Best workflow

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hi!

After deciding for ages whether to get hardware again or not I am completely stunned by the fun I have using the Analog Rytm I bought three days ago.
It goes that far actually that I bought an Analog Four today as well (not really having the funds but well…)
So after listening to the demos and presets I must say that demos as well as presets are really weak when it comes to bass, haven’t heard at the other stuff too much to be honest.
Nevertheless I manage to get a decent low end out of it after tweaking a bit which means I have to do lots of presets myself.
Now I haven’t completely understood the logic of the hierarchy or lets say I can’t figure out right now what would be the best way to use the synth.

In case I just start programming some patches and save them where would I do this? I haven’t understood if I can have 4000 something sounds on the +drive and have different sounds additionally stored within the projects?
And do I save the presets, the kits etc?
So far I can’t figure out what is the best way for me to go ahead.

I would love to just start with a blank project but don’t want to spend lots of work just realizing that I should have done my file management different.

Also I am not too sure on how to organize patterns, use tracks etc. to work efficiently. Is there any tutorial on how to do things to keep a well thought system (I don’t mean how to do it on the machine but how to logically organize)?

Thanks for helping!

#2

I think it’s important to understand, that +Drive sound library, project sound pool and kits are not linked in any way.

It might be easier to first forget all the libraries and pools, and think that there are just two things:

  1. Kit: 4 different sounds
  2. Pattern: 4 series of sequenced trigs for those sounds

For each pattern, you have to select which kit it uses. If you modify any of those sounds, you save the whole kit. The sounds are contained in the kit, not in any library or pool.

Next comes a question, what if you have made a nice sound in a kit, and you would like to use it in some other kit. The answer is either +Drive sound library or project sound pool. You can save a sound to the library/pool and load it from there. When you load a sound, it gets COPIED to the kit. There doesn’t exist any kind of link.

The idea of the sound pool is that whatever sound you save or copy there, can be used on a sound-locked trig. That will override the default sound of the track.

So you can have sounds in 3 different places, which are not linked in any way. You can just load, save and copy sounds from one place to another.

(I hope I got this right. If not, somebody please correct me.)

Now, what’s the best way to organize this whole thing, that I cannot answer. It would be nice to hear from someone, who has used A4 in large projects and live performances. There may be as many ways as there are users.

1 Like
#3

Thanks for your answer, this answers some questions.
I am still trying to work my way through it though.
Also I was somewhere one hour ago where I could easily step through presets, now I have some time loading.
Tried to init a project and start from scratch but I am still not 100% on the go.
Well it is Friday so there is some time to spend…

edit: sorry for being a pain, but if I understand right it doesn’t make any difference where the sound is loaded from.
on a completely new machine my sound pool should be empty and I can fill it up. either i am heading to the sound manager, browse my +drive and select load to track which loads the sound parameters straight onto the track. whatever i change over here doesn’t affect the data on the +drive.
alternatively i could also load it into the sound manager (limited to 128 sounds) which does host the sounds i can use for sound locking.

is there any way to sort sounds? lets say i want to have a bank of dedicated sub bass presets, one with bas sounds etc. where would i store those? new folder on the +drive (if this is possible)?

so when browsing the +drive i can skip through the sound list and play the sound immediately on the mini keyboard but when loading it onto a track it takes a while. i don’t understand properly but I had a long day and my second beer so there might be some misunderstanding from my side.

One more question as I made 99% jungle drum& bass and breaks I am used to have a sub bass playing along with a bas sound. the bass gets filtered etc and the sub just gives punch an octave lower. is this the same in 4/4 music? or let me change my question… i have heard that this is done in 4/4 music as well.
would you then use two tracks playing the same notes or will a sub oscillator be sufficient for this?

#4

There are some great bass patches to be found among the numerous free sound packs here: http://eu.elektron.se/accessories/?filter=analog-four

Also some wonderful tips for deep bass in this thread: A4 deep bass tips?

#5

Thanks!

you guys rock and this forum as well. Thumbs up :slight_smile:

#6

Get a Minitaur and assign it to your bass track, layer heaven, voila.

1 Like
#7

Regarding sorting different sounds: You can’t make a folder structure on +Drive, but the sounds are divided to 16 banks and they can be assigned tags, so you can easily filter the view just to see e.g. bass sounds. Check the Sound-section of the manual, starting from page 22 (at least on my pdf version).

According to my experience, going through the manual step-by-step is really useful with these machines. It may feel like tedious studying, but it’s worth it. Trying to learn the machine by trial-error method will most likely just result in a lot of confusion and frustration. Also the workflow videos by Elektron, Cuckoo etc. are really useful. Good luck :slight_smile:

#8

Thanks for helping.

I think the gear is really intuitive - except the file structure.
I am just playing around and trying different things at the moment just to know where i am.

so far the synth parameters are all clear but the presets on the *drive seem not to correspond with the “root” key so changing sounds wit the same pattern results in different pitches (but my ear might just be off)

As for a minitaur - I stretched my bank account way too far already but I think the toms from the analog rytm will do fine for now in terms of sub bass. maybe i will be able to get something similar out of the a4? i will see.

#9

On first and second glance, yea the file structure seems a bit contrived.
But it’s actually quite beneficial. I’ve used many other synths with multi-timbral capabilities, and the A4 is one of the very few that gets it right.

It allows for non-destructive editing of sounds, as editing only occurs when sounds are in a kit. You can always save that edited version of the sound with the button combo Yes+Sound, if you like. Otherwise, the working version of the sound is already saved in your kit.

You’ll get the hang of it.

And remember, if you change a sound in one pattern, that sound will be changed in any other patterns that reference that same kit.
Make a new kit if you do not want those changes to effect other patterns.

And you don’t need a Minitaur to get big bass. A4 is not a Moog but it is perfectly capable of big, deep bass.

#10

What I’m doing is instead of using the tags to do filter searches, is i put the categories of sounds under the 16 trig buttons (+drive banks).
So for instance, on the left 123= factory , 4=bass 5=leads 16=textures/fx 15=percussions…

#11

:+1:

Think I just got it. So Sounds in the kit are the sounds that are loaded in and played when I record or set a pattern whereas the sound pool is an alternating sound source for use with s locks.
Jesus I am just getting into it but this is awesome.

#12

2 posts were split to a new topic: A4 Folder structure for live set