Monomachine Tips and Tricks from old forum

Some tips I found useful from the 500 page old forum, kudos for users who post this:

HPF keytracking off

I turn HPF keytracking off almost all the time as it tends to thin out the timbre in the higher registers. It is essential to turn off keytracking for thru machines and effects, otherwise you’ll end up being one of those “the monomachine sounds thin” people. LPF keytracking is good for most synth-y things. Not as good for percussion and effects. Try different things, see what sounds right to you.

VERY IMPORTANT : FIRST turn OFF the keyboard tracking of both filters!!!
KIT > ASSIGN > KEY > HPF and LPF has to be in OFF!!!

How To Load These Free Wavetables On The Monomachine:

Download and unzip the waveform-file
Download and install C6 from Elektron.se
Open C6, click “configure” and make sure you set the MIDI Out port of your MIDI device
Connect a MIDI-cable from the MIDI Out port of your MIDI-device to the MIDI-IN port of the Monomachine
Click “Load” in C6, and load all of the waveforms that you unzipped earlier
Highlight all the waveforms in C6 and click the “DigiPro”-button inside C6 (this will convert the .wav files to .syx)
Fire up your Monomachine. Click Function+Global, choose whichever slot you like, scroll down to “File”, select “DigiPro MGR”, select “Receive” and finally select “Org” – the Monomachine will blink “Waiting”.
Highlight all the files in C6 and click “Send”.
The Monomachine should now be receiving the .syx files, wait until the 64th file has been received, click Yes (or No, I can’t quite remember) when this is done, the Monomachine will then show a bar loading the waves.
That’s it. New sounds to play with.

String Pads:

No problem for string pads. You have the Superwave ensemble which enables triggering 4 notes simultaneously (or playing the chord from a midi keyboard by playing one note) without going into polymode.

Lush pads with the Mono:

-some nice slow LFO’s routed to the EQ and Filter section parameters can really at some nice atmospheric pads. also, with the slow attack and long release tip, add some delay to make a mono sound a bit ‘bigger’.

Mono Delay:

The delay parameters on the mono seem a little funny, granted it makes sense.

delay times instead of even numbers like 8, 16, 32, 48, 64 are dropped one number down to 7, 15, 31, 47, 63 to make perfect delays with the tempo.

Creating Atmospheric Textures MnM:

basically, distortion down a bit (around -10; so the EQ isn’t as “harsh”)
then turn filter tracking off for both HPF and LPF (in Assign; the last tab on the right; Tracking)

AND that example you showed was drained in dark reverb, so make a reverb track…

ps.
you might want to do it like this as well:

Track 1 Synth (No Output)
Track 2 Reverb (Neighbor - Output A/

With that setup you’ll only hear what goes through the reverb

Super Copy:

  1. Holding Function + Copy/Paste/Clear at the same time for a few seconds will bring up the ‘super’ window. Giving you tons of options for each.

  2. Pressing ‘Scale/Page’ (bottom lower left) + Copy/Paste/Clear will allow you to quickly Copy/Paste/Clear that Scale/Page. Trust me, it’s handy.

MM pads? Advice?

make sure to set the filters NOT to track when you have paddy stuff going on.

Trigless Trigs:

Trigless trigs = triggers for filters and other parameters without trigging notes.

hold function key and press the trig buttons until they go green.

Never Ending Soundscapes?

go into the transpose menu, select fix and the scale you want, go into arp, set it slow (x30 or whatever, trigger a scale of notes on the mono seq (c1-c2 and all in between), set the arp to random over 3 octave and you have loveliness.

This part of the arp/sequence relationship is the thing I love about the mnm most atm. Put it into polly mode like this too…

Amp Trig Page:

In the MnM, tracks are more complex than in the MD. But with the Amp Trig page, you get a lot of spontanity. Just “mute” single notes by removing their Amp Trig, without affecting the melody, p-locks whatever programmed in the main page.

For example, imagine a drum beat on one track, BD 4 on the floor and hihats on the 16th in between. Usually quite static on the Monomachine without possibility to mute parts of it. Now, press Trig Select once and press the Hihat trigs so they switch to green. In this window you can set and remove trigs however you like. In this example, trigs in the 4th’s will always play back the BD and on the trigs in between Hihats. Of course, this can also be used for melodies. Great!

Monomachine Ambience/Soundscapes:

fx machines are your friends here like you say, remember to use the delay-per-track for chained delay lines. Also, setting the resonance up high on the fx machines makes you hear the fx pitched to the root note of the sequences, really useful for those kind of magical soundscapes where you swear the resonance is making a “hidden” melody.

What do you use to make you MonoMachine sound fatter?

In the AMP section Dist -10 opened the world of lush warm phat sounds for me on the Monomachine.

MnM: Loosing work

Kits and patterns are disconnected when it comes to how everything is stored.

