Model:Cycles Review // The Pros and Cons 

If you're here for the jam, it starts at @28:00 !! - Thanks for chillin.

Finally an Electron device no one mentions the expression "learning curve"

"I don't have an FM synth at all" ... "oh, I have a Digitone"

I just wanted to say that I love your videos! Your calm voice is really nice and I am always looking forward to get home and see your videos when a new one is released. Thanks you!

Dude, that jam at the end. So chill but still hype. LOVE THIS BOX.

27:08 😂 this is what happens when you buy too many synths

Thanks for another thoughtful and honest review, Ricky. You did a great job pointing out some of the limitations. Looking forward to getting mine soon. Hope you’re doing well.

FYI you can transpose the keyboard with FUNC+TRACK, without needing to use the pitch knob. I think it might also possible to do pseudo-poly midi sequencing by extending note lengths in the sequencer so they overlap, but I haven't tried this with a polysynth yet. Edit: Yep, it works! Maybe you could even get multiple notes playing on top of each other by nudging them.

Your reviews are always good. They make feel pros and cons both for the studio and live playing. We catch the whole spirit of the machine and the details that make it great or will make or life a misery. Or at least or gigs. Thanks a lot.

Just a quick notes of thank Mr. Tinez. Enjoy your content and your chill personal vibe almost as much as I enjoy your jams. Keep them coming and greetings from the great white north (Canada).

Never watched one of your videos before. This was great!! You’re like having a good friend giving you the lowdown on a piece of gear. Thank you! Definitely subscribing.

Yo! you the man, great to see how you've expanded and how you share man, you get better and better, respect your approach, perspective and insight. Quality through and through. Been finally looking into gear, so was interested in this, not yet sure still, but your video has been the best for me overall. Thanks for the premium 2months as well, been teaching myself keys, this will come in major for me, well stated too bout chords! :) bless

Another superb video, excellent review, extremely informative as always! Thank you so much! Looking forward to more videos to come!

Thanks for the upfront pros/cons rundown. Since I already have a Digitone, my only justification points for this seem to be re-trig abilities and additional drum-dedicated tracks - also hoping the simpler workflow will be a pleasant surprise for beat-making.

Great stuff! Your explanations are always so clear and your videos are always shot so nice!

Thanks for another great review Ricky. I feel like you fully explored it to help us really understand.

Love your videos man, such a chill vibe.

Best review of this on RU-vid in my opinion. Ricky's the real deal. I enjoy the Samples and I'm picking one of these up even though I also have a Digitakt and Digitone. The knob-per-function stuff is just fun. I do wish you could pattern lock panning.

I honestly think out of all the guys reviewing tech gear you are the best! Such a great honest warts and all approach. Well done on getting onto piano... your music is gonna take off! I'm a pianist and I struggle with the new tech... been doing this since 1985, own all kinds of old analogues and know them inside out but I think modern gear is perplexing... i.e. Digitakt, MPC Live et al... guys like you help me through it all..

Great honest review once again, killing it at the moment

Great review! I’m into audio over USB in a big way now and love the fact I get super clean audio direct into Logic Pro and it’s plugins.

What I love about you Ricky is your ability to relate to how we use these machines in real life. Learning curve and all. Another great video. I have DigitoneKeys which I really like but will buy this for travelling fun and jam fun. And sadly, this means I will likely sell my Circuit..

Great job Rick, you do good reviews that is one of your strong points

At the end i was like nooo cowbell... well voice got stucked and went to a smile. Dude, much love!

Cycles Vs Digitone - only other cons Ive seen so far. No Arp on Cycles, and the ability to have one track play another track on Digitone is pretty dope. Being able to turn on an arp and have one track play another track is an incredible feature. Model cycles seems like it has a lot to offer in other ways and hopefully they'll have a lot of updates too.

3:20 - You have to enter the Track Menu (Shift + Track) and turn "KbT" up or down.

I'm just happy your review didn't land at on the same day as everyone else, a wall of Model:Cycles review doesn't make it easy to see the genuine comments from the "sponsored video" aspect!

@8:52 "Maybe I didn't play as much of a variation as I hoped" Nope, you definitely did!

i'm loving your little jam at 30:00 - so good!

