I had the mk1 for about 3 years and sold it to take the plunge into modular completely.
Time has proven I was wrong and recently got a used mk2 which gets me the pads I was missing and liberate some voices for drums duties.
I couldn’t be happier.
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A4/AK is first polarizing for the same reason many people have negative opinions of Elektron gear: you have to read the manual. It isn’t a knob-per-function, straight up WYSIWYG synth that you can understand just from looking at the front panel. After purchasing it, it might take a couple days before you’re doing things that sound decent, and it might be a few weeks or even months before you have your head really wrapped around most of its features and the Elektron workflow.
The second thing that might be polarizing is the sound. It is pretty distinct and most of my synth friends have commented that it is a very “modern” sounding analog. Maybe that’s because I tend to use the FM features and make weird modulations, but even if you go for simple, traditional analog style sounds you can still hear the digital control in the way the modulation moves. I’ve been able to get pretty much any sound I want out of it, from pads to percussion to soul-shattering bass (anyone who says it can’t do bass doesn’t understand how to use filters), but it can’t be what it ain’t. It’s not a drifty, grimy VCO poly, although you can get pretty freaking close if you’re crafty.
I’ve had my AK for a few years now and it’s still the heart of my setup. With the midi and cv options, and of course the sequencer, it’s made to be your “main brain” and I just couldn’t live without it. But I can understand that people who don’t like reading manuals, multi-button shortcuts, menu pages, or just the Elektron workflow in general might not jive with it.
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I’ve got an Analog Keys, like it a lot, but still have a way to go to use it to its full capacity. I think Panu Savolainen’s demo shows how distinctively beautiful it can sound (beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that considered).
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It just dawned on me that you could get two extra envelopes and LFOs by routing the CV outputs to CV inputs and setting them up to affect the 5 parameters of you’re choice.
For instance you could have a kick on track 4 that is ducking the rest of the tracks by routing cv out to in and having the cv output be triggered by the kick track. This only applies to MK2 though
Sorry for spamming but I thought that it added one extra dimension to this wonderful synth.
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This is quite a nice trick, never had read it before.
Thank you friend!
When I had my A4mkII, I used that CV-sidechaining trick together with the «CV-kick» trick.
I used a fast audio-rate sinewave LFO1 on the CV-track, modulated its pitch with LFO2 configured as a one-shot envelope, and also modulated the amplitude of LFO1 with ENV2. Then I routed that from CV-A back into one of the external audio inputs. Massive kicks on the CV-track without using any of the 4 synth tracks.
Finally, I used ENV1 sent as value out of CV-C back into CV-in, to add sinechain-ducking to the bassline on track 1.
When muting the CV track, it then muted the kick and also stopped sidechaining the bassline at the same time.
In my view, this is one small example of the many insane things one can do with the A4, if one just digs deep. 
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Nothing much to add but another positive opinion, for those in the future who rummage through this thread to decide. I really love it.
A few months back I wrote a long post about how I think it’s a great synth to learn synthesis (in response to some old post stating the same). Its not knob per function in a traditional sense, but knob per function per soundscaping category; i.e. the filter page, the amp page, the LFO page, etc. Learning synthesis that helped me out a lot, because it kept things from being overwhelming, and helped to see the different parts chained to work together and the total picture they form.
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well, luckily for me i dont plan on getting more elektron gear for a few more months. i’ll have some time to simmer with it. leaning towards the AK tho, gonna need some keys at one point or another, might as well have elektron keys
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Duuuude, thats some smart patching! Will definetly Try that.
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this is great stuff, thanks for posting!
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This is amazing by the way
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You’re most welcome - happy to be able to contribute to a great forum, where up to now I’ve just lurked!
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Bought a second hand MK2 to accompany my DT and DN. It should be delivered today so I am kinda excited (and maybe also a bit intimidated) …
Thanks for the awesome routing hints, will bookmark them for some day in the future i.e. once I will be done with basic understanding of using the synth.
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I would.
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It applies to MY mk1 tho
Interesting idea, will definitely try it soon.
Another brilliant idea!
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Indeed, the demo linked by @mashtup clearly shows that the analog engine of A4 is extremely capable, even without the sequencer.
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I can’t really tell, because I’ve never played with an Mk2 myself.
I like the AK, because with its individual outs it’s more flexible than the Mk1, I really like the keybed, it’s actually amongst the best synth and midi controller keyboard I’ve played (I’m not a keyboard player, but I always liked to have a decent keyboard on the desk).
The mod stick is great, you can’t record aftertouch from the keyboard nor the mod stick into the sequencer, it’s more like a ‘performance feature’ in the Elektron world, but I’m making great use of it.
Together with the performance macros, the mod stick is a great way to add variation or transform the sound (subtle or not so).
Obviously the Mk2 has a different (apparently better sounding) overdrive circuit and additional cv capabilities + the quick performance knob.
With individual outs, it’s easy to plug the AK into all sorts of distortion. No cv inputs, though.
So cv modulation is only possible on the Mk2.
AK doubles as master keyboard for me, which not only saves desk space, but also lets me work faster. I never liked having to switch between multiple keyboards, always interrupts the flow for me.
I’m quite happy with it. 
Probaply best to test both, the same patches can sound different, especially when they make heavy use of the distortion.
Same here.
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Full disclosure: My idea was only to bring CV-kick and CV-sidechaining together. Credit for those two individual tricks belong to someone else on this forum. 
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It arrived a cpl of hours ago and been checking it out since. Yes, I think i love it!
Just took me quite some time to find out how to edit chorus, delay and reverb by choosing the FX track first. I guess that just happens when you are coming from DT and DN …
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