If you had to sell both MC and A4 and gain one ST…
Can the ST cover most of the ground offered by these two separate boxes?
What are the negatives?
It can cover essentially all the ground of the cycles, sonically, and just a little of the A4. The Syntakt has nowhere near the shaping options for the analog waves as the A4, it is great for bread and butter analog sounds, but if you really want to dive in doing things like sync, fading between waveforms, etc it isn’t going to give you what you want necessarily.
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Compared to A4 the main negatives are osc tuning, pitch range, lack of polyphony, no fork lfos…
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It has a M:C inside, and with the update of the A4 introducing raw (two oscs + noise, introducing square waves), it really has become a little Analog Four. For what do you use the A4?
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…if ur basically in for more instant gratification with quick but solid results, do it and don’t look back…
end of the day, an elektron is an elektron…
I am going for a more electronic Doom Metal vibe as I progress and less techno style - so mileage may vary. I didn’t think the ST eould hold its ground for this kind of thing after a while almost considered selling it especially since getting my A4 - you can make it sound so big and heavy metal.
But recently after a year of having it and thinking I’d rid of it (need a drum machine than can deliver a really massive kick and snare) I discovered it does bass so easily and well. Also the non default machines have loads of hacking that you can employ with the filters and effects so there’s always something new.
Anyways I’m keeping ST for now - I also am messing with OT which absolutely CAN deliver massive kicks and snares (yay samples) but at sacrifice of options/effects and sampling/playback capabilities in one or more tracks.
The ST and A4 cross streams maybe 25% of the time IMO. But it’s not having an ARP on the ST can be underwhelming- tho you can program an ARP like sequence easily so it’s not a huge letdown - they’ll prob add one anyways eventually I reckon
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Oh and sorry for being a dick yesterday 
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The way the M:C drives when you crank up the volume though… 
can’t quite get the same thing with the ST overdrive.
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…ST has become a little Analog Four
I tend to disagree
Also the way the Mode Cycle distorts the sound when you increase the volume is unique to the Model series
I cannot get the same on Syntakt nor on any of the Digi.
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You disagree on which part? “Little”? 
And about the M:C drive, well, personally I like the ST drive a lot more shrugs and the possibility to distort things together and leave others tracks untouched is the most amazing thing to me.
Here I throw RAW into the fx drive:
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RE A4 yes
RE MC we are talking 2 different things here
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I love how regularly somebody says ST is tame, or not enough distorted, and Jeanne always proves them wrong.
Personally, I upgraded from M:C to Syntakt and I don’t regret it (or maybe the lightweight throw-in-a-bag aspect of it). And I’m considering (on and off) selling my A4mkII and ARmlI.
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Damn. The distortion here gives I Care Because You Do vibes. (Start As You Mean To Go On)
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It’s not really about that. It’s about the way tracks interact with each other and the main output when their respective volumes are pushed. It’s a bit like the M:C has less headroom than the ST, leading to interesting results. The ST is either clean or distorted through its analog drive, but both of these sound different than a “pushed” M:C. Not saying it sounds bad, it’s just something else.
I know and Ess has confirmed the nice saturation M:C has is due to less headroom. But if you use the analog drive of ST, you can get quite similar results (even better in my opinion)
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Shit I’m so happy for this person’s existence. Just when I thought I was unsure bout my ST Jeanne thwacks one out that shames me
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For ST vs. M:C sound, one great YT channel is Another Machines: https://www.youtube.com/@AnotherMachines/videos
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This YTer is - again - the evidence that one can make great stuff if skilled and experienced enough.
IMO during a blind test most gear aficionados (particularly those active on Elektronauts 
) wouldn’t be able to guess the right gear.
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Can the Syntakt cover the M:C?
Yes, except that they saturate/distort slightly differently, as has been mentioned already.
Can the Syntakt cover the A4?
I’d say it can do about 50% of what the A4 can do. Ultimately, it depends on how much sound designing you want to do.
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