I dont think it’s about comparing it to something overly complicated like a DX7.
It’s about how it feels, and more of a verses knob per function.
The bouncing between all the menus chasing the sound is kind of irritating, especially at first.
However, once the effort has been invested, and then and equal effort in the performance knobs, thing is hella fun to play live.
Although the AR has a similar layout, it ‘feels’ a lot better.
The A4 is just dense.
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Would love to meet you … I like Earl Grey with a drop of milk 
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about menu diving, I dont feel the A4 is much menu diving. Somehow for me the Digitone feels much more menu diving and i dont really gel with it, maybe its due the lack of extra keys like on the a4.
…i won’t sell my mk1 a4…
i even gonna get me a mk2 end of the year…
because…this is all trru analog i need…and yes…i hate the menu and storage structure…
so, whatever i do with it…i make sure it ends up as a straight away recording in my daw…
i gave up on reproducing stuff within the machine after two weeks…
hope the mk2 is doing better in this case…and once overbridge can finally handle a tone, a takt and an a4 at once, i’ll be all fine…for now, i’ll be fine with recording the lucky dips…because all my recordings of the a4 single tracks i do, shine and breathe in a way nothing else does…
but that’s me…i completely understand, if people are not curious and / or patient enough to dig deeper…
especially if they can’t catch the results in realtime…turning it on and expecting patterns to sound the way u left them can be very frustrating…
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Ha ha, was about to write exactly that. Coming from a time where a single LCD line with a few characters was already pure luxury and menus going down mammut-tree-like in a labyrinth of submenus and subpages …
Just a few pages accessible via one or two button presses isn’t menu diving in my book. At max that’s menu switching (for diving you need real depths - not just a baby pool). 
But, yeah, the A4 like the OT with their flexibility (and, of course, complexity) doesn’t match well with the Zeitgeist of instant gradification …
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…well…elektron produced two machines that can really drive u nuts…
even after reading the manual three times…and have it printed always next to u…
the ot and the a4…nothings gives u that many manipulation options…and nothing sounds that good…end of a long day…
but muscle memory is a must here…as nowhere else to find…and many people out there can’t be bothered to get over this point in first place…
This … and they will have to live with the limitations … either practice or watch others to do the show
There’s people out there that really appreciate super complicated boxes, like me for example. I’m sure I’d enjoy the fast and to the point approach too, but I love options and flexibility. It’s my hope that super complex boxes keep being made for the market that likes them, and more fast and simple boxes be made for the market that likes those, and of course some will grab both. I just don’t want to see products being homogenized into some middle ground, various types of stuff can be made that suit different people’s various interests… We don’t all have to like every new product…
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I think the second pages on the osc’s are what drove me the most insane. other than my hand blocking the screen while turning knobs/playing (on the AK). I kind of wish they’d simplified the machine a bit more. more “sweet spot”, less “this can do anything.” but that’s me. and it’s certainly not a new approach for Elektron.
for me, it also came down to “why should I spend so much time trying to get something good out of this, when I’ve got a room full of other synths that it’s much easier/more enjoyable to get a good sound out of?” if you don’t have that, it’s huge bang for your buck, because it can do so much.
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Exactly … and this is, why some of us love and use modular gear … it’s even “custom built” …
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Absolutely agree … having some “one-sweetspot” machines in the studio myself, I got the AK because it wasn’t one of them and had a “modern” interpretation of analogue synthesis and offering “new” sounds, which I couldn’t expect from the others …
Maybe some of us search particular sounds of the mainstream and want to reproduce them, whereas others try to find some gems off-road?
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Some of us just see a crazy youtube vid about some new stuff easier to use that they cant afford so they get rid of that annoying A4 they couldnt crack open cause they barely tried.
I ve had that feeling too. But the way I approach my Elektron gear is really different than other gear. I often spend weeks away from it, then dive right back for a lot of hours.
then I get frustrated and use ‘simpler’ / more immediate instruments to get inspired. But I ll always go back to A4 / AR / OT to dive deeper than the last time.
I see my MKIIs as gear that will always be there, the rest of the studio comes and goes really. But I feel like I can never let go something so deep. There is always something to be found.
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I’m convinced I want to keep my OT and AR (and a few other gears I have) for as long as they will possibly operate and have them repaired if necessary as long as it’s possible, even if I switch to other stuff as my main rig. They’re already Classic in my mind. I’m also convinced in 20 years I’ll still be trying things I’ve never done before with them… If it ever gets to the point they can’t be repaired they’ll be hung on the wall in the studio…
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The AK always looked more appealing to me. Friend had an A4 for a bit and it looked confusing
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well it’s not so much about “mainstream vs off-road” sounds to me. once I have something going for I song, I start to think in terms of, for example, solving “I need a bass sound”, with “OK, I’ll choose something with a 24db/oct filter” or “I need a mid-range sound” with “OK, something with a notch, bp or multi-filter option…” and then of course there’s “I need crazy…” solved with “to the modulars!” 
The Biosphere -soundpacks made me realize that in the right hands A4/AK is capable of almost anything. Years ago I had a Korg Mono/Poly and I loved it to bits. It was my absolute favourite vintage piece of kit. Then I traded it away and felt sad for a while.
The joy of playing came back to me with the acquisition of the AK. In many ways it’s the modern day equivalent of the Mono/Poly. 4 voices mono or poly and a huge array of options. Surely AK isn’t as instantly gratifying as the Mono/Poly was but it has so much going for it that I’d have to name it my favourite modern keyboard synth. Just recently I found the transpose-function which is pure genius and the arpeggiator is one of the best ever implemented anywhere.
I wish Elektron made a Digikey, a similarly beefed up Digitone. I would be all over it.
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I mentioned above a 3rd 
and I’d never sleep, friends would have to drag me out of the house. If I got a modular nobody would ever see me again, I might not even talk on Elektronauts. 
Tell my mother I loved her…
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I love the A4 as well, have bought and sold two of them. Kinda like a cross between a Juno and a modular. I’ve recommended them to many people, with the caveat it will take some time to learn (and maybe years to master…)
That said, I must say I like the Digitone more. Stunning sounds with less time and effort.
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Is the A4 any more menu divey than any other Elektron products? I’m not familiar with it, but I can’t help but feel like every elektron product is menu divey… But obviously we like their stuff or we wouldn’t be here on this forum.
It just seems funny to me that the main complaint is the one thing that makes all elektron boxes so deep and tweakable…
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New product Elektron throwback:
Model:Menus
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