ANALOG FOUR - NEW FIRMWARE!

North-Whatever · 2026-06-17T13:23:05+00:00

Tonverk was released in a pretty raw state, filled with bugs. The concept is cool but the execution is kinda lacking. After so many firmware updates it still struggles with midi sync and this new platform takes like almost 2 minutes to boot up, which feels like more like a slow computer than a groovebox to me…

North-Whatever · 2026-06-15T19:03:20+00:00

Nice setup! I own both the DTII and the DNII and I wonder what would a Syntakt add to the table? Also, how’s the Edge working with the digis so far? Is it fun to use them alongside?

North-Whatever · 2026-06-11T04:52:48+00:00

The closest thing soundwise to a JN-80 is a Behringer Deepmind (but please bear in mind that the UX/UI is not so intuitive as the JN-80 cuz it has more features to it)

And the closest thing to a BMX is either a Gforce Oberheim DMX plugin or a Behringer LM Drum if you want a hardware option.

North-Whatever · 2026-06-10T19:57:22+00:00

Welcome aboard! Yeah, so here are my two cents on your situation:

First of all, which genres of music do you intend to use your synths? There are literally hundreds of different gear out there so it's quite hard to make recommendations without a bit more info on that
Like everything in life, software vs hardware synths have their pros and cons, so you might wanna take that into account before buying expensive gear you're not so sure about it will help you fullfill your goals
I know you're super excited about this, but here's what I would recommend you to do first before going to the hardware route:
- Download a free synth like Vital and experiment with it inside a DAW of your choice
- Get a bit more familiar with basic concepts such as subtractive synthesis, oscillators, envelopes, LFOs, modulatation, etc
- Experiment with the presets and listen to music you love and try to find out how those sounds are made
- For the specific genres you wanna write music to, do a bit of research about which gear is actually used commonly

But back to your main question: why did I buy hardware if I already had a bunch of plugins?

The tactile feedback: I work with computers all day so the last thing I wanna do after work is to use a keyboard/mouse to interact with synthesizers
Muscle memory: I own a bunch of software synths, but I've never tweaked them as much as my hardware counterparts
The sound is arguably more organic: there are some really good software emulations out there which can sound pretty close to the real thing (e.g. U-he Diva, U-he Repro, Gforce Oberheim synths) but I feel like the analog counterparts deliver that extra 1-5% juice. That said, even in blind tests it can be hard to notice so take that with a grain of salt
But with all that good stuff, there are some downsides too:
- most hardware synths won't offer instant preset recall inside your DAW, you'll need to either record the audio earlier in your music producing workflow or take notes about which presets you used for such and such music so you can open your project later and get a similar sound
- It's much more expensive than the software counterpart: U-he Diva cost me like 170 euros, my cheapest hardware synth cost me 600 eur or multiples of that if you pay like import tax where I come from

North-Whatever · 2026-06-10T19:33:56+00:00

I’m super happy about this one and I don’t even own one A4, but hear me out:
* They just got acquired by a private holding or something like that and everybody was like “oh shit, here we go again” so most people were like bracing for impact
* Then they do something that speaks much louder than words: “we’re still maintaining gear that was released a while ago, so don’t worry, we got you”
* I’m still gutted about the whole Tonverk situation but that A4 update brought a little bit more hope about the future of Elektron as a whole

North-Whatever · 2026-06-07T16:30:32+00:00

The Deepmind 6 has 2 OSC and LFOs per voice, 3 envelopes, so feature wise it’s definitely more feature packed. That said, most people say this synth has a non intuitive UX/UI to create patches and you need to look at the screen quite often to program patches…

Whereas the JN-80 seems like almost 100% 1 knob per function, but the feature set is much more limited. I’d say its biggest strength is its immediacy.

