Of course the fortune 500 bit is a joke but the sentiment of your post is serious I suppose?
An all-in-one box would totally unbalance elektron’s product line (who would buy the existing boxes?) Not to mention the giant r+d cost required. Heat was a natural progression because a lot of the tech was already there.
IMO we can expect future Elektron boxes to continue to have a very narrow focus.
OT, A4, OP1 are all kind of ‘daw in a box’ in as far as you can make full tracks inside AR seems to be too to a degree and some of the older elektrons that I havent used. Same as the big old MPCs and Roland MVs. Not sure what’s so offensive to some people about that kind of wishlist?! Seems a feasible progression. And any features you don’t want, just use the ones you do And the battery/portable aspect of Op1 rules… Gets used twice as much as rest if my gear. Elektron have the design chops to do something killer in this area. New MPC looks like it’ll be ballpark… Elektron twist on that + op1 would be next level as a Swiss army knife/scratchpad/live tool.
Can be seen as a Digital Audio Workstation tho still I guess? From a certain angle at least… My point was more focused on the fact that any new boxes that resemble a portable ‘daw in a box’ that had a good physical UI and fast workflow and creative features + decent connectivity can only be a good thing IMHO. There are a million separate, focused boxes available right now to choose from for individual synths, drum machines, fx etc but plenty of room out there for a more heavyweight cpu/features OP1 style device. Obvs YMMV but I’d buy it for sure MPC Live looks great from the rumours…
As if the Analog Drive is right in line with Elektron’s product line?
Look… They already have the technology for a box like this; MD, MM, OT, sequencers and digital effects. MD and MM are discontinued. OT is begging to be upgraded and get a more intuitive workflow. Main peeve people are having with the OP-1 is that there are too many corners cut. Not enough depth to the engines… Shitty sound. This is where Elektron really could shine, I think.
Heat was such an unpredictable product that most Elektron users were like “Analog What”? Most users were hoping for something new along the lines of OT… I think it makes perfect sense.
Thing is, the OP-1 is really, really cool and all. But a lot of stuff you do on it is not useable later on, if you’re not doing lo-fi stuff. The sound is really trashy… I’m hoping most of my wishes will come true with either a new Elektron box or an OP-2…
I think everyone wants the op2, Iv owned a few and miss it but the i/o is wrong. Elektron do the job in that respect just imagine elektron just added a battery.
Zvex did the LoFi loop Junky years ago as a one-of-a-kind real analog looper. It was LO FI and very limited.
How about a dedicated looper done Elektron style? DIGITAL. Give it an analog limiter and/or drive circuit, maybe but that’s all that needs to be analog.
Why do people talk about the next new synth/drum machine/blinky christmas lights thingy? Shit already exists in droves. Maybe because people like talking about these things on a music forum designed to talk about these things.