Lock (or note) trigs to retrigger the envelope can mimic looping. Of course with limitations but still 
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Envelope delay would be nice too, can be done with the sequencer again of course, but it would be great to have at a patch level - think cascaded envelopes, where the 3 envelopes can fire off one after another. I sometimes replicate this kind of effect using LFO with envelope, but it sure would be handy to have it as a function of the envelopes themselves.
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I actually find the A4 a pleasure to program as the menus are intuitively laid out and the encoders have a nice feel to them, But I don’t mind spending a bit of time on my patches.
Sound is obviously such a subjective thing but it’s a shame imo how misunderstood the A4 is in terms of its quality of sound and this misunderstanding convinced me for a long time that I didn’t love its sound and so never went deep Into programming it… The init sound is definitely kind of weak sounding but it’s a true blank slate, you can still get drifty, beefy, characterful sounding oscillators but you have to program that in. Sure its great that some synths have those qualities baked in but there are some sounds where those qualities aren’t desirable and the A4 is capable of those too. The sum of the a4s parts give you the possibility to quite closely model a great range of synths and their character and then also go way beyond.
I spent a month using it as my only synth and constant pushing myself to approach it in different ways and using its features in unexped ways and it quickly became one of the bits of gear that I’m most excited about, I feel a great amount of respect toward the designers and their vision for this thing as it really is a work of art imo.
Having said that, there definitely are some features I’d love to see added that’d really take it to the next level… I hope Elektron are far from finished with its firmware
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Just got myself a MK1.
Looks much better in real life, less tacky somehow.
I’m pretty much ok with the size of the screen and the button layout is fine, less cramped than my Digitakt was. I think all in all I’m happy, as it’s a nice size for gigging and doesn’t take up too much space on my desk.
I see what everyone was moaning about with the paint job though.
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beware of the init sound
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I did the same a couple of weeks back, cant be any happier… and even it could probably also be the most interesting drum synth on the market too. What a dream come true man
Perfect size, deep in programming, controls, it is an incredible well thought and design product!
Another one from this person:
(Wait for the drums to come in)
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Dig into that CV side, brilliant IMHO.
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The CV is like 75% of why I got one.
It’s actually fucking mad to think these are going for a round of beers over £400 at the minute.
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Yep. Such a deep, versatile synth. Definitely lots of bang for your buck, as the americans say
For a few weeks I covered all the labels with black electrical tape, so I would just learn it all. The tape was actually almost invisible, tempted me to taking the panel in and getting it powder coated some solid color. Blank synths can look cool.
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Or lots of quacks for the quid as the british say 
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What CV ins has the Polivoks?
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Loads.
It’s got v/oct for each oscillator, gate input and CV inputs for the filter, VCA gain and LFO rate.
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Did you get rid of Pro 2 or is this an addition to the family?
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Got rid.
Too big, couldn’t be arsed with it.
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You should have a field day then, will be able to do tons of new sounds using LFOs and envelopes from the A4, it kind of gives any CV synth with a few CV ins super powers
Polivoks is a monster as-is, let alone with p-locked madness 
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You move fast
Looking forward to your impressions of the A4.
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That’s what she said.
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I think the A4 was especially hard to learn since it’s true powers IMO come from two tricks that you can’t learn by browsing the presets (built in or bought ones). Those tricks are (1) programming sounds with the sequencer and (2) using that amazing filter feedback between channels feature.
I learned a lot by subscribing to @Eaves Patreon, downloading his projects, and reverse engineering them. Cheers to Eaves for that valuable gift!
I’m highly interested in exploring more project files from other skilled A4 ninjas. Would be nice to set up some sharing platform for project files so we can all learn from each other. I would be happy to share a few projects where I show how I’m using the filter feedback, which is for me where this synth shines the brightest.
Does this tickle someone’s interest? What would be the best place / method to do this?
A4 Was my first synth, but I still feel like there’s much to learn and explore. For sure my favourite synth of them all.
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