Model:Cycles 5 (Sequencer Logic)

[@ColectivoLaberintos]

Hello, Inspiring content in your channel! ...I'm new to these hardware devices. I've mostly been a software user. So, from a structural point of view: does this sequencer allows to compose full tracks? I mean, is it similar as composing with a MIDI piano roll? And does it allows to playback compositions with many different fixed sections (A A B C C A...)...? 😋

[@undulations]

@@ColectivoLaberintos I guess it comes down to personal preferences about workflow and sound design. Maybe it's more like a tracker than a piano roll? Lots of parallels. I feel like there are probably some things like precise and continuous control of note duration and parameter automation lanes that a DAW can do, this device not, but the sequencer is generally quite powerful. A limit of 6 tracks but parameter locking (a type of automation) and fx can help make a really full sound. And being able to do it all from a custom hardware interface is really nice, a powerful aspect of this sort of box. As for longer works? Yes, absolutely. You can chain patterns and multiples of patterns together as a program - or do the jumping from A to B, for example, in real time (either instantly or at the end of a pattern, keeping in time). Beyond that, the randomization aspects of the M:C can allow you to make small complex loops that never quite play the same way, giving another pathway to longer musical creations. For example, I made a single loop that has randomization in the drums, chord stabs, and melody - I recorded an hour of it and enjoy listening to that on occasion. I think there is a Short of it on the channel, check it out as an example.

[@ColectivoLaberintos]

@@undulations thank you for your reply and for your helpful videos 👍🏽

[@jahovahjira]

I returned my M C. But after watching your excellent tutorials I'm ordering it again. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks a lot for checking them out🙏🏼!

[@rgrant]

I just found out something interesting my mistake: If you first chain patterns together you can then live record into those chained patterns, so theoretically you can record really long sequences, you aren't limited to record into only one pattern at a time.

[@undulations]

Wow! That is a really great feature - thanks a lot for sharing🙏🏼!

[@rgrant]

@@undulations So potentially a 1024 step sequence! Not sure when I would use it and you would have to chain the patterns each time but that isn't too hard to do. Recording live modulation doesn't work as well as it jumps back to default values at the start of each new pattern, so my workflow would be to set up the sounds on one pattern, then copy that pattern across and then live record into it. I love your idea of using these machine for really long tracks of hours in length.

[@undulations]

Richard Grant Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts on all of this. I was wondering about how to implement parameter locking across patterns. I feel like the conditional trigs are quite powerful, but it has all made me think about the ‘choke group’ feature on the Volca Drum: giving, for example, track 1 priority over tracks 2-6, and 2 priority over 3-6, etc. - with the ability to leave tracks out of this entirely. Seemed very flexible for such a simple concept. Anyway, thanks again!

[@martinsouthall]

My Cycles should be arriving in a couple of days, and I can't wait to start making noise with it. Thanks so much for your videos!

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Enjoy your Cycles👍🏻!

[@jorgeramos8553]

You know the videos are great when you finished a hole series and you want more. Thanks a lot for your work sir. Truly inspiring!

[@undulations]

That's high praise,🙏🏼! I'm planning on doing a short video about data management in the coming months, so I guess the series isn't technically over🤔 Thanks again for watching!

[@13jonx]

Your videos go deeper into the possibilities that actually make it interesting.

[@undulations]

13jonx Many thanks for the feedback🙏🏼!

[@MichaelFurnesFilms]

Thanks for all the 5 videos on the M:C! Helped me so much to understand what it is capable off, I make mostly industrial and acid techno and my productions have become better just from these videos :)

[@undulations]

Awesome! Thank you very much for the feedback!

[@MarkAllentheProducer]

Great content, couldn’t concentrate with your first scene looking like someone was going to grab you from behind through the dark doorway 🤣

[@undulations]

Hah, thank you for checking out the video🙏🏼 Nope, all good here... wait, what was that sound? I don't remember leaving my synth on...

[@remkm1715]

I love you for going so in depth, really learn a lot, also thanks for sharing the creative approaches that Elektron lets you take.These is just so much paths to explore. btw, double tab retrig button to turn it on or off, no need to turn the blue knob :) this machine..

[@undulations]

Hah, thanks - I'm always wondering about stuff like that :) Thanks for checking out the videos🙏!

[@EggZema_]

Getting mine delivered tomorrow, Im getting myself prepared with your videos 😃

[@undulations]

Cool! Have fun!