Just ordered mine today cant wait! and thanks for the content

Thanks for the video! Helpful since I just got one a few days ago. I really like it, chromatic mode on is really cool like you said and the sequencer and parameter locking(?) takes this to a different place than drum machines since you can have multiple notes on the same track. Or you could have six tracks of the same source instrument with different tones/effects/parameters! That's awesome! I'm just an amateur who plays with electronic instruments so I am easily impressed LOL especially for $300. plus it's my first Elektron. Love your videos!

I like how every attempt to dive into a con branched out into multiple pros or cool things before getting to the actual con haha. Just speaks to how awesome the unit is, I guess.

Reminds me of the dx200 loop station which I wish I had never got rid of, nothing else does hats like it, but it sounds like this might. Great Jam at the end by the way. Love your work, thanks man.

I really appreciate your vast knowledge of these machines. Your review of the model samples was a big reason I bought one. It's really fine. I had the same feeling about this one that you mentioned as your first con, not a lot of unique sounds, and for me, not the type of sounds I would use. Still, I want one. Good job.

I saw your "if I lived on an island" kit, and there was an ad for "Djeco Toy Piano & Synthesizer" and thought that was one of your pieces of kit. totally awesome lol.

I've had mine for a few weeks now, and I can confirm that the T1-T6 Track Pad velocity sensitivity is not good (the 16 Trigger pads, though not velocity sensitive, have a nice light touch). Hitting the T1-T6 Track Pads, hard enough to get a sound out of them, makes my finger and wrist joints, hurt after a short while (quick way to get carpal tunnel syndrome). The minimum threshold, for just getting them to trigger at all, is way to high for me. I have developed a few workarounds for this... 1) Go into the Pad/Vel Menu, and leave the Fix-OFF, then turn the VDep, all the way down to 0. This keeps the volume of each track pad hit, loud, while still allowing the modulation destination, to respond to velocity. (NOTE: if you set Fix to a number, then the modulation destination, no longer responds to velocity). (NOTE: Pad settings only effect the T1-T6 Track Pads, and have no effect on the 16 Trigger Pads, the 16 Trigger Pads always send max velocity). 2) If you want to use the Track Pads for velocity, use a yarn/felt covered marimba mallet, or some other soft, heavy item, to smash the Track Pads with. 3) Forget about Velocity on the Track Pads, and only use them for selecting the active track. Then use the 16 Trigger Pads, for recording your hits. This has three advantages: First, it will save your finger and wrist joints. Second, it allows you to vary the pitch of your triggers. And Last, all your triggers will sound a max velocity, even with a light touch (you can change the volume of each hit manually afterword). Until (if ever) Elektron releases a firmware update to address this problem, I hope these workarounds help.

The elektron family seems really cool, and model:cycles seems like a really good starter point. I hope you make addition cycles videos!

Nice to hear your thoughts on this box. Great video.

Nice review, Ricky. Appreciate your candor. I think I might stick with my Digitakt for now. Still got a lot to learn. I like the format of this one but maybe a tad redundant for me? Cheers

This convinced me to finally get my first Elektron box. Been holding out hope for a modern take on the ultra-deep platforms that put them on the map, but they seem to be going in the opposite direction. Went with MD UW, with OT, AK and MM next on my list. Prob not going to see anymore devices like those classics, so I imagine they’ll only go up in price in the coming years.

Thanks for the review Ricky. Just on the resolution thing, I imagine its same as digitakt. if you halve the clock division to make a 16 step pattern last for 32 steps, it's still only 16 steps because you have to be able to edit each step. The non quantized recordings are pretty impressive but it's really just setting the microtiming for you. If quantizing is on the microtiming ill always be recorded at 0. So you are halving the resolution when you halve the clock division, which is fine for pads etc. The upside to this is if you double the clock division you do increase the resolution, it would give you 32 editiable steps an access to 32 microtimings on a 16 step sequence, when editing that track you just have to use the page button for that track. At the event you got it from Ess said one of the machines has wavetable scanning (I don't have a digitone but I think this is unique to the cycles, I think you can also use LFO to cycle though chord types which would be unique right). I intend to get a digitone but I'd still like the cycles as well for quick fm drums and the wavetable tones etc, Seems to have potentional for some sweet chip tune tracks especially since you can plock in different machines per step for that c64 vibe.

Sometimes, less is more. Thanks for doing what you do.

