Elektron Analog Keys : Is discontinued

My intention was to clear up doubt. This came directly from someone at elektron. Maybe the model is discontinued for sales purposes but still an active product for support.

To clear up any doubt, checking elektron.se shows the AK still in the ā€productsā€ section, unlike the other mk I analogs. Guess that answers the question?

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Why head for the source when you can indulge in endless speculation? :wink:

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It WASNā€™T Oswald!

Like I said earlier, I think the various deptā€™s at Elektron just didnā€™t know what the other depts were up to. Looks like the Keys has indeed been discontinued. Hopefully this means a Keys MKII!:

Does this mean no more updates for AK?

When i first heard that it was discontinued i asked support about clarification and they had this to say:

ā€œYes the Analog Keys is officially discontinuedā€¦ ā€¦The Analog Keys will still be supported and there will be OS updates/bug fixes.ā€

So it sounds like it will be supported for some time!

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Great!

Just incidently read this post on the day of the Moog one releaseā€¦:joy:

I wanna see 4 things on the AK before support is ended as well.

  • The joystick, @Elektron, the joystick! Youā€™re not done with it yet. There had to have been a plan for adding that click action to it. Iā€™m pretty sure that plan was something likeā€¦click it to freeze the joystick in its current position, let go, next movement will release it.

  • A note priority mode that gives the lower notes priority when playing the AK as a 4 voice poly synth. Ie If Iā€™m holding a 3 note chord and wanna go nuts with the last note, typically thatā€™s also the higher notes on anything-keys, itā€™ll kill the chord as it eats thru the voices. Thereā€™s many more examples where something akin to this would make sense on a poly synth with 4 voices.

  • Double tapping the HOLD button (or something) to engage a secondary, more typical hold function.

  • Two additional velocity curves that sits in between the existing three. A key function on something with keys is letting key players adapt the keys to their playing style. :key:

  • Brightness control for the display. I know itā€™s not an OLED display, but being able to lower the brightness regardless, could prolong its lifespan (hey I just this sĆ¼nth to last forever).

Ok that was 5 things. But all in a days work, right? :stuck_out_tongue:

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I keep hoping for signs of a Mk IIā€¦

I wouldnā€™t bet against it.

The first two would be awesome. You probably already no this but there is a ā€˜half-assā€™ solution for holding the joystick position. the position sticks if you swtich to an other track while holding the joy at some angle. this is only good for sequenced bits but more than nothing.

the note priority is a bummer. sometimes I do a split key just for that (half chord/half solo, same patch). for this to work the solo track has to be mono. so its usually track4 or 1 for me and the other 3 is in poly.

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Cheers, Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ve ever tried changing tracks while holding the joystick in a position, I can see that one becoming useful for certain things :facepunch:

well it stays where you ā€˜leaveā€™ the track and it jumps back to 0 when its active again. Iā€™m using it all the time. its a bit tricky though because the previous joystick position might not be relevant for the current track, so you have to be quick. :smiley:

so it looks like this:

  • set joystick
  • swap track while holding the joystick
  • drop the joystick as soon as the new track is active
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Thanks, got it. Will try it out later today, sounds like something I ought to be able to manage:-)

awesome to hear this works! the funny part is I have never tried it, even though the Monomachine SFX6 does the exact same thing and (when I had one) I used it all the time! :rofl:

It was a very random fine for me too

Indeedā€¦ would make sense actually.

I would jump on a mkiiā€¦
In a secondā€¦
Im saving for an A4 but would prefer keysā€¦

But i think Electron will gate further releases until OB2 is released. When Heat Mkii was announced there were some folk up in arms about the release of new hardware with software deveolpment lagging so far behind. There was some explaining to do and even if its ready and waiting to go they will waitā€¦maybeā€¦but i do lust after the concept.