[@wilmerparis2202]

where did u get yours? they’re unavailable everywhere :0

[@EggZema_]

Wilmer Paris I think I was lucky and just ordered when the new batch arrived in a store in the Netherlands. The shops name is Tonecontrol. But if you life somewhere else i dont know if its easy to order from here.

[@undulations]

Wilmer Paris I ordered mine from Perfect Circuit, but that was a few months ago. I checked there and it’s listed as “arriving soon” or such - so idk :(

[@jolieuke]

Thanks ! I've never really understand NEI and used only the % conditions. With your tutorial it's now very clear and finally more simple than I thought.

[@undulations]

You are very welcome!

[@toffchunks]

i would like to thk you again for this amazing series about model cycle great masterclass to me!!! This last one so clear and accessible thks again :-)

[@undulations]

Awesome! Glad to hear it! Thanks for going through the whole thing😀!

[@toffchunks]

@@undulations Thks to you !!!! Great work 🔥🔥🔥 Thks for sharing your deep knowledge

[@dariusmorgan8302]

The perfect video manual! Thanks. Definitely 'not awful'..lol

[@undulations]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@gomchenlama]

Thanks a lot for the tutorial. It is plenty of new ideas to get interesting and original sequences.

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks very much for checking it out🙏🏼!

[@TristanBaldi]

I keep coming back to your channel, it's the greatest source of in depth info, really. I can't thank you enough. I'd love you to get your hands on a Pulsar 23 by Soma, I'm sure you'd do some insane music with it, and even greater videos. It's a budget tho, but the more I discover this synth the more I'm blown away!

[@undulations]

Hey, thanks a lot for this feedback, means a lot! I've looked at some Soma gear (the Lyra 8, which seems amazing) so I'm sure the Pulsar 23 is super cool. Will take a look. Thanks again for checking out the channel!

[@urbanwikstrom9246]

Thanks! I have the Model:Samples and about to get the Cycles. I find your tutorials really great. I hate reading manuals. This is way better! I`m new to synths and samplers at age 57. Been playing guitar for 40 years. This is really fun! Cheers!

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks for checking out the videos. I'm sure all of your guitar experience will make the most important part of all of this - the music part - seem familiar. Enjoy your new "bandmates"!

[@steinmeister_]

thank you so much for these videos about model:cycles! it’s so thorough and well explained! i couldn’t thank you enough for the work you’ve done!

[@undulations]

Hey, you're welcome! Thanks very much for the feedback🙏🏼!

[@canti505]

Great video, thank you! Your use of PRE and NEI opened my imagination up to a bunch of new stuff! Someone's probably mentioned this already but there's a shortcut to copying and pasting trigs -- you don't need to hold the FUNC button. I guess the logic is you're already holding down the trig button so you're not going to be using the transport controls at that time.

[@undulations]

Ah, makes sense, thanks! And thank you for checking out the video🙏🏼

[@Uherhsen]

Thank you, I saw in your video how to edit the parameters in GRID RECORDING mode! (For some reason I missed this combination of buttons) And yet, there is a handy function if the sequence didn't hit the right step: [TRACK] + turn LEVEL/DATA to move all trigs a whole step, left or right (when in GRID RECORDING mode) there are also interesting things regarding the length of the steps after which you switch the pattern in the chain, this is in the menu: Scale Setup (FUNC + PAGE)->Chg. This parameter allows you to play a pattern several times before it switches to the next one (either in a chain or manually.).

[@undulations]

These tips are great info! Thanks for posting; I'll pin the comment📌.

[@cuerampart2886]

now I am comfortable with the cycles thanks to you! ran into that problem of pressing track where it sounds haha relieved to know it's solved by holding down track before. Excellent as always.

[@undulations]

Cue Rampart Hey, that is great to hear! I appreciate you watching🙏🏼. I feel like at some point I need to circle back to the Model:Samples, apply some of this stuff there🤔.

[@thomp9054]

I'm getting mine tomorrow. Real pumped!

[@undulations]

Nice👍🏻!

[@aaaper5522]

i ordered this piece of gear yesterday - fell asleep while working today and woke up at the end of this video during your bird piece. i was unnerved, but then saw it was you. of course it was you. LOL

[@undulations]

Yeah, the bird sounds are kind of unsettling. I kind of got used to it after enough listening. Thanks for checking it out!

