I got my ELZ_1 in the mail about 5 hours ago, have used it this entire time after unpacking, and could not disagree more about the knobs and keys. The encoders are really fine resolution and feel extremely nice to use, there is zero wobble and they are extremely solid. Very small caps which actually feels nice but I could go the other way too with larger knobs. The small knobs barely stick up though which is ideal for portability. The gap between the bottom of the cap and the body is basically zero, ultra minimal clearance, which is excellent and shows serious attention to detail in the physical design.
The extra nice thing about them is that they respond very nicely to momentum, so if you move slowly the parameter changes in very small increments but twist it quickly and in the same amount of knob-turn you will see a huge change in the parameter.
The keys are very funky but they respond well and are well damped so you can really jam out and it doesnāt feel like youāre smashing a little rubber membrane against a circuit board. Wish they were velocity sensitive but theyāre not, the engine is really expressive though so you just end up making patches with a lot of movement after the initial part of the sound and use that to be expressive with the length of time you hold notes on. Theyāre really fun to play, obviously not the same experience as real keys but definitely wayyyy superior to the keys on a Casio SK-1 or any of those mini keyboards, those are horrible (but still fun).
In no way does any part of the synth feel cheap or poorly designed, and the sound is sooo good.
Finally got around to listening to this video that was shared with backers the other week:
Sounding pretty nice to me, and shows that itās adept at non-chip-tuney stuff. Seemingly the same guy is doing a video which will go into the oscillator types in more detail so thatāll be fun.
Also managed to get a chance to hook up and play with the ELZ_1 and was surprised it made it through the stressed logistic channels of the world. Would defintely agree with the summary by @Hawk above although I could personally do with a wee bit more knob to grab ontoā¦ makes the volcas knobs seem like theyāve been working out.
Iām really enjoying the various synth engines and there seems to be quite a bit of depth to them. A good bit of heft to the sound too. For the most part the interface is quite usable and not too onerous, though on a few of the engines there is a little bit too much paging about - the FM enginer in particular with it having so many sub-pages. The onboard FX are OK and definitely usable but for the most part Iāll be bypassing them.
Last thought, although there is a fun little sequencer added in later firmware I think the achilleās heel of it is a lack of midi - either 3.5mm or DIN. With that being available it would be a wonderful companion to many an Elektron box for the dawless folksā¦ Minor gripes though, Iām pretty please overall.
It sounds really good, Iāve been using mine daily. I brought it to a buddyās place 2 times while he DJād pretty cool sets and just played it live hooked into the mixer, lots of laser sounds, funky chip sounds, etc. People were loving it! Went great with what he was playing.
No issues with the variety of sounds, it is really large! The multiple engines provide a lot of different timbres and the filter has LP/HP/BP modes and is VERY juicy, more than I expected. Effects sound very good and are well suited to the types of patches you can make.
Looper works well, very easy to use for both internal and external audio. Donāt know why this isnāt a standard feature on other synths!
You could be waiting a while unfortunately. They seem to be slowly working their way through the Kickstarter orders but the assembly is happening between Vietnam and Japan and so is being impacted by covid etc. That said, theyāve been really good at providing regular (and cheerful) updates to backers which have been detailing various firmware improvements so Iāll be pretty excited to try mine out when it finally gets here! Iām not stressing though, itās a crazy time weāre in.
Maiās updates are so sweetly weird. I canāt wait for mine to get here whenever that will be. Feels nice to be close, though. All things considered, theyāre doing a great job.
Pretty nice feature set, especially for the price. I hadnāt realised you can capture the blended or FMd waves into new user waves, or design your own.