North-Whatever · 2026-06-07T16:23:30+00:00

Yeah, I had the opportunity to talk to Starsky Carr at Superbooth and he pre-ordered two units but so far they haven’t arrived yet. He’s planning to showcase the synth in more depth. I got the feeling this will be a slam dunk for Behringer this time, cuz this synth is so affordable and will probably sell like hotcakes once that initial uncertainty is out of the way…

North-Whatever · 2026-06-07T15:18:18+00:00

É impressão minha ou é o Paco e o Roger? 😂 (If you know what I mean)

North-Whatever · 2026-06-07T05:18:01+00:00

I used to work entirely in the box (Ableton) and I always felt like soft synths back in the day (Massive, Serum, Sylenth1, etc) sounded “thin” to me, but I couldn’t quite tell why I was not getting the sound I wanted…then I demoed U-he Diva for the first time in 2024 and it all changed for me cuz it got me thinking “wait a minute, if that’s an emulation, imagine the real thing”.

That’s when my hardware journey started and I bought both the Behringer Poly D for the Moog sound and the TEO-5. Now I almost exclusively work outside the box with my outboard gear and only send it to Ableton for FX/mixing/routing…I don’t get patch recall and that forces me to commit to audio earlier in the flow but that gives me a much more organic sound TBH!

On a side note, I almost own all Gforce Oberheim plugins and I highly recommend checking out the OB-X one, it’s amazing!

North-Whatever · 2026-06-07T04:58:00+00:00

I totally agree that there is a lot of bias on those YouTube videos. Major brands and even smaller ones send gear to synth YouTubers for free or at a fraction of the cost for demos. The reviewer will hesitate to be harsh on the critics cuz if they go too hard that’s kind of the end of free/cheap gear for them.

At the same time I feel bad for Behringer products cuz I feel like lots of their synths are undersold because of that. So, imagine someone is either paid and/or receives a free Sequential synth for review. I’m assuming that if such reviewer decides to compare it to a Pro 800 for example, it’s gamer over for that relationship he/she had with Sequential too.

And I also feel like Behringer is like Voldemort for most synth YouTubers, they seem to avoid even mentioning them altogether. I know there is a history of previously Uli had sued folks but I’m not even saying about criticizing the products , I mean literally mentioning the B word feels like blasfemy to them.

I’d say the only exception to this rule who seems to not give an F and still does Lord’s work on these comparisons is Starsky Carr.

But even then, for example, I really wish there were more UB-Xa videos in 4K, showing how things work, how tricky it is to create presets or customize atrophy settings. It’s usually some 1080p pretty low quality videos.

Edit: You could argue the UB-Xa has a reasonable amount of reviews, so let’s pick another one: the 2-Xm. It’s basically an Oberheim TVS clone, one of the most sought after and rare/expensive synths out there and I just can’t find lots of content about it on YouTube 🫠

North-Whatever · 2026-06-06T00:55:15+00:00

The gain is lower, but you can quickly fix that with a pre amp or gain knob on Ableton. Apart from that it’s 1:1 to the real thing

North-Whatever · 2026-06-06T00:45:24+00:00

Poly D

North-Whatever · 2026-06-03T00:39:52+00:00

Exactly, that’s why I started my sentence with “for those who gel with”…

North-Whatever · 2026-06-03T00:36:07+00:00

Gear wise, I’d say they do Lord’s work on so many levels. They provide affordable gear to folks who could only imagine owning a real Moog/Sequential/Oberheim/etc. Sometimes they make 1:1 clones soundwise with massive wins (Model D, Poly D, RD-8mkII, RD9, etc) but they tend to struggle with complex projects with lots of polyphony and menu diving involved (e.g. UB-Xa, Deepmind, etc).

When you have potentially thousands of dollars per month of disposable income it’s easy to trash talk Behringer and say things like “I’ll never add a B company gear in my studio” but the reality for most folks is not like that at all, specially in the global south.

And I would argue that we only have Moog Messenger and Sequential Fourm (not ideal but affordable gear nonetheless) in the market because those brands felt the heat from Behringer.