Regarding Global Mutes being both a pro and a con (and I agree), for the 'studio production' workflow you described, the simplest way to get the 'mute to live with the pattern' is to use the volume knob for that track. Not quite the same of course, but it allows you to use it effectively for song arrangement. Just copy a pattern to a bunch of slots, as you said, then play with the volume of each track, then pattern chain them all together. This is how I've settled into a nice workflow with the Model:Samples, so I assume it is the same for the Model:Cycles. The missing feature that would REALLY lock this into being a powerful song arrangement workflow is the ability to save and recall pattern chains...

Digitone is real DOPE and Im gonna marry it with the cycles which is arriving tomorrow 😎🙏 I'd love to see you using the Ottobit Jr with the Cycles 😊 Thanks for the review and synth love!

FM based drum machine. that's the most succinct description of this machine I've come across. I couldn't figure out why I thought it was limited in a way that made bying the Digitone a better purchase for FM synthesis, but your description nails it. But it also puts it a better light if you think of it as a strictly percussive FM synth then it seems interesting again, if that makes sense. Great video. Thanks for making it.

There are many auditory illusions my friend but I have never heard of an ear-lusion; I love it man!

Totally agree about the velocity thing... but even more so, I wish there was a way to lock a pad to the "little keys." Because live, or even just composing, I usually only ever want to use the chromatic keys on one track anyway. Especially when finger drumming live and stuff... itd be ideal to just keep the tone or chord machine locked onto the keys.

I'm gas'n hard for this for some reason even though I already own digitakt and digitone. It's just different enough and has such a straight forward approach that I really want it.

I just ordered another novation circuit . The circuit is just so much fun. Having two is going to be very interesting.

Lol man, it’s hard to walk away from sweet gear. Presently, I’m trying not to buy a vintage Korg Delta synth, which I know is rubbish, but can’t shake loose. Nice disclaimer and fair play to ya for purchasing. Appreciated, Ricky.

The effects on all the newer Elektron boxes are sends if I’m not mistaken, with the Octatrack being the outlier. One of the reasons I love the Monomachine!

Great video, Ricky!

Remember tomorrow is the anniversary of The Gong People. Our humble origins from these giant metal disks should not be forgotten. Let us raise a glass of sand to honour our forefathers of the Gong.

Fade in - "I know I should not have gone to that event..." | Gold.

Great video as always. Thanks buddy.

Speaking of Jomox, I’m obsessed with his Alpha Base, it truly seems like the ultimate drum machine, the last one you’ll ever need, the one to make all your others collect dust. But for 2k it’s such a serious investment. Ever had hands on with it?

Ricky Tinez meminds me of: "speak softly and carry a big stick [AKA drum machine]; you will go far."

Thanks for the deep-dive on this, dude. Thinking about getting one, but wanted to ask if you’d had any joy pairing it up with other external bits, like a monosyth for sequenced bass or an SP404 or similar? Thanks for all the inspiration! Peace. x

'damn i guess i just played it super on' nice flex also great video i really love this machine!

27:26 thanks for reassuring me to sell my digitone...i feel the EXACT same way about it

Fantastic analysis. Sub'd and clicked the bell! GJ!

Nice balanced detailed review. I find the Analog Rytm too complicated and too much hassle. This actually seems more appealing in the same way you prefer it to your Digitone. I was wondering about the Alphabase though although that might have the same problem. A Vermona DRM with sequencer could be nice with just 1 knob per function, no menus, searching, saving etc. I had way more fun on the simple Arturia Drumbrute than the AR.

I'm still waiting for OT mk3. I'll never buy anything else. This is the fight between me and elektron.

3:41 exactly what we need on the novation circuit tracks!

Hey man loved the vid and jam at the end was great! I'm pretty new to this whole drum machine thing and as a guitar player I've got a ton of pedals that I'd like to try and use with this type of machine. Would the model cycles take guitar pedals like reverb and delay?

Elektron's Elektribe... Oversynth make some great overlays for the Cycles and Samples, also some of those overlays help define the different sections, as well as the white and black piano keys down the bottom.

Rad jam, as always!

Great review thanks just what I was looking for .Totes on the ear-lusion

the pro 3 just sitting chilling, always on in the background >_

Ricky is Epic

Thanks for the Review! What light are you using? What are these beautiful cables hanging on the left? They are normal sized jacks, right?

I own a Digitone, due to work/family i don't get to use it as much as id like and when i do use it i spend more time having to re-learn it, so like you I've ordered a cycles for more instant gratification, I'm not bothered about the live aspect i'm more record into Ableton and chop up.

