Newb to Elektron, First Buy Anxiety!

Elektron Gear Model:Cycles
#1

Hi all. I’ve been out the songwriting game for a long time (my last setup was an Atari ST with Cubase, an Alesis Quadrasynth, and an Emu ESI-32 bought 30 years ago!).

I’m a drummer and I trigger stuff from a Roland SPD SX Pro live. I write tracks on Reaper with VSTi’s. I stumbled on the Model:Cycles recently and now I have major GAS. The option to have something simple I can quickly write chord melodies and beats on for collaborating in the moment is very attractive for me, as I can’t play keys and have limited musical knowledge. I love the FM sound, and the Elektron sequencer workflow has really got my attention.

In my head I have a set up of: a Model:Cycles for simple beat and melody creation; a Roland AIRA S-1 for analogue sounds via the M:C sequencer, and the SPD SX Pro for recording songs and loops (not live) from the two modules and allowing extra triggering via the M:C sequencer. Keeping it simple like me, and those units’ sounds are good enough for my needs.

But…

…the Digitakt keeps teasing me with its workflow, almost universal love, single cycle synthesis capabilities, and single sample box neatness! Getting one used and pairing with an M:C is also very tempting, but I’m trying to stay under £500.

Sorry, I know, ANOTHER NEWB QUESTION. But I’d welcome anyone’s experience of going down the M:C and separates route and then buying a Digitakt later or going the other way.

Thank you!

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#2

oh boy hahahahhahha. And welcome!

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#3

Welcome to the forum, @UnkleKev.

The M:C was my first Elektron purchase, less than two weeks after I decided to rekindle my long-dormant love affair with synths. I eventually came to regret it and it is one of the few pieces that I have sold. My advice would be to start with Digitakt, but others will differ.

The pros of the M:C are the tweakability, the simplification of FM synthesis, the build quality, and the price. It does pretty well at electronic percussion. The cons, for me, are the knobs, pads, and tiny screen, and the limited parameters (no control over attack, for example). The chord machine has a very particular sound; listen carefully to demos.

I got a Digitakt a few months down the road, originally to complement the M:C, but I only used them together a few times before heading in a different direction. More than three years later, I’m still very happy with the Digitakt.

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#4

Copy paste…@plragde…

The MC is a nice add on, im keeping mine and i run it through the AHMKI then some additional reverb and delays. But i too found a gateway drug in the DT, its far more capable…hence the price.

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#5

Take your time, don’t rush it.
Maybe a second hand Model:Samples will get you the Elektron basics in no time, and you’ll upgrade later if you find it suits your workflow…

And S-1 is a good synth, especially for the price. Good choice, I love it.

#6

To me, M:C plus S1 sounds like a really great way to work with hardware (again). I imagine this would have taken me quite far if I started with it and saved me a lot of buying and selling. They’re both limited but capable and sound very good. See how far you can take the combo and if you want to upgrade to DT or something else, you can sell both without loss. Assuming you buy them second hand as well.

The only thing I‘m not sure about is sequencing S1 with M:C. The keyboard on M:C isn’t really laid out to play notes, octave up and down is hidden in a sub menu. But if your plan is to come up with, say, a nice bassline on M:C with internal sounds and later send that note data to S1 and see if it sounds better, that could work pretty well. You’re limited to mono sounds though, the models can’t send more than one note out, like other Elektrons can.

If your budget can get up to around 700€ if you wait a bit, a good alternative would be to just buy a used Syntakt. It will give you all of the M:C FM drums with more control plus up to three analog synths that can sound close to S1. And a bunch of additional stuff like an analog drum machine, the full Elektron sequencer including four note MIDI sequencer and an analog FX block. All in a package that’s really easy to understand but has a lot of depth. This is what I‘d start with nowadays. You‘d also get Overbridge so you could integrate ST into your existing DAW workflow easily.

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#7

Instead of several boxes, you could get the Syntakt. It’s always more convenient to program as much as possible in one single box. Less space consuming and more cost-effective too.

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#8

You can grab an used Digitakt for that easily.

M:C is an instrument. Digitakt is an instrument and also a Hub for other instruments.

Both have the same sequencer, so you can program your patterns with the same detail in both machines, it will just be faster in the M:C since you don’t need to jump between menus and pages/subpages when parameter locking, creating conditionals, etc. etc… But of course, you have deeper (envelopes, filters, sound parameters, more menus, more functionalities) options with Digitakt if that’s your thing.

