I am in need of more lfo’s and filters, so Digitone it is. What are the major differences in workflow etc.? Seems like the basic sequencing is pretty much the same, but sound design is completely different? Anything else I need to worry about?
A bit sad that Digitone has no retrig 
Effect parameters are not parameter lockable, but effect send is?
So I just got a digitone and have had a model: cycles since around the time it came out. The model: cycles was my first elektron product and I have since gotten a digitakt and a digitone.
The workflow for crafting a sound is completely different, and I think it is easier to make tonal sounds on the digitone than percussive, whereas I the cycles can instantly make good precussive sounds. The sound sculpting is much more in depth on the digitone, in fact I think the digitone rivals my modular when it comes to customizing a sound.
As far as retrig goes, it has the arp which you can use in very similar ways. In fact I find the arp to be much more powerful. The primary difference is that the arp is on or off and when you press a key the arp pattern starts rather than having to hold the retrig button. You can almost treat the arpeggiator as a sequencer you can trigger by pressing the keys. It can have different note patterns with some notes on or off for rythmic patterns, it is very configurable.
The effect send amounts are p lockable, which I generally find to be enough since you can change the effect parameters on a per pattern basis, so you can change your effects going from one pattern to the next. Also if you have something that can sequence midi ccs (a digitakt, or possibly digitone midi into itself) you can sequence the effect parameters with ccs.
I find the two devices to be a very good pair. The cycles can make great drum sounds very quickly and the digitone can make highly tweakable tonal sounds. Obviously there is significant crossover, but they each have their niche. Also I find it hard to get a really good snare sound on the cycles and there is a fantastic one on the digitone.
EDIT: Also there is a significant difference tonally between the devices. The digitone can do amazing ambient pads and evolving sounds that is very hard to do on the cycles. Having a filter on all the sounds is also very nice. I just wish there was a filter for the incoming audio. You could have some amazing dub fun with that.
Very glad to hear this. Thank you very much for the thoughtful insight.
I think I am selling my Cycles, not because I don’t like it but I use it as a means for bass, pads and some weird unrealistic percussion, all something that can be achieved on Digitone too? My conventional percussion comes from TR-8.
I find the main difference in crafting a sound between the two devices is that on the model: cycles I can pretty accurately predict what parameter to change to get a certain sound. This is much less the case with the digitone. It is much harder to have a sound in your head and implement it on the digitone. This is probably mainly because I have only had the digitone a week and I have had the cycles for months. This is also probably because the cycles has many fewer parameters to keep in mind. Because of those fewer parameters it makes it a bit more immediate and predictable, which is great for quickly coming up with grooves and performing. The model: cycles is like walking through a door into a nice house and the digitone is like climbing through a window into a mansion that has some secret passages that you can get lost in. Sometimes getting lost is great and othertimes you just want to make a certain sound.
wait for a bit if you can. sonically they are kind of different. and you can make some stuff much much faster with MC than with DN.
and also MC is very fast, DN is kind of slow in regards to sound design
I absolutely agree about speed. For this reason I spend time just tweaking sounds on the digitone to save for later. On the cycles i find myself just moving the dials to where I want them rather than using presets.
fwiw, as I’ve mentioned before, I do love your tracks. hope the style doesn’t change if you ditch the Cycles…
personally I think it’s worth having both if you are able. there’s less tracks on the DN so I think it’d be kind of limiting or frustrating to use for bass, pads, and percussion. you’d hit a wall a little quicker; fill the available tracks up and have to start juggling things with parameter locks to get multiple sounds from one track, etc… for simple weird percussion stuff, it’s great to have the six tracks in the Cycles and it’s quicker/easier to get to those sounds.
or in other words, this:
with MC it’s like ‘ok, let’s make something awesome quick and get this thing going’
with DN — ‘ok, i’m going deep guys, see you in a while.’
DN can give you much more good stuff, but you have to spend time with it and oftentimes you’ll get crap.
This thread is making me wonder about getting an M:C to go with my DT :’)
Thanks for the positive comments! To be honest, I use presets A LOT. I just tweak them a little bit to my liking. Kinda like some good old romplers. Good thing I don’t absolutely have to get rid of the Cycles so I can do a bit of comparisons. Percussion-wise, usually one track will do, either some one shot percussive hit that’s good and weird or a parameter locked pseudo modular burby percussive line. What I do with Cycles now is that I just layer the pad, bass or lead with a another sound on another track, so actually I am not using all the six tracks for different elements since I got a decent drum machine that suits my thing.
I got an M:C to go with my DN 
Between the two, you’ll have 10 tracks of FM!
Having all the knobs available on the M:C makes it a lot of fun to tweak sounds while performing. That said, I feel the DN makes its parameters very accessible without too much menu-diving; you’ll learn to fly though the options very quickly.
I agree with points made by others on this thread with regards to getting some drum track on the M:C very quickly and then taking the time on the DN to stumble into tonal sounds.
So I have the DN now. Sold the Cycles as there was a willing buyer. No regrets.
Yes the Cycles is a little bit more immediate. I think it was really helpful to use the Cycles as a gateway tho’; I don’t have so much new concepts to learn as these machines have pretty much the same sequencer and OS logic.
I have to say I am really impressed by the sound of the DN. I am quessing the qualities of presets will take me to a little bit ”deeper” side of techno, but that is not to say there wouldn’t be an abundance of edgy fm basses and that kinda ”rompler” soul to some sounds that I really like. It is great however to be able to throw in a subtle lfo to these more static patches too!
Btw, feel very free to recommend me some sound packs with less of the airy dribbly dreamy glassy pads and more of the 90’s Joey Beltram hard hitting percussive stuff 
To be honest I was consistently disappointed by every pack.
Me too… best to start creating your own patches from day one.
Thx for honest answers. Takes some time to get a hold of the sound design. Yesterday I followed this tutorial and made the dub chord patch.
With fm synths tutorials also tend to be more like ‘I don’t know what the hell this algorithm does, but let’s go with it!’ 
I haven’t seen any real DN secrets or tips and tricks. So yeah, it’s a bit like exploring some uncharted territories with this box.
Seems like you can get pretty analogue-ish with the filter.
The filter is truly excellent. I didn’t appreciate it enough on the digitakt. Using the filter and detune you can get some very convincing analog sounds. One of the reasons I like fm is that it can recreate other sounds, then you twist the knobs and a familiar sound totally changes. I thought I would be sending the digitone through my eurorack filters much more than I actually am since the digitone’s aren’t too far off, and you can get a lot of audio rate fun with the lfos at 1000x.
I actually kind of like the challenges the model:cycles poses by not having a filter, since everything has a low pass filter not having one is somewhat characteristic. Forces you to change the harmonics in different ways.