Learning Model:Cycles, beginner's questions

Ah wait! There is more to it. If doing a save project, then powering off externally and restarting, the edits are not restored. But that’s only for the working project. Now explicitly load the saved project and the edits are restored after all.

Note to self: Save projects. Save projects. Save projects.

Same goes for save pattern to project.

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This looks like something that coud be treated as a bug.
Please report to Elektron support, so that they fix this.

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Will do.

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Yeah, I agree with you. I will add to the manual that it really should be switched off locally. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Also good that you made a ticket with a suggestion to change the shut down behaviour. No idea what can be done about it, but making a ticket increases the chances that it will be looked at.

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Hello!

Where is the free pack you get after registering your unit? I cannot find it. Thank you!

conKror

Can t find this in the manual: is it not possible to copy a track with the sound included, so trigs and preset? Seems I can only copy the trig sequence and have to manually save and load the sound preset to transfer it to another pattern.

My understanding is that there are no init patches. In other words you cannot get to every sound the M:C can make from any patch. There are different machines and factory patches for this reason. Am i wrong on this?

Not 100% sure I’ve understood your question but [TRACK] + [PLAY] will clear the preset/sound (set default params for machine). Then all you have to do is change the machine to what you want, and you can get anywhere you like, without using presets.

Is that what you were asking ?

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Close I suppose. Maybe a better way to put it is that I was under the impression that not all the preset “Kicks” would be able to be produced from the same initial “Kick” machine patch, and that these presets were sort of starting off points for types of operator behavior. This would be different from the DN lets say because all different types of sounds can be produced from the initial patch in theory.

When you load a new project, the defaults are:

T1 - Kick machine
T2 - Snare machine
T3 - Metal machine
T4 - Perc machine
T5 - Tone machine
T6 - Chord machine

Any track can contain any machine (or several via Preset/Machine locks) and yes, you could for example, create a Kick preset from a Perc machine. Presets are all based on the machines listed above, along with specific parameters and effects settings. Each machine is best suited to a certain type of sound but things get interesting and unpredictable when you experiment.

The manual describes the machines as follows:

Approaching synthesis in the Model format, with its one-knob-per-function control, was a daunting task. We wanted focused controls, yet maximum sound-shaping possibilities. The solution was to take the FM engine from the Digitone and then completely re-arrange it to form six different machines: Kick, Snare, Metal, Perc, Tone, and Chord.

Each machine is a unique mapping of the engine, and we have spent countless hours tweaking their four available macro controls – Color, Shape, Sweep, and Contour. Turning one of these knobs changes several, under-the-hood, parameters at once, allowing the machines to be tweaked both effortlessly and immensely.

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Thanks for the detailed explanation. I think the conclusion here is that I was wrong. :grimacing:

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You’re very welcome. I wouldn’t say you’re wrong.

Not all the kick presets use the Kick machine and there are no true init patches if you consider each machine’s default state to be a preset.

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Exploring external midi control and there appears to be no true “pitch bend” for each track? I can control Pitch CC 65 but while in the device the knob has 100 cent steps, using CC it’s semitone steps. is there a Fine Tune CC control I’m missing?

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Hello,

As a new user, I’m happy with the product but Cycles clips easly and it is not related to the master volume knob.I always lower the level of the tracks to 70-80 to avoid that.This does not sound like a nice distortion.It’s digital clipping.Does anyone also has the same issue?

Thanks.

The track volume/distortion is just volume adjustment before 60 and it starts distorting after.

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Try and keep everything that you don’t want to put distortion on at between 40 and 60 volume. Then, for anything you want to have distorted, you can bang that up to whatever you like (I quite like it around 80 or 90) and use the track level to get it sitting well in the mix.
I found there isn’t a huge amount of headroom, especially if two or more tracks are into the distortion bit of the volume/distortion levels.
As with most Elektron products, subtle application yields best results.

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Yep. As said, carefully balance sound volume/distortion and track levels.

It’s intentional. It’s made so it overdrives when the tracks are pushed loud enough. I personally love it.

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Yeah, it’s definitely a design choice.

For sure, but it can be a bit disconcerting if you’re not aware of it or expecting it.