Modular? Monomachine? Something else?

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

I’ve long thought about getting into the eurorack/modular world, and I am finally in a position financially where I can buy decent synths and/or start the dive. I also own an octatrack and digitone and love the elektron format. I should say that I am a big fan of experimental, glitch and noise music and am into exploring bizarre nuances of sound.

But, here’s my question: I love sounds that are able to “morph” and become radically different over time, and with the p-locking possibilities on the digitone it is easily achieved. However, obviously with modular systems you can hook up so many different things to each other and modulate everything in an infinite number of ways. However, I’ve heard that people say the monomachine is really dynamic. I was considering getting a 0-coast, and I already have a korg ms-20 mini, so the two could communicate with each other, and then if/when I eventually buy a case I would have pieces to already work with. Or, should I just save the money I’d spend on the 0-coast and start diving into my first system?

However, I know that the monomachine would be more immediately gratifying and that it DOES offer quite a few different types of synthesis. But, I feel like dropping almost 1k on a synthesizer that probably has a lot of overlap with other synths I have (Korg Electribe MX, Digitone, Concertmate MG-1, roland d550, gaia sh-01) seems kinda silly and if I want specific sounds then just build my own via modular?

If I got a case I was thinking of just starting with a small 84hp or 104hp, a mutable instruments modulator and a sequencer (maybe a make noise rene). The idea being to eventually build a module where weird ass sequences can very specifically modulate tiny aspects of the sound to make one synth that has lush and highly varied timbres over time.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

PS: I know a big old ramblin’ sesh and that it all comes up to personal preference but just looking for other people’s viewpoints, thank you.

#2

In my experience too many options leads to no new sounds being made. Just samey ambient textures and so on. What I mean is that I use a fraction of the functions of my Digitone and RYTM because I’m focused too much on my Eurorack and vice versa. I honestly think that for sound design less is more and that all you really need is a great sequencer. I have a small 84hp Eurorack system but in future will not be using it for sound generation - just effects.

#3

The Monomachine is a great synth but needs a Lot of affection, love and effort. If you rather want Morphing Sounds, a modular rig is an easier way to achieve this. Go 104hp. And Limit yourself to one or two rows. Also add something simple Like an Arturia Keystep or Beatstep pro for simple sequencing duties.

#4

If you’re into glitch music and morphing, monomachine is bloody perfect. To get anywhere near its capabilities in eurorack you’d have to spend probably 10 times the cost of a mono. And even then lose out on a lot of functionality.

(coming from someone with a monomachine and a rather large euro rig)

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#5

A friend of mine switched as a long time monomachine User to a OP1 + 2 row 84HP Eurorack setup and achieves same If not even much broader and different results. Price is of course Higher, but Not 10x. Maybe 3x.
You loose some features but also gain other ones.

#6

I started with 3x84hp and now have 4x84hp.

It depends how many voices you want, do you want fx in the rack too? A sequencer?

I think buying a small case would be a big mistake. You need a lot of modules to do very basic things, VCAs, envelopes, filters, mixers, modulation, attenuverters, it takes a lot of space.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone start with anything less than 2x 104hp, unless you have something extremely specific in mind, and know what you’re doing.

I’ve seen too many people buy a tiny case, fill it up and end up with a boring and very expensive mono synth. Then be disappointed and sell it.

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#7

Really awesome responses y’all. To Daisuk, I feel like I have only found some decent demos of monomachine being used for glitch paired with a machinedrum, not much alone. Too many videos of just straight up techno (which isn’t bad, just isn’t what really drives). If you know of any youtubers (or anyone else) with good videos to really show some of the more bizarre side of the MnM I’d be super appreciative. I’m a huuuuuuge Autechre fan and I’ve heard that their Untilted era was really driven by elektron boxes such as machinedrum and monomachine (which was a big reason I ever even got into elektron boxes).

To Munro, thank you very much for saying that. I got on modular grid and tested out what I could fit into an 84hp and filled it up so fast. You’re right, if I wanted a boring monosynth I could just whip something up from things I already have. Really looking more for a wide variety of timbres which obviously is going to take up way more space on a rack as opposed to one synth.

I know the monomachine is known for being able to be super versatile, anyone have any suggestions for other synths that are similar (even though I know everyone says that the monomachine is really a creature of it’s own)? I’ve looked into analog four, and machinedrum but they don’t seem right for me. I know that monomachine is limited on it’s polyphony capabilities (cause you use up your voices), but honestly, with the octatrack whatever just sample it out.

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#8

Not claiming any of these are perfect examples of anything, but you might get a feel for what you can do with it. :slight_smile:

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#9

You have to consider your workflow too: if you like to work on different tracks in the same time, modular will be a pain and won’t suit you!

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#10

Another thing you might want to be considering is how broad a range of sounds you want to get. Straight off the bat with the MnM (and your knowledge of how Elektron sequencers work) you can get a real variety of sounds with the various synthesis types. And with the multiple outs you can then take those sounds much further with external processing. Modular has the potential to be even more flexible but the key word is potential. It can take a lot to realise some of the ideas you might have - whether that is time to understand and get the most out of the modules you have or whether it is money because you realise you need more modulators or VCAs etc etc.

One thing in modular’s favour is that you learn so much about synthesis… I’ve got a 0-Coast, 84 hp worth of Eurorack and a MnM. I recently went back to using the MnM on an album I’ve just finished for the first time in a good few years and I found that what I’d learned from using the modular allowed to get so much more out of the MnM.

