an analog drum synth is a rare gem. its not about getting instant rave sounds.

My MD is back in the prime spot in my studio because it can do so much more sonically than the AR. […]
But the sonic shaping possibilities are just not there yet IMHO.

MD has 100+ machines? thats awesome. dont have a MD, certainly its a beast. elektron will release some more machines for AR. wild guess: 10 more in 1 year.
to build the same as the AR with a modular synth u’d spend 5’000-10’000 bucks on all kinds of modules, I suppose. I might be wrong, I’d like to hear more qualified opinions than mine. I am sure enough the hardware inside is capable of much more. I doubt every analog component is digitally controllable though. cause its really hard to do afaik (jomox sunsyn interview). just dont underestimate how crazy this machine is already.

I think the combination hi pass low pass with Q filter on the MD is far superior to the single multimode filter on the AR. I almost always trim off some low end freqs AND do a bit of low pass filtering with Q on my percussion sounds on the MD.

+1. I really hope they add a EQ per track. or that MD thing as u say.