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S+A CYCLES - 10/10 Music Tech review

I've just bought Cycles (and the Auras bundle) and have been playing with it tonight for the first time. I'm not sure if there's a manual but I loaded some of the presets and changed a few settings without really knowing what I was doing and they sounded great! The interface is very cool and it seems like you can tweak lots of things with very musical results.

I have a Moog Grandmother hooked up to a Chase Bliss Mood Pedal. When I watched the demo videos for Cycles it reminded me very much of the type of sound Chase Bliss are doing, which I really love.

So I recorded a 4 bar random arp pattern from the Moog, through the Mood pedal and loaded that into Cycles. That actually helped me figure out some of the controls because I knew how the loop should sound so I could better tell how the controls were altering it. And wow, really wow... I've loaded my own loops and samples into granular engines before with mixed results... very often ending up quite disappointing, but the loops I've tried tonight sound AMAZING through cycles. So organic and beautiful , I could jut tweak these sounds forever and not get bored. And very inspiring sounds for me. I can't wait to go through the rest of the presets but particularly to push more samples and loops from my hardware into this brilliant engine! Much respect to the devs... I'm thrilled! :)
 
let me know how you will reduce the CPU hit thanks in advance
I think I’m kinda stuck....running a quad-core i5 3.2GHz and this library is bringing it to its knees quite often. I can’t play a triad in some patches without hitting 80-90% CPU. And that’s in Kontakt stand-alone mode. I kinda wish the system requirements would just say it requires a minimum i7. All that being said, the library really is a gem and I figure I’ll be updating my studio computer at the end of the year so I will enjoy it more then ;)
 
I wasn't looking for anything like this, but if it's similar to Straylight, it sounds interesting. But man, I can't get most of the videos to play, here or on the S&A site. I'll try from a different computer tonight.
 
Challenges your cpu for sure but a small price to pay for the amazing sounds. Not a big deal since most of the sounds are drones and loops that don't need to be played in real time necessarily.
 
@slateandash This thing is insane! One question: I can't seem to find a way to see exactly what parameters the XY grids are controlling. Am I missing something, or is there a list somewhere? What is actually being affected by Window, Density, Cluster, Stretch, and Grains?
 
I've just bought Cycles (and the Auras bundle) and have been playing with it tonight for the first time. I'm not sure if there's a manual but I loaded some of the presets and changed a few settings without really knowing what I was doing and they sounded great! The interface is very cool and it seems like you can tweak lots of things with very musical results.

I have a Moog Grandmother hooked up to a Chase Bliss Mood Pedal. When I watched the demo videos for Cycles it reminded me very much of the type of sound Chase Bliss are doing, which I really love.

So I recorded a 4 bar random arp pattern from the Moog, through the Mood pedal and loaded that into Cycles. That actually helped me figure out some of the controls because I knew how the loop should sound so I could better tell how the controls were altering it. And wow, really wow... I've loaded my own loops and samples into granular engines before with mixed results... very often ending up quite disappointing, but the loops I've tried tonight sound AMAZING through cycles. So organic and beautiful , I could jut tweak these sounds forever and not get bored. And very inspiring sounds for me. I can't wait to go through the rest of the presets but particularly to push more samples and loops from my hardware into this brilliant engine! Much respect to the devs... I'm thrilled! :)
Also try using the states once you’ve out your loop in. Just hover the L or G and click on the + that appears. Click on any of the states and it will our cycles into a bunch of predesigned settings that tend to work well with most loops/sources.
 
I've just bought Cycles (and the Auras bundle) and have been playing with it tonight for the first time. I'm not sure if there's a manual but I loaded some of the presets and changed a few settings without really knowing what I was doing and they sounded great! The interface is very cool and it seems like you can tweak lots of things with very musical results.

I have a Moog Grandmother hooked up to a Chase Bliss Mood Pedal. When I watched the demo videos for Cycles it reminded me very much of the type of sound Chase Bliss are doing, which I really love.

