FWIW, I owned an MKI some years ago and while I still like the feature set, in retrospect I never got overly excited about the sound. I am no sound designer, I get by fine for the kind of music I make, so maybe it was user error but something about the over all tone never excited me.
FWIW the only reason I generally jump into discussions about the A4 is because I believe it is possible to get more low end than immediately apparent. Realizing this has made it a keeper for me. It most definitely had a “sound” though and I could see that sound not being for everyone.
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I just tried on my unit, an mki, and can hear a difference between the sounds. Could be your unit specifically or something else in your set-up making things muddy. Have you contacted Elektron Support?
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Nah, I’m good with just making jokes, ta
Edit: through my phone speakers the recording sounds like the lowest notes are the same, which is why I thought of the Pam meme. My A4 and speakers are sitting in boxes so I can’t do the test properly for myself, but I’m still going to joke about it, ok?
Well, I like the sound of the A4 right away. But last week I programmed a midi controller and while doing so I actually ‘discovered’ some parameters I hardly ever used so far. Now that all these are immediately available, I almost created a ‘new’ synth. It actually learned me how to use these parameters more on the machine itself. So basically it took a external device to make me realise more options on the A4.
And derived from that situation: I focus much more on the midi parameters now in the manuals. It somehow makes sense to me to see that as some kind of parameter overview.
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This is why I like the Electra One too 
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That’s the one I was talking about. 
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I know !
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I’ve talked about my A4 experience in multiple threads here before, but in a nutshell I didn’t like its sound and thought its oscillators sucked until I understood how to work the A4 and from that point onward, I loved its sound, it’s one of my favourite synths for the sound alone now.
I haven’t run that lower octave test yet proposed here yet, but I have used the A4 for bass duties before and never noticed any issues with pitch.
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No problem with that as long as it’s on your own expense.
Could you elaborate on that? I’d love to find a reason to keep my A4 but in 4 years I haven’t really found any.
If you still have it there must be a reason for that though.
I’m just being silly, it doesn’t have to be at anybody’s expense. Take it easy mate, ok?
Sounds pretty much the same on mine. When I first listened to your audio file I thought it’s clearer than what I can produce here, less muddy (funnily using the standard apple ear buds). But now I AB’ed with my A4 on SH840s and it sounds the same. I think it’s the higher notes in the first bit of your file that “prepare” your ear for a certain expectation.
Here’s a sound bit where I’m playing C/C# legato, randomly alternating roughly every 0.5s.
Would anyone feel confident to tell which note it is at any given moment?
I’m not gonna argue if anyone says “yes”. Maybe my hearing really isn’t that good. I will say though, I can hear this pretty well on my SE-02 or even Bass Station II.
The A4 is the only synth I’ve heard that I could describe as “gravel-y”.
I’m on my second MKI at the moment, the first being sold as it wasn’t cutting it as an exclusive poly. Also I feel the A4 has the unfortunate combo of having a large percentage of unusable presets and not being as immediate to program as other synths.
After selling the first time I found myself hearing it in some old mixes and being drawn back to it (hasn’t happened with quite a few other synths including a P6). I also wanted to give it a fair chance and dig in a bit deeper; so as not to be needing instant gratification as it’s so easy to expect with gear these days. I’m glad that I did.
Here’s an interlude I made that is just about 100% A4 (I believe the low swells are P6):
As someone else mentioned, I’d be very interested in exploring string sounds on the A4. I’m a pretty lackluster programmer otherwise I’d start that thread.
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Good point hah!
Well I guess I thought I’m missing something since a lot of people are really satisfied with theirs. Also I hate selling stuff. I even still have my Mopho desktop even though its interface was made in hell!
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sounds great! maybe recorded a bit too hot or is that on purpose?
my fav parts are those big filter sweeps though. that must by the P6
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hmm. I can hear it very clearly in this example.
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Yep, sounds clear enough to me.
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nice!
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