The Model:Cycles offers an easy and affordable way in to Elektron-world, and has a sound all of its own.

Cycles is Elektron's second release in their 'Model' range, joining the Model:Samples. A lazy summary would call these entry-level Elektron devices. They are certainly more affordable than other Elektron products, but there's more to them than that: they stand out in the range in terms of portability and straightforward performance control.

Model:Cycles is a focused deployment of Elektron's Digitone synth technology; the result of their sitting down to make a sequenced synth groovebox without samples. They've packaged up the already accessible FM synth engine into six ready-to-play voices, each with four predefined macro controls. Driving these is a six-track sequencer, with all the familiar features and potential found on the other Elektron boxes.

New Model Army

In contrast to the metal militarism of the Digitakt and Digitone cases, the Model:Cycles is slim, lightweight and plastic. It feels reasonably rugged, though, and the stubby rubberised encoders are tough and stable. The backlit buttons are small and a bit wobbly, but you get used to them. The panel takes a similar approach to the Analog RYTM in having both 16 standard-issue 'trig' step buttons and velocity-sensitive drum pads. As on the RYTM, the larger pads require a finger-bruising poke to reach high velocities, and I couldn't find an option to change the sensitivity globally.

The unit comes with a small power supply. As on the Model:Samples, there are connection points for a forthcoming Power Handle (great metal band name) which will power the unit from AA batteries and provide a handle-cum-kickstand (great folk band name). The battery port accepted the connection from the small DC battery pack that I've used to run other Elektron boxes. You can't power it from the USB port, but I noticed the Model:Cycles only needs 5 Volts, so I tried a USB-to-DC cable into the regular power port and it worked! I guess Elektron chose not to allow power via USB as it tends to cause noise problems. The USB port provides MIDI comms with your computer, and lets you use the Cycles as a stereo audio interface. Sadly, there's no Overbridge for plug‑in-based control and DAW integration. However, you can stream audio using the audio interface feature, and I like that you can choose not to include the effects. Unfortunately, I never got this to work.

The panel has a small display controlled entirely from a single push encoder. On the larger Elektron devices, all sound controls are based around screen pages. On the Models, nearly all sound-design parameters have dedicated encoders, which is fantastic. The compromise is that you have fewer parameters, and when you do need to use the screen, it's pretty fiddly.

The working structure will be familiar for Elektron users. The basic building blocks are Patterns, which store a six-track sequence, but also all sound, effect and modulation settings. Projects contain 96 patterns. There are six sound channels or tracks, each of which triggers one of the six sound types, called 'machines' in keeping with the RYTM and Octatrack. Assignment is free-form: you could have any machine on any track, and use the same type on multiple tracks. You can also parameter lock (automate) the engine selection so the sound type can change within each track per step if you like.

Though tones can be played melodically (monophonically), the Cycles is primarily set up like a drum machine. Trigs placed on the step buttons play a designated pitch, as do the performance pads. You can adjust pitch per step easily enough, though, and in live recording mode, you can capture a melodic sequence using the trig buttons as a makeshift keyboard. External keyboards can be used to record live, or to quickly enter note values into steps.

Sounds

The Model:Cycles has a sound preset library, which is navigated a little awkwardly via the screen and encoder. It's organised by category, and is useful for getting an idea of the range of sounds available. Elektron devices don't tend to do Kits as a concept very well. Here, the closest thing is the ability to load a folder of six presets in one go. Saving your own kits in this format is reasonably straightforward.

But I barely touched the library, as it's so easy and so much fun to dial in your own sounds. The six sound machines in Cycles are Kick, Snare, Metal, Percussion, Tone and Chord. Each comprises an algorithm built from the 4-voice FM synth engine, along with four macro controls for adjusting key parameters. These Macros are adjusted with the Color, Shape, Sweep and Contour encoders, named vaguely enough to cover some quite different assignments within the different patches.

Kick can provide a typical range of electronic kick sounds with a distinctly clean and solid character, but can be stretched further into extreme industrial noise. With long decays, or with the Gate mode in the sustain hold mode, it will happily serve for 808 bass tones. Unfortunately, there's no glide!

Snare has a decent range, too, from fairly realistic to traditionally synthetic, and can do metallic clonks or tom-like tones as well. Metal is set up for hi-hats and other cymbals, which it does very nicely. With low modulation it can work for detuned melodic synth tones, too.

Percussion is best for pitched percussive sounds, from low tubs to higher clanks and plops. Tone is the most conventionally FM-like patch, with two operators that you can set a ratio and modulation amount for, and some filter and envelope control to rein it in.

The Chord algorithm is the most fun, and the one you'll probably hear on a lot of tracks in the next year or so! The two primary macros here choose a chord and which notes are played. There's a huge range of chords to choose from, from basic unison, through familiar chords, and on to exotic territory. All four FM operators are employed for the individual voices — a single encoder dials in how many, and which variation or inversion is used. Sounds complicated, but you just twiddle until it's good!

