ELEKTRON ANALOG 4 MKII Desktop Analogue Synth
I’ve been toying with an Arduino board lately. Not building anything, mind you, just picking it up occasionally and turning it over in my hands, pondering what analogue interfaces I can digitally wrangle with the tweeny-priced processor.
These days, digitally controlling analogue is a common combination that makes a lot of sense; you get precise, repeatable control without introducing conversion into your signal flow. It’s everywhere, from audio interface and console makers implementing digitally-controlled head amp gain, to boutique guitar pedal manufacturers like Chase Bliss Audio layering digital control over analogue circuits to draw all manner of sound combinations out of a tiny die cast box. Sounds that would barely be achievable in the analogue domain alone, even with a console’sworth of knobs and switches.
Elektron has taken a similar approach with the Analog 4, digitally controlling a four-part multitimbral analogue synth underbelly. There’s a fine line between enabling layers of control and introducing too much complexity, a line the Analog 4 flirts with in every instance. It’s an instrument that requires investment, not a desktop ornament you can treat as a hobby.
If you’re not already familiar with Elektron’s instruments, you will be diving through menus, you’ll have to decode its nomenclature (like Scale referring to sequence length parameters, not musical scales, and Kits having little to do with drums), and you’ll have to internalise layers of function buttons and how they apply to different states so you don’t accidentally erase a track preset when you mean to clear 16 beats of a 64 beat sequence. When you do, you’ll be so deep, it’ll be an extension of your creativity. Shortchange
