Manual · RC21

Motor:Cycles manual

Everything Motor:Cycles adds to the Model:Cycles. All stock functions keep working, except the few gestures noted below.

Overview

Motor:Cycles is built on the official Model:Cycles OS 1.13. It adds:

four generators that build sounds, kits, phrases and patterns;
live breaks that vary the playing pattern;
a distortion stage, a resonant filter and a pan offset on every track;
a latched Control All;
the LYRA texture engine, in place of CHORD.

The Modded-Cycles mods it includes are listed below. To install, see Install.

Quick reference

Gesture	Does	When
`PAGE` + pad 1–4	Enter the Patch, Kit, Phrase or Pattern generator	Stopped
Steps 1–15	Set the generator's level	In generator mode
Hold step 16 (1.5 s)	Generate	In generator mode
`PAGE` + pad 5	Scale and root menu	Stopped
Hold `PAGE`	Live break	Playing
Hold `PAGE` + step key	Store the break in that pattern slot	Playing
`FUNC` + `SWEEP`	Track distortion amount	Always
`FUNC` + `PITCH`	Track DJ filter	Always
`FUNC` + `VOLUME+DIST`	Track pan offset	Always
`FUNC` + `TRK`	Latched Control All on/off	Always

Changed stock gestures. FUNC + PITCH no longer steps pitch in semitones: it's the filter. During playback, PAGE is the break key.

Generators

With the transport stopped, hold PAGE and press a pad to enter a generator. The generator works on the selected track and the current pattern.

Pad	Generator	Creates
1	Patch	A new sound for the selected track.
2	Kit	Six matching sounds: kick, impact, metal/hat, percussion, texture, impact.
3	Phrase	A new sequence, with parameter locks, for the selected track.
4	Pattern	Sequences for 3–6 tracks at once, plus tempo and length. Sounds are kept.

Levels and generating

Steps 1–15 set the level. The keys up to your level stay lit, like a bar filling from the left. Each generator remembers its own level.
- For Phrase and Pattern the level is complexity and density: more hits, more parameter-lock lanes, ratchets, trig conditions and timing play.
- For Patch and Kit it's tonal complexity and harshness: more drive, feedback, pitch sweep and modulation. On the kick it also means more punch, crunch and decay.
Hold step 16 for 1.5 seconds to generate. The steps sweep from left to right and flash, and the screen shows PATCH, KIT, PHRASE or PATTERN CREATED. If the generator can't run, the steps show an alternating pattern instead and nothing changes.
Audition. After a Patch, a short tap on step 16 plays the new sound.
Leave with a tap on PAGE. The knobs always keep their normal functions.

Scale and root

Stop playback. Hold PAGE, press pad 5, then release PAGE. The menu stays open.
Steps 1–4 choose the scale: Major, Natural Minor, Whole Tone, Hirajoshi. Steps 5–16 choose the root, C to B. The current choices blink.
Each choice retunes the pattern at once. Every note moves to the nearest note of the scale, and velocity, length, timing and locks are kept.
Tap PAGE to leave.

The setting is saved with the pattern. Patterns with no setting use A Natural Minor for notes, and their kick sounds C. Once you choose, Patch and Kit tune sounds towards the root, Phrase and Pattern write notes in the scale, and the kick always sounds the root.

What the algorithms do

Sounds. About thirty sound recipes, built from measurements of the Model:Cycles' own engines: noise bursts, metallic clangs, feedback screams, inharmonic toms, crushed hats, drones and more. The level pushes them towards harshness.
Kicks. Track 1 is always the kick. Each seed picks one of seven characters: punch, knock, deep boom, rumble, feedback noise, tonal thud or gabber.
Rhythm. Hits are placed by ranked rhythmic motifs, so density grows musically. Pattern brings in 3–6 tracks, always including the kick.
Parameter locks. Lock "lanes" animate a parameter across the phrase: random per hit, ramps, accent-following, sparse spikes, or short cycles that drift against the bar. Lock-only steps animate between hits. Locks stay close to each track's sound, so it stays recognisable.
Stereo. Patterns spread the tracks across the stereo field with moving pan locks. The kick stays centred, and every downbeat is centred.
Textures. Track 5 of a Kit or Pattern, or any LYRA track, gets sparse long events, drifting timing, granular retrig smears and deep reverb and delay sends.
Every generation is new. Each hold draws a fresh seed, mixed with the timing of your playing.

Live breaks

While a pattern plays, hold PAGE to throw it into a breakcore-style variation on every track that has content. Release PAGE and the pattern carries on as written. Each press draws a new variation.

Rhythm, one per press:

beat-repeat stutters of 1, 2, 4 or 8 steps;
half-time drag or double-time rush;
reversed bars;
amen-style chops: the bar is cut into slices and reshuffled;
snare and hat rolls that accelerate the longer you hold.

