I’m thinking this with a couple of really nice synths and a laptop and you’ll be good to go for a lifetime.
I can dig that!
It’s the be-all-end-all of sequencers for sure.
oh man…thanks dude. you are the guy thats gonna make the next 2-3 years a long wait.
I’ve already started prepping my studio for it arrival.
How’s the micro timing? Is it as easy to use as a Elektron piece? How about p-locking?
I had a Squarp Pyramid, before the Cirklon. When I first started with the Pyramid, the thing that frustrated me was the lack of a song mode. (Octatrack has a good song mode but no instrument definitions)
Sequencing on a Cirklon is different than anything else. It’s hard to explain. Seriously, give it 6 months and stick with it. (aux events took forever to understand and implement properly,)
As far a sequencers go, I no longer use the sequencers on my Digitone and Rytm for triggering notes. Once you get used to the Cirklon workflow, it’s vastly superior. It really helps to have good instrument definitions for all of your synths.
I rarely use the piano roll, (CK patterns) and mostly stick to p3 patterns. One of my favorite tricks to to “grab notes” from other patterns playing
Example: you have a scene with two patterns and all notes are in the key of Aminor
so you could have a bass line playing on patter one
and a poly synth on pattern two
say my bass line is playing the note A
on 1, 4, 7, 14
I could on my poly synth pattern say hey on step 1 grab that not and play it + 7 semitones above it
I then could add some randomness to the first step of the base line, and it will always play that first note in the key of A minor and the the poly synth will always play that note plus another note thats 7 semitones higher.
Auto arrangements based on controlled randomness How would you even attempt that on an Elektron? this is just one of 1000s of wierd things you can do that you’d typically need something like Eurorack or MAX/msp to do
I know you must be thinking, “Why even bother with Elektron gear if you aren’t using the sequencers?”
Well, because the midi implementation for Elektron stuff is amazing.
But, doesn’t it?
It’s not called “song” mode, rather “sequence” mode. There’s Live, step and pattern mode too, any of which can be glued together in sequence mode to make a song.
I have no idea how long I’ve been waiting on Cirklon now. Over 2 years probably. And the way the AU$ is valued against the Euro, there’s no way I’d pay that much. So I have no choice but to stay with the Pyramid. Heck, even my Blackbox‘s sequencer looks like a worthy alternative.
Yea I’ve seen this video and it reminds me of the Propellerheads Reason matrix pattern sequencer which I love. Still wondering how micro timing works?
I have every intention on doing this. I’ll sequence my Digitone, Monomachine, Sidstation and Machinedrum with the Cirklon. I’ll keep the Octatrack and Model:Cycles on their own sequencers. I’m looking forward to be able to just focus on one instrument controlling the rest of my studio.
I owned a cirklon and released tracks on it. Learned it pretty well. I prefer the Elektron sequencing workflow, especially for drums. For recording poly synth parts, I prefer Ableton. Way easier to edit than in the Cirklon’s CK mode, which was rough.
Pros - you will be a hardware master once you learn the Cirklon. It will make you a MIDI/Sequencing/Step programming wizard. Amazing build, razor tight. I could go on.
But really I think it shines most as a hardware brain. If you have a DAW it can seem redundant. If you have Elektron gear, the sync we get now with Overbridge is a major boost.
Anyway, I sold mine, but its a great piece of gear. I still prefer the Elektron sequencer flow though.
Can the Cirklon record midi input. Say I play my cords live, would it capture my performance?
Yes it can for sure. You want to use CK mode for recording your chords.
I agree with this. if you have a DAW and like sequencing with it, there’s some stuff Cirklon can offer over it still, but I wouldn’t say it’s night and day difference. and yes, you almost need to have a full hardware studio to make the most of it. and you need to want to work almost solely in hardware. otherwise, it’s kind of overkill.
Use a DAW…but as a multitrack recorder. And to start/stop the kit…sometimes. But I’ll normally use the DT or OT for that, and just let Logic record. (Logic is a good midi filter/router)
its not a real song mode. youre basically chaining scenes.
Or if you set up aux notes before hand (1 per additional voice) you can record chords into P3 patterns which opens up lots of possibility for inter track modulation.
Although it seems some of this functionatility has creeped into CK patterns in one of the latest betas
So on Cirklon there is a parameter called ‘delay’ which is Cirklon micro-timing. Coupled with the GANG feature, which allows you to select multiple steps to edit, you can easily adjust position/any other paramter of multiple steps at once. You can also edit multiple steps with Elektron boxes from A4 onwards; but the difference and benefit here is that you GANG any steps and then it’s poss to edit all 16 steps in a bar if you like. Which isn’t possible on Elektron’s unless you happen to be an octopus and have another as a friend to help, as you don’t need to hold down multiple steps on Cirklon to edit multiple steps.
P-locks in Cirklon are essentially rows per pattern, you choose what parameter is in each of the 4 rows and each step can have a different value per parameter.
However aux events is what sets it apart. And the muscle memory aspect. Once you get proficient it doesn’t feel like working on a computer as you don’t need to consciously think about every process, which makes it easier to stay in the creative side of your brain while writing.
Aux events can feel a bit like programming a calculator at points but there will always be a trade off somewhere when doing such complex tasks on a piece of hardware.
It really is a truly amazing piece of equipment, and unless something trumps it, I’ll be using it for decades.
Originally bought for the fact that you can name CC’s which frustrated me when using Octatrack, as on OT unless you have multiple templates set up with often used MIDI CC’s pre-allocated it involves opening manuals each time for whatever machine you were trying to modulate CC’s of.
Tl;dr - Yes you can microtime, and even modulate it. Came for naming MIDI CC’s stayed for the major workflow enhancement, control of whole studio and the fact that it is better for us mere non-octopuses
The song mode was inspired by the song mode of Dr T’s KCS and is suited to fast live song creation. Essentially you record on as many tracks as you like, in whichever way you like, including long patterns, short patterns etc. and whenever you’re at a stage you consider to be a ‘song chunk’ you save this as a scene. You keep doing this until you have all your chunks in series, at which time song mode will play them through.
It does include the ability to move scenes around, set a loop point and pauses at key scenes but does not yet include the fabled Linear Song Director.