Before we get into this, a little disclaimer: this is not a review of either the Elektron Model:Samples nor the Novation Circuit Rhythm. Rather it’s me sharing my personal experience with these devices. Hopefully it might still be interesting and useful to you, should you be considering any of these for yourself.
Over the years I have been going through a few solutions for my drum programming needs: Sonic Potions LXR, Korg Electribe 2, Elektron Octatrack and finally Model:Samples. Each of these had things I liked, but was also lacking in many ways.
Since the LXR days I knew one thing: I want my drum machine to use samples and I want to be able to use my own. I don’t use a lot of standard drum sounds, most of my samples are created by recording random objects, extracted from field recordings, or loops of me drumming on something. I generally prepare the samples on the computer, which gives me advanced tools to shape the sound and adjust levels. I don’t use stems and I don’t program in melodies or chords, it’s really just drums. I was generally quite happy with my last purchase, the Elektron Model:Samples, which I think is a really cool little groovebox, but there were a few things killing it for me.
Model:Samples Pros and Cons
What I like about the Model:Samples:
- No limitation on sample length.
- Powerful Elektron Sequencer with parameter locks, sample locks, probability, fills, etc.
- Tracks can have different lengths.
- Straightforward way to organize samples based on folder structure.
- CTRL ALL lets you change a parameter for all tracks and is a great way to create dramatic changes to the playing pattern (albeit with caveats).
- Chance knob let’s you create variations of a pattern on the fly (especially in combination with CTRL ALL).
- Distorting the samples a bit sounds great.
Things I didn’t like about the Model:Samples:
- Samples are only mono.
- Tracks are monophonic.
- Saving/reloading feels needlessly complicated and, because of how the patterns/samples work, it is sometimes messy to use.
- Sample settings are per-pattern, no parts that can span across patterns.
- No performance effects.
- Not battery powered.
- I can never remember where the notes are in keyboard mode.
- Output level is a bit low and needs extra compression/boosting to cut through the mix.
- Most importantly, the drum pads on the M:S are only usable in fixed velocity mode, since the response is really bad.
The saving/reloading aspect might need some extra explanation. Like all Elektron boxes, the M:S saves your work automatically all the time. This is generally a nice thing, since you can just turn the thing off without having to remember to save your work. But what if you want to go back to an earlier state? Either because you messed things up, because you just liked a previous version better, because you were just trying something out and it didn’t work, or as part of a performance gesture. To do this you can create a “save point” and then jump back using the “reload” function. These save points can be created permanently by saving the pattern, or temporarily (not kept across power cycles).
Things get messy when you are in a performance context. Let’s say you want to create a dramatic transition using the CTRL ALL feature to mess the pattern up then move to the next pattern. If you only did a TEMP SAVE and just switch off your M:S at the end of a performance your pattern will be saved in its messed up state without any means to restore it to the original version. If you did a proper save, it will still be messed up but you can restore it. One way or the other you will have to hunt down the changed patterns and reload them, since there’s no global saving/reloading. If you only used TEMP SAVE you’ll have to do that before powering down the thing. As previously mentioned, you have to do that for each pattern individually.
Looking for a Replacement
After doing some research I ended up buying a Novation Circuit Rhythm. As usual, there’s trade-offs and compromises. Where does the Circuit beat the M:S for me, and where does it not?
Data Structure
Before we get into this, a little overview of how the two grooveboxes are structured:
The Model:Samples is organized in projects. You can create as many of these as you can fit in memory, but only one project can be loaded at any time and each one contains up to 6 banks of 16 patterns. There’s 6 tracks and each has a default sample (but you can assign different samples per step using sample locks) and a number of sound parameters like decay, filter, etc.
Samples are stored in a global “pool”, i.e. all samples are accessible from all projects. Both the default sample and the sound parameters are per pattern. So if you have 16 patterns with the same drum kit and you want to change the decay of the kick drum, you have to do that on each of the 16 patterns separately. You can of course copy/paste the sound, but it’s a lot of copypasting.
The Circuit Rhythm is organized in a similar way, but the terminology is different. Projects are called packs and banks are called projects.
Compared to the M:S the Circuit Rhythm lets you create up to 32 packs (projects), each can contain up to 128 projects (banks), storing 8 patterns and 32 scenes (combinations of patterns, like in Ableton Live). While you can only have 32 packs on the device, you can store as many as you want on your computer and transfer them back and forth using the Components software.
Circuit Rhythm vs. Model:Samples, a Comparison
Here’s how the two compare, based on my “like / don’t like” list for the M:S above:
- Samples are per pack, a choice likely made because you choose them via the grid buttons and because there’s only 128 sample slots available.
