Not getting the sounds out of the MnM that I was hoping for

Elektron Gear Monomachine
#21

Well shit. All this advice is great. I usually turn off the filter tracking when I remember to do so as that was one of the first pieces of advice I got. I also have the Oxford and Immortal wavetables, and I’ve also loaded in wavetables from Massive, FLStudio, Serum, and made some of my own. I do find the DIGI stuff to be a bit harsh, but last night I started applying a bunch of these ideas and got some nicer sounds.

Thanks to everyone who added to this thread. I’ll def. be keeping it bookmarked to reference.

#22

I found it best not too think too hard about the sounds you WANT to create with the monomachine. Be open.

Keep an open mind if you can - it isn’t a Virus or a Korg Virtual Analog type synth - thank funk! so don’t try to create ‘virtual analog’ type sounds or ‘analog’ type sounds for that matter.

Let it flow - its the best combination of synth and sequencer ever created - the best combination of DIGITAL synth and sequencer integration.

Forget micro timing , probability bollox and all the NOW gozz… (and analog)

Its a tease is the Mono - treat 'em mean … keep 'em keen … a lovely chase and very rewarding.

Enjoy the best synth you’ve ever got.

2 Likes
#23

My advice: keep filter tracking on. Bring the HPF resonance up, and then the frequency up until it fattens the note up (I believe usually around 8 or 16).

Don’t just blindly turn filter tracking off. Learn to use it properly. In my experience it’s essential, at the very least with the lowpass filter, for making more realistic analog sounds. The resonance on the monomachine’s filters is weird yet awesome, and filter tracking really exploits it, especially when it gets near self-oscillating levels.

I just keep seeing it as a general tip, but I never turn it off when making melodic sounds, unless I want some super sharp FM or chippy sounds; or am designing drum sounds that I want to keep roughly similar no matter which notes I use.

2 Likes
#24

Going to be blunt but no you dont,
When I picked up a MnM mk1 some 9 yrs back I had 20+ yrs of playing with synths
the MnM did not relent easily and I watched many “surface scratchers” proclaimed: “It sounds shit!”
Which of course it doesnt.

But hey, it simply may not be for you, nothing wrong with that, though there are rich rewards if you can “handle it”

#25

When im out of new ideas I always love to play pachinko with gugas monomachine randomizer, its very very funny:
http://www.gugabox.com/New/index.html#

#26

That and Immortal Waves; both of Radeks packs are really nice.[/quote]
Never liked Oxford Overdrive but I use the Immortal Waves on both my MnM’s permanently now and much prefer the sounds I get out it in general.

That said I also process my MnM’s through my Kilpatrick Audio Phenol, Analog Four and some sub outs via my Mono Evolver and/or NI’s Molecular.

However, anything processed via DAW/DSP is set up so it can be patched back into any of the above as my audio card is a 18 input / 10 output device.

I actually like the basic sound with the Immortal Waves pack installed and usually opt for fairly basic external processing but if I want to go into oddball Buchla like territory the Phenol and one MnM combined can do all sorts of filthy crazy with a decent reverb and delay line added.

1 Like
#27

OP, how many times have you heard a demo with the exact sounds you are wanting? Probably never. MM is cold and I don’t know why people want to say otherwise. EQing the mid frequencies makes it sound much better to me but year cold, cold, cold.

I use it for external synths and sequenced effects box. I can’t entirely hate it or entirely love it.

1 Like
#28

What do you mean by “cold”?

#29

To me, cold means that high frequency metallic or glassy sound but without that 200Hz warmth. The digital oscillators on the MM really are high quality, those high harmonics are up there with the bats. Of course you lowpass filter them down, but I don’t hear a pleasing sound from that. I think the filter just doesn’t have some musicality even though it is mathematically filtering high frequencies. Acidy sounds are actually quite good, but a low resonance sh-101 type bass just doesn’t happen. Boosting 50-200Hz helps a lot, but its still different.

I always program basses to test out a synth and the MM doesn’t work for me except for sine and mild FM sounds. The effort just isn’t worth it when the Virus or JD-XA just drips these sounds without breaking a sweat.

B

#30

If you want huge sounds like Massive, use 2 tracks. One track has the aggressive and nasty sound, but with the low and low miss filtered out, your second track plays the exact same pattern using a sine or triangle wave.
Adjust the volume between them till they sound like a single sound that has tons of “bottom”.

So many modern synth sounds from Massive and the producers who use it are really just hi end and low end combined, and the mind fills in the missing middle stuff and perceives it as a single sound.

3 Likes
#31

Use distortion and or bit reducer to dirty up the sound, there are also filters in the FX page
use LFO’s to randomize parameters - MnM is what it is but it is wide ranging in sound you just got to keep tweaking. VST’s like massive are more complex synths with EFFX

Try adding a chorus on Track 5 and reverb on track 6 or use guitar pedals + a moog filter will give it more warmth - The mono machine gives me fun times when fiddling around it takes a few differnt tries but when you hit the sweet spot its very rewarding

#32

it would have been nice to have a sub osc + noise on each synth + 3 fx per track

#33

Indeed I found the distorsion introduces pleasant warmth to the sound, it as really well done !
A little bit of SRR above can also help…

#34

the only bit i can’t really use is the vocal machine, just doesn’t do it for me. i can get some nice sounding hats out it but i really don’t like the sound if used as intended.

does anyone use it much or manage to get other types of sounds from it?

#35

i like to run the vocal machine through loads of delays and seeking creepy synth sounds
not really using it for its intended purpose

suppose vowel-y pads would be possible, not tried it really.

1 Like
#36

it’s good when used with the arpeggiator!

2 Likes
#37

i meant to try this earlier when i had my gear on, totally forgot, went down a different rabbit hole. will give it a go next time.

#38

Turn the consonant sound off and use a HOLD LFO on the vowel settings, it can get very weird very quickly!

3 Likes
#39

got a really nice 303 type sequence running now, thanks for the tips!!

1 Like
#40

Try the sine-width modulation files. They should be here or at the old site somewhere. I was getting some reasonably warm tones at about the 3:11 mark in this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wT67675Bho

2 Likes