Elektron Musical Instruments

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "philipp_angleitner"
<Philipp_Angleitner@a...> wrote:
> what about the casing. it looks really, really nice and so
> beautiful. 
> but what about the quality of this box?

built like a TANK (and heavy as one, too). it's all steel casing with
an aluminum face, by the way.

>  what about the 
> potentiometres? do they live for long time? or are they damaged after 
> some turns? i mean they don't seem to be very solid...

"don't seem" - does that mean you've played one and used them? (just
wondering, because if so I don't know why you asked your first
question :-)

they are quite solid, to me. my MD is less than a year old still. but
I've done quite a bit of tweaking of the knobs and they seem great so
far (knock on wood).

part of the reason why they might seem a bit "flimsy" (but I wouldn't
go that far, really) is that they have the triggering/pressing ability
too. so they don't sit *right on* the casing like 99% of all other
knobs out there. so they wiggle a bit, but it seems like its more the
nature of the potentiometers themselves than a quality issue.

> what about bugs and so on. are there many bad, nerve-wracking, nasty 
> things that come with the machine? 

*so far*, i've had no major problems. i've had a couple freeze-ups,
but those were usually when i was doing something weird anyway. and
i've yet to own a machine that didn't freeze up or do something weird
from time to time. but as far as nasty software bugs, i think *most*
of them have been ironed out to the point that if someone has a bug,
it's usually the result of faulty hardware.

> what about the service by the elektron-staff? are they friendly, 
> helping, trustworthy people who help me out if i have a problem with 
> the gear?

they've been incredibly friendly and helpful with my Sidstation
problems; even going above and beyond what I expected them to do. for
example, they covered repair and shipping charges for a unit that I
purchased used. when I had further problems, they offered to send me a
unit the've been personally testing for months. furthermore, before
all of that, they sent me a new power-supply free-of-charge in hopes
that it would fix the problem.

so yes, they're great at taking care of problems with their units. the
downside is that they're in sweden and they're the only repair place.
so some people might experience extra customs fees or heavy waiting
periods, etc. but i've heard there's a possibility of incorporating
outside repair facilities in the future.

the bottom line (to me) is that it *is* well built and it *is* an
incredible machine and you most-certainly *will* fall in love with
it... and when and *if* there are problems, Elektron will be there to
help you through them.

Joe.