Monomachine Arp and LFO Trick

So many of you have heard me bitching and moaning about the sound of the MnM. I took the advice many of you gave me and started reading more and researching more in order to try and get out of the MnM sounds that I enjoy. I was inspired by one of the notes from one of the tips and tricks documents to create this quick little video about using the arp and LFO together.

Monomachine Arp/LFO Jimmyjam

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Nice one :ballot_box_with_check:
Look forward to more of your discoveries.

In the trigger pages for the ARP you can set the Arp to trig the LFO ONLY and not AMP or Fillter and or/any combination there of. I would also suggest you check out using the interleaving LFO more often these sorts of patches.
A lot of people don’t realize that in SID mode you can set the Chrod to the same note on repeat notes for ratcheting styled events on certain steps also which can work wonders if you are triggering neighboring tracks via a previous one and you want accented notes on two or 3 other tracks with different note ratchet speeds for example.

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What is the “interleaving LFO” please?
And I’m not sure I understand the bit about SID mode, but I’ll have a go at it.

INTL (interlace) is a function taken straight from the Sidstation.
Interlace is the process of alternating the LFO waveform with zero. The speed of the zero alternating cycles is controlled by the INTL parameter.
The interlace is switched off when set to zero

It’s often overlooked but makes for some great sounding a complex modulations.

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Can you explain more about this SID mode and ratcheting?

When the ARP is in SID mode it only ever arpeggios when you have chords entered via the step sequencer of played.
Sometimes I will map duplicate instruments to multiple a tracks within a kit.
When I do I will say all 3 in SID mode on the ARP and each with different timings / trigger settings.
Now when enter chords you can actually input the same note via the step sequencer which allows you to ratchet the steps for that note played only.
The SID mide is actually a very clever mode as at super fast rates it can act like a pitch LFO that triggers notes to a given chord / chromatic scale or will give you extra sequencer step runs within a sequence that you can’t conventionally program.
I will program a small sequence and upload t so you can hear how it works.

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Wow that sounds great. Would love to hear the samples. Please include some description of how the patterns are set up if possible.

https://soundcloud.com/venndiagram/dub-ra-monomachine-kit-test-pattern

Example No.1 - somewhat tame
Here’s one example where the last two tracks have the SID mode on the ARP doing ratchet like mini arpeggios over the stanadard 100BPM beat for note devisions and timing you wouldn’t normally get in straight 16 note mode.
This is for more dub like minimal work outs but i wanted to show how the SID Mode in the ARP section can act like a ratcheting device and sequencer withing a sequencer on specific “chord entered notes” only.
The kit uses the following -
DUB-RA KIT (single kit and single 4 bar pattern only)
TRK1 - FM-DYN (Kick)
TRK2 - GND>NOIS (noise snare)
TRK3 - SID>6581 (clicky micro percussion)
TRK4 - SWAVE>ENS (dubby bass and chord stabs)
TRK5 - DPRO>WAVE (clicky rachet noisy sub thing)
TRK6 - SID>6581 (karplus like bell sound with note ratchets)
A small amount of reverb and a master compressor on output channel but no other effects processing.

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https://soundcloud.com/venndiagram/monomachine-dub-ratchet-2-exp-2

Example No.2 - wild and whacky
Just another quick test of a new Monomachine kit.
I am using exactly the same kit as before but this time chaining together 3 patterns of different step length on the Monomachine whilst using a Max based probability sequencer on controller channel 7 that is chromatically transposing the entire MnM sequence based on real time probability triggers whilst the actual MnM sequencer is playing itself.
The kit uses the following -
TRK1 - FM-DYN (Kick)
TRK2 - GND>NOIS (noise snare)
TRK3 - SID>6581 (clicky micro percussion)
TRK4 - SWAVE>ENS (dubby bass and chord stabs)
TRK5 - DPRO>WAVE (clicky rachet noisy sub thing)
TRK6 - SID>6581 (karplus like bell sound with note ratchets)