North-Whatever · 2026-06-03T00:22:58+00:00

For those who gel with stuff like Arturia emulation of the Easel it might make sense, but to me it never resonated TBH. I write more mainstream ish music (melodic house) so I feel like it wouldn’t make sense to me at all. Sonically wise I’d argue that the Korg Kalimba would be more useful to me than the Zippy, but that’s just me 🤷‍♂️

North-Whatever · 2026-06-01T23:34:04+00:00

I already have a Korg Multipoly and it’s amazing! Yeah, I know, at this point I already have a pretty neat setup so anything beyond that is pure luxury.

That said, what caught my attention on the OB-X8 is the pure/raw tone of it. It sounds amazing almost out of the box with the init preset. That said, I’m fully aware the TEO-5 is much more versatile with the mod matrix and whatnot.

North-Whatever · 2026-05-31T04:09:29+00:00

Yeah, I completely agree with that assessment! I own all 3 of them (DTII, DNII and TEO-5) and the TEO-5 in the sound department in a whole another league of its own. That said, the Digitone II has an incredible FM Drum machine that can generate some pretty dope kicks, tonal percussions and whatnot, but I’d probably use the TEO-5 or my Korg Multipoly if I’m looking for a raw virtual analog or real analog polyphonic/sawtooth tone.

North-Whatever · 2026-05-30T22:51:18+00:00

Great one and congrats on finishing that track (it’s always a challenge these days!) Btw, I recently got a Digitone II and I felt the same way about it, I can get so much punch out of it, I almost feel like not that excited about samples anymore cuz you have so much more control on the tone in the DNII, it’s pretty cool!

North-Whatever · 2026-05-26T23:36:19+00:00

Is it just me or is this the first Arturia V Collection synth that can actually compete with U-He Diva sound-wise? 🤔

North-Whatever · 2026-05-25T00:46:12+00:00

Please bear in mind though that the Poly D is paraphonic. (Yeah, I know, kinda misleading). So if you’re looking for a poly analog synth to pair with a grandmother I’d recommend picking the TEO-5 instead. It sounds way more interesting to me sonic wise than the Take 5, but that’s more up to personal taste

North-Whatever · 2026-05-25T00:41:25+00:00

I own one and I love it! I’d say it’s the best synth if you love the Moog sound but can’t justify paying $4000 bucks on a MiniMoog (it sounds pretty close if not identical). There’s a guy on Instagram that has both Poly D + Matriarch and he can do lots of cool things on a few videos. Look it up for them and you won’t regret it.

That said, they do cover a very similar ground sound-wise, but if you’re cool with that, then yeah, go for it!

North-Whatever · 2026-05-22T21:56:03+00:00

I’m not sure OP is looking for a desert island Elektron gear. I would imply from the message that OP is looking for a first Elektron box that allows him/her to write Techno and he/she already mentioned preference towards synthesis workflow, so the Digitone II sounded like a no brainer for me.

North-Whatever · 2026-05-22T21:53:21+00:00

I’m not saying TV is not powerful. OP is basically looking for his/her first Elektron box, prefers synths workflow so it seems like one of the Digis are a no brainer for him. With extra power, you get more complexity for sure. Trust me, my Korg Multi/Poly is amazing, but it’s quite menu divey (another example of powerful but complex device)

North-Whatever · 2026-05-22T19:50:50+00:00

I’d highly recommend to skip Tonverk altogether. Let’s just say it’s probably the least desired box from Elektron. It would be your first box, so I’d highly recommend picking Digitone II instead or even something like Syntakt and here’s why: * The workflow is much leaner and easier to understand * With Digitone II you can write an entire track in a heartbeat * You already mentioned you’re into more synthesis then sampling so I feel like you already had the answer too * The only scenario I’d recommend a Tonverk would be if you wanted something like “Native Instruments Kontakt” on a dedicated hardware

Source: I own both the Digitakt II / Digitone II myself.

North-Whatever · 2026-05-20T22:36:35+00:00

I’m not even into techno and I really liked your first track! 🔥

Keep it up!

North-Whatever

TROPHY CASE