A4 MKII Q.C. : Buyer Beware!

Elektron has got some serious quality control issues… Don’t get me wrong the Analog Four MK2 is an amazing instrument. But if Elektron is going to charge high end prices, it’s an absolute must that the quality reflect that price… I’m returning my second unit hoping to receive the level of craftsmanship that is expectable of this price… The guys over at Sweetwater have been great, they aren’t at fault here. It’s Elektron, I haven’t given up on the instrument though. The first unit had a horrible hiss on the right side so ok I got a lemon but no, the second unit I received had sticking buttons. This isn’t excepable, not at these prices… Just wanted to put the word out there, the guys at Elektron have something really cool going. I’d hate to see them ruin themselves with something so simple as quality control…

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I think you’re telling the wrong crowd here…

quality control isn’t simple… its everything

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Elaborate please…

While the sticking buttons are annoying, is hardly call it a major issue.

My Digitakt had 3 stiff trigs for the first few weeks. After I’d pressed them a dozen or so times, they felt fine. Just needs to be broken in.

depends on what you are willing to accept
It is a product you are willing to pay a lot of money for
consider buying a new car that has a scratch or any other “minor” fault
would you accept that as well
companies love customers like you :slight_smile:

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Price is irrelevant. If the buttons stuck on my brand new £25 toaster, I’d send that back as well. It’s a malfunction.

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Obviously if it’s a permanent fault then I’d send it back.

The sticky trigs thing goes away though and the product end up functioning normally after a few presses. To me, that’s not a dealbreaker.

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The problem with the trigs (on the digitakt ime) is more than sticky keys, the ones that start off sticking do lossen up but even after 5 months they dont feel as smooth to press as those that were trouble free.
The trigs dont bother me nearly as much as the boat like steering of the encoders though, I have not known another encoder be both under and over sensitive, unless you like making big jerky unspecified movements they are frustrating to work with. Also pressing and turning the encoders to move in fixed amounts feels even more uncontrollable, not only is the amount of pressure needed to hold the encoder down excessive to the point it feels like it will end the encoders life before anything else but the responsivness is all over the place. I would expect the encoders to be fixed by now if it was possible so I dont have much faith.

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I agree with the OP. For that price I expected a flawless product,period. I had an A4 mk1 (now sold) and still own mk1’s AR and OT. Everything works and no issues at all.

But a friend of mine bought a OT mk2 recently and it has stuck buttons and on some buttons the LED’s flickering or don’t work at all. An absolute no-go imo.

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Seems to be preference. I like how the encoders behave. Just move them gently. Really slow movement will change the parameter in 0.01 steps, and the faster you move, the higher the amount per step. It’s in my muscle memory now so it’s really easy to dial in the amount I want.

The encoders feel like they can handle some abuse imho… Very sturdy.

That being said, I have one digitakt with 2 fingerprints under the glass of the screen. I don’t notice it anymore, but it surely is a shame someone didn’t think about that while assembling the unit.

It’d be a deal breaker for me to be honest and it’s disappointing to hear.

The DT I owned had 3 trigs that stuck. No amount of presses was going to fix it. Back it went for a refund.

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No problems here with my A4 MK2 :slight_smile: My opinion is that Elektron has improved the MK2 quality over the MK1’s. But that just me a long time Elektron user since 2002 from Sidstation to latest MK2’s. So thumps up!

When I bought my MPC1000 it also had sticky switches then broke in after a month of playing

I believe the standard warranty is 3 years. I noticed the trig 2 button was a little sticky the other night (have had my A4MKII for a week now) but I think it’ll break in shortly.

I wish it were the case that really slow movements made really small changes as right now really slow equals nothing at all on most parameters, a fraction more effort and it over shoots.
The only time my encoders are over sensitive is when I am not using them and either the sample select or sound bank pages trigger whilst trying to do something else.

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Please report any malfunction to Elektron support by explaining in details what does not work on which screen.
Only way to make this machine better, on our side.

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When moving slowely, keep turning the encoder. It will change by the minimum value. Are you on 1.04? I’d doubt your unit works different from my units, since it’s all software based :wink:

I do agree about malfunctions, but price matters.

Once I bought a electric coocktop : impossible to boil water. Come back to the shop with it and I almost got chewed out by a salesman of the shop saying it’s my fault because I bought the cheapest one !

Concerning Elektron, I don’t understand pre-orders, if you’re not sure of quality control. I don’t understand why they choose after sale cost, bad reputation, rather than good quality control before release, especially at that price.

It feels kind of ironic that as an early adopter you not only get to pay a premium (OT MK2 has already come down €50,- at german retailers since release), but you’re also more prone to getting burned quality wise. Not cool.

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