The six machines and what their four machine knobs do, from the machine table and tips in Elektron’s Model:Cycles manual (OS 1.13).
KICK
A solid all-round kick, inspired by classics. Elektron's tip: combine a high SHAPE with lots of CONTOUR for a noisy, punchy kick. Long DECAY or GATE turns it into an 808-style bass.
- COLOR
- Soft square-like modulation
- SHAPE
- Triangle-like modulation and feedback
- SWEEP
- Pitch sweep depth and time
- CONTOUR
- Modulation envelope depth
SNARE
Goes from strange alien sidesticks to a hefty punch. Elektron's tip: a long DECAY with SHAPE halfway and some CONTOUR gives a sidestick.
- COLOR
- Inharmonicity amount
- SHAPE
- Modulation amount and feedback
- SWEEP
- Pitch sweep depth and time
- CONTOUR
- Modulation envelope depth
METAL
A sweet-spot-laden metallic voice for cymbals. Elektron's tip: set a very high PITCH and let the FM go out of bounds for unexpected metallic timbres.
- COLOR
- Tune offset A
- SHAPE
- Modulation amount and feedback
- SWEEP
- Tune offset B
- CONTOUR
- Modulation envelope depth
PERC
Everything from toms to the sound of hitting a signpost. Elektron's tip: a low SHAPE and play with COLOR for inharmonic ringing sounds.
- COLOR
- Inharmonicity amount
- SHAPE
- Modulation amount
- SWEEP
- Pitch sweep
- CONTOUR
- Modulation envelope depth
TONE
A simple but powerful two-operator FM voice. Elektron's tip: low SHAPE, high SWEEP, no CONTOUR and a slightly detuned COLOR (e.g. 2.002) for a nasty bass.
- COLOR
- Modulator ratio
- SHAPE
- Modulation amount
- SWEEP
- Feedback amount
- CONTOUR
- Modulation envelope depth
CHORD
A chord and unison cluster using the 4 FM operators as voices, with a sweeping wavetable. Elektron's tip: choose a chord you like and change it radically with COLOR.
- COLOR
- Chord: interval mix and oscillator balance. Unison: detune
- SHAPE
- Unison ×2–×4 or a chord: minor, Major, sus2, sus4, m7, M7, mMaj7, Maj7, 7sus4, dim7, madd9, Madd9, m6, M6, mb5, Mb5, m7b5, M7b5, M#5, m7#5, M7#5, mb6, m9no5, M9no5, Madd9b5, Maj7b5, M7b9no5, sus4#5b9, sus4add#5, Maddb5, M6add4no5, Maj7/6no5, Maj9no5, Fourths, Fifths
- SWEEP
- Wavetable sweep
- CONTOUR
- Filter cutoff envelope depth
Every machine also has
- PITCH
- -24 to +24 semitones
- DECAY
- 0–127, length of the sound
- VOL+DIST
- 60 is clean; above adds level and distortion
- PUNCH
- compression-like accent
- GATE
- hold notes for their LEN
- LFO
- one per track, 7 waves: triangle, sine, square, saw, envelope, ramp, random