the watmm GAS thread

[sheatheman]

wow rsp that's a pretty sad story. i have a bro like that who will be about to pull the trigger on something interesting and then just buy some boring used thing.

[thawkins]

just got my KOMA Field kit, such a cute little beast!

 

here is what it can do:

 

edit: the booklet shown is their user manual! a lovely read

 

Nice! I got one as well, mine arrived two weeks ago. I'm still only beginning to learn what it can do, so far my favorite is playing the spring reverb with the DC motor (which is run by the envelope generator, which in turn is fed by a square wave bassline). It's kind of tricky but I got really cool industrial kind of techno drum sounds out of it, and you could change the character of the sound and rhythm by turning the env generator and tone knobs. 

 

I am also thinking of starting a DIY addiction just to slowly build some modular-compatible kit to play around with it. I already have a soldering iron.. this can get out of hand. :)

[modey]

god damnit I should have got one of those

[YangYing]

god damnit I should have got one of those

you still can?

[modey]

ha, yep I looked it up after that and I can indeed.. I'll have to look into it :D

[Guest Chesney]

Lets all get one and do a comp ;)

[th555]

Alternatively you can do a lot of that stuff yourself without too much hassle. I once played a cowbell with a solenoid using just the gate output from a korg sq-1 and a MOSFET on a breadboard.

[modey]

yeah true. I really should stop being lazy and get back into the arduino stuff..

[modey]

Local music store has put a massive discount on analog 4.. like $700AU off the normal price. Severely tempted even though I do not need it at all.. I really shouldn't consider a low price a reason to buy something, right?

[Guest Chesney]

Get the A4! fuck me, it's the best new breed synth out there purely based on how far it can take subtractive analogue.

[modey]

lol god damnit

[flacid]

Rytm arrived 

 

I've sold a lot of 'classic' gear to get hold of this and it is most definitely worth it. The bass is wicked and I'm hoping that it will work nicely with the monomachine where the digital frequencies can cut through. Anyone here combined the MM with the AR? 

[sheatheman]

Sounds like a great combo.

[sweepstakes]

A4 seems awesome just for the patch locks. I always wanted a NL2 (or NL1 w/ PC card) for the drum kit mode and the A4 seems a lot like an analog version of that along with a bitchin' sequencer and effects.

[modey]

yeah, considering I have a NL1 already (that sounds great sequenced from the octatrack) I don't think I really should get an A4 as well.. I should keep on the search for a NR2/NR2X for live portability instead

[Guest Chesney]

apples and oranges. Couldn't be more different. Dare I say it would be my desert island synth? And I have some banging synths haha.

 

I don't want to push you modey or be a bad influence but if I found a new A4 at a crazy price i'd jump on it like a lion on a gazelle before it speeds away. Fuck it i'd have 2 in a heartbeat.

[sweepstakes]

Dayum. Not to prod you to be bad influence on modey but I am wondering what is so special about this machine. I mean, I've read the manual and it sounds great on paper for sure but it's just the features that I'm looking at - aforementioned patch locks, more advanced polyphony management than the mono, audio-rate and keytracking LFOs, trig conditions, CV outputs for fucking with my Microbrute...

[acid1]

If I saw an A4 for $700 I'd buy a second one probably. Thats another 4 more beams to shoot at my modular.

[modey]

oh no it's not $700, it's $1400AU, $700 off normal price. So it's still expensive, and I don't have the money.. and don't really want another credit card debt again after *just* paying it off last month :P

[Guest Chesney]

That's fair enough man, don't get in trouble.

 

As for why the A4 is amazing... let me start off that the raw osc sounds are pretty meh and I can judge whether I like a synth on this usually. But, once you start tweaking it comes to life.

Pro's are the amount of osc's and sub osc's to play with and osc options, basically the amount of options per element compaired to a typical analogue synth, times that all by 4. The fact you can p-lock anything on an analogue synth means that it can take synth sounds into territories they could never go in such a small amount of time. The new audio rate Lfo's meaning that FM is possible with anything on the mod list (pretty much). The performance macros are insane! The fact you can control non midi analogue synths, trigger drum machines, arp etc X2. Parameter locking FX.

Granted, some of the highlights are not specific to the A4, they are an Elektron thing but combining the Elektron sequencer with analogue subtractive synthesis is an exciting thing.

[psn]

I just want an Eventide H9000. Now.

[acid1]

A couple other A4 highlights

• Transpose mode - You can transpose your tracks in realtime with the little keyboard and lock it to a scale
• Feedback - You can feedback the filter stage of a voice as an oscillator to get some nasty distortion
• Polyphony - Probably the easiest and most configurable way to handle polyphony with an Elektron
• Voice Rotation - You can have any shared voices being used rotate through the post oscillator section
• 10 Performance Knobs which can each be assigned 5 values each, which is dead simple to configure
• Gate/Trigger/Note CV value can be programmed or routed from any track + CV track + FX track, so if you want you can take a melody you already wrote, and route that that to CV tracks, or just the gates etc

[Guest Chesney]

yepyepyep. I can't sing it's praises enough haha, sorry modey.

[modey]

god damnit, ebay has a 15% off sale today which means it'd be a further $200 off, such torture

[digit]

A4 is on my list for sure. a lot of really cool Elektron features brought into the analog realm for the first time. plus it seems like the perfect hub for building a very small modular system using its cv capabilities.

 

i would never be able to afford building a big modular rig, but the A4 would be a great way to incorporate a few choice experimental modules ( like the MakeNoise or Mutable Instruments stuff ) to really expand your sonic palette.

 

In the meantime, i scored a mint condition Oberheim Matrix 1000 off of ebay the other week. Really amazing sounding synth & one of the last affordable analog polys. a ton of these were manufactured back in the day so they're still relatively easy to find used. going thru the presets really takes you to another era.

 

not my vid but this gives you an idea of some of its sound capabilities: