I feel the same about the MD. Takes a lot of love to get where you want without sounding thin. If I were to use imported waveforms for synthesis I could just get a Rk002 kit and use my digitakt as a synth. Not the same but a lot cheaper. I am sure the Monomachine is capable of a ton more than what’s online, but it doesn’t seem like it’s a good dedicated synth
i think almost every purchase comes with buyers remorse to some degree - it’s exciting to almost order something, or to have it on the way, and the unboxing and setup and getting latest firmware or whatever… then you start using it and it’s cool but at the end of that first day when you’re turning stuff off and going to sleep or whatever, there is almost always a feeling of regret… that it doesn’t really change things for you in a big way and you’re still the same person with the same strengths and weaknesses as a musician…
i really think that’s 99% of consumer goods…
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Hit the nail on the head. If the MnM was new with a 30 day free return policy, it’d be a different story. It’s hard to know what you like without trying it.
“Also the sequencers are the same & I don’t think the Elektron sequencer is good on the old machines for non drum synthesis”
Just want to point out that the two sequencers vary a lot! The splitted up sequencer on the mono allows for quite wild soundshaping especially in conjunction with the fx-machines. I also quite like the arp on the mono for drumsequencing, internal or via Midi, as it allows some unexpected results ^^
++ (I dont know how often I’ve already reffered to it) The megacommand brings trig conditions on to the machinedrum as well as on the mono
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I stand corrected! My apologies.
that’s maybe the first rush of capitalism fullfillment/regret cycle. i give hard earned money, i want it to be what it says or was said it would be. i believe that the piece i bought will bring about the change that lifts me out of the zone i’ve been in etc etc.
it’s maybe the hardest part to just buy some “crap” equipment and use it until it works. my favourite piece of “crap” is def. the octatrack right now 
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Buy things to fill the empty void in your life from working.
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i mean you can make epic music on a 30$ macbook from 2009 if you want to, using some freeware daw and stuff like that - GAS is just celebrating the self-stimulating process of aquisition
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yeah, quite often. i rather visit friends now who have gear and record theirs 
this way i get my hands on more stuff and just load it into the octa - good memories, no remorse
I´ve had the same experience with a sp404 and a microfreak: I wanted to have something new and I thought that a lofi chillhop sampler (sp404) or a hyped synth (microfreak) would be it. But the sp404 was too limited (resample only two samples at once) for me. I know, that many people have workarounds for it. But it´s not for me.
And the sound of the microfreak just did not impress me. It always lacks “something”.
Long story short: I still have the money in my pocket and my GAS is gone.
I like the way you think. I sold my MPC for a MD & now I’m waiting for Elektron to get their shit together and send me a black Octatrack because I’m an edgy existential bloke.
I think this is trickier for items no longer in production.
For current items, “try it in a shop” can help deflate a lot of GAS.
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I had the microfreak and returned it. It’s as good as the videos show. No more, no less. Items are glorified. I had sp404 fever one time and now I don’t even look at them.
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When the gear is there the work starts, there is no magic in the box, its within you.
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know this.
been there.
no cure.
empty pockets.
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"I’m an ambient & chill slow idm guy.
The MnM chill factor isn’t shown in any videos or sounds.
The MD does chill idm & ambient percussive stuff. "
Oh, i think there are some nice ambient Videos of the mono in the web. Check out buromaschinen or Nicolas Lem, both of them carry the mono a few steps deeper!
https://youtu.be/12YeMchl48k
Edit: But hell yeah, the MD is awesome for electronica and ambient percussion sounds
Watched that a few times before. Please don’t make me regret my decision. Lol. I mean yeah that’s cool but not the sound I really enjoy making.
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imo
Monomachine is an ideal hw synth if you want to sound ‘different’ today. A4 is a beautiful machine, a beast, but it’s just another creamy analog synth that produces sounds you can hear in almost every modern mainstream electronic music track, if that’s your goal. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make something different with it but it’s certainly more predictable and regular sounding than mnm
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I bought an AR MKII for a hefty sum of money. I justified it with an oath to myself:
-
If you like it the first couple of days (and I
), you are going to learn this thing inside out and not buy anything else for at least a year -
And you are going to RTFM this time (halfway in now)
-
And you are going to noodle and experiment, not moaning about unfinished tracks or 4 bar loops
-
And you are gonna try and develop some kind of consistent sound for a longer period of time
No idea if this works. GAS is always lurking around the corner. But it helps that the AR is now my only real serious piece of gear.
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It’s been said over and over in this thread but I’ll say it again: with the Monomachine, you really need to have it for a year or two before you can appreciate it. Videos on the Internet cannot convey the sound and feel of it very well because nobody shows the good stuff.
Regarding the feel of programming it, the Monomachine is great because of the unique combination of weird features. It’s the only machine with fully p-lockable LFOs (you can lock destination, waveform), trig tracks (trigger amp, filter, LFOs independently), LFO interlace control, crazy poly mode, inter-track audio routing with busses…
About the sound: the Monomachine is most interesting at the extremes of the note range. It can go very very low, or very very high, and produces extremely nice digital artefacts at those extremes. When you use it for the first time and play the SuperWave engine in the midrange, you’ll be disappointed. Maybe it was great in 2005, but won’t impress anyone today. The magic is really in the gritty FM/wavetable engines in combination with the filter. Also, a lot of nice sounds can be found by overdriving it internally, before and after the filter. The default volume and distortion are at 64, but go to 127. The MM filter clips very very easily and produces this effect where the resonant peaks are fighting with the input signal. You can’t find these things without having the machine yourself.
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