Elektron Model:Cycles

As a guitar player I needed a drum machine to add some beats to my ambient/minimalist pieces. At first I considered something different but a friend of mine who is quite a synth nerd recommended me this by saying it's more versatile than many others. When checking some Youtube demos I arrived at the same conclusion and ordered it.
To put it shortly, it fully met my expectations. Although some people have said it is quite limited, mainly when it comes to sound synthesis, in my opinion, if used as a drum machine with quite a lot of extra features, it is still quite a versatile instrument! But I'm a guitarist, so what do I know, haha.
The main magic lies in the sequencer, which has quite an extensive array of features. Parameter locking, conditional locking to name just a few. So you can build quite complex arrangements with it.
The unit is made of plastic, but it is quite sturdy. The only things I am a bit worried about are the pads and rubbery buttons, but we'll see.
To end my review I'd like to give my two cents from the blindness perspective. I know we are a tiny minority, but I'm not the only blind person who buys from Thomann, so maybe this part will be useful for some people.
As most of the things are done with knobs and buttons, it can be used quite easily if you remember what each of them does. A nifty trick for that is to make a recording of some sighted person giving you the overview of the layout, so you can reference it later.
The manual is well written and easy to understand.
There is some menu diving, that can get quite confusing for the blind, but unless you go very deep it can be done very easily by referencing the manual.
SO, to conclude this review in one sentence, I'm really happy with my first full fledged drum machine!