Malekko Manther, Mr. D, and BFF Grooveboxes

I did get some interesting sounds out of it, but it was also a bit buggy. I’m sure they ironed out those issues though. But I suppose that also added to my negative experience with the unit. Nothing worse than being an early adopter of a new instrument, and feeling like you are a beta tester because of bugs/crashing.

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There seemed to be a few updates capturing these initial bugs not long after release but it still feels slightly unfinished.

Although frustrated by a couple of things: slow responding/low resolution faders - at least that’s how they feel, particularly when clocked, there’s been mention of MIDI CC’s but I can’t even get mine to receive a program change (has anyone ran any MIDI monitoring to see what is being transmitted if anything>)…I still can’t help but like it. There are a lot of cool features baked into this wee unit and it was fundamental to a recent album project. If I do keep it, I think I’ll push myself to accept what is exciting about it: dig deep into the power of the sequencer, automation, change envelope and LFO settings to taste, modulate the delay, use the short delay time for flanging/comb filter-esque sounds…dammit haha.

I don’t have the build quality grievances shared by others but each to their own. I cannot imagine selling it but were they a bit more easily attained, I’d like to A-B with some other monosynths, like the Erica Synths DB-01, or even a small poly like the Dreadbox Nymphes.

Has anybody any interesting demos to post?

I found Baseck’s one really inspiring:

But apart from that…

I got it because I was fascinated with the mc202, and while they aren’t the same things, this felt like an mc202 with tons of advantages.

The mc202 is special and extremely limited and frustrated. This has a couple of frustrating things about it, and I still find it special. It seems safe to say that it’s been a bit of a flop though!

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A new firmware version (1.3b) is up:

https://malekkoheavyindustry.com/content/uploads/2022/09/Manther-1.3beta.wav.zip

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Amazing! Criminally underrated machine, and so cool to get another update after all this time.

Demo or it didn’t happen

holy crap thank you for sharing.
never thought this would happen tbh

edit: really cool and unexpected wee additions too!

I updated mine and it seems to be working as expected. Interesting build date:

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Oh wow, someone was sleeping on that update for the past couple of years! :rofl:

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I’m optimistically assuming by the “Beta” version suffix that they were trying to get a more impactful update finished, but it’s taking longer than expected, so they chose to go ahead and release the most recent stable build.

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“Hey Jim, I know 2020 was a crazy year, but did you ever get around to uploading that firmware update to the servers? Jim? Where’d Jim go?”

It’s a shame Sonicstate or the others (to my knowledge) didn’t do a proper review on the Manther. Perhaps since a lot of the initial bugs have been sorted, it could be due for a “revisited” review of sorts?

yeah, seemed like a slightly clumsy launch and yeah, have found Malekko to make excellent stuff but not be the most ‘present’ or communicative. I’ve had queries unanswered for months, even this firmware update doesn’t seem to have been posted about anywhere. Who knows where they’ll quietly take things in future - do like what they make.

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Just got a manther to use with rytm, both being fed through ot and heat.

I feel like most(not all but most) of the demos and reviews ive read have been pretty lame/shallow. And theres not that many in general.

I really like the idea of this thing and so far I really like the sound.
So for anybody thats tryin to find out some more info on them, ill try to post some thoughts as im learning/using it

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yeah, the only hi-quality resource is that video manual that an independent guy created (shared above by @Unifono …very much a manual but definitely appreciated with coverage so patchy like you say.

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So after the first week of use:
Layout is optimal for constant evolution. you can save presets, but with the simplicity of the parameters, i dont find it very useful or inspiring, so i keep A01 constantly at a basic setting and go from there every time.
Sequencer is actually alot deeper than i had assumed, but i sequence from octa cause there is no prog change per midi as of now.
Squarewave, even with pw mod, is pretty quiet, but triangle with the wave folder is dope so i dont really use much square right now.
Envelope and lfo both have slow/fast settings, fast rules.
Modulation is simple but so playable.
Amp level was the most confusing at first, it doesnt go through the envelope, so when its open, its humming/droning. At first i wasnt sure about this, so i emailed malekko to make sure this was working properly, paul(I think) got back to me really quick explaining that it was working and how to use it, and its fucking dope! works really well as an accompanying drone to your sequence, and depending on the setting, can give a really nice breathe/pump to the sequence

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How’s the update been since installing it? Thinking of installing it today but wondering if you’ve experienced any bugs or anything. Thank you!

Did they abandon progress on the other device beside the Manther?

I’ll chime in and say it’s not introduced any issues for me. Not a huge change but a bit of control over the noise and some customisation of delay does add to it. Faders do seem a little more responsive.

Still not been able to, and they’ve not answered my support email about, receiving program changes. There’s a lot of digital control but haven’t been able to make this happen.