SOPHIE's sound design (Digitone or Monomachine?)

All this time I thought SOPHIE was a male producer messing around with pseudonyms and aesthetics. :confused:

It was a bit…amorphous…before her coming out with her latest work.

Oh, cool; thanks for clearing that up for me :slight_smile:

1 Like

Don’t worry. My style is very different from Sophie’s hyper pop. Just trying to dissect and research for inspiration and different ideas. And a new elektron device…

1 Like

For the record, to me, exploring hardware is a part of the fun of music production. But not once did I think that owning a particular piece would make me a better artist. Although, I find it fun to mess around with new stuff, it does take away time from production. And I’ve learned that the hard way a while back… Whole point of this was to get ideas, especially alternative ones, and study interesting methods of synthesis based off of my influences. Down the road I was thinking about a monomachine for a while, just thinking if it’s something for me and worth setting time aside.

2 Likes

I don’t think anything was directed at you personally but GAS in general.

BTW I think the hyper high end sound comes from an unapologetically ITB mix.

1 Like

Related to this is the clarity of the ideas.

She seems to have a very clear idea of exactly what she wants to make and she sets about making it.

So if you want to make something sound very clear musically you start with that sort of clarity of mind rather than jamming around in the dark hoping for something to pop out at you.

My 2 cents after 2 beers :wink:

4 Likes

Just FYI, in the one of the latest interviews, they ask if Sophie would rather be addressed as he or she and Sophie said all I want to be called is Sophie. So I don’t think Sophie has officially gone female but I’ll probably say she when it’s convenient too.

it shouldn’t make a difference what gender Sophie identifies or doesn’t identify as in regards to this thread. It’s disappointing that part of the focus has shifted there instead of staying on the amazing sound design Sophie does on the Monomachine.

Sophie uses the Monomachine pretty much exclusively for sound design and probably a lot more. Part of the unique sounds that come out the the Monomachine happen when utilizing the sequencer with p-locks and what not. It would be safe to assume that Sophie starts building things within the Monomachine before tracking it out to a DAW.

The Monomachine is a rather unique instrument, in design and sound. The Digitone covers one synthesis option available on the Monomachine, and the two boxes do not approach this synthesis style in the same manner. It would also be safe to assume that Sophie utilizes the fx of the Monomachine in sound design, which sound quite different from the available fx on the digitone.

Ultimately, if you want that Sophie sound the best bet is to utilized the same instrument as the artist.

4 Likes

I don’t think people trying to be respectful by using preferred pronouns is disappointing - quite the opposite, I’m grateful this forum is as nice as it is.

8 Likes

Not disappointing that people are using the proper pronouns. It’s actually great, we have a very open and accepting community on this forum. But gender Doesn’t need to become a focus of the discussion. Part of my disappointment, is that nobody was misgendering Sophie when gender was brought into the discussion.

Sophie is an amazing sound designer. It’s unnecessary to continually circle back to Sophie’s gender in the discussion. Almost every topic that mentions Sophie on this board does that. None of the trans individuals I know would think it’s great that their gender gets discussed every time their accomplishments are discussed.

But, this is exactly where I think this topic doesn’t need to go so…

12 Likes

Hey!

I’ve been practicing sound design and am finding it fun & rewarding while also frustrating.

SOPHIE is amazing at sound design and a complete inspiration. I downloaded her pack from Splice which featured all sorts of one shots. Which helped me better understand and practice sound design ideas.

I took a closer look at the Kick & Snares in a DAW and had some luck replicating some snare sounds with Noise & Reverb which sounded like dollar stock knock offs but I am okay and pleased with that.
The kicks are a different story. I for the life of me can’t synth a decent dry kick using the Monomachine.

I’m wondering if these are made outside of the Monomachine. I’m suspecting possibly Ableton’s Operator Synth which I’ve never used, but after watching a couple youtube tutorials. am hearing similar results. If they’re synthesized on the Monomachine. How??? I can’t get close.

My kicks are sounding like a desperate Sine wave with failing LFO’s and I would appreciate anyone with experiences & insight, on whether it is possible to design a nice kick on the Monomachine + Processing with the likes of SOPHIE in mind and how it may be accomplished.

Regards
Jaja

wanted to make a little thread for making sounds like sophie on the MnM. i know she likes to use fm stat, fm par and swave ens for alot of leads, chords and bells, as heard in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9bDtWiAV0k. she also uses digipro bbox & lfo for some of her bubble noises. she likes to fuck around with the reverb to make everything sound metallic and she likes to “abuse the flanger”. anyways, tell me what you guys have got trying to replicate her sound design! im very cerious to see what other people can make :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Lots of Sophie sound design thread to check out already :slight_smile:

https://www.elektronauts.com/search?context=topic&context_id=67405&q=Monomachine%20Sophie&skip_context=true

2 Likes

:grinning: yup!

so, for awhile now i’ve been wondering how you would even begin to try and make that scary ballon deflating screech sound starting at 0:00 from sophie - l.o.v.e. i’ve tryed to make that sound using lfos and flangers and many more combinations but i cant seem to get anywhere near the original sound! if anybody could help me figure out how to remake this sound i’d be very thankful! thanks in advance! :wink:

3 Likes

Oh man how you could possibly want to recreate that sound?
That sound should have never existed in the first place. Terrible sound and it just keeps going through the whole track
I think that may go down as the most annoying sound I have ever heard

6 Likes

Agreed, it sounds like garbage…to recreate it I would probably use my modular: wogglebug --> oscillator frequency

1 Like

eh, i like noise tracks. plus im pretty sure it was made as a filler track and it has a backstory too it. + i wanted to recreate it bcus im making a track with my MnM and ableton that needs that sound as a filler before the “drop” :roll_eyes:

3 Likes

Art doesn’t only fall into the category of pleasurable.

16 Likes