It is no small wonder that Elektron has become so popular. Their design chops coupled with truly compelling, complex, rich, and open feature sets (to include their world-famous sequencers) all speak for themselves.
But out of their entire line up, the one box that has just been the absolute crowning achievement to me has been the A4. I am specifically talking about the mk1 variant as it is in a compact all-encompassing box format that is timeless.
I think it was a mistake to move away from this format. I am not interested in the mark 2. From a design perspective there is nothing appealing about the non-distinct form the A4 and Rytm now embrace. I get that adding more DACs and ADs with input and outputs takes more space, but I would have infinitely preferred the box format maintained and it growing vertically some.
Anyway, the A4 is a sound island with all the tools self-contained within it to develop nearly any sound you can imagine, in the A4’s flavor, of course. But because you have the sound modeling tools in abundance, and the excellent sequencer with parameter locks you can overcome the four note / track limitation quiet easily. The built-in keyboard is a stroke of genius as well. The quality of the encoders and buttons are also key characteristics that truly matter.
And all of this is in the analog realm. It is crowning achievement that I haven’t seen from anyone else to date. The A4 is a complete studio if you wish, and self-contained.
I know other products in the Elektron lineup approximate some of the A4’s feature set, but none of them take all of it. None of them seem like a sound island all its own.
My real question, is why on earth has Elektron not kept their original design? And why do we not have an 8 or 16 voice / track A4 follow up?
World domination is within Elektron’s grasps. Why have they not gone for it?
Edit: I believe analog is an important component to the A4’s achievement. Why? Digital synthesis is bound by the amount of compute one is able to level its way. For this reason, no digital synth will ever out do your computer. Your computer DAC / AD combo might be inferior, and this means you can’t play back what you are creating, but the files your computer is capable of producing far out do what portable digital synths are capable of. This is purely looking at the engine of a synth. There are a lot more things that matter, like control mechanism, ease of use, level of control, etc. For the purposes of this opinion, I am only talking about sound generation though.
Analog on the other hand is the sum of its components. The A4’s sound is unique to its design. Copying of that unique sound requires reverse engineering or software emulation, which is usually never as good as the real thing.
For this reason, analog is a strong component to why I consider the A4 to be the pinnacle of Elektron’s products. It allows the A4 to be unique in a sea of synths from other manufacturers.