Hi all, I’m a long time Elektron user. I bought a SidStation in 1999 and recently bought a RYTM.
I’m considering getting a MM and wanted to hear some feedback about the workflow with a MIDI keyboard.
I am a keyboard player so naturally it’s more intuitive for me to work out melodies and harmony using a keyboard and I wanted to hear from people that work this way with the MM.
The way I imagine this is by working out synthesis and parameters on the unit and then using live recording mode to record basslines, leads etc. from the keyboard… and then going back to the unit for refinements, Parameter locks etc.
Anyone can comment on a similar workflow or any other issues I’m missing?
in terms of recording to the sequencer, you’ll be fine with hooking up a midi keyboard and jamming away. i sketch & record monophonic lines this way all this time.
tbh though, it took me awhile to get used to the mnm so i could work that way, mostly because of my own tastes. i had the typical new-user experience of thinking the mnm sounded really thin straight out of the box, and many of its strengths only started appearing once i started exploring its routing possibilities – chaining up effects, using the bus system, that sort of thing. only after i made that a part of my workflow was i able to get what i considered to be lush sounds out of a monophonic voice.
poly lines are trickier for me because they unfortunately preclude you from using the bus system at the same time. if that ends up being important to you, you’ll need to go back and program each voice of your sketch as a mono line.
a buddy once told me that the mono is a programmer’s synth. he’s largely right imho. you’ll be fine with basic note entry using your keyboard, but sequencer interaction is where it really starts to shine. you probably know that about elektron gear by now however
Thanks for your reply!
That makes sense to me, but as long as I can work out melodies from a keyboard to come up with ideas, and input them in realtime, I have no issues with taking it to the next level using the machine itself. But as a keyboard player, I get inspired by playing from a keyboard…I was afraid that it would be counter intuitive for me to compose music with the Trigs.
With the RYTM i’t snot an issue because I’m using it for rhythms mainly not so much for melodic content (although it can…)
So to make something else clear with the mnm being a monosynth…
Is it possible to play polyphonically from a keyboard and record it live? Even if it means using several machines at once?
When I owned a MM, I was even using it in a band as my primary keyboard player sound module (along with a Blofeld). Mod wheel modulations and up to 6 voice layers (which you can mute and unmute to taste while playing) offer quite a lot of sonic possibilities and integrate well with a Midi keyboard!
To refine on dubathonic’s post: you could just plug a Midi tool such as MidiPal between your keyboard and the MM to separate notes of chords to separate Midi channels.
Sounds like your compositional technique is similar to mine. The timbre of a sound influences how I play the sound on the keyboard and that becomes the starting point for the riff/melody/chord progression.
I sometimes find that fast playing can confuse the Monomachine (odd pitching - rectified by hitting the stop button!).
I have learned to adapt my playing technique to compensate but mainly I think of what I would play and just step record it (not the same as grid record), though you have to use the arrow keys to jump a step (it would be nice to be able to assign that function to a midi controller). I think the Monomachine responds better to being sequenced.
You can always play in chords (grid and step record modes) but the resultant chord will only be acted upon by the arpeggiators (cycling the notes of the chord) or if you put the Monomachine in Poly mode.
Note that if you record live everything is hard quantized (16th or 32nd) and it doesn’t record velocity (fixed at 100 but can be subsequently changed using parameter locks).
Well…I just picked up a used mnm MK2 on Ebay. Price was too low to pass up so I’m taking a leap of faith. But I’m sure it will work itself into my setup.
This is probably not all that helpful and only barely relevant. Anyway, I’m playing with MIDI processing in Node JS right now and one idea I have is to make the poly machines respond to chords played on the keyboard. I’ll keep you posted if I actually manage to implement this, and someone’s aware of this wheel already being invented please let me know…
