To keep Cycles, or not?
EDITED out, since my Model: Cycles was sold a long time ago now.
I’ll ask my question at the start, since this is a very long post:
Are there any people here that had a Model: Cycles, upgraded to Syntakt, and then decided to keep both? If you did, do you still use both of them?
I’m posting here because this thread kept showing up when I was searching for comparisons between the two devices over the past few weeks.
I bought a Syntakt recently, as I didn’t want to pass on it when I found one discounted below the original MSRP, despite recent Elektron price increases.
Anyway:
As everyone with a Model: Cycles and Syntakt seems to do, I started converting many of my favorite sounds and tracks. Translating the controls wasn’t too difficult - though not all the values map 1:1.
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MC’s “contour” values are inverted on ST.
Subtract 127 to get the new value (and ignore the negative sign). -
The default amp settings for Tone/Snare are different, giving the decay control a much smaller working range on ST. 0–127 on ST is roughly 11–40 on the MC.
Change the amp mode to AHD rather than ADSR, then the the values match.
I wonder if these differences could be why people say the machines have changed?
Unless pushed to distortion, everything I tried sounded nearly identical once I got all the parameters dialed in.
The only real differences I can hear are:
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It’s easier to drive MC into clipping/distortion. You can get some of this by combining overdrive and the analog fx drive on Syntakt, but it’s not the same.
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Though the parameters seem to match up, reverb on MC has a wonderful lo-fi character to it. It’s soft and noisy, and you hear some nice modulation as you feed more sound into it.
Reverb on ST is far cleaner, and I think it might be the reason people say ST has a more “sterile” character to the sound.
As far as the sound goes, I think it’s only the reverb that I’ll miss.
It would be nice if Elektron could add a ‘lo-fi mode’ to ST’s reverb in an update.
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The other main thing people bring up is that MC is “knob-per-function” while ST needs a lot of “menu diving,” and I think that’s a bit exaggerated.
Of course it’s true that MC has 16 encoders, while ST has 10 encoders with press functions.
But I’m never really “menu diving” when dialing in a sound on Syntakt. All of a machine’s controls are on a single page.
Digitone, in comparison, has its main synth controls split across four pages/sub-pages. That feels like I’m always menu diving.
The dedicated delay/reverb controls on MC are nice though - while you have to switch over to the amp page, or delay/reverb pages, for finer control on ST.
So in that respect, MC is more like an “instrument” than “tech,” but I don’t really see it as much of an advantage, outside of live performances.
I can still dial in the sound of a machine on Syntakt without having to look at the screen - just like Cycles.
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I haven’t seen many comparisons going the other way though.
When you do need something beyond the main controls on MC, it’s a far worse experience.
I think the only way its LCD could have been any worse was if it didn’t have a backlight.
I can live with the size, as I don’t have a problem with smaller OLED displays found on synths like the MicroFreak; but the viewing angles, contrast, and response times of MC’s LCD are so bad.
And once you get into a menu to set things like LFO controls, they’re split across two pages and you have to scroll, click, scroll to adjust the parameters, while looking at the screen.
On Syntakt? Hit the LFO button and now you have knob-per-function controls over all eight parameters.
It’s also much easier to see what you’re doing on ST’s big OLED display.
The same goes for editing parameters on the sequencer.
On ST, you hold down the page button and can see all plocked values at once. If you want to clear a parameter, you click its encoder.
On MC, you have to move a knob to see its value, then quickly press play if you want to clear it. And there’s no way to preview a trig (they really need to add that in an update).
So you have more direct access to the surface-level controls on Model: Cycles, but once you start going deeper into the sequencer and other parameters, I find it a lot more menu-divey and reliant on memorizing shortcuts, compared to having direct control on Syntakt.
Syntakt does inevitably have more pages of options though, since it can do more.
But I think they did a great job keeping most of the parameters as ‘direct’ as possible, compared to something like Digitone - which I find to be far more complex.
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For me, at least, Syntakt really seems like an upgrade in nearly every way.
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one if you’re a Model: Cycles user.
But despite everything I have written above, where Syntakt is objectively better in most ways, I am slightly reluctant to sell my Model: Cycles.
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Though I don’t think it’s a problem on Syntakt, Cycles does still feel a little more “instrument-like” than “tech” since you can never be on the wrong page when adjusting the main controls.
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Apparently it’s a divisive thing, but I do love the aesthetics of the device: the low-profile plastic enclosure, soft gray tones, and the pinkish-red LEDs; compared to the cold, harsh, industrial look of the Digi boxes - especially ST’s cool-white display (I wish it was yellow).
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It does have pressure-sensitive pads. They’re pretty bad for finger-drumming with velocity on, but work well with retrigs for variations in sound.
This also makes it a much quieter device to use, compared to the constant clicking and pinging of the Digi’s keys. -
It runs on 5V, which makes it trivial to power via any USB power bank and a cheap USB to DC barrel cable.
The Digi boxes running on 12V are a real pain - especially Syntakt with its higher power requirements. If only they had been 15V, then you could power them with any USB-PD power bank (12V support is optional, and uncommon). -
I’d also feel a lot more comfortable traveling with Cycles in my bag than a Digi box, to use when outdoors, lunch break at work, or on a commute.
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There’s something to be said for working with limitations. Sometimes that can spark creativity vs. having full control over everything. MC and ST take me in different directions.
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I do like that reverb.
I think if Elektron had released an update so that you could assign CC values and save them as instrument presets, to use M:C as a MIDI controller (without needing something in-between to translate values) I would not be hesitating to keep it around.
I just wonder if there’s too much overlap between the two to justify keeping both.
But it’s Cycles that would be going, without a doubt.