All the sounds have Pitch and Decay controls and sends to the two (sweet) Decay and Reverb effects. There's also a dedicated LFO Speed dial and a Volume + Dist knob. This latter pushes the gain into a soft saturation; overall level and pan are track settings accessed on the screen.

Beyond Decay, the only control you have over envelopes is to toggle whether sounds trigger and decay instantly, or sustain while a note is held. The only assignable modulation you have is a single LFO per track. This has suitable shapes and trigger sync'ing to be used like an envelope if necessary. LFO assignment is easy: you hold the LFO button, then turn an encoder for the parameter you wish to modulate. Keep turning to set the depth. The big limitation (or simplification if you want to be more positive) is that the LFO can only be assigned to one thing at a time. Velocity is the other available mod source, although you need to use the display to assign this.

Finally, there's a Punch button (I realised the loo-roll icon was actually a boxing glove) which adds boost and distortion to sounds. Like just about everything, this can be added to specific notes by simply holding a step and pressing the button. In this way it becomes a very effective and pleasing Accent control, over and above velocity variations.

Sequences

The sequencer is the full Elektron family sequencer. As with all the other devices, the transport is always in Playback, Step Record or Live Record modes. You can record unquantised, and you have full timing nudge control over steps. I love the non-destructive quantise feature. Patterns can be up to 64 steps, across four pages. You can adjust the step resolution away from the standard 16th notes to get loops longer than four bars. Tracks can all have different lengths.

Parameter locking is the key to the power of the Elektron sequencer. It means you can stamp the level of any parameter at any step, simply by holding the step and adjusting the controls. The most fundamental parameter lock is the step's note (set with the main encoder) but more complex settings such as the machine type and LFO assignments can be locked too. Up to 80 different parameters can be automated within a pattern(!), and in fact you can lock entire preset changes, which effectively changes every parameter at once.

There's a Retrigger button, which, very usefully, can have different settings for each track. Even better is that you can lock Retriggers to steps for ratchets, and can lock a speed, length and level fade-out for each instance — great for beat-repeat effects.

Conditional Locks are another trademark Elektron feature. These are trigger parameters that determine whether a trigger plays or not. The most common ways these are used is to set up Fill pattern variations, and to introduce randomness. All this is accessed from the Chance encoder, the default function of which is to apply a percentage randomness to all trigs on the current track. With the Func (Shift) modifier, this encoder accesses the other conditions that can be applied to individual steps, starting with Fill. This one-knob method takes what can be quite an esoteric feature on most Elektron instruments and makes it a whole lot more accessible.

It's the easiest Elektron device to master, and once you do you can quickly lay down interesting rhythmic parts with dynamic movement, and then jam out a performance.

Life Cycle

You could go a long way with the Model:Cycles sequencer following the traditional workflow of creating and launching Pattern variations. (It's a shame you don't have the Analog RYTM's Direct Jump or Temp Jump Pattern trigger modes, but to be fair, neither do the Digitone or Digitakt). But what really brings things to life is setting up dynamic movement within Patterns, and interacting with them in real time.

For example, you can punch in some hi-hats, then quickly lock longer decay times to some of the trigs. Now you have open hats interspersed. Now try adjusting one of the other macros on a few steps and you get interesting expression. Maybe you could open the delay send on a step, or toggle the gate mode. Very quickly, mad things can start to happen.

What would be really useful when experimenting like this is an Undo function. There isn't a standard Undo other than for Copy and Paste operations, but there's something close that can be even better at times. A button shortcut can perform a Temp Save of the current Pattern, while another shortcut Reloads the Pattern. These can be used for creative performances and experimentations, allowing you to go off on a flight of fancy, generally messing up all your settings, then instantly returning to the stored snapshot.

The classic use for this Reload function is to recover after using the All button (actually the Track button). Holding this modifier while making changes applies them to all tracks. It's surprising how useful this trick is for creating breakdowns, build-ups and weird variations. A more mundane feature that I found myself using all the time for jamming is that holding any track's pad works as a temporary mute. That is, unless you latched Retrigger on for the track, which is itself a great impromptu fill maker.

Conclusion

The Model:Cycles reminds me of some of my all-time favourite little grooveboxes, like Korg's ER-1 and the rhythmic synths in Reaktor's classic library. It's the easiest Elektron device to master, and once you do, you can quickly lay down interesting rhythmic parts with dynamic movement, and then jam out a performance. Just like with the ER-1, I really enjoyed trying to push it into weird territory to see what it can do. As the sound is novel and distinctive, I found myself worrying that it might be too recognisable and over-used on the next year of electronic music releases, but then realised what a crazy thought that was against the backdrop of 808s and 303s. Of course it doesn't have the range of the Digitone, and the lack of Overbridge is a shame. But it has a focus and immediacy that mean I'd probably end up using this much more, especially for live performance or jamming.