M:C is kind of designed to be portable, the single thing to carry with you, one single stop for groovebox needs (percusion-melodies-chords), and based on FM synthesis. No need for computer, sample libraries, anything. It is designed to be fast. It is designed to create sounds fast (no menus, single knob x function, 4 macro controls). it is designed to perform on it (you can use that thing with your eyes closed). It also happens to be able to sequence other stuff very in a very basic (notes-lenght-velocity) but powerful way (elektron sequencer + retrig capability).

Digitakt is designed to do the same (groovebox - single stop - fast), but using samples as basic sound sources, and because of that is equiped with proper sampling and midi sequencing capabilities (notes-lenght-velocity-LFO-Plocks), so it can play well with other hardware you might have already around. it has a hardware Hub functionality by design that the M:C has not (8 midi tracks - 2 audio inputs - compresor - mixer). It also has deeper sound and song design tools if that’s your thing (envelopes, arranger, note scales). you can also use loops, if that’s your thing.

#9

A think you might want is an external keyboard controller. I love the Keystep37 but there are cheaper ones.

—
I would advise to go piece by piece instead of all-in, like S-1 first until you find you’re lacking something.
This way, you really take your time digging in its hidden features… and this can come in handy later.

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#10

This is so true. When you break up the functions of Digi boxes individually is amazing.

Value might be on pair sometimes, but space and weight is totally out of contest.

Syntakt is insane:

M:C + more machines + 2 more tracks + proper filters and envelopes.

3 analog mono synths, or one 3 voice polyphonic analog synth. Plus the crash cymbal one.

A sequenceable analog drive master/parallel track.

Top quality delay and reverb send FX with two mono inputs for external gear plus a mixer.

And it I s also an audio interface.

Thing is nuts. Absurdly powerful.

Digitakt is no short either.

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#11

I definitely prefer the idea of having one device. I’ve always enjoyed spending time to get to know a piece of kit back to front. I’m also comfortable with the limitations of the Digitakt and Syntakt.

The Syntakt is quite a machine (no pun intended), but the power of the Digitakt is very attractive too. The ability to work with any sound has benefits.

I’m in no rush to decide, and the advice is appreciated.

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#12

In that price range you have two options as I see it… a M:S or a DT. There are advantages to both… if you’re really liking the workflow of the M:C and don’t need all the DT bells and whistles then the similarity and simplicity of the M:S makes sense. However if you see yourself wanting to upgrade and expand, and have an Elektron box be the center of your setup, then DT is a killer option.
The third way might be to sell the M:C and spend a little more for a used ST, which does A LOT in one box. It does have a sound however (see the thread on this) that you may or may not gel with… listen to as many demos as you can.

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#13

DT MkII in a few weeks/months.

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#14

Sorry to be that guy but have you checked out the Digitone?

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#15

No, no, no no, nononono, no no no, no, no, no. Nop. Niii

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#16

Or you wait till DT MK II is announced and everyone is selling their DT for cheap :nerd_face:. But honestly, I wouldn’t bet on this, since this could mean you’ll wait for several months for a machine that may or may not be real instead of making music.

You also should think about whether a sampler is enough or you need some sort of synth engine. While DT has single cycles and envelopes as you‘ve stated, it’s just not the same as working with something like ST or M:C, where you always have the control over how to change the core sound. And you can make your own sound from scratch . I found that this is way more fun to me than samples.

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#17

I’m leaning towards using iPad apps for synth lines I can feed via USB into the Digitakt. That’s kind of my workflow on my DAW - VSTi’s to create one finger keyboard warrior parts, then build a song out of the parts. I am an old time sampler user, I much prefer the device approach to the app approach for sampling. I am old!

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#18

I love FM sounds, but I would need some analog sounds too. Syntakt would win for me if I went down the synthesis only route.

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#19

In this case, I‘d buy a used DT and see how far this will take you. I‘ve never used USB over audio, can DT do this for sure? A used Model:Samples might also be worth trying out, if you don’t need filter and envelopes.

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#20

It is class compliant, and I have found posts on here that confirm USB audio from iPad to Digitakt works with the Apple Camera Kit connector. The filter and envelopes (and LFOs) are probably the major attraction to the DIgitakt for me. I don’t need long samples or polyphony, so much as access to sound shaping, resampling, and the sequencer workflow. I kind of grew up when 8Mb was a luxury - 64Mb per project is plenty for the way I work.

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