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Very cool examples in this thread! I didn’t know the chord setting for the arp could use two of the same note! That’ll come in handy for my latest trick of using the arp on a kick pattern to emulate micro-timing/triplets/polyrhythms. If only the arp could be plocked…

Another cool thing to do with the LFO in this case is to use the HOLD mode. It works really well if you assign an LFO to control the MULT setting of another LFO, and with the HOLD mode it means that each note triggered will change the LFO speed (but since it’s just the MULT setting it’ll stay in time if you want it to). Much like the example of using the SID ARP mode to simulate ratcheting, this can be used on a downward saw LFO tied to volume or filter to get a somewhat less predictable ratcheting sound…

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@OSCar, this is really cool. Any chance you could make a video or take pictures of your settings?

@OSCar very nice! Any change you send the sysex files please?

@OSCar aha you just push me back to the good old MM… I had a nice evening looking for alien sounds, thx !
Far from these pretty sounds of yours, but worth the trip anyway ! :smile:
I love this direction, I dig your dub vibes, dear !

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Sure send me a PM - I can send on both the kit and the dub pattern for you to mess around with.

Iridium Dub-Ra.syx (4.1 KB)

I have included the Iridum drum kit = the Dub ra kit here. the patterns sound best in the 105-115BPM range in this instance. That said, the Iridum kit is a flexible little Bbox / FM drum hybrid that can be used in a myriad of ways in other styles and is used as a rough “tweak from template” for a lot of pieces I create.

Please note that I only ever use the Immortal Waves Soundpack in both of my Monomachine’s and using the internal factory waveforms will yield different sonic results.

Immortal waves Soundpack can be found and downloaded from here - https://www.elektron.se/accessories/immortal-waves/

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me too?

It’s just above.
Thank you very much @OSCar, I have messed with it yesterday, much fun.
Reusing a Kit is something I never do. Seems so obvious, though.

Hi LyingDalai,
This is how I work a lot of the time.
I have series of template kits and or sounds / depending on the gear I am using.
For example most pad sounds with have ADSR settings within a certain ball park - so I keep a template close to something I’d like to use and then it’s just a matter of altering the source OSC settings, LFO mod’s routing and tweaking EG’s / velocity settings to taste as I go.
I have around 104 custom kits in my MnM all approach things slightly differently - some are configured for fx processing of external signals others are 100% FM drum kits, other Bbox / FM hybrids, some more drone based etc.
So when writing I can get ideas down fast and then customize the kit to taste at a later date for specific material.
If you don’t have 2 x MnM’s like me you can still do this trick in Live or on an OT too.
Copy and paste a pattern Kit 1 may be more percussive and another more ambient with FX tracks etc.
Record each pattern with each seprate kit - you’d be amazed how diffrent a single pattern can sound this way and then experiment with crossfades, cuts, and diffrent effects routing for each.
Sometimes I’d do quick cut beat division crossfade, chop those into a sampler and then sequence them with sample start/end point modulations and so on.
I will have to post some audio examples of how the MnM sounds processed through my Kilpatrick Audio Phenol as well as this yields some great experimental results.
That said I like the concept of patterns, kits and older tracks being a form of cellular data that can be appropriated and contextualized differently elsewhere in other tracks.
There are a slew of sample mangling tricks that one can’t use anymore due to potential copyright infringement but that doesn’t mean you cant apply all those tricks to your own production work.
The MnM also makes for a rather clever little external audio FX box too (a fact that it often overlooked in its day to day use) but I digress.

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Yes, yes, it seems so obvious now that you talk about it… I don’t know, I always started from scratch and while discovering a lot, I’m still not at the level where I can just throw ideas quickly.
A bug on the MM (I think it is) made me fear something went wrong and I stupidly erased everything I had on it.
So I have a virgin MM, ready to go towards new directions. I’m grateful for your insights, it helps a lot.