this 100% 
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I deliberately do full tracks with just A4 and never faced voice limitations. Might not be applicable to your style, but with p-locks and soundlocks it’s perfectly possible. Never underestimate there’s 4 OSCs per voice plus nicely trackable filter if chords is what you’re after.
The only limitation I can imagine is like stated above, when you’re intending to play it polyphonically.
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So when you use is poly wise its useful only as a single track? Unless you have a triad and leaving one note only for another track?
Could you use it duophonically and have two chords on two tracks?
You can set it up in various ways so that it steals voices quite dynamically between tracks, making it possible to get away with quite a lot over multiple tracks, but it can get quite complicated pretty fast.
If you’re looking for big, lush evolving polyphonic pads, you’re going to be disappointed, but chords, stabs, arpeggios and a couple of nice unison sounds can be laid down over multiple tracks without too much headache.
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Not looking for lush pads. Just simple chords.
Just quoting an all-time favorite post that summarizes one-finger-chords pretty well…
You could go ahead and adapt that following the same logic with two/three/four fingers.
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Cheers for this.
You should be fine then, but you need to be up for the challenge of making the most of the four voices dynamically across the tracks, it’s never going to be as simple as something with more voices.
I can’t really speak too much to it, because I use it almost exclusively as four mono synths, bar the occasional unison sound.
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I usually use my A4 as “all the synths except the drums”. So I might have a mix of mono and chord lines going. I find it helps to be organised: stick to one bass track, for example, and configure the poly mode so a chord can’t steal from the bass. It’s flexible, but you always have to be mindful. I had one track fox me for ages because notes I expected to have finished were blocking others. Carefully excluding tracks from poly mode solved it.
My favourite method for getting bigger sounds is to use the individual outs, add effects, and to pass that back into the Ext. Ins so the unit remains my “synth bus”.
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I feel them Elektrons uploading 
any opinions if MK I is still worth it? especially as an entry point?
I’m still on the fence between A4 and Digitakt even though they apretty different.
It would be my entry point into Elektron but serious hardware also.
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it’s very worth it
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As a first entry, I would always go with the Digitakt. The Digi is very hands on and a great way to learn the Elektron workflow. The Rytm, A4 and OT are very cool machines but have more quirks and are less direct for a beginner.
(DT was my first Elektron and after that an A4 MKII. Still found the A4 too complicated after that. After years and years I recently bought an A4 MKI and now clicking with it much better. Real value for money, got mine for 550 euro, which is insane)
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Sure and certain !
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yeah, I’ve read a lot about this argument, and have pretty much decided on the Digitakt, but as I am still saving up and looking for a good Digitakt deal… I let my mind wander.
A4 seems like fun to pair Digitakt with though.
Would you say there is a noticable difference in sound between MK I and II? Read a lot of mixed opinion on those. a lus for MK II is supposedly more buttons/knobs.
EDIT: yeah finding a lot of them for 550 EUR which is the same as Digitakt… so that didn’t help lol
I understand the temptation, 550 is ridiculous for such a machine. Don’t know about the difference in sound quality. Only thing I can say is that the MKI did not dissappoint in sound. Great for almost everything: drums, basses, leads and pads. But it takes a bit of works to make it sound great.
To be able to just throw a couple of proper samples at the Digi and get things going, is something that is really valuable when starting out imho.
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No. Well… the overdrive is noticeably different on the mkII. And there’s a nebulous claim of “improved low end”. But by and large, consensus seems to be they’re almost entirely identical in sound — and in the few places they’re not it’s hard to say which is objectively better.
The big differences are size, knobs, screen, and I/O.
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Tbh, the screen is the only reason maybe why I’d go for MK II, and potentially more knobs.
Yeah, personally I went for the MkII because of the screen, performance knob, extra outs, and extra CV functionality rather than for any improvement to the sound.
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I have an AK, and my only small gripe is with the screen and UI/UX. I really appreciate the clarity of the newer screens, and especially the visual representation of the envelopes. That said, whenever I really want to sound design on it, Overbridge provides a fantastic interface.
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