Model Cycles - purely as a drum machine?

Totally agree. Classic Drum Sounds are overrated. Why not build a new era.

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Precisely why Model Cycles is so dope.

You can really craft unique drums!

Then use one or two tracks for one or two fm stabs…it really shines next to any other gear.

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Tbh model cycles is worth it for the kick alone

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Nope, just want something with enough subbass to hold up to a BIA or WMD Crater. I play a lot of hybrid sets and a lot of collab liveset gigs in clubs, and it’s important to me that a kick drum be able to hold up in that context. The sub on the Cycles kick drum isn’t enough to hold up in that regard. I’d be happy to be proven wrong as a matter of “insufficient skill”, if anyone has settings for a subby kick they want to share.

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Do you have a Sub in your monitoring system?

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I’m a fan of Noise Engineering stuff and for me the model:cycles is like a 6 voices BIA with an awesome sequencer… only much cheaper than a BIA. Well done Elektron !

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Don’t worry about my monitoring system (which, yes, I do actually have a proper monitoring setup given that I’m a mix engineer) - I do the real roadtest of my setups in clubs :wink:

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If you’re a mix engineer, you should know that Kicks often have two or more layers.

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I do - it’s that, or a lot of compression.

However, the Elektron approach to this for the Rytm was to provide essentially a two-part approach with synthesis for the top of the kick and the bottom/body, as well as the option for layering a sample… Which is why I’m a little surprised people are claiming that the Cycles’ kicks are amaze-balls. And if you read my earlier comment, I acknowledge that the top and mid-body of the kick are quite good on the Cycles, but it loses out on the deep low end.

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guess we’re not all mix engineers :crazy_face:

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I’ve heard a few people complain about the kick machine on the rytm being bad in some way and then saying the kicks they get out of the A4 blow it away. I haven’t had a rytm though so I can’t really speak to it. We all have are taste I suppose. I think the kicks sound quite good on the cycles but I generally lightly highpass my drummachines low frequencies and then re address the bass frequency with something kind of extreme like an isolator eq, gives me a bit more control over how my low end hits as the high pass can refocus the emphasis. You might have to more or less build your sounds that have sub frequencies around this idea though or eq them to fit the method, make sure your bass part is present enough in the mids and not too suby so when you do boost it doesn’t take over. I also find my self pitching the kick down a smidge. We all like what we like though, personally the thing that draws me to cycles is how the drums sound when distorted and FM modulated with the lfo. You can get into a lot of awesome crunchy broken drums that way. I probably tend to go a lighter on subs than many though… so yeah not sure if my methods would be useful to anyone but me.

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Boss DR-110 is a god mode clap. The dinsync.info drumdokota mk1 or mk2 has the same mojo in eurorack. Dunno about elsewhere.

Acidlab Drumatix has the DR-110 clap as well

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K…I have a recently acquired one…kicks are excellent and the “control all” morphs entire kits beautifully. Snares are lacking but sit well with samples…I really like it in tandem with the AR Mkii they fill each other out nicely… i have mine plugged into my rytm with a cheap Sampson c.com compressor in line…the kick out from the AR triggers the key input of the compressor and DUCKS the low frequencies of the MC. The combination of the analog engine, samples and digital FM all glued together through the ARmkii compressor works really well together… and the MC tones complement the AR like they were made for each other…

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2 is usually better than one :slight_smile:

I’ve been running mine into my A4 MK1 as an FM filter bank.
Using unison and pitch tracking filter fm (tracking notes and arp), it turns the kicks into gnarly bass lines.
Kinda hard to stop using the combo :grin:

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Soooooo trying this!

Yes. I think I’ll give this a go tomorrow.

The idea of layering kicks in a live rig sounds like a hassle, maybe requiring a submixer. Have you tested the jomox mbase 11?

Sounds like a neat solution - if I’ve understood right: you run the M:C through the Samson compressor and then into the AR? Or do you use a signal splitter on the kick out of AR and use the one of the kick signals to sidechain the compressor (other kick line to mixer) with the sum of the AR and M:C? I understood the first - just want to be sure!

Yup, its “in line” and not AUX… meaning that the MC goes straight into the compressor and the compressor goes into the ARmkii…you were correct the first time…

But the ARmkii has individual outs…so I can split the kick out through it’s dedicated output and feed the key input of the compressor…to just duck the MC signal when the kick from the AR needs the bottom end space…

The combined mixed signal is then compressed again using the AR master bus comp for glue …nice…

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