Hi
When it comes to music design we often include drum whether it be live or sample loops. But for music that doesn’t include these what would be the best Elektron in terms of useability and creativity. Cheers.
Monomachine, A4, digitone. Either one of them would work fine. Personal favorite - Monomachine. A4 sounds lusher though. 
…new sonic terretories?..no drums?..elektron only?
octatrack…
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Yes the Octatrack and Digitone and A4. Never considered the Monomachine. Which would give the most headroom for creativity?
OT, no question!
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I would say A4 because of versatile synth engine and, most importantly, for the excellent CV/Gate connection. With non-rytmical material I find myself combining several instruments and linking these via CV connections. What I need in these situation are the synths without VCA hardwired to envelope. Elektron is maybe not the best in this territory.
I’m a bigger fan of the AR over the OT and also only have experience with OT and AR. But best machine for immediacy and workflow for me is AR. Have made tracks with zero rythmic elements more incidental sounds like :
https://m.soundcloud.com/nauht/sb0x
Easy enough to launch melodic samples or use new oscillators
Or have some polyphonic sampled material going. OT has some nice tricks to keep samples playing nice like timestretch and slicing and once you have your project as you like you can get things going a little quicker.
Depends how you like to work really.
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…a synth is a synth…but when it comes to sounds all in all and shaping them…the ot is all u need…apart from a mic or any other source to make a catch…
First thought - Octatrack.
Play samples as long as your arm… Field recordings. hour long pads (either from samples or single cycle waveforms, or recorded sequences. The key is the speed multipliers/dividers for each separate track and one shots.
And what you can do with said samples is wide yet limited enough not to get lost.
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+1
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Me 3.
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I think, speaking from personal experience, that the beauty with the Monomachine versus say the Octatrack is it offers 6 synthesis methods, and those are your limitations, but within those limitations, there are sooooo many different ways to go.
Whereas the Octatrack, being an extremely capable sampler (to put it mildly), it’s so open ended, and dependent on what you feed it, that … how to say it, the fact that you have to feed it with material can make it feel a bit daunting or debilitating (at least in my experience). There are literally endless options, and it’s a bit much to take in, and you have to take a decision, “right, I’m gonna put some piano samples in it” or “I’m gonna go sample the mountain and put that in” or “I’m gonna have my cat fart on a mic and have that in it” or whatever. I find it more useful when knowing what to feed it, and just use it in a useful to-the-point way, more than the open ended approach, where you feel you can feed anything into it, meaning (for me at least) taking decisions and saying “I’ll go with this” becomes more difficult, and the approach sometimes feel less about creativity, and more about taking decisions. But you know, if you know you’d like to sample a lot of say wind instruments or tibetan monks chanting or choirs singing, tigers roaring, the sounds of the Apalache’s or a mouse running around your basement - then the Octa is ace! But looking for and wanting to explore the weird with the Octa can sometimes feel a bit daunting, because it’s very dependent on what you feed it. And you know, don’t expect to feed it the mouse running around in your basement and being able to turn that into some musical master piece. If you want music out of the Octa, you need to feed it musical samples, in my opinion/experience. So, you sort of have to choose which musical direction you want to “steal” from in the first place, instead of starting from scratch.
That’s not really a “problem” with the Octatrack specifically though, but with samplers - you need to feed it material. Whereas with the Monomachine, you just sit down with it and create, from scratch. And there’s a vast world of textures and scapes and atmospheres to find in it. Same with the A4, really, or the Digitone. Monomachine is definitely the weirdest of the lot though.
Haha, that became kind of ranty. Most of it is probably very obvious, but I thought I’d point it out never the less. All personal opinions and experiences, obviously.
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Perfect for squelchy basslines.
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I always thought the Monomachine was a drum machine. . Whats the difference between the Monomachine and the Octatrack. On youtube clips they seem to be similar.
The monomachine is a great box for creating non percussive stuff, and probably the second deepest elektron device. 6 styles of synthesis, user waveforms, internal track routing, plockable effects. It is a monster for drones and soundscapes
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OT hands down is the most open ended/deepest elektron device. My personal leaning is toward the monomachine (I could survive with only it) but I have incredible respect for toolbox that the ot provides
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haven’t had my hands on a monomachine, but I’ve always felt the machinedrum uw is the deepest, since it is so powerful as a synth and sound design tool and is also a sampler. monomachine is probably much better for op ofc though. Octatrack probably is the best choice overall but I agree with what Daisuk has to say about it - you really need to be a sampling head to begin with to really gel with the octatrack standalone. it’s an instrument, but it doesn’t really have a personality the way the other devices do
OT is perfect when you have the right material to feed it.
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Why did Elektron discontinue the Monomachine? ive heard so much praise for it. But the OT they didn’t.