Model Cycles - purely as a drum machine?

Thanks 4 the clarification :+1:

I have, it’s not as portable as I’d want for it - for roughly the same size I could run a small eurorack skiff with more drum voices for covering parts that Cycles doesn’t do well (for me), like kicks, cowbell, claps. Layering kicks in a live rig isn’t difficult with a Rytm though, since you have the machine part as well as the sample part.

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Was curious about this and had the cycles plugged in last night and yeah I would have to agree with you. I couldn’t coax this type of kick out of it - kind of Plastikman deep sub kicks. I wonder if you could layer the tone machine with the kick machine as you can get some decent sub bass from that.

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I found this about the Samson C-Com :

WARNING: This product contains Chemicals, including DEHP, known to the State of California to cause birth defects and other reproductive harm.

I hope you’re not in a run for kids.

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some more context - I wouldn’t sweat it despite the hyperbolic post !

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Haha Haha

Too late, I have 4 children…

I have had the c.com for 18 years and the oldest is 19, 3 were born while I had this compressor, so that may explain a few things about thier slightly odd appearance…?

Joking…!

No but seriously this cheap arse compressor has a neat trick up it’s sleave, it has a button labeled “enhance” which (long story short) reintroduces the high frequencies post compression. So if you feed it a kick into the key input it ducks the input as per usual and voila 90s french house / daft punk 3630 duck and pump…but if you engage the “enhance” button it reintroduces the high end and only ducks the low end frequencies…it’s far less annoying and helps manage the low end of town without mangling your sound totally just for the kick and sub bass to share space…it’s definately worth a few 3 legged, no necked children…just sayin…

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:scream: I knew :alien: existed!

I dunno about FM kicks being a let down, but I got the Model Cycles to use purely a drum machine and for me, it was a total let down.

Granted, I bought it online with out trying one out first- if I lived 600km closer to a shop, yeah I would not have bought it. So there’s that.
Overall I really disliked the plasitc feel of the unit, the tiny screen is tiny I didnt like the knobs, didnt like the sequencer buttons. In short, it just didnt feel like an Elektron. It doesnt have that industrial serious musical superweapon feel to it that my other elektrons have. If I dont enjoy using a thing, I wont use it.

Soundwise, again, for me, it just didnt excite me at all. Which is odd because I enjoyed lots of demos that I heard. As a groove box, it has that electribe sound I remember from when i had an EMX1. Which isnt a bad thing.

So basically I sold mine after a couple of days. Drum machine? No.

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This is a great idea, I need to try this.

Would be nice if I could route one sequencer to another track though.

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Purely for drums? No. Synths are diverse, weirder percussions are nice, but if you ever once need a traditional hihat – good luck trying to find or make something that hasn’t got a high freq FM tingle.

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My opinion is the opposite. I really like it as a drum machine. Who says it has to be a tr808 or some other classic?
I feel it’s a great drum machine, very flexible in synthesizing the final sound, which I really can’t say about most drum machines.
I just don t think I saw any great demo on that yet.

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Is it possible to get the kick on Digitone as good as on the Model Cycles?
If anyone been able to replicate it, could u give me the parameters?
Thanks a lot!

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Very close but Model Cycles kick is top

The way it sounds fits so well in a mix

Much better than the kick i get with rytm which is very boomy and very pronounced in the low frequency spectrum

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I just recently traded my Digitakt for a Model:Cycles and two other mono synths (K-2 and TD-3) and find that the M:C is great for experimental and weird sounds. If I had to compare it to another synth, I’d say it’s the drum machine equivalent of the Arturia Microfreak as far as how weird it can get. It’s definitely going to be have it’s sounds reinforced with samples from my Octatrack, but I think it’s a cool machine. They’re pretty cheap as well, so they’ve got that going for them as well.

juicy mouth dribling kix combined with strange worms and sharp objects

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I have a Model:Cycles since a while and I love to use it mostly as a drone/noise synth than a pure drum machine. If you start to tweak the machines and engage the Gate, you can generate some very cool (aggressive and dirty) synth sounds, also out of the Kick and Percussion machines as well.
With the re-trigger pads you have access to some very cool perfomance tools.

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try setting gate length to 32nd or 16th notes on your trigs and turn Gate on, then play around with the relationship between Sweep and Contour. I find higher sweep values require lower contour values to dial in a deep punchy kick, and I avoid Punch if I’m trying to get a deeper subby kick because while amazing and full of sweetspots the Punch effect eats some of that lowend i’ve found

I also find that Color and Shape have a similar balance where I find myself leaning towards one or the other, or both but at lower values. Contour is really the key, there’s a ton of sweetspots but you have to find the right pitch envelope to really get it to smack right

throwing an envelope on Contour gives cool results as well, also the kick’s FM engine is really stable into the lower subby register so just pitching your kick down helps a lot too

I hear you completely.

I have a buddy who I think would side with you in these matters.

I have a rytm myself (that’s likely on the way out) Silky kick can be nice but I still find most of the options too booming for my taste.

I specifically like more tappy, bitty, spitty kinds of kicks that don’t extend too deep into the low end. That might be the kind of thing these folks are digging on Cycles.

just picked up a cycles for drums, have been through md, lxr02, er1, but never had cycles…hoping its as good as everyone says!