First time buyer with a few questions

Elektron Gear Monomachine
#1

Hello dear Elektronauts!

I really hope my silly first timer questions weren’t asked before. I did try the search but to no avail. Moderators are free to delete/move this topic if it is out of place here.

After diligent research and a lot of listening I have decided to buy my first Elektron. Of all the machines I think the Monomachine is best for my needs. It seems to be best all in one box with a fun loving attitude and lots of sonic possibilities the others don’t have. I do need good midi and this one has very good midi. A few questions remain that I couldn’t find an answer for.

I have used mainly hardware to make music, mostly romplers and groove boxes. 16 steps, 16 tracks boxes. Not many samplers, so it doesn’t bother me that I can’t load samples. There are some nifty single cycle waveform packs out there for this little beast. That should be more than enough to keep the sound palette diverse for years to come. It is possible to add your own single cycle waveforms right?

One of my concerns might be totally unfounded but are 6 tracks enough?
For example, is it possible to mute just the kick on a track that also has some other percussion sounds like hats? I read something about this in a tips and tricks guide but it wasn’t really clear to me as this method will act like a toggle.

Of course muting single notes or groups of notes can be achieved by creating a new pattern without those notes, but the method sounded perfect. I would like to know if there are other ways to mute parts of a track or other tips and tricks on getting the most out of 6 tracks.

Another concern are bugs and glitches. Are there any I need to know before I buy? The ones I read about don’t seem like showstoppers to me. Maybe other things a first time buyer like me should take in to account? I’m already covered for a few therapy sessions for after the first week of frustrations.

I hope I simply worry too much and I can soon place the order. Unless the Monomachine 2 is making it’s way. Then I might keep the money in the bank for a little longer.

#2

I can’t think of any swift way to mute/unmute only some notes in a pattern.

I’ve had my mnm for 3 years and still completely loving it. Sometimes I find myself wanting an extra track. But I guess if there were seven tracks you would sometimes miss the 8’th track, and you could go on like that in infinity wanting one more track.

I’d say, you have to think of the mnm as a piece of gear with a mind of its own. It has limitations that you won’t encounter in software, yes, but this is part of the game. Once you get into the way of working with the mnm, you’ll be more than happy with it. Its not merely a tool for making music, it’s your partner that actively pushes you and takes you in directions you haven’t planned.
I realize now this sounds like a cheezy commercial, but that’s how I think of my mnm.

#3

It is possible to add your own single cycle waveforms right?

Yes.

One of my concerns might be totally unfounded but are 6 tracks enough?
For example, is it possible to mute just the kick on a track that also has some other percussion sounds like hats?

One of my favorite tricks (which might be in the Tips doc, can’t remember) is to use parameter locks to set the volume of some trigs, while allowing others to remain variable. So you could have the locked group of sounds play at all times when the track is active, and fade the adjustable ones in and out with the volume knob. The example you mention is totally doable with a BBox machine.

I hope I simply worry too much

All good, a first Elektron is a fair bit of coin for a deep instrument that many users say demands a lot of digging before it starts revealing its many marvels. The MnM has a reputation for being a bit frustrating in the beginning, but also for being a bottomless well of beauty.

#6

I find 6 tracks to be enough.
Even though fx like Reverb, Chorus, Flanger, Compressor all require a track, but the routing is flexible. And each track already has its own delay, eq, filter, distortion, sample rate reduction.

Some synth machines already have Chorus built in. And there are ways to fake it with delay.

Check out the other soundcloud recordings for the free MM sound packs in the Elektron.se accessories section. These are all made with the 6 track limitation. They really show you how much you can fit into this great little box at once.
Here’s one:
https://soundcloud.com/lemnic/mnm-demo-sound-bank-from-lem

And my tip for searching this forum.
Go to google and type
site:elektronauts.com Monomachine tips

Using Google to search the site makes searching by keywords much more effective.

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#8

regarding the six tracks. Do you imagine just one instrument? If so then that’d be a tight squeeze I reckon.

For me. It’s always MnM plus one or sometimes two others. At the moment my favourite is MnM sequencing my jomox airbase (meat & potatoes percussion) and an MS20 for hand played stuff and details. In this sense 6 tracks is plenty. The combo changes from time to time but the MnM is a good starting (and finishing) point.

#9

Due to the multi-purpose, swiss army knife design, how people approach their MnM’s are across the board. There’s just so many ways to use it, I’m not at all surprised a comprehensive in-depth tutorial has been hard to find.

It’s also why I think a lot of people ‘just don’t get it’, especially at first. Some never do. It took me awhile to realize I got more satisfying results when I didn’t attempt to use every single feature all at once. I could just use it for maybe one or two things at a time, like MIDI sequencing external gear and then processing the external gear through the FX chain. Or simply as a poly synth.

From page 3 (page 11 in the pdf) of the MnM manual…
“The +Drive adds 128 Snapshots. A Monomachine Snapshot can contain up to 128 pat- terns, 128 kits, 24 songs and 8 globals. If the Monomachine is a MKII model, each Snap- shot is also linked to a Digibank. A Digibank consists of 64 user replaceable waveforms. Digibanks can be dynamically switched within a Snapshot.”

Yes, that’s a lot of expansion available on +Drive models.

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