new project all the fields to choose different sounds are blank. (This is what you do in the beginning of the vid) how do i load in different sounds to have on different trigs?
Thanks Stefan - it is about copying sounds into the sound pool to make them available as Sound Locks. So go to Sound Browser and audition sounds then clock the right arrow and choose 'copy to... Sound Pool' ... here is a little video explaining this th-cam.com/video/6YrbFkQAYSU/w-d-xo.html
Gary P Hayes thank you very much🤩 great vids, keep them coming:)
Nice! have you seen my improved set with the digitakt?
I will check it out Alex