Pros of model:cycles

Elektron Gear Model:Cycles
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Hello, What are the advantages of model cycles over digitone1 other than price ?

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  • Knob per function makes it quick to get something up and going
  • easier to carry around, if that’s important to you.
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Has the drum type of machines. With the digitone you are looking at presets only for quick and ready drum sounds. The machines allow you to vary the sound whilst it still being say a kick drum.

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I genuinely love the build of the models. The plasticky case looks great and feels really durable. Not that the digis arent, as they are built like tanks, but conversely i always feel like i have to be a lot more delicate with them for some reason.

Knob-per-function means its really tweakable/playable, so can be more hands-on than finesse-ing a sound etc on the digitone

Something to do with the noise floor of the output (??) means it can be pushed into quite a pleasant distortion if you want it to

Other than that i cant think of any. I found that i quickly got a bit tired of the samey-ness of the cycles palette, and once youve used a digitone (or for that matter a syntakt, which i think elements of which more closely resembles the cycles) then youll quickly feel yourself wanting more from it. flexibility, sound design etc etc. BUT- yeh its fun and playable and durable, and more immediate than a digi

EDIT: oo just remembered, higher track count on the cycles. Tho that said, part of teh fun with the DN1 is in sound-locking etc to circumvent the small track count. but still…

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Ratchets
Mostly knob-per-function
Related to that, less menu diving
Touch-sensitive pads (though they’re not very good)

It is a more limited box, but that means I need to be more creative to get things out of it. I find that inspiring.

Subjectively, I find it more fun. I prefer the Digitone for sound design, but the Cycles is more fun to make music with.

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Small detail, but I believe both Model Cycles and Samples can have swing set per track, while the Digi Series (at least the first generation) has only global (per pattern) swing.

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I personally prefer the sound of a model:cycles to the sound of digitone. But I’m guessing I’m in the minority here. Digitone for sure has a lot more going for it in all other respects, if you’re agonizing whether to go for a brand new m:c or a second hand digitone, I’d say digitone will be a better way to spend the money…

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My deep lore: I’m a past Digitone 1 and Syntakt user. Newly a DigiTakt 1 also (which I’m using more for granular loop, breakbeats than single drum hits).

I recently sold my Digitone to a friend. The reasoning: the Syntakt can do some fm drum sounds and chords. My eurorack stuff can do (some of the Digitone’s weirdness) and ethereal nonsense. Both feed the DigiTakt.

I might sell the Syntakt and buy a Model Cycles. The logic being … I’m mostly sampling loops, that I later effect and mangle in the box, through hardware etc anyway. I would probably rather have velocity sensitive pads than the (admittedly excellent) effects bus of the Syntakt.

Am I crazy?

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The Digitone (like all the Digis) is a pretty nice midi sequencer and fx box for other gear.

Can the Cycles get weird and glitchy like the Digitone?

I really need to play with one.

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faster to make beats, less weight to carry around, more tracks. Oriented as an FM drum machine, and/or as an FM monosynth.

Digitone: a full fledge FM synth, but you need to get creative to make it work as a drum machine easily with 4 tracks. better on virtually all aspects except track count I think.

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They’re different boxes, I don’t think either replaces the other.

What I like about the Model:Cycles in no particular order-

  • Lower power requirement from the processor (longer battery life)
  • (Mostly) 1 knob per function!
  • Lower rendering rate/depth gets to a nice scraggly lo-fi FM implementation
  • Headroom is also lowered, the box seems properly tuned for creative overdrive/clipping that can “glue” a full track to itself
  • Size means that it’s perfect for travel, I can bring it out with me to another country + some headphones and feel vibes sunning myself in the park
  • Sometimes less is more, I can transform and do a lot at composition-level over getting over-fussy on an individual track

In its own way, absolutely. It can be a chonky, brassy little critter, the lower-res rendering means that it’ll be a little middier in tone, less high frequency sheen/crispness than the Digitone.