- Unlike on the M:S, you can choose patterns for each track independently and you can create various combinations of these using scenes.
- Saving on the Circuit Rhythm is a deliberate press of a button, and you can quickly reload the current project, but that will also take you to the scene/patterns that were playing when you last saved. On the M:S you can save/reload patterns (each one has to be saved individually) and you can both “temp save” a pattern and reload it on the fly. There’s no way to save all patterns in a bank or project at once on the M:S
- On the CR, the default sample and all sound settings are per project (bank), not per pattern, but if you add automation (either recorded, or in form of parameter locks) for a parameter these will not go back to the track default ones, but more about that later.
- The Circuit Rhythm has a dedicated performance FX page, which can be configured either on the device or in the Components software and which is global for the chosen pack. it offers a range of effects like beat repeat, gate, auto filter, bitcrusher, vinyl lo-fi and phaser and is quite fun to play with. The Circuit Rhythm also has a handy analogue DJ-style low/high shelf filter.
- The pads on the Circuit Rhythm are decent (at least they feel good to me) and have proper velocity response. On the M:S I could only use them in “fixed velocity” mode, since the response was really bad, i.e. even hitting the pads really hard would not produce the maximum velocity value.
- Unlike on the M:S, the the keyboard view (note page) on the CR has a familiar piano keyboard layout, which makes it much easier to use.
- Circuit Rhythm has a built-in, rechargeable battery lasting around 4h.
- The output level on the CR is even lower than on the M:S and requires me to crank up the gain almost all the way on my mixer. While it has a master compressor in the output chain, its settings are fixed and doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.
- Talking of FX, both come with the same send FX: delay and reverb. Unlike on the Elektron, the CR does not give you any direct control on the parameters, but only gives you a collection of presets. A choice I find pretty questionable. They sound ok I guess, but I am not impressed. I like the ones on the M:S much better and they give me full control over the main parameters (eg. reverb size, damping, etc.)
- Both offer a per-track distortion parameter. The one on the CR is more aggressive than the one on the M:S, but sounds good on some types of samples.
- Both have very limited memory. The CR does allow samples only up to 32 seconds in length and each pack is limited to 220s of total sample time. The M:S does not give you any limits beyond having to fit in its 64 MB sample memory.
- On both you can record automation (either live or via sample locks) and has a basic per step probability setting. Pattern lengths on the CR can be between 1 and 32 steps, the M:S will let you go up to 64 steps. Both let you change play speeds per track, with the CR having more triplet options and also letting you choose play directions (including a random one). On the CR each step has a gate length setting and 6 substeps, which can be used for timing or to create ratchets. The resolution is limited to those 6 substeps though, so you could say that true unquantised recording is not possible. The M:S has more resolution and lets you fine tune the position for each step and create ratchets using the repeat option. The sequencer on the M:S is probably more advanced, but both give you enough tools to create interesting results.
- The CR can also sample from its inputs and resample its output. Not something I do a lot, but nice to have anyway.
- A few features I like on the M:S are missing on the CR: there’s no equivalent of the CTRL ALL option nor the chance parameter and you can’t parameter lock the sample reverse option.
- On both: samples can only be mono
- On both: tracks are strictly monophonic.
Circuit Rhythm Weirdnesses
Automation and default parameters
One weird thing I have noticed about the Circuit Rhythm is how it handles the default sound settings and parameter locks / automation. While the parameters I set for a track/sample (eg. the filter, or the envelope) are carried over to other patterns, any automation you add will override these. What happens is that the last state of the parameter at the end of a recorded automation will stay in place even if you change pattern. So for example if you fade out a sample in a pattern using the filter, then change to another pattern you won’t hear a thing except if you add a sample lock at the end of this fade down with the filter turned up again. Considering you can mix and match patterns through scenes, this basically means that once you add automation to a pattern you might have to add some to all other patterns as well to make sure things don’t get messed up.
Empty Patterns
You would expect the CR to visually differentiate between empty and non-empty patterns, after all that’s a basic UI design stuff, isn’t it? For some reason though, the CR doesn’t. It only shows which pattern is currently selected/playing, making it sometimes a bit confusing to work with.
Battery Charge
There’s no battery indication while in use, to see how much charge you have left you need to turn it off and on again.
Final Thoughts
All things considered I’m pretty happy with the Circuit Rhythm so this is going to replace the Model:Samples as my sample-based drum machine. Having responsive, playable pads, a straight forward interface and the ability to combine patterns into scenes, makes it a worthwhile choice, despite its weaknesses.