MnM as "groove synth," ? legato ? etc

Elektron Gear Monomachine
#1

I came into Elektron with Rytm, then OT.
I’ve explored playing voices on each of these chromatically and had mixed results. Firstly, of course, they have limited transposition of their machine…

  • AR: +/- 24 semitons = 4 octaves
  • OT: +/- 12 semitones = 2 octaves

…but also for other reasons of control and playability:

  • each one fires as one-shot, with no “legato” playing or voice-retrigger ( play key 1 to hear it, play key 2 to hear it, let up key 2 to hear note 1 again…)
  • lack of filter following notes in.

I’m interested in the MnM as a “utility” engine with a keyboard controller, so I can improve my keyboard skills using an external controller and the variety of machines and modes of the MnM to be a “swiss army synth with sequencer.”

I’m intrigued with the wide-open sound-design powers of the MnM, and but I want to know it’s strengths/weaknesses as a “playable synth” before I proceed.
So a few questions to ask before I might sit down with one.

  1. If I control/play/record internal parts with an external MIDI keyboard controller, does the MnM sequencer record note-lengths ? This video suggests otherwise.
  2. I only see one mention of the term “legato” in the MnM manual. Can it do the “monophonic voice-re-trig” thing described above ?
  3. What happens when you try to jump into Poly mode while Sequencer is playing ? I understand that it disables all other tracks, but does it keep timing of existing trigs ?
  4. Is Poly mode the only way to hear any track voice polyphonically ? I see the manual suggests Multi-Trig mode. Does Multi-Trig mode allocate incoming voices of a played chord across tracks, or just stack up a “mulit-timbral monophonic voice”
  5. Could you exclude some track(s) from Multi-Trig to leave it running as a pattern sequencer while you play other voices (polyphonically) above them ? Could you do a split among copies of the same timbre to hack duo-phonic parts (with seperate arps/etc…?

Cheers in advance.

#2

To point 1.
partly. when you record/sequence external hardware via midi keyboard, the Midi Sequencer will not record note-lengths. you have to place trigless trigs manually. but it’s possible with the internal synths & sequencer so far i know. it depends how the Release & Decay have been pre-set. you have to turn the Decay fully up and Release to zero. i figured it out the last time i used my MM. it was a bit surprising even to me.

To point 3.
when you jump into poly mode and back again to mono, the individual tracks will keep its settings. for example EFX Tracks. you can choose what Track/Machine you want to play polyphonic befor the poly mode activation.

i hope i could help you out a little with my moderate english^^

#3

Hey MDMnM, thanks for some info:

I gave up on trying to “play” my OT with a keyboard, as it just fires off 2 octaves of Pitch-offsets, and no voice-toggling.
When I use MIDI controller with RYTM, I get better respond, and I can legato-alternate between 2 notes, but no portamento (obviously).
Not sure any of these machines are in tune (such that low A would be 220 Hz).

TO POINT 1:
When you say “the MIDI Sequencer will not record note lengths,” is this just the MIDI sequencer, or the internal Machine tracks as well ? I assume it at least follows note lengths on when playing live, correct ? Are you saying you can not only play, but capture accurate note-lengths on internal machines ? That’d be fine for me.

TO POINT 3:
If I set up track 1 as synth, set up track 6 as reverb, and send track 1 to track 6’s reverb, will my track 1 sound have reverb when I put track 1 in Poly mode ?

#4

i have to correct me. doesn’t works with both, with the regular sequencer and midi sequencer. different note lenghts will not recorded by the sequencer. i checked it a few minutes ago. but playing the Monomachine as a common synthesizer as you expect is possible of course. plus you can set the velocity sensitivity of each track, along with other parameters.

Reverb and Modulation track effects are not possible in Poly Mode. of course, you can go into Poly Mode when a Track with a Track Effect is selected, but what’s the gain here? The only effect that will work is the Delay which you find on the Effects page, that’s it.