I checked the 3 of them. Of course the Lancet has that sound.
The Minitaur is more designed for bass sound, no?
The Dreadbox Typhon seems interesting although i’m still looking for soft sounds demo. I really dislike most of demos i see as i find many feature this « plastic » sounds. Hard to know if it is due to people’s tastes or synth’s capabilities.
A used A4 mk1 is less than half the price of a Perfourmer. It can sound similar but not identical. It will be harder to do some things; for example, the rotating arp will take time to set up and tweak, so for that particular sound it is just not as convenient. But there are also many other tasks that are easier on the A4, and it has considerable depth.
I’ll check out the A4 although there’s no second hand market whatsoever where i live at the moment.
I didn’t feel like going for another Elektron, changing philosophy 
Edit: the A4 seems great, also to get into synthesis and sound design. I guess that’s where the Vermona was attracting me: just turning all these knobs, not so much to prepare before hand like in Elektron style (i already got the OT to give me headaches).
Before I bought my perfourmer last year, I also wanted it but I didn’t have the money. I got a Nord Lead 2x for cheap but nope, I wanted the PERfourMER.
I was close to buy a mono lancet or a little moog but it still not a PERfourMER and it cost money that I won’t save for PERfourMER.
So I finally sold some gear and saved money until I bought what I want. Now I’m happy with it and don’t regret spent over 1K€ to this beautiful piece of gear, awsome sound and top build quality.
Save money and buy a PERfourMER it’s the best way to have a PERfourMER.
I don’t have an OT (yet) but from everything I’ve read, it can do a lot but sometimes the workflow is thorny. Working from presets on the A4, there is a lot that can be done with “just turning knobs”, or maybe one button push and then knobs.
Well said, @blaize! In general, I’ve learned from experience that looking at “alternatives” for a specific synth (due to price, size or whatnot) just doesn’t work for me. There’s a Finnish saying that I try to live by and which roughly translates to ”if you want pizza, go to a pizza place”. 
Haha, good one! Out of curiosity: how you say that in Finnish?
And if you want caviar? Ok don’t buy pizza then
”Jos haluat pizzaa, mene pizzeriaan.” 
The original saying I think comes from a legendary Finnish icehockey commentator. He basically made variations of the same saying with different metaphors for ”if you want to score a goal, go to the goal” (net would be a better word but net and goal are the same word in Finnish; we’re simple like that).
Sages paroles. I’m with you on this. There’s nothing like those SMOOTH OSCILLATORS. I should get mine in August. I have a Moog Sirin, a Dreadbox Typhon and an A4; sure they can get into PERfourMER’s territory but there’s something about its Sound that is so enticing.
yeah honestly this is one example where there’s not really something else you can directly substitute. the Mono Lancet would work if you just need one voice (but then why would you be looking at a P4mer anyway?). the A4 will do some of the voicing modes the P4mer has but the sound isn’t the same and the experience of using it is completely different. it’s interesting too once you start to think about “alternatives” that the cost of the P4mer doesn’t seem so bad for what you’re getting…
I totally get that it’s out of the OP’s price range. I would imagine though that if you’re hanging out in an Elektron forum, you own some of their machines; some of which stretch into P4mer cost territory. so it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility to think you could save up for one. hell, the way they’re back-ordered, you may want to just order one on a CC and pay it off while you wait!
You can sample the sounds as a cheap option. I’ve sampled all the big hitting synths.(Arp 2600, Korg Trident etc) Not very ethical i know but a much cheaper option.
From Vermona one month ago : ETA is about 5 months for a PERfourMER.
Now chips have become scarce in China its probably on hold for over a year now like a lot of manufacturers.
I asked Vermona about the global shortage.
From Vermona, April 23rd :
The current situation makes it a challenge getting all components for building electronic devices. But that’s currently not the main reason for longer delivery times. Due to the high amount of manual work, we can only manufacture a limited number of PERfourMER MKII per month. The demand increased a little bit while at the same time, we try to make the manufacturing process as safe as possible for everyone here which slows it a little bit down.
Your not kidding when he says a challenge getting the components. They are literally becoming liquid gold. Good luck on that one !
Haha, lovely! We had Johan Cruijff for famous proverbs like that: often something has to happen, before something happens. Or: if you play at ball possession there’s no need to defend, because there’s only one ball.
Back on topic: a mono lancet is no substitution for the P4r. Tried it. Lovely mono synth, but a very different ballgame…
a used a4 mk1 would be my suggestion as well. i’ve owned both a performer mk1 and mk2 and spent a lot of time comparing them to the a4. both sound great, add a bit of extra low pass to everything on the a4 to match the perfourmers sound more closely. you could argue the perfourmer is more immediate as it has more knobs but i think that in actual usage the a4 is quite similar in speed to edit.
I had the mk1 and one of my favourite “tricks”
was that round robin mode.
setting all 4 synths the same, sending
arps or polyrhythmic midi notes to it
and then play with the 4 individul lfos, filters, …
always had in mind to buy the mk2 since it´s out,
but I´ll try to get this done with ableton and maybe digitone first.
Think about the p12 module - coupled with a Faderfox EC4 its very tactile. Lots of knobs - 2 layers, and that 4by4 grid is good for 4 osciallators on the p12. Its a bit over 1,5k with that addition i think.
The performer sounds really nice in my opinion though, its a cool synth.