Yeah, I’m a super novice over here, so anything is helping.
On the cheap, it looks like the Arturia KeyStep has a polyphonic step sequencer, with 8 notes per step. I could presumably sync it to the AK via MIDI clock and generate chords on another poly that way.
And, finally, the promised video tutorial. Basic beginner synthesis using the Analog Four to create a Prog Rock style lead sound. More to come (Prophet-5 pad!) if this one is at helpful to A4 users.
Even though being the most interesting synth i got and the best controller for my Modular and also
a very very powerful Synth the AK has the worst presets i have ever seen in Hard or Soft.
I do not know who designed things on it but it has really bad and horrible presets. When i bought it
the first few days was the ONLY synth in my life that did not gave me the WOW effect on a preset
but the good thing was i already knew what power is hidden under all that.
How easy is it to wipe all the presets with blank patches?
Easy as an EMPTY RESET function. 
Caveat: I really don’t know my way around the Elektron terminology/tree structure, but somebody said you can start a New Project, but that didn’t work.
So I formatted the +Drive and voila, scorched earth. But then I couldn’t load individual SysEx patches. I could, but could only find them through Overbridge.
Pretty much. I think the decision was, “let’s show off how wacky wild Kool-Aid style we can make this synth” vs. “Let’s give them a bunch of playable presets, despite them being ho-hum/bog standard”
I also found the order of the presets to make very little sense and still can’t really find my way around by using the selection wheel. ProTip was to search on tags like “lead”, etc.
Personally, I never listen to synth demos that are only factory presets and always blank out every synth upon arrival. Factory presets mean exactly nothing to me personally. YMMV. : )
Also, Overbridge is by far the easiest way to manage Kits and Sounds.
My AK has been the most instantly gratifying piece of musical gear I’ve ever purchased!
Well let’s call it almost instant. But it has been for me too. It’s on almost everything I have been doing since I’ve bought it. I do agree that it doesn’t always give you what you want right away. But I find that a good thing to be honest. It makes you look for it while learning more about synthesis in general.
Im using mine as a bass machine more and more lately. Just gravitated that way. Didnt think the basses were up to much initially but i was wrong…
Drums too. Great drums and the sequencer. Goodness.
I know right!. I’m also impressed with the bass that comes out of it. Haven’t used drums on it tho…
Almost instant is fair. Took a couple days to get the full hang of it.
Not sure if this has been said but put the HEAT on it. Totally re-inspired me.
The AK is the polar opposite of a wysiwyg synth. If you just want to dial up a cool sound and play it, there’s plenty of better options. But there are plenty of areas where it excels, just about all of them described in this thread. As far as “instant gratification,” once you’ve taken the days/weeks to figure out all the features, things should move along fairly quickly. After the initial learning curve, I was very surprised by how quickly I was churning out useable sounds and ideas with this thing.
Spot on.
I think the promise of polyphony was/is kind of throwing me off as to what it can/cannot do. I’m still on the fence as to whether I’m going to keep it or not or look for something else in this price range.
It supports 4 voice polyphony. Is there a specific issue with it?