I love mine. I think everyone is discussing the limitations in the sound design but for me it’s distinctive sounding. Like you said, the Juno 106 only ever sounds like a Juno 106 and people pay a fortune for an original one to get that sound.

Great video bro!

Nice overview. Can you set the step length to odd time signatures (7/8 etc.) or is it only multiples of 16? I'm trying to figure this out before I buy it.

yo, cool vid. Do you have any experience with the model:samples? I have a few synths and i use ableton as master clock, but I'm looking for something where I can load my own samples into and create grooves/ideas quickly and later make full tracks out of them. I'm looking at model:samples to serve this purpose, do you have any other suggestions? also was looking at digitakt but that might be overkill? would love your thoughts. peace

Great review. Can’t wait for mine to get here Monday so I can match it up with my MD & MnM!

You could probably couple this with a 909-style drummachine and a mixer. Think of the ravenous techno possibilities!

From this point forward I will always put delay and reverb on my cowbell. Good call 👌

This is a good review. Also, I had no interest in this an hour ago and now I want one. Ugh. :)

About the global FX, in Sonicstate's review he mentioned that modulation of the delay time can be accessed via MIDI parameter. Don't know the details myself, but it's something to look into if you want more control than what's available from the UI. Wonder if the manual mentions any other "hidden features" for the reverb. I agree, it would be great if they just added pre-delay to the reverb, through some shift function or whatever. Even a one-trick reverb pony needs up to +/-100 ms of pre-delay!

Those two boxes remind me of the blue and red Electribe in their prime. Immediate, self-sufficient, totally assuming their techno heritage. It's the perfect free party instrument.

Great video, Ricky. I assume you found out how to transpose keyboard octaves by now. TRK MENU > KbT +/-

Oh yeah - a magician at work ! damn Ricky - you ALWAYS make it seem SO easy !!!! Its UNFAIR ! 🤣

Great video! have the MPC One, use it to control all the other instruments. Though I also use a PC to actually finish songs or add digital instruments I cannot get on analog gear. Would you recommend Cycles considering that or Samples? Also can be easily used for more regular music producing instead of more live evolving sounds? I mostly mean like traditional produced music that has electronic instruments instead of electronic music which is quite different in how it is produced.

Another fantastic and informative video my brother!! Thank You!! Im still thinking if I should get a SAMPLES or a CYCLES?? But, Im thinking the SAMPLES because I wanted to load in a lot of parts I been creating on my DAW !! Can you sample into the CYCLES?

This looks like it will be easier for me, than the more expensive models. Thanks!

Nice review as usual! Just a question: there's only one LFO, but the sequencer has motion recording lanes per track, right?

Shift+Track will let you transpose “keyboard” and set the key for the Pad itself.

Hey ricky! thanks for all your work. I just try to get into DAWless and its sometimes overwhelming. I have not even bought a single synth yet... thats how bad it is. Off topic question: what headphones do you use in this video?

Like it a lot! Great review. But I think the FM engine in my old Machinedrum more or less covers that...

Cool Box, Cant wait to see what the next one in the line up will be :)

Can you control other synths and daws with its sequencer via MIDI (I mean sending MIDI notes not only MIDI clock) like with Electribe 2 and Novation Circuit? Thanks

Can you imagine if they implimented that 4 track method you mentioned, then added the other 2 on the USB? They could call it "underbridge" lmao

Theres one for 280 in my city and im very tempted to buy it. I originally wanted the digitone, but this is half the price and apparently plays better with the ipad, so it might be a better interim option while i save more for the digitone

Nice vid! How about show it in context of live setup? Like Model Cycles and Novation Circuit go into Octatrack, which is mixer/EFX. might be a fun setup?

How do you feel about this vs the circuit? Seems like two different beats but from your live-set point of view (sampler+groovebox+monosynth) would this swap out easily with the circuit?

Hi Ricky, thanks for the no frills video, potentially a silly question but I’m still new to the midi game, could I use this as a sequencer midi out for other synths? Sorry if I’ve worded that wrong!

Nice approach, wanna try this thing 😁👍

23:29 you mean a cue mix? that'd be awesome to create an additional set of mono outputs. I just tried the panning trick on the stereo pair and was immediately impressed with how it added another dimension to my pattern when I added mixer effects.