Elektron Tonverk | Polyphonic anthems

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A song composed and performed live on the Elektron Tonverk.

Elektron have finally created a polyphonic sample player. The Tonverk is their first sample player that allows me to sit with a MIDI keyboard and play. For someone like me, this means that this is the first Elektron where I can compose in a traditional way, i.e. by playing a keyboard and seeing what comes out. Plus, you can route the different tracks through three separate stereo outputs, making it simple to multitrack audio. In and of itself, these are worth celebrating and make the Tonverk special.

That said, this device still feels a little under-baked on the inside. I've encountered more bugs and missing features and unintuitive design decisions than any of their previous hardware. Its factory soundbank doesn't feel nearly as rich as (e.g.) what came with the Digitakt II recently. And sadly, it feels like it continues to ignore what got me into Elektron boxes like the Octatrack and Analog Four MkII originally, namely performance features.

But ultimately, the most important part of a piece of gear is if I'm writing and playing music with it. As of now, the answer is yes, and I had a great time with many aspects of it. But I imagine I'm going to need a fresh set of bread-and-butter and interesting sounds as a better starting point in the future. I look forward to seeing what the community creates for it.

Written on the Tonverk, performed and recorded live to three stereo outputs, with EQ, compression, and limiting on the master.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com