Just some additional thoughts rambled out…

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#12

I see the allure of modular for sure, but for now I got plenty of expensive rabbit holes in my life :slight_smile:
I did get an 0 Coast and love it to death. Run that through my pedalboard and I’ll see you in 12 hours. It’s very gratifying to make your own patches and whatnot.

Maybe an 0 Coast is a good place to start and see if it’s for you?

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#13

If your priority is glitch / experimental / noise music - as opposed to which hardware for the job - then imo learning Max/MSP should be in the consideration.

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#14

Autechre was already using a lot the MD and the MNM on Untilted.
Also, we can really recognize them on the live they made for the Untilted tour

By the way, this live is just amazing!

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#17

Certainly a lot of the appeal that would get me back into the Eurorack world are a lot of the digital voices that have shown up the past few years: a lot of the Noise Engineering modules, some of the Make Noise (in my tiny tiny setup, I have the Telharmonic, and I’ve long been drawn to their Mysteron module). There’s a lot of interesting physical modeling stuff in modular right now too, particularly the Intellijel Plonk.

But just putting three such modules together comes to $1000 USD easily (ie, two noise engineering and the Plonk). And as cool as those modules are, they could probably use another $1k of supporting modules and casing and power and bla bla bla to fill out.

The Monomachine starts to look like a bargain at that point. Six sequenced voices. Three LFOs per voice. The trigless locks to change the LFO settings on a step by step basis. Internal and external routing. A fun thing to do is to pair the Monomachine and Octatrack together and use multiple outs from Monomachine to be processed by different chains of thru/neighbor machines in OT.

The FM machines alone in Monomachine can achieve wildly different sounds than you can get with Digitone (and most other things I’ve encountered). When I start getting too trigger happy for some of the Noise Engineering eurorack stuff, I just remember some of the strange percussion one can do with the Monomachine. I think this is just a SID machine (for noise, with a neighbor reverb effect) and one of the FM machines (with its own neighbor reverb effect). This is one way to do long mutating sounds on Monomachine. Especially if you play with suddenly pausing the sequencer to let an envelope or LFO play out and then resume.

And this next one is getting into some physical modeling on Monomachine. Using the DigiPRO machines with some FM waves from the Adventure Kid web site; creative use of parameter locking and LFOs, especially on the per-track delay, can yield some bowed metal sounds. A lot of what sometimes tries to draw me back into Eurorack, are sounds like this, which I’ve already made on Monomachine.

To show the variety you can get even with the older Monomachine sequencer, most of this is just two 16 step patterns and some arp. Three DigiPRO based tracks (except for some SID kick drums and creative compressor effect track use in the first 10 seconds or so). (Also - the reverb is coming from the Analog 4).

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#18

A Nord A1 or Lead 4 with an OT?

#20

“Money is cheaper to spend” must be one of the wisest things I’ve read on this forum…

It’s this thought process that keeps me from buying more stuff lately. I’ve had my MD and MnM for probably four months now and you better believe that browsing these forums keeps my eye on an OT. But then I say to myself: There’s no way. I still haven’t made much with my two I’ve got now, why bring a third one in? Even if it’d be kinda fun? The MnM and MD are starting to become second nature (in terms of muscle memory) but I know I’ve just scratched the surface.

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#21

This is some really great, interesting stuff. Maybe I should finally load up those adventure kid waves…

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#23

OT definitely keeps me from buying every odd drum machine that I get tickled by. It’s one of the best creative investments in hardware I have ever made. It can wear so many hats.

It can have a lot of the depth a modular or MM is capable of, or, with a little bit of setup and basic understand (see Cuckoo vids), be as simple to use as a Volca Sample.

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#24

I think the recommendations from @bradleyallen regarding the classics Nords is a really good shout - especially for the AE period from about LP5 up until post-Quaristice. Certainly with regards to timbre. For the more recent AE material I think that sequencing and how seemingly disparate things are combined is one of the more important area. Breaking down stuff from Elseq or NTS Sessions and some of the components are pretty simplistic but it’s all in how it’s combined. None of that comes easy and it depends onthe investment of time.

Thinking further about it, and the Nord Modulars would seem a good idea for this sort if the OP doesn’t mind creating patches on the computer. It gives a good introduction to modular concepts without being entirely open-ended like Max or Reaktor. Having to work within the confines of processor limitations offers rigour. Which is an undervalued comodity. I’ve had a Nord Micromodular for about 20 years and I’ve not touched it in ages but this has got me thinking that I need to rectify that and see what I can do with what i’ve learned in the last number of years. Side point, if the OP is in the UK there is a good deal in the Marketplace sub-forum just now for either a Nord Rack or Micromodular… and @re5et is a super nice chap to deal with.

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#25

I might have to plug in my nords tomorrow , make sure I want to sell them…
Nord micro modular (its the 3rd one I’ve bought)
Nord modular keys (Bought new , sold it to a friend and bought it back off him)
Nord 2x rack
Nord 4 rack .(nice to finally have built in fx)

On a side note , the nord 2 ensemble in reaktor is very good and very old (unless I continue to sell mine , then it’s inferior to the actual hardware)

I think people might be surprised at how many nord / Juno presets are used in early melodic era autechre , still nice tunes though. I barely listen to their new stuff but I don’t doubt they’d be very bored making the same stuff from 90’s and much of their audience would probably be bored too.

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