Movement, one or more per press:

ping-pong or scattered panning, with the kick centred on every beat;
timbre drift around each sound;
resonant filter sweeps on everything but the kick;
distortion pushed harder;
octave jumps that stay in key (the kick never moves);
extra ratchets.

No track is ever silenced, and the kick keeps driving. A break starts within one step. Nothing is written to the pattern unless you store it.

Keep a break as a pattern

While you hold PAGE during playback, the step keys show the 16 patterns of the current bank:

lit: the pattern has trigs;
flashing: the pattern playing now;
unlit: an empty slot.

Press a step key, still holding PAGE, to store the break you're hearing in that slot. The screen confirms it, for example STORED AS A10. An empty slot becomes a new pattern. A lit slot is overwritten, and that includes the playing pattern. You can store several slots in one hold. Load a stored pattern later with PATTERN + step, as usual.

The stored pattern keeps:

the break's rhythm;
its panning, timbre and octave moves, as parameter locks;
its ratchets, as retrigs;
its filter sweeps (at their target) and distortion pushes, in that pattern's sounds.

Live, the movement changes on every hit; the stored pattern keeps one pass of it.

Per-track distortion

The stage. Each track has its own distortion after the stock VOLUME+DIST: overdrive, a wavefolder, asymmetric bias, a tone control and a clean sub crossover that keeps the low end solid.
Never quieter. It only ever adds density and loudness.
Noise gate. The stage runs only while sound passes through it, so silence never turns into hiss.
Control. FUNC + SWEEP sets the amount on the selected track. The screen shows a large S with the value. It's saved with the sound.
Generators set the distortion character of every sound they make.

DJ resonant filter

One per track, after the distortion. Centre is off. Turn left for a resonant low-pass sweeping from 7 kHz down to 50 Hz; turn right for a resonant high-pass from 20 Hz up to 7 kHz.
Control. FUNC + PITCH. The screen shows a large F, LP, HP or OFF, the value (1–63) and a bar from the centre. It's saved with the sound.
Generators give each sound a resonance and leave the filter off for you to play.
CPU. Distortion and filters share one budget. With many filters open on a heavily distorted kit, the distortion's costliest features step aside while needed, so the audio never overloads. Your filter settings are never cut.

Per-track pan

Control. FUNC + VOLUME+DIST pans the selected track. The screen shows a large P with LEFT, CENTRE or RIGHT, the amount (1–63) and a bar from the centre.
An offset for the whole track, saved with the sound and applied at the mixer, so it moves the sound at once. Pan movement from locks, generated patterns and live breaks keeps going, shifted by your offset.
Stock gestures are unchanged: VOLUME+DIST alone sets the volume, and FUNC + LEVEL sets the sound's own pan.

Latched Control All

On and off. FUNC + TRK turns it on. TRK stays lit and the screen blinks a large CTRL ALL. When you turn a knob, the banner steps aside for about 1.5 s to show the value. FUNC + TRK again turns it off.
Every knob changes all six tracks, including the filter, the distortion and the pan offset.
Overrides parameter locks. Unlike the stock Control All, a parameter you turn plays your value on every step, even locked ones.
Instant revert. Turning it off brings every sound back to how it was, without reloading the pattern.

LYRA

A texture engine inspired by the SOMA LYRA-8 replaces the CHORD machine, which was costly on the CPU. Four oscillators in two pairs cross-modulate each other, from clean to chaotic. The machine list shows it as "Lyra", with CHORD's icon.

Knob	On screen	Does
COLOR	Spread	Up to 63, detune between the oscillators, from slow beating to a wide chorus. From 64, the second pair jumps to a fifth, an octave, an octave and a fifth, then two octaves.
SHAPE	Sharpness	From a soft triangle to a buzzing square.
SWEEP	Cross Mod	How hard the oscillators modulate each other: clean up to about 30, gritty around 60, chaotic from about 90.
CONTOUR	Hyper LFO	Off at 0. From a 20-second drift up to a 40 Hz growl that moves the modulation and the second pair's pitch.
DECAY, GATE, PUNCH	(same)	As on the other machines. GATE on gives endless drones.

The generators use LYRA for textures: drone swarm, growl, interval haze and noise cloud. A silent LYRA voice costs almost no CPU.

From Modded-Cycles

These mods from Modded-Cycles are part of Motor:Cycles:

6-channel USB audio;
latching mutes;
trig preview;
scrolling long names;
easier trig removal;
the startup animation;
the MACRO machine (Émilie Gillet's Braids models).

Projects and compatibility

Back up your projects with Transfer before installing.
CHORD tracks in existing projects load as LYRA with CHORD's stored knob values. Expect a different sound.
Distortion, filter and pan settings are saved with each sound. Sounds from the stock firmware load with all three off.
Known issue: on some patterns made with the stock firmware, the generators refuse to run (the steps show the alternating "refused" pattern). Patterns made with Motor:Cycles, and new patterns, work.
Going back: install the official OS 1.13 with Transfer, as you would an update.