Hey Elektronauts!
Two days ago, I would have even thought of buying any Elektron vintage stuff - especially at insane 2nd hand pricings on reverb or eBay…
What do you think: Does a MM add value in 2020 to your setup (compared to other digital boxes like DN or M:C)?
Cheers
flo
A working monomachine is worth buying whether it’s 2020 or the end of days.
It adds value, but also costs. Whether it’s worth it depends entirely on you and your preferences.
Value - in terms of sounds?
Never had the opportunity to work on a MM. Well - checking YT: first impression - awesome machine, but no idea if a DN or M:C would be able to reproduce similar sounds.
Monomachine has all sorts of dark corners to explore that do not exist on any other Elektron.
The root of this is a number of unique features:
You won’t get microtiming, conditional trigs, scale length / multiplier per track or any of those QOL features, but it stands alone as a unique synthesis proposition.
I don’t think it adds value. But it does add pleasure 
There is no keyboard like on the A4 - so how can notes (pitch /length) be entered?
Via Parameter-Locking - or is there also any chromatic mode?
Cheers
flo
…monomachines timeless sonic magic comes, likewise as with the ot, no on first sight…
…ur first impressions, if ur not already aware of what u wanna achieve with it, will be pretty cheap…
…to hear what’s made it cult, takes a minute and some deep dive interacting efforts…
…i repeat myself, if saying here also, that u might wanna consider to wait for the next instrument to show up soonishish…
where the big generationchange that came with the birth of digitakt will finally join with the big comeback in good old and well deserved cultstatus fashion of machinedrum and monomachine in one new box combined…including all the new “little” swedish overall inventions that came along since then…
Keep fingers crossed!! That would be awesome!
Unless you’re really after the MnM for nostalgia or have like specific sounds that only it can make in mind it might not really be worth it in the end. They’re ridiculously expensive and you could realistically accomplish much of what it does with other machines.
I love mine as it has a big nostalgia factor and it goes well with the Machinedrum, but in the end it’s a piece of gear that I could do without. On the other hand it’s nice having 6 (mono) synth or fx tracks in one small box, and the arpeggiator really rocks once youve gotten familiar with it.
Either connect a midi keyboard (best way), live record chromatically with the 16 trig keys (as on the Model series) or in grid recording mode, hold a trig and use the cursor keys to adjust the note value. On the machines that can play chords like the Digipro ensemble machine, the chord notes appear in a little list when you hold the trig down, you can change/add/remove with the cursor keys.
Note length is either p-locked or what you notice when using a midi keyboard is that you get a separate trigless “note off” trig when you release a longer note.
Holy MnMs have gotten expensive lately! It’s a lovely synth, and very unique, but unless you need the MnM sound, $2k+ seems like too much imo.
They’re $2k these days? Yikes. I’m going to go tuck mine in and read it a story.
…mee again…one last time…promise…
if it’s about budget, i’d say, grab a model:cycles for now…sonicwise not so far away in some points to mnm…but with lot’s of uptodate fun tweaks, all retro cult gear will never see…
and wait for the digi monomeetsmachine thing…that will also have the benefits of almost two decades that has passed ever since…
also not the REAL thing, i admit…
but…
we all love the new tricks that came along since takt…
and…but…
and all in all, ur budget stays under one grant, this way…
Naaaaaah. Cycles is great but covers maybe 5% of what the MNM does.
Its kick drum is a lot better though, I’ll give it that.
…so let’s meet and agree on 10%… 
best synthetic kiks came from 808 and MD anyways…
and yesh…cycles can mock these pretty neat…
I seriously love my MnM. I have the MK1, so not sure if this will help. I think the reason people are paying top dollar right now is because artists that have used them. I think Radiohead used one…and can’t remember the other artists…but there’s a few.
I got mine in a trade a couple years ago. I was thinking I wanted it for the FM machines, but to be honest, haven’t used the FM much since I got it. At the moment I’m Elektron’d up. I have a MnM MK1, AK, AR MK1, and my trusty OTmk1… Right now (I haven’t given the AK and the AR enough time. This may change), my favorite boxes are the OT and the MnM. I love the architecture of both of those. How they are very quirky and full of happy accidents…And I really like the gain structure/filter structure of both. The filter structure on the MnM is just amazing…And for some reason, I prefer the sound and temperament of digital filters.
The MnM’s choice of multiple machines (which I feel is similar on the Rytm) is a blast! The drum machine is a blast when using 3 lfo’s to modulate the filters and delay. There is so much to go through (and now the prices will rise 
)
But, it’s very digital. It can be a bass machine, if you hit the filters right…But for me, I use the OT for bass…well and the other two Analog boxes. I could see some people getting it…And then just not “getting it”. But, really, depending on your use case, if you love digital happy accident making wacky stuff, an MK2 may be worth 2 grand. If you dont have 2 grand you could also look into a used Nord Lead (or Nord Modular MK1), which could get you a little way towards the MnM…Well maybe in a different way…I don’t know.
see monomachine, buy monomachine
I have a wii “Rock Band” keyboard controller… it’s a 25 key midi controller powered by AA batteries. I hook it into the MNM midi in and then just keep it on my lap when writing. Also great portable with a M:C. Best $20 spent in a long time
Heres my take. Money in the bank is getting practically zero interest these days. ZERO!!. So savings are a liability . Yes they can be a liability as the Govt know what you have(unless you have a secret stash. So investing in ANYTHING is better than it sitting in the bank doing absolutely nothing. My advice is to invest in things that will hold their value at least. I think the Monomachine is pretty future safe. There will always be a collector down the line. You may even make a bit of money out of it.