So I recorded a 4 bar random arp pattern from the Moog, through the Mood pedal and loaded that into Cycles. That actually helped me figure out some of the controls because I knew how the loop should sound so I could better tell how the controls were altering it. And wow, really wow... I've loaded my own loops and samples into granular engines before with mixed results... very often ending up quite disappointing, but the loops I've tried tonight sound AMAZING through cycles. So organic and beautiful , I could jut tweak these sounds forever and not get bored. And very inspiring sounds for me. I can't wait to go through the rest of the presets but particularly to push more samples and loops from my hardware into this brilliant engine! Much respect to the devs... I'm thrilled! :)
Could you post some audio examples if you don't mind? I'm really curious now!
 
@slateandash This thing is insane! One question: I can't seem to find a way to see exactly what parameters the XY grids are controlling. Am I missing something, or is there a list somewhere? What is actually being affected by Window, Density, Cluster, Stretch, and Grains?

currently you can only see by looking at what is modulating in the main grains window once you set the cursor off on a path.

we will get round to a manual which will detail this stuff. With Cycles being so deep, it’s a bit of a job in itself!
 
Also try using the states once you’ve out your loop in. Just hover the L or G and click on the + that appears. Click on any of the states and it will our cycles into a bunch of predesigned settings that tend to work well with most loops/sources.
Thanks, I was trying the different states last night - very useful!
 
Could you post some audio examples if you don't mind? I'm really curious now!
I might see if I can record a video as it would help to see what is happening with the interface and how that is changing the sound. I haven't done that before though, so it might take a couple of days to set up.
 
Pulled a trigger on this one, definitely inspiring and unique instrument, although this is not instant gratification one. Some patches work right away but mostly you'd like to mold it and tweak it. Your work will be rewarded though. It has really original loops and samples to play with. But mind that it is on the LoFi, tape noise, warm side of sonic spectrum. I think it'll nicely complement Zebra, Omni and more FM/Wavetable style of synths. And, yes, it's quite CPU heavy. I'm on 3.2Ghz i7 with 32GB

@slateandash Great job guys! Could you let us know when you'll have an update for user samples import for Kontak6 Player? Can't wait to try it. Right now it's impossible on the Player. Thanks a lot!
 
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currently you can only see by looking at what is modulating in the main grains window once you set the cursor off on a path.

we will get round to a manual which will detail this stuff. With Cycles being so deep, it’s a bit of a job in itself!

@slateandash I can imagine! Looking forward to the manual. In the meantime, I believe I've stumbled upon a small bug in the XY section. The first time I click "A" in Structure (without dragging to B) _something_ changes, even though nothing changes onscreen. The pitch jumps up an octave or two (maybe other stuff happens as well--not entirely sure!). I can "undo" it by clicking "Tun" on the main Grains page (which shows the value to be 0, no dragging required) and then I'm able to repeat the behavior by clicking "A" again. And I know it's not simply a matter of it switching to Structure B without updating visually because when I do drag to B afterwards, the sound changes further. Happy to provide a screen capture if that's helpful, and I'm on Kontakt 6.2.1 in Logic on Mojave. Regardless, thank you for this insane instrument; it's such an inspiring and creative tool. Can't wait to use it on everything I do from now on!
 
@slateandash I can imagine! Looking forward to the manual. In the meantime, I believe I've stumbled upon a small bug in the XY section. The first time I click "A" in Structure (without dragging to B) _something_ changes, even though nothing changes onscreen. The pitch jumps up an octave or two (maybe other stuff happens as well--not entirely sure!). I can "undo" it by clicking "Tun" on the main Grains page (which shows the value to be 0, no dragging required) and then I'm able to repeat the behavior by clicking "A" again. And I know it's not simply a matter of it switching to Structure B without updating visually because when I do drag to B afterwards, the sound changes further. Happy to provide a screen capture if that's helpful, and I'm on Kontakt 6.2.1 in Logic on Mojave. Regardless, thank you for this insane instrument; it's such an inspiring and creative tool. Can't wait to use it on everything I do from now on!
thanks, we'll look into that!
 
Here's a video. Sorry, it's a bit long and rambling, but there's so much to cover and I still missed bits but it gives an idea how Cycles handles some loops I imported. Hope it helps a bit! :)

Wow thank you for this! I’ll watch it tomorrow, much appreciated!
 
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