Cirklon 2 still worth buying now in 2021?

I know you know. (Sorry everyone.) :grinning:

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Quick note for people gasing on the cirklon.

Bear in mind that the cirklon doesnā€™t have some crazy compositional tools like Hapax, push or oxi oneā€¦
it is powerfull for monophonic step sequencing a la elektron but when it comes to polyphony that 16 steps paradigm is quickly limited to input notes.(as it is for elektron boxes)

Unlike the elektron sequencer though It is totally equiped to record polyphonic phrases (using CK patterns) but in order to be confortable inputting notes you should consider attaching keyboards or pad controllers to it.

I love to work with keyboards to generate ideas. I attached an arturia microlab to it, powered by the USB host port, and I also use my prophet keyboard to input notes when I am in the studio.

This is perfect for me, but for others having an integrated interface for composing might be interesting.

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You strong

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Absolutly right.
I would add that the Ck patterns are not equiped with Auxes, and present less power than P3 patterns.
There are few workarounds to make polyphonie with more than 5 notes chords with P3 (and have benefit of Auxes) but, itā€™s not really as simple as polyphonic sequencers, for sure.
This can be laborious and a bit tedious, but for a music theory ignorant like me, itā€™s an acceptable solution.

Yes, Ck is mainly efficient with monophonic paterns, but several monophonic patterns brings polyphony :nerd_face:

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yeah as far as limitations goā€¦ one thing to remember with Cirklon is that you can have the same instrument assigned to multiple tracks, using either pattern type for any of them, and they can all be firing midi at the same synth at once (wellā€¦ seriallyā€¦ since it is midi).

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@chiasticon : This ! Exactly

Can the cirklon record MPE data and faithfully reproduce it?

pretty sure the answer is no.
Frankly I donā€™t understand how this could work with a traditional midi 1.0 DIN port.
way toot much data to handle, no?

I definitely appreciate all the criticisms on lack of polyphony workflow features.

Please help us save our gas and help cirklon reduce the queue time, by keeping with the critical thinking on cirkā€™s workflow. Thank you.

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:joy:

On a more serious tone: Iā€™m very interested on the sequencer/workflow side of audio gear.
Iā€™m very harshly critical of the development being done there. As an example elektron stagnated imensily in that department imho, since the monomachine - thereā€™s so much they couldā€™ve implemented. The updates like microtiming/tconditions are great but unsatisfactory for the almost 2 decades since MNM. MNM had a great arpeggiattor that could be used as a creative retrigger or sequencer in a sequencer, A4 was already a step backwards. And look at what they did to song mode over time, it got worst and then ditched.
(talking sequencing only here. On the sound design side of things surely I wouldnā€™t judge so harshly)

I got a Yamaha qy700 and itā€™s so old and so amazingly designed as a sequencer and creative tool it makes me wonder whatā€™s up with designers and the gear world since then.
I see a lot of amateur musicians/producers/jamers getting stuck on loops or patterns and being limited and conditioned by the instruments available. There is a lack of ā€˜song modeā€™ - not necessarily as it was implemented in the past, not necessarily a separate ā€˜modeā€™ but I mean in the way patterns are rigid and stagnant and they shouldnā€™t be. @circuitghost wrote brilliantly about it opening a topic here in the past, but ā€˜song modeā€™ is a tabu word in this community and I think the discussion went a bit downhill (ā€œshut up, guitars dont have song modeā€)
We want creative sequencing tools. Plasticity. Pattern per track; sequencers inside sequencers (like MNMā€™s arp and song mode); fast&easy LFOs/fills/tconditions assignment (no menus please, let us assign a LFO with a button like we assign a scene on the OT). One-shot trigs that donā€™t have to be between t1 and t64, and that can trig whole small sequences.
Auxes look incredible! Great example but it doesnā€™t have to be ā€˜auxesā€™ exactly, just as it doesnā€™t have to be ā€˜song modeā€™ exactly, thereā€™s so much else that could be done so differently.
(Which reminds me I should take a look at that sequencer torso)

I guess I would quickly be coming up with a list of workflow defects/inconsistencies/annoyances on the cirklon. Old people conform, I hope when I get one I wonā€™t be too old to criticize it.

TL.DR: letā€™s be critical about sequencers :slight_smile:

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yeah song mode was effectively ditched with the A4/RYTM boxes. it lost some of the best features, and it was unusable in those tiny screens anyway. screens of course got better with the mk2 boxes, but they didnā€™t add the MnM/MD/OT song mode features backā€¦ anyway, even though I love it, I still say the majority of Elektron users donā€™t use song mode and have barely even explored it, if at all. so I canā€™t be too mad at Elektron for focusing their efforts elsewhere.

youā€™ll probably like working with songs in the Cirklon. the relationship between patterns/instruments/tracks/scenes makes more sense, and feels more like it was designed from the ground up to build songs using them. because it was.

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Easy enough to set up a P3 track for aux purposes next to your CK pattern, no? never tried but it should work nicely.
And In the CK patterns you can easily record CC curves (Iā€™d like to be able to edit the curves though)
Polyphonic tracks quickly become cluttered with stuff, so I guess being able to separate things a bit is a nice thing.

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Yes, for sure. The limit wil be the midi flow through the cable.

Possible if you go to the event list (notes, cc, prog change, pitch bend). But must have a little practice to fluently and rapidly modify events. Above all if your pattern is long and well filled, that could be fastidious. But if you look at MPC, i find it not so different, boring too.
On Ck v2, you can connect a keypad on usb port. That can makes the treatment more efficientā€¦ but a keypad, when using hardware, it is not fun.

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Iā€™d definitely wait for Cirklon 3 if I were you

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I drive this crappy little Hyundai car, all these Tesla, Audi and BMW owners zoom past me with smug faces, I just smile to myself thinking ā€œyeah but I own a Cirklonā€ :joy:

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Priorities and unless you live in car the cirklon wins over fancy wheels

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You need a bumper sticker.

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The Hapax has lessened my interest in the Cirklon, and appears to be a good alternative for my needs. I am waiting for the Hapax to be available in stores next year.

My hope is that Elektron releases a dedicated sequencer on par or better than the Cirklon, as it is one of their strong areas of development.

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I should probably get back on the waiting list for a Cirklon now that I have a use case to chain sequence dozens of synths in my home studio.

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