Elektron Model:Cycles Reviews

Model Cycles <3

This is my first elektron box, and i really happy to have this machine! Love the limitation the cycles have, make you go in different and sometimes unknown territories. Its has great power inside and the elektron sequencer makes it a beast, but not to forget the fm ghosts that live inside the machines...great work Elektron and Ess : ) I will never sell my model cycles :D

A Powerful Groovebox for Sound Sculpting

The Elektron Model:Cycles delivers a powerful FM synth engine and classic Elektron sequencer into a compact, portable groovebox. It offers unique and easygoing sound creation, inspiring sound and literally sculpting, and an intuitive interface that makes it perfect for both beginners and seasoned producers looking to explore new things.

Great for production...terrible for performance

Great sound and features but not easy usable for live tweaking and performance. In general difficult to handle even for simple tasks due to the amount of featured installed. Many simple tasks need 2-3 buttons in order to perform them. I returned back due to this and i am going for a arturia drumbrute or novation tracks.

Some very good things in it, some not so good.

I use a lot its kick, perc, and bass, wich is very good for the prize. I can´t get what i need from the snares. Hit hat ("metal" sound) has a distinct sound, that may fit somewhere but not too versatile. Sequencer is very powerful too. I am very happy with it. I haven´t tried the other more expensive units from elektron, but hopefully I will.

Infinite cycles

So far it is been pleasure experience every time running the device and exploring new patters. It was probably the easiest user interface in my studio to learn and which gives so wide range of possibilities.

I found Model:Cycles useful for live performances and playing with band basically by having background metronome-style addition, worked great for transitions and just filling the silence with pattern when needed.

Integration with other devices through MIDI is easy. Straight forward connection to midi keyboard. Possible source of midi clock within which you can control BPM with single nob.

Missing more advanced features from bigger, better, brother syntakt.

I bought this as an introduction to elektron gear and to use as my first drum machine/groove box. The workflow is great, although I admit my only other synth experience is with a reface dx and a moog mother 32, so take that for what its worth. Very fun to play with it, and I find myself losing hours creating sounds and simple tracks, but chaining them etc. and creating whole songs is less easy, even when I know what I want in my head - translating it is not necessarily easy. Polyphony would have been nice on single tracks, but that is not possible, so I use multiple tracks of the same synth engine playing different notes on the same steps of the each of the tracks respective sequences, as I do not like the chord machines the model:cycles comes with. A lack of individual outs would not be a problem when recording into a daw had cycles been able to make use of the overbridge program in order to port individual tracks. Unfortunately in order to not cannibalise sales from the syntakt, it cannot do this. As such, one must mix on the machine itself and hope that the levels are not problematic when combined with other instruments later in the workflow of the daw. Alternatively isolate each track and record them separately and individually in the daw where you can mix them later. This is annoying as the technology exists to skip this (overbridge), and I do not believe the hardware is incapable of accomodating this. I have had to buy a syntakt in order to not constantly stop and interrupt my creative process in order to achieve a useable final product in my mixes.

Great but not for everyone

I must say I love this unit but at the same time I never use it! First it took me about a year to learn it. I am slow leaner and I have kids so limited free time but I did not expect to have to learn and read and watch so much YouTube tutorials!! Now that I know 95% of the workflow it bores me to death. Yes you find amazing sounds but it takes you an hour of navigation and error handling to finally get what you want. The biggest issue for me is that I never finish any project. The sounds I like don’t go together, It gets too complicated and in the end I give up. Frankly I prefer to play with my Korg Volcas! Now there at least I plug it, have a blast of fun for an hour with easy workflow and then go to sleep. Some of the model cycle sounds are just amazing (kick, bass, synth) and if you try with a midi keyboard it’s just WOW because you’ll have more than the 16 trigs to play notes. But some others like hats and snare are just meh 🫤 in my opinion. Also everything feels too manual in my opinion, not enough automation. So you’ll have to find everything by ear, for ex the LFO instead of trusting the AI to fine tune. Take the pocket operator for example, it chops your samples and time it in scale. And it has 16 effects out of the box, press a button, done. Here with the MC it’s all up to you to make, encode, tweek, and at the same time there is no high or low cut off and some knobs just tear your ear drum apart. Muting is ok but the func button is too close to the pattern button and the combinations are confusing and I end up erasing instead of copying sometimes. It’s so frustrating! You can preset some ratchets but again it’s up to you to tweek speed and scale. Not a bad thing, but not for everyone. I guess at this price point I expected more fun and less technicity. The build quality I find perfect though. The unit is hard and very very light, and I like the rubber of the pads and trigger steps. Very soft and bouncy. So I will keep it because the sequencer is good (4 pages of 16 steps=64 steps) plus you can scale to 1/4 steps so it takes a while to retrig to step 1. The probabilities are amazing and will make your pattern NOT boring. Each step can be programmed. And it can be a different sound or preset. Technically 64 sounds each with own tweaks x 6 tracks in one sequence! Again too complicated for me but then you can use as a midi sequencer for… volcas!! But best set up is use volca drum and sample but use Model Cycle for bass and tones. Add a volca keys and your the king of live performance!!And it beats the amazing Volca bass because it can basically do 6 lines of bass!

Macht Spass, klingt toll!

Nach vielen Test-Videos und Produktreviews die ich mir angeschaut habe. Ist das das erste Elektron Gerät, dass ich mir kaufen wollte. Quasi zum Einstieg. Tolles Ding, einfach, klingt super (FM Synthese).

Stabiles Plastikgehäuse. Wirkt wertig.

Womit ich ein wenig Probleme habe ist das Einbinden in Ableton. Midi und Export funktioniert für mich nicht ideal.

Aber sonst, Kaufempfehlung!