  • Kits must be saved after every tweak you want to keep
  • Patterns are automatically saved as you build, but is seperate from kit saving.
  • If you make a pattern with a kit you put together, forget to save, the pattern will still be there just with a different/empty kit.
11 Likes

great to read through these!

thanks for posting …

I just discovered a new world, wait, make that dimension … drones from the MM … omg … I didnt know I could do that!

this overview sure helps, since … honestly, who is going onto the old forum … i find this rather tedious …

thanks for posting! (totally forgot about the super copy function)

Im a total newbie…took me 2 months for reading the old forum. Learning curve of the MnM is tough but as people say, worth spending time with the Mnm, its not an easy synth but thats one of the best part of it.

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not sure if someone posted it, but this made my day:

You can have a constant phase offset between two oscilators of DDRW machine. Select waveforms for WAV1 and WAV2 to taste, all other parameters by default. Now change WID to 1 and observe slowly running phasing effect. When you spot sound you’re looking for, change WID back to 0. Phasing will not change anymore and you’ll get phase offset.

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This machine is extremely deep, but also rather obtuse if you are new to elektron or the language/machines contained within. What have you guys experienced or learned that you would pass on to others? Ill start with a few things I have found since I recently acquired one

-Setting trigs randomly on the sequencer within certain machines like wavetable/SID while you tweak the speed of the ARP creates really wonky un-quantized arpeggiations which sort of sound like something Actress or a Detroit Techno producer would make

-Setting the Retrig value very high on certain BBOX samples while playing with the pitch parameter in real time can really granularize/aphex up lots of the relatively static sounding digital samples on the machine

-Pairing sin waves in the lowest registers of the midi keyboard can add a subbass to any FM/Wavetable bass you might have created, it layers very nice and keeps things textured/minimal

So what have you discovered? A nice FM algorhythm? Some unique VO machine setting? Share and post videos if you like!

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My latest obsession has been using one of the bus outputs as a FX send to some guitar pedals then back in via one of the inputs.

Currently i’ve got a fuzz, phaser, flanger, and compressor in the chain to really spice up the internal synths and anything else I plug into the other input.

If you haven’t already checked out this discussion Monomachine Love Thread I recommend you do. Tons of cool ideas to get you going!

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I’ve recently repurchased the MnM again. (SFX60 mkII) …
I think this is my 4th one! Madness. :loopy::3lektron::thup:

Anyway, my recent trick that I’ve been exploring is using the MultiMap feature. (This is a long post! Sorry!)
I originally set out to conquer the song mode because I realized that I could sequence some non-traditional timing with that mode… but stumbled on a way to do kinda the same with MultiMap and be more fluid/accidental.
Note: My “tip/trick” also involves another sequencer or OT to trigger patterns.

I’m still discovering uses and variations… so, to keep this brief I’ll explain (hopefully) in a simple example:

  • Make one kit.
  • Create 4 or 5 patterns that use the same kit. Let’s say B01, B02, B03, B04.
  • Keep pattern B05 empty.
  • For patterns B01 ~ B04 make simple variations of each other.
    (Track 1 is BD type hit using FM. Track 2 is weird FM evolving snare. Assign LFOs for taste and awesome. You can use more tracks if you want.)
  • (optional) Make the scales for B01 ~ B04 short but different from one another. Ex: B01 = 5/16, B02 = 12/16, etc

Ok… Set up MultiMap. You really only have to do this once. Then for next time just change which patterns are assigned. I’m going on memory here as I don’t have my MnM in front of me. The manual also explains this part. (Page 93 ).
Apologies in advance if I goof up the details here.

  • Go into GLOBAL, Then CONTROL > MultiMap Edit.
  • Assign your patterns to play on ONE note each. (important). Ex:
    RANGE __ PAT ___TRN
    C-1 C#-1 __ B01 ___
    C#-1 D-1 __B02 ___-1
    D-1 D#-1 __B03 ___-2
    D#-1 E-1 __B04 ___-3
    E-1 F-1 ___B05 (your empty pattern)

So your map can get more complicated, for sure.
But notice the transpose settings. For each note from the original C, you’ll have to transpose down by 1. In my case I realized that the MnM would auto transpose each note/pattern higher I moved up my map, so this is my solution.

** Oh, in the MnM MIDI settings, make sure you have MultiMap set to a midi channel. In my case: 13

ok… Now for fun!!

Get on your external sequencer and get nasty! Using my OT, I set one or multiple midi tracks to 13 and starting with C1 I place trigs to start pattern B01. Place another trig wherever you want for say, B04 by placing a D#1… The pattern changes immediately! Get creative here. Mix and match combos of trigs with inserting your empty pattern to stop MnM from playing. Maybe this could be a Conditional Trig on the OT? Using multiple midi tracks, one track could go slower with a x1/2 scale and have some conditional trigs while the other track could play at x1 scale. Endless possibilities for staggering & unpredictable beats and melodies. Ae for days!

Mix in even more LFOs from OT to MnM and head explodes. I love it. :aw:

edit… I don’t have a great example online, but here’s a recent IG post using OT, MnM, DN and AR. DN = creepy melody, AR = Boom Bap, OT + MnM = this example: Clangy FM stab with another woosh FM every now and then…

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Amazing tip/trick. Will have to give this a try.