[@zool8looz806]

Just discovered you channel. Love everything about it, thanks for putting in the time :)

[@undulations]

You're welcome! Thanks very much for the feedback and checking out the channel🙏🏼!

[@domdib]

Excellent detailed explanation. Many thanks!

[@undulations]

You're welcome, thanks for checking it out!

[@donl3364]

Your track with the birds, ideal backdrop sound for the Great pyramid of Giza...spooky..

[@undulations]

Wow, that is kind of creepy just to think about😳! Thanks for checking it out!

[@bobthomp8478]

Thanks I never would have found all of these great techniques anywhere. Great ! Please do make a data management tutorial. I need to know how to backup patterns in case my MC gets stolen, which is possible. Thanks again

[@undulations]

Thank you for watching🙏🏼

[@paulbrocklehurst7253]

Love the spooky track at the end!

[@undulations]

Thank you🙏🏼!

[@MODERNDAYROCKERS]

picked this up great videos bro

[@undulations]

Thank you much!

[@howardgreenwich490]

Whoohoo! Bastl Kastle!

[@fso.]

Increible, muchas gracias.

[@undulations]

Thank you for watching🙏🏼!

[@fso.]

muy buena explicacion

[@undulations]

Thank you🙏🏼!

[@GeorgeL909]

These vids are so good. Thanks a metric ton for them. I only have the Samples, but that thing has been blowing my mind, using it as the meat of my tracks, sometimes outside the box as a 6 voice drone machine, and even some nasty sludgy “doom metal” sounds just for fun thanks to the amazing pitch algorithm and reverb. These machines are so much more than meets the eye, and your vids help illuminate that!

[@undulations]

GeorgeL909 Glad to hear that! I really appreciate the feedback🙏🏼 ps I feel like I need to go back to the Samples after doing these Cycles videos - a lot of new things to try🤔!

[@mathmanmrt]

my wife gave me a model:cycles for an anniversary present two weeks ago. i've been learning it and enjoying it but i've run into a problem. i'm trying to create a chain but for some reason when i play it back it only plays the first 16 steps of the first pattern while playing the full 64 steps of the second pattern. since i was trying to do a piece based on a tone-row with its retrograde it's modestly irritating. i feel sure i'm missing some small detail but i'm following the directions as written in the manual. would you have any thoughts on what i might be doing wrong? edited to add: in my most recent attempt it now plays only the first 16 steps of each pattern. Thanks ahead of time for any advice and, as always, thanks for all your excellent work of instruction here.

[@undulations]

Hey, I think that's got to be the "Change" setting in the Scale menu. You get there by Func+PAGE - exactly where you change the pattern Length. It's a cool feature, but I'd say maybe they should rethink the default setting. As it is, on my firmware at least, it starts with Len=16, Chg=16. So if you change Len to 64, Chg stays 16, which is what you're seeing, I think. BUT, if you take Chg low enough it can be set to LEN - so Chg tracks with Len. Why not that as the default? Maybe they worried that people wouldn't realize you can change it? This becomes sort of a forced mini-tutorial. But, it's certainly a nice feature. It works in realtime pattern transitions as well as chaining. It lets you play multiple passes but also break out of a sequence at a very specific point (for drops or such). I guess it also lets you play the front part of a sequence, but I'm not sure about changing the parameter live. Anyway, hope this helps, and that's a very nice gift! (congratulations!)

[@mathmanmrt]

@@undulations thanks, your advice got me where i wanted to be. at first i didn't think it was working but then i noticed that while i had changed the the setting on the second pattern to LEN the first pattern was still set to 16. once i had them both set to LEN it worked like a charm. again, i really appreciate the assistance. if you're interested, i uploaded my first successful pattern (in my opinion) to my artist account here--> kzbin.info/www/bejne/d6q6Z2asnrN2h8U i may upload the one you've helped me with at some future point.

[@undulations]

@@mathmanmrt Hey, I watched the video and really enjoyed it😀. Nice vibe coming out of the Model:Cycles!

[@sclr]

idk why the short pattern length and conditional trigs or chance never occurred to me. its super common in trackers and daws to get great glitchy beats.

[@undulations]

Man, I _do_ love trackers. I've got ReNoise (but need to learn it better), also OpenMPT and I think MilkyTracker on an older computer. I really enjoy listening to the demos and seeing what amazing things can be made in that sort of tool. Elektron put some nice stuff in the Model: sequencers! Thanks for checking out the video!

