Monomachine and PreenFM2 = overlap or complement?

Elektron Gear Monomachine
#1

Hey all,

i´m a long time MnM user and fanboy and it´s really my synth love to take to the grave at this point. But, GAS is strong and at the moment i´m almost finished building a PreenFM2 synth.

I´ve since long realized i enjoy the digital audio realm just a little bit more than the analog, even better when they are combined so that´s how my machine setup looks like, basically, But i was missing a premium FM synth, so i found out about the PreenFM2 and went for it.

I have multiple machines capable of FM; Blofeld, Deluge, MonoMachine and now the PreenFM2, but the preen i think would be the most capable of them all FM-wise?
I had the idea of getting a Montage (too expensive), FS1R (had one, sold it regrettably, too rare and expensive now) or perhaps a TG77 (right price but i could build a Preen for the same money and i think it´s more capable.

Now, it´s too late to back out but i´m interested to hear if there are anyone out there with both machines and how much they overlap or complement each other? Hopefully i can soon answer that question myself, but i´m interested in your opinions and if the devices together makes the world a better place, or not.
What do you think?

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#2

Only the PreenFM2 here. Compare the number of operators and programs. The PreenFM2 is a full blown 6 OP synth like the DX 7. If you want to dig deep in FM, this is the right machine. Blofeld does superb FM too, but it’s 3 Osc crossmodulation without some particular FM features like 3Op programs on a DX7 or the Preen.

#3

Sounds great, i had the feeling that the preen would give me more of everything FM which was just what i needed, so i´m feeling good about the direction my gear is taking right now.
I had a slight “WTF!?” moment when Digitone was released, but then i realized they are probably angled towards a little bit different user bases, and the Preen is probably a lot more capable in the areas important to me.

The Preen is more of a full-blown FM synth than any other machine i have so it will fill the void nicely i think.
How do you feel working with the interface, i´ve heard the editor is very good but is it troublesome to program directly from the HW panel?

Man oh man i´m so looking forward to finishing the build, i will probably have it running by tonight or tomorrow if nothing goes wrong (pray to the oscillating gods for me, will ya) and i haven´t messed up the soldering or anything else. :wink:

#4

Envy you that you can DIY … I bought it “pre-assembled” …

The interface is okay. Most important for me was to get familiar with the buttons and how to flip between the menu pages. Since I was used to FM-8 and Mod-7, I did know what to look for and how to operate it. After some training I can program it quite fluidly.

Sound is excellent. Full blown FM it is, with all bells and whistles. Lot to explore, if you are new to FM.

Never tried the software, though.

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#5

PreenFM has kind of a gritty sound which is not so great at the ‘crisp’ or ‘glassy’ tones (or at least, I could never get mine to do them well). I’ve never used an MnM so I can’t say whether they have a similar tone, but I thought the grittiness was at least worth mentioning.

#6

@SoundRider DIY was not so hard, the instructions are very good and i managed to do it even if i´m just a novice at soldering. But it´s really fun to learn how to do it. Tomorrow i might be calling on the wrath of the gods when trying to power it up for the 1st time (just finished it tonight) and it´s not working but hey, that´s tomorrow. :slight_smile:

@panelist, the gritty sound is for me i think, i really like it that way and usually run things through all kinds of dist/grunge/saturation or similar FX units or plugins to be satisfied. I´m ready to be baffled, really have high hopes about this one!

Thanks for your input guys, i will let you know how it matches my current gear when i get it running - which might take a while if i´m out of luck. I might have f*cked up something though, and then it will be later on…

#7

I don’t have PreenFM2, but there’s just so many other things that the Monomachine has and does that there’s little overlap. Having just added Digitone and Modor NF-1m to my setup, I realize that neither of them are going to compete against Monomachine’s DigiPRO machines, ensemble machines, tuned delay synthesis, the SID machine, the VO machine, etc.

I am starting to wonder if instead of the Modor and Digitone if I should have just used that money to go after an FS1R instead as I think that’s become my dream machine. I keep thinking it was too expensive but I just spent more than that on two synths.

The Monomachine’s FM, to me, is lovely and alien and bizarre and excels at that stuff. Other FM synths, especially premium ones, seem like a complement.

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#8

My PreenFM2 can do very clean and bellish sounds, not only gritty. To be capable of both is typical for FM.

I just made a simple patch, to check that I don’t talk nonsense:

For this I used Pgm 1, which is
O2<-O3
\ /
O1

For clean bellish sounds we need a frequency ratio between O1/O2, which does not devide by an integer, like 2/3, 3/2, 3/5 etc.

Now for the sake of simplicity let’s use the “Keyb”-mode, put O1 to “2”, O2 to “3” and crank up the modulation intensity slowly. Between 0 and 2 the sound changes from a sine and becomes and stays a clean bell sound … but above 3 up to 10 the sound is adding more and more gritt to it. All my FM synths behave like this.

I love FM, because we can modulate even one voice of two OPs to sound like very different timbres. Now, what is possible with all those different programs … the options seem to be endless :smiley:

#9

@jshell i agree, the MnM is a unique machine, extremely versatile which is why i love it so much. It´s not an FM synth, it´s just so much more, so very limitless in it´s way.
Funny, i´m actually thinking of adding a Modor to my setup next, formant synthesis is very nice and it sounds excellent in many ways - i also like the interface, so nice to have all those knobs on a FM synth. I had an FS1R but was not ready for the pure power of it; amazing machine, totally absolutely insane but no way i would touch it without an editor today. So good luck if you go down that road. :slight_smile:

@SoundRider thanks for the patch example! I´m a very happy dude at the moment, powered up the Preen for the 1st time today and it just plays along without any problems at all. The editor is great and well needed, i am really not so skilled in FM synthesis so i need it, especially when the operator count goes up.
As i said, i have a lot of machines capable of FM but in reality i haven´t dived into the synthesis enough to learn it properly but with the Preen i will put some serious time into learning.
As you say, i also enjoy FM because of the various sounds it can create. I´ve heard some of the nastiest, deepest and thickest basses with FM. Also, some of the most tearing, sharp gnarly and raw sawtooth-ish leads has been made with FM not analogue. And that´s without any FX!
So í´m really looking forward to this voyage. :slight_smile:

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