Always good to be reminded about the different delay values in the MnM than other Elektron boxes… why Elektron… why…

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Yeah, this is great!
I figured having a Digitone would open up some MIDI possibilities with its conditional trigs, but I didn’t think of using it on conjunction with Monomachine’s multi-map! BONUS STAGE!!!

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Some good advice in here!

thank you for this! i’ve had my mm for way too long and just started getting into using multimap to have patterns triggered via the daw and i kept running into this roadblock. i wasn’t sure how much it was transposing the patterns by, but duh, just by a single semitone.

cheers!

edit: just a heads up that middle c on the mm is c-5 (and in my daw it’s c-3).

so it’d look like this

  • RANGE __ PAT ___ TRN
  • C-0 B-4 __ CUR ___ (your empty pattern)
  • C-5 C-5 __ B01 ___ <—this is where your pattern list starts
  • C#-5 C#-5 __ B02 ___ -1
  • D-5 D-5 __ B03 ___ -2
  • D#-5 D#-5 __ B04 ___ -3

i don’t think it matters where your long ranged empty pattern is (top of your list or bottom), but you have to be sure you start on middle (C - 5) if you wanna easily put your transposition numbers (e.g. -1, -2, -3, and so on).

awesome stuff!

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Super! Yeah, it’s a handy feature and simple trick to immediately trigger patterns. It really sets the MnM apart from other machines out there. Glad my explorations helped out another user! :loopy::ecstatic:

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I still use my old mute trick.

P lock the hell out of a track.

Mute the track on a step you like and the machine locks in that p lock step.

Play the key board. You can now live record the step lock. Or copy the track onto another track, say track 2 - wipe the track and go from there.

It’s kinda like a little sound lock hack ala the a4

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hello sohosix ,
i have tried your tip with the multimap edit . but i have weird issues .
i al using the same external midi devices so maybe you can help .
actually the monomachine does NOT play the pattern at the right transposition . suppose I set like this :
c-0.c-0 A1
c#0.c#0 A2

and on octatrack :
send note c-1 a step 0 and c#-1 at step 8 .

=> the pattern A1 and A2 are played at step 0 and step 8 ( with immediate change ) BUT they are played not at the right transposition . WHY ?? :flushed:

another weird thing is i ear like a portamento when the pattern is switching from A1 to A2 .

and why i am obliged to set C#-1 on the octatrack whereas it is set C0 on the monomachine ? ?? ( if i set C0 on the octatrack the pattern is not changing )

so really cool feature , but if it is always transposing my patterns , in a chaotic way , it is impossible to play with !

thanks !

so nobody can help ?
it is annoying .

I was so glad to discover the potential power of this function !!

can anybody can try to play a gain with this MAP EDIT ?
my OS is 1.32B , is it the last one ?

hey … it’s a really cool feature! Keep working at it. I’m busy with real life stuff, so I don’t have time to turn my music machines on. I do believe 1.32b is the last OS.

From my memory, the OT and MnM may not be set at the same note. You have to play around with it. (experiment)
I’ve done this trick with two separate Monomachines and yes, it can be difficult to set up…

Just try to get your A1 pattern to play at the correct transposition first, triggering from OT. Then, you can adjust the map on the MnM accordingly by 1 shifted slot… Don’t forget (based on my original post) each additional range/pat slot will need to be transposed down a step, decreasing by 1 for each slot.

RANGE __ PAT ___TRN
C-1 C#-1 __ B01 ___ (nothing)
C#-1 D-1 __B02 ___-1
D-1 D#-1 __B03 ___-2
D#-1 E-1 __B04 ___-3

That’s the trick to keep them all at their original created scale.

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yeah …
so i have experimented again with the map editor .
i have discovering new stuffs , quite strange .

if I set TRANSPOSE where SCALE is set to FIX , the map editor can play the pattern while keeping the tune of my pattern . good point . but on the other hand with this settin , i am loosing the transposition feature inside the map editor ! because FIX is engaged , whatever the value I choose for TRN in the map editor the monomachine does not react and ignore it .
but for now , it is the only way to play . if I let SCALE parameter for each to the value « —— « , my pattern is p’aying with chaotic tunings wich is impossible to control and impossible to play with .

another thing I have realized is the LEN parameter setting on the octatrack . depending on the value of this parameter , différents behaviors happen in the monomachine . what is your LEN parameter setting ? 127 or 1 ?

another tips i have discovered :
if you hold a monomachine trig whereas the octatrack is running the map editor , thid is like you can manually mute the octatrack midi track , really nice to even play more variations !

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orwell ,
could you please explain again this trick ?
I do not understand .
thank you !

Hey,
Simply:
P lock steps on the sequencer, lots of parameter locks, say like track one, fm machine

When the sequencer is playing - mute the track. Press stop.

The monomachine seems to keep in “a buffer” the last step played .

Play the track via the keyboard.

You should be able to play the buffer. It’s gets a bit random at times.