I was wrong and you are correct. The fixed velocity is global per pad. Other pad settings (at least on the M:S) are not global
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To me, the Cycles has a vibe of its own. Something about the sound is unique. I find it to have its own special sonic world going on.
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I saw this one recently and it really made me regret selling my Cycles
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChP1uUkAlU4/
Event after I bought the Rytm, I still used the cycles on top of it as sort of additional percussion, like youād use if you were making a song in a daw. Little clicks and pops,
Toms, swooshes, risers, just further rhythmic layers floating around on top of the base percussive pattern. Itās great for that. But the kick itself if impressively strong and thumping. I think it has all the best elements one needs to make interesting perc patterns. The noise and transients are really nice for that sort of thing. And the filtering, punch, + the drive on the cycles makes everything sound so smooth and cohesive. You can do a lot with just subtle shifting of sculpted noise or rimshot-type taps with that incredible sequencer. Itās just so much more powerful than it looks
But yeah I like it as a whole unit. The feel and sound are perfect on the cycles, in my eyes
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Enjoy your new device!
Yeah, the overdrive when all of the tracks are maxed out is probably my favourite thing about the Cycles, and the reason why Iām ok with not having a Syntakt (yet :P).
This thread has inspired me to play around with the Cycles again, looks like my evening is sorted 
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whoops, sorry didnt know that. Will delete that! Thanks dude!
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Yeah that M:C overdrive/crunch is lush. You have the analog drive on the FX track for the Syntakt but it doesnāt sound the same. Thatās the one thing I miss!
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You did goodā¦
First impressions are what they are.
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nah the pads are really stiff but otherwise these grooveboxes feel pretty solid, both models boxes are a little bit heavier than they would appear to be, and all of the buttons and knobs feel sturdy and have been pretty reliable
iāve had both boxes since march 2020 and only had to send the M:S in for repairs once due to the function button recall, and elektron took care of it and itās worked fine ever since
iāve taken both gigging and theyāve done fine in the laptop pocket of a backpack, still look pretty good and work great, I expect them to keep working for a long time
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Thanks for confirming. So thereās no way to globally opt out of pad velocity altogether. Thatās ok, itās not a big step and I donāt make new projects every day (sadly).
the one thing i couldnāt stand about the M:S was not being able to sample directly into the machine. I know why this is and understand at the price point. it could just get really tedious to have to create a sample, then upload it, etc.
otherwise its such an awesome device. i think if i had it now i would just use it drum machine duties when jamming with others.
with that said, i love the M:C and will probably keep mine but the āmachinesā donāt always sound the best to me. the kick and tone machines rule, but i get tired of some of the other sounds.
still great and absolutely worthwhile for the price.
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The Cycles is great. I had persistent issues with mine shutting off randomly, the power connector seemed dodgy and after three repairs it still wasnāt fixed, so I was able to return it and part exchange for a Syntakt. I like the Syntakt more, even just having the filters makes a world of difference for me, but I did have a load of fun with the M:C (definitely the most productive Iāve been on an Elektron box) and it was the perfect form factor for sofa jamming. Have fun!
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I unexpectedly grew to prefer sample uploading. These days, I only really care about onboard sampling for ālive samplersā like the Octatrack or portable samplers like the M8. Otherwise, I donāt see much benefit over recording into a computer or hardware recorder unless e.g. the sampler has really nice ADCs.
That said, the M:Sās sample browsing menu is probably the aspect of it that could use the most improvement. The fact that you canāt delete the factory content and have to jump over it every time is particularly annoying. The M:C suffers from the same menu but somehow itās less annoying. I do hope they both get a little firmware love in this department before theyāre retired.
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i had a digitakt for a little while and loved how quick it was to sample things into it. i ended up selling it to focus on writing material with my A4. maybe iāll get back to samples one day, but i suspect iāll go for the DT again because of how easy it was to manage. plus 8 tracks is a really sweet spot.
not to be off-topicā¦i agree with the soundbank manager being a little bit of an annoyance on the models in general. I find myself kind of building everything from the ground up when i start a pattern and barely even use the sound manager. maybe thatās a bad way to use the M:C, but it works ok. Copying and pasting patterns is a good way to retain continuity of sound for each song too.
Interesting take.
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Thatās fair! Iām probably overly reliant on filters for sound shaping and evolving a sound over the course of a track, it was fun to experiment with alternative ways of doing it on the M:C but I often found I wished I just had a low pass filter to make a sound more subtle, and sometimes a high pass to clear up muddy bass.
I also think the FX block brings some really interesting new ways to shape sound if you use it in creative ways, and of course the analogue voices are nice (though I already have an AR). To be honest if it werenāt for the quality issues I had with my M:C I donāt think I would have upgraded but I couldnāt resist the opportunity, heh.
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I do worry about that power connector. I havenāt had any issues, but itās not a snug fit. Apparently itās also possible to put 4-10V in through the side connector, 2.1mm tip positive.
Getting few more synth engine on the M:C could be a good thing.
Hope they will take some from the ST in a future update, there is few which look to be cool !
I donāt plan to buy a ST having already the M:C + AR.
The lack of filtering LP/HP/BP is for me the thing which make it not so easy to fit for other thing than drum in the end. I use a TONE and CHORD, but another one at least would help.
A simple filtering like the MD would have been been perfect, but probably not possible.
No issue that this filtering is not there, but few more engine would be really cool, to make it more capable on the synth side.
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M:C feels great to me. Sure the pads are a little stiff, but sitting on a proper surface, they respond just fine to velocity for me. Itās a wonderful little machine. Its boundaries make it a joy to create on. It encourages focus and explorative creativity.
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