Why buy an A4 MKII and not just a MKI? (your advice please : )

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
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I sold some of my gear and now have enough cash to buy a used A4 MKI.
When I watched Cuckoo’s comparison between the MKI and MKII he noticed a slighty different low register, a ‘more mature’ overdrive and more outs at the back and cv-in for pedals on the MKII.

Altogether not the killer packet that makes me want to splash out 450 euro’s extra for a MKII.

But am I missing important stuff that could eventually change my mind? I would really like some advice on that, especially from people who own (or have owned) both A4 MKI and MKII.

Cheers,
John

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MkI has stereo outs. MkII has individual outs.

Whats the status of Overbridge? It’s available for MkI / AK… don’t know about the MkII?

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Apart from the features you mentioned, MK II offers a few more buttons, individual outs, and full overbridge audio streaming. From what I understand, the MKI can only run a certain number of tracks, but MKII can run it all.

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A4 MK2 are currently second hand dann cheap. 850€ i saw them. Get MK2. The bigger Display and the more mature sound imho is worth it.

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Little bit off topic, but with carefull research for a nice second hand, You can have 2 A4 mki for the price of 1 mkii. If there’s elektronauts that have 2 A4, maybe they can tell you the benefit of that configuration.
If that can help to decide :slight_smile:

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I’ve owned them all.

Personally, if thinking of getting an A4 then I’d say MK1 all the way. Best bang for bucks. I’d consider adding an AH at a later date too.

Stereo outs never bothered me and the screen isn’t massively different to the Mk2. I think I preferred the “lighter” bass of the MK1 too in any case.

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MK2 Buttons light is better for color blinded people. And dont underestimate the display Size. Mk1 is too tiny for PPL with bad eyesight.

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Thx for all the replies, folks. Don’t care much for the many outs on MKII, because eventually I am gonna finish tracks in Ableton (with Overbridge). I haven’t seen MKII’s in the Netherlands below 900€, while I saw MKI’s for as low as 600. With such a big purchase, I prefer to try out first, so bargain-searching elsewhere in the world is a bit of a no go.

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Maybe it’s worth waiting to make your choice after Superbooth 18
It’s just 2 weeks from now on.

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Okay, what could happen there?

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You say

“eventually I am gonna finish tracks in Ableton (with Overbridge).”

Overbridge seems to be important for you and Superbooth 18 might be like we gonna see more about Overbridge 2.0

I would also first read the manual of Overbridge 1.15 about the limitations and latency.
Manual Overbridge 1.15

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buy a cheap mk1

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Okay, thx!
Well, I have been waiting for Overbridge (Digitakt) forever, so a few weeks extra I will be able to survive. But in a youtube vid I saw someone feeding the 4 separate A4 tracks into Live and even with a separate track for fx. That would be more than enough for me.

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I’d go mk I if I were you. The change in sound in the mk II is not a huge one, the mk I still sounds plenty usable and I much prefer the mk I form factor.

I know these things are subjective and opinions differ from person to person, but IMO only the OT mk II (better input section) and the rytm mk II (sampling and internal resampling) boxes are significant stepups from the mk I models. I myself have only ugraded the OT to mk II as I am ok with using my rytm without being able to sample (although resampling would be great).

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Yeah, the form factor is also important for me. The MKI does a better job at tickling my inner nerd. :nerd_face:

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I thought OT is the least significant stepup.

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Not for me, the new input section was the only thing keeping me from getting rid of my OT. I never used my OT for anything other than MIDI sequencing because of not being able to get satisfactory results wrt inout handling (partly me not knowing you can redline the inouts but also partly because the input section of the mk I is/was weird).

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Well I upgraded and am very happy i did. Much better screen, layout and individual outs (which i use for fx pedals). To be honest the synth sound was never a factor, just did it for comfort and fx variety.

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I noticed this difference between my AK and A4mk1, but it was easily matched through very subtle tweaking of my mixer EQ.
The same may me possible between the A4mk2 and 1?

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Depends on the Sounds. The MK2 has more clarity in the Higher registers and of course Overdrive is different. The least one can be achieve with Analog Heat? I guess.