Groovebox drum machine

I have used this for awhile now. It is quite good machine for it's price.

Words to describe this small box: beginner friendly, high build quality, lot of features, groovebox and drum machine in one box. Possible to make high quality impressive things.

One thing i do not like so much: the buttons and features needed lot of tweaking initially to get workflow better. Default option choices are not good. So first i was a little bit disappointed about this but later i tweaked all the things in options menu i got it worked how it should.

Super fun but build quality is not the best

Absolutely lovely groovebox, the workflow is very fun and deep, virtually endless possibilities.

The sound is really unique and wide, but the being a specific FM synth is not suited for everything of course.

What didn't convince me was the build actually. The unit itself is sturdy and well assembled, buttons are ok, pads are not the best and is a well known problem, but the really disappointing thing is the knobs quality.

I got two different units and they both have inconsistent knobs, some of them are stiff, some are very loose, all is very random. Quality control doesn't seem to be the best or they use cheap encoders, I'm not sure. The first unit I ordered had the Color knob with a sort of internal click, like the middle dent of a pan knob, really annoying.

I returned both the unit back at the end, but it was just me, I didn't like the knob problem, even if they were working properly. Also I'm more oriented to the Model:Sample, which can be more versatile. Or better an Sp-404, let's see.

Anyway, if making electronic music of any kind is your goal, this machine can do it wonderfully. Ambient, IDM, dance, techno, the only limits are imagination and skills. Price is fair, tons of options and most of all is very very fun, probably one of the funniest machines out there.

A new instrument where the sum is infinitive greater than its parts

Elektron's Model Cycles is not a sum of its parts; with 6 'machines' (sound generators), 6 tracks with 6 accordingly pressure sensitive buttons, 3 fx (2 of them send fx), LFO, repeat function, sound locks (set multiple different simultaneous sounds per track), macro function e.t.c. features a virtually limitless sonic arsenal.

Combined with the top notch Elektron' s sequencing capabilities, it would be an understatement to be considered just another drum machine, groove machine, synthesizer or even worse, Digitone's cut down version, which has a totally different 'produced', clean 'hi-fi-ish' sound.

Cycles is so more than that. An instrument with a unique character of its own. A chameleon of moods, mods and genres, where every tiny parameter change or combination of settings, makes a real difference.

A special 'expansion' tip:

Connect Cycles via usb (using an Apple camera connection kit) to any iOS device (simultaneous midi and audio live connection) and control it within AUM iOS app, randomize its sounds or generate genre specific styles with Tension iOS app and get crazy and ever evolving, controlling Cycles' parametres via CC, with the additonal 16 LFOs (!!) of the mLFO ios app.

Can you stand the madness?

For an around 300 - 340$ street price it's a steal. A no brainer for an amateur, an enthusiast, a sound designer or a professional producer. I'm thinking of getting a second one, to expand my 'digital orchestra' to 12 tracks!

P.S. I've put 4 stars in 'features score', not because it lacks in the field, but not to get Elektron too comfortable and push them to keep developing Cycles' features.

Awesome!

Some say that the learning curve is somewhat steep, but I don't think so.

It's an amazing piece of gear. A really great choice. Lot's of fun.

Great intro to the Elektron workflow

The Cycles gives you a good intro to the whole Elektron workflow and is featureful enough to get some good sounds out of it. The only complain about it is the lack of a real ADSR Envelope (you get only Decay to play with). Definitely check out some videos first to check if you'd be comfortable with the workflow of it first.

Fm synthesis made simple

The sound of themodel cycles is based on fm synthesis. However, the user interface is known per function and easy to use. The pads are a bit stiff and the screen is very small but otherwise the handling is pretty straightforward. The model cycles has its own distinctive sound and for the price is great value for money

Electro Model Cyles is Dope

Really nice machine, fat sounds, really good for drum programming, easy to use for live electronics <3

Fantastic groovebox

Great value! The unit sounds great, and is remarkably complex and versatile. Especially great for percussive effects, but also a capable melodic/harmonic box. And the sequencer — the sequencer! Absolutely amazing and inspiring. Buy one already!

Great introduction to elektron gear!

If you're looking to get started in the elektron world this and the samples are a perfect start.

Price is excellent, sound is quality. Can spend hours just creating beats. Great product!

Very immediate sound machine

Not the most versatile machine you'll find, but so fun and immediate. Great to learn about sequencing. Sound editing is reduced to a barebone but very effective kind of Fm, mostly for drum sounds. (Chords and leads are nice but are going to sound the more samey if you use them a lot) But mostly it sound great, the kicks are great, metallic or snare too. Sounds are quirky or deep. You should listen to audios on the internet first though because it's nos a style that will fit in every kind of music.

Elektron Model:Cycles

Total : model cycles Is a great way to enter the elektron world you can take advantage of the phenomenal sequencer and use it as the brain of your setup or just jam with it on its own.

Handling : Delivered perfectly

Features : It has almost all the quirky features elektron offers on their high end devices. especially the sequencer is just to love

Sound : Its an FM drum machine so it sounds a bit electric, harsh and raw from time to time but not every drum machine has to sound warm and analog. It has its own sound signature and character and it greatly owns it. Engines are a bit limiting but at the same time guiding as well.

Quality : It is plastic but it does not feel flimsy at all. of course in this price point you cannot expect a full metal body like some of the other elektron devices.

An intuitive and simple machine

I was afraid of diving into FM synthesis straightaway and wanted to get this as sort of an "entry-level Digitone", and I'm having so much fun with it. It can be a powerful drum machine or even a melodic synth if you want it to be. Of course the famous Elektron sequencer makes it even more powerful with the trig conditions and the ability to record parameter automations. It's made of plastic, but feels sturdy. Highly recommended for beginners!