Best pedals (or modular effects) for MM? Trying to make it sound less harsh/digital

Tajnost · 2023-07-08T07:36:18.496Z

Try Eventide pedals, Rose, h9 or h90, ultratap

Chase Bliss Generation Loss MK2 can do the trick

Something like OTO Boum or Sherman Filterbank, or any other filter with envelop

I really liked how Dreadbox Kinematic works with Elektron stuff

Experiment!)

Adam9 · 2023-07-08T08:03:05.747Z

Electro harmonix lbp2 tube pre…

pingo · 2023-07-08T08:45:55.684Z

Oh wow, cool suggestion. Thanks!

pingo · 2023-07-08T08:46:23.421Z

Awesome! What a wealth of info. Will research thoroughly. Thanks! Dreadbox Kinematic looks cool

woz · 2023-07-08T11:45:58.775Z

It seems like you want to purchase new gear… but I would try routing everything through an fx machine adding a bit of gain and possibly compressor.

qr9000 · 2023-07-08T13:48:59.277Z

Agreed. Before spending a bunch of money and hours on more gear I’d experiment with the different ways the MnM lets you modulate pitch/timbre. To me the less time you spend learning gear is more time you get to spend making music.

IMO “analog” sounding stuff has less to do with warmth and more to do with using lfos and envelopes to subtly vary the sound of each individual note. Chorus/Flange/Vibrato can be done a bunch of different ways on the MnM and go a long way in making the machines feel more alive. I spent the last couple of years chasing boutique pedals only to sell them all in favor of the built in elektron ones — they’re super utilitarian but sound really good to my ears. Plus you don’t have to break your compositional workflow to use them.

syntheticart · 2023-07-08T14:36:56.106Z

I’m finishing up a MM heavy project and I really liked pairing it with a Strymon Deco. Both the chorus/flange part and the tape part help round out the sometimes spiky MM. Once recorded I processed it with UAD Neve 1073, Fairchild, Dimension D and Ampex tape plugins. The MM parts meant to sound analog-ish sit happily next to A4, Toraiz AS-1 and SH-101 analog parts. I spend a lot of time on the mixes though.

Tajnost · 2023-07-08T16:27:28.999Z

Good Suggestion!
Deco can add something to MM sound.

Vromber · 2023-07-09T15:02:44.961Z

How about Analog Heat?

Moonwax · 2023-07-09T18:15:50.261Z

Bits of unfinished project - MnM with Meris Polymoon. First track - example of “dry” pattern, the rest - processed

thermionic · 2023-07-09T18:49:43.416Z

Yes, learning to program the MnM will do better at “warming” it up than any pedals (or expensive rackmount gear.)

radar23 · 2024-07-22T11:15:36.902Z

Try using the EQ, a nice mixer with quality preamp, try good headphones.
Try an old crappy mixer…
Try passing the sign through a reel to reel tape
Try tube compression, preamps, channel strips.
Try more mixer through transformer DI Boxes into quality or crappy mic preamps.
Try one of the million plugins that state they add warmth.
Try a SSL mixer with buss compression
Try all sorts of experimental pedal combinations until you find the sound you like.

Try recording the output via vintage speakers mic’ed up with vintage tube mics and pass the signal through vintage gear until you like the sound.
Try researching 30 years of audio recording information that asks the same question about other digital gear.

Try training your ears to accept the sounds you create and eq them into your mixes.

Try not worrying about it.

If if none of that works, try other gear you like the sound of.

Personally I track the monomachine via a shitty boss mixer into a SSL SIX and monitor via Byerdynamic 770pro and Adam T5Vs… And record into the daw machine via a UA 476 via a radial Pro D2 Di Box with the analog heat on the master send on the six with a little bit of saturation. There are cappy compressors (Dbx 22xl, art tube thingy) there if I fancy it.

What I do sounds good to my ears… But maybe not your or anyone else’s.

radar23 · 2024-07-22T11:34:35.519Z

Addendum

Enjoy the monomachine for what it is… Unique and quirky.

mindexpansionpuzzles · 2024-07-22T11:41:18.464Z

Monomachine into Analog 4 as FX processor?

RabidMusic · 2024-07-23T20:41:20.425Z

The real trick is to choose something that will also be useful for other things. I often use a Helix because I already have one to use with guitar. Also have a Strymon unit in my modular along with some Noise Engineering modules that help. I use those because then I don’t have to buy anything. I will eventually get a Eventide H90 because I can use it with anything.

Rew · 2024-08-13T02:27:41.900Z

I tend to just use some EQ to roll off the highs a bit when I feel it sounds a little “harsh.” But then again, as others have said, it’s really swimming against the current to try to force the MnM to sound warm and analog.

jw · 2024-08-28T12:56:23.385Z

Outside of gear, have you tried experimenting with turning off key tracking? It’s on by default per track but turning it off can yield some much warmer sounding pads & bass sounds. Page 40 of the manual.

Basically by default the mnm high pass & low pass filter frequency values scale 1:1 with pitch, this is really cool for making weird more experimental sounds but sometimes as soon as you start modulating the high pass envelope with the BOFS parameter, you start losing lots of low end as you move up the keyboard.

JacopoAcquafresca · 2024-08-28T13:07:58.277Z

Oto Boum

JacopoAcquafresca · 2024-08-28T13:09:38.473Z

Or when tracking add the Dynamix machine to every sound (or at the end of the chain)

thermionic · 2024-08-28T18:38:38.510Z

And most important to “not sounding harsh or digital”… learning to program the MnM!

Without knowledge of the instrument, you can toss thousands of bucks of FX after it and still be disappointed.

Or buy nothing and be happier, because you’ve spent nothing AND it does everything you want it to.