I think it is. the screen and encoders are a big upgrade imo. a joy to use. I still have my mk1 and I love it but I’d take an mk2 over it if given the choice. they’re both great tho.
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Same here, I like the Mk2 way more.
Sound is a tiny bit better to me, and what was added is really worth it.
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A couple years ago I went from a dt1 to a rytm mk1 and was pretty bummed about the screen for awhile, but I did eventually get over it and am now happy with an a4 mk1. I would say that if the price isn’t too big of an issue I’d go with the mk2 if I were you
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I like the look of the screen on the MKII, and would be interested to try the different overdrive… but I’m happy with my MKI. Prices in AUD, my MKI was $800 delivered used, $3200 for a new MKII. For me, there’s no way the MKII is worth that much more. But it it were closer, say $1200, maybe.
But I like the compact size of the MKI, it fits on the music rest of my Nord Grand (digital piano, some sample playback, no synth stuff) and that’s useful. I like its plastic buttons longevity wise. MKII has rubber buttons?
One thing I will say, is the factory preset patterns with their sounds, sound great. I watched a YouTube video of the MKII and they all sounded wrong. It looks like at some point at least they used the same factory patterns and sounds on the MKII as the MKI, but they sound different, and so sound wrong.
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For me personally, the idea of spending an extra $3-400 to get some slightly better encoders and an updated screen is absurd. You could buy a whole Digitone 1 for that.
But obviously you do you.
If you’re going for the A4 mk1, the Analog Keys is something to consider as well…
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Yeah, I went for the Keys and it has become one of my favourite instruments.
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And don’t forget that the keys has the “updated” sound engine of the MK2, although that’s only an improvement for lazy sound designers. If you know what you’re doing there’s really no difference between the two.
The AK is the peak version.
Still cussing myself for selling it to you.
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And regarding the screen, there is an impressive OLED upgrade
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If I had the space and the finances, I’d buy up a couple more of them.
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For the Jamuary session this morning, I finally got around to properly having a go with the joystick on the AK, particularly to control pitch bend and modwheel parameters of a macro set up on a DN1 patch. Such an expressive tool.
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It’s not exactly the same as the updated GUI on the Mk2, but as @Bignill linked, there is an OLED upgrade available for the Mk1 / AK if you’re willing to spend a little and you’re brave enough to do the swap. I swapped the screen on my AK and posted my experience in the thread, all of which is to say I love the bright new OLED panel on the Keys. It’s an enormous quality of life improvement and since there’s no such thing as Analog Keys MkII, it felt like a no-brainer to me.
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the mk1 oled is very nice. here’s a little vid I took of mine 
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I just looked again at the opening message in that thread. Damn, that looks nice. goes to reverb to look at AK prices
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Literally what I just did 
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Analog Four & Keys are both timeless classics by now. What they lack in “mojo”, they more than make up with their depth of synthesis and flexibility. Like the octatrack, they can be used in multitude of ways. I think all the best Elektron instruments are like that.
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I read this as “What they lack in imaginary things, they more than make up with real things.” Which honestly expresses my feelings about the A4 pretty well 
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Well, I dunno. I can understand some of the critique regarding a4 sonics. Its not one of those analogue synths which ooze character and vibe without one having to have to put effort into it. You know, synths like Prophet 5s and whatnot. But there is so much power on tap that as a synthesizer, ie. a sound generator which can synthesize almost any sound from its constituent parts, few analogue synths can match its sonic range
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Analog Four solo
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Ended up grabbing a mkII from the Marketplace. Very excited.
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