[@sclr]

@@undulations for sure. its nice, for me anyway, to have hardware thats so compact and i can focus on the sound instead of visual feedback via laptop or desktop computer screen.

[@ibnraoof]

Thanks ! the midi out into deep mind 12. not reading synth. What is the trick to using the Cycle as external sequencer for other synths?

[@undulations]

ibnraoof Well, there are some global midi settings down in the "wrench" menu - that's where you choose midi i/o channel numbers for the tracks, etc. BUT, the most likely thing (based on my own experiences) is that you need to go into the Track Menu (func+track) and turn on "Mout" for each of the tracks you want sending midi. hope this helps!

[@ibnraoof]

@@undulations just seeing your reply. I will try now. Thanks

[@francescoaccardi5610]

Hi, Just a question. Does the quantize of model Cycle works with percentage as Syntakt ? Can i decide for each trig percentage of quantization ? Thanks on advance Best F.

[@undulations]

I really don't know🤷🏻‍♂️. I need to update mine anyway. I'll do that and see if it seems possible. May take me a couple of days but I'll get back to you👍🏻.

[@francescoaccardi5610]

thank you@@undulations

[@gengraded]

is no one going to mention the intro ornament in the top left that changes after each edit cut? nice vid m8. Thanks for the info.

[@undulations]

Cornelius Talmage I had to go back and look at this 🧐! It's a geometric origami model that I have had up there for years. It's one square sheet of cardstock paper that's corrugated by folding. It takes on a sort of "saddle" shape, and I noticed that it balances well from any of the corners. So it's dangling from a piece ot black thread tacked to the ceiling (which i think I stuck up with some sort of extendable grabber i used to have). Anyway, thanks for watching🙏🏼!

[@johnruschulte2593]

If you could only have one Volca Drum or Model Cycles which would you choose?

[@undulations]

Well, I'm thinking Model:Cycles for quite a few reasons: 1) So much more pattern storage (96 per project, not exactly sure of project limits - but vast), 2) So much more preset storage (essentially unlimited. also very easy to just transfer presets from pc), 3) velocity dependent pads, 4) LFO per track, 5) reverb and delay effects, and 7) MIDI out (can't control anything with the Volca). I'm probably leaving other important reasons out. BUT - to be fair - the M:C is basically twice the price of a Volca Drum. I still feel like the Volca Drum has great features: solid sequencer that's capable of a lot, very percussion-relevant 2-layer sound, nice resonator effect, and a legit noise synthesis source. More compact, easy to run on batteries, and I guess I really enjoyed working within some of the constraints. I really feel like the biggest Drum shortcoming is that the MIDI in doesn't actually use MIDI note data chromatically - at least of the last update I got. So you can use an external sequencer to make it drum, but not to make a melody - which I basically want out of any Volca (but the Beats and Sample don't allow it either). You can work around the issue, but I'm ignoring that for this comparison.

[@gru_day]

It is time, for me to watch your next tutorial. So far i have watched your previous video and in the outcome ... kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqC2Y4qMg9CHgLc :) Thank you. I look foward to the next content. I like your slow and methodic style of narration.Time is all we got. No hurry.

[@undulations]

The link is a very cool jam! Thanks for posting it here and thanks a lot for the kind feedback🙏🏼!

[@DueWhatThouWilt]

Dudes talking like everyone in his family’s sleeping and doesn’t want to get in trouble.

[@undulations]

v accurate

[@DueWhatThouWilt]

Ordered mine and it arrives tmrw! Can’t wait to get cracking with it, I can see your videos are goin to be very helpful! I’m excited!😀

[@undulations]

@@DueWhatThouWilt Awesome! Thanks for watching and enjoy the new gear👍🏻!

[@minisynthcollective7822]

How you keeping DR Nim? We are nearly out of lockdown now. Done two albums this year so far. Check out on Spotify. I am about to do an Album on Samples and another on Cycles and wanted to thank you you for your videos as this has helped me a great deal. Regards AL

[@undulations]

Hey, we're doing okay (the South overall is not doing so great right now, but locally things are about the same). I'm super glad to hear about the albums and very happy to have been some part of your process along the way! Making a note to check them out!

[@minisynthcollective7822]

@@undulations Thanks DR Nim. Good to hear from you. What are you working on. I will release 6 albums this year. 3 x abelton, 2 Electron and 1 korg volcas.