Why people say Digitone are not good as Monomachine?

Elektron Gear
#61

Having both I can’t say one is better than the other. The sequencer on the Digitone kills the monomachine as it’s roughly 15ish years older than the Digitone. The sound on the Monomachine is pretty nebulous. I slept on it for years because everyone just made plastic digital chip tune kinda jams with it or minimal techno. Turns out you can do a lot more with it but it involves a lot of exploits in the gain staging. adding clipping and saturation that can give it some analog breath. I’ve been focusing on that aspect in my recent MnM explorations. especially after picking up granules by Auvrel (Ess) and learning how they were designing digitone sounds around the headroom limits.

I think Digitone is overall a better standalone unit but Monomachine has a place in someones rig.

Here’s two of my more recent experiments with MnM


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#62

And I am okay with that, personally.

The more complex I get with FX and modulation, the simpler my core sound needs to be.

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#63

Could you elaborate?
Internal settings?

#64

Just knowing the voice architecture of the Monomachine. The Distortion & Volume settings on the amp page, the resonance settings on the filter page, and the EQ freq and Gain settings on the Effects page are all related to the same headroom. you can crush and crunch the sounds in various way by exploiting any one of those settings (or all of the above :dagger:)

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#65

This example uses filter res and extreme EQ to crush the input of the compressor on track 6 which has it’s own distortion configuration.

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#66

tite bass :+1:t6:

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#67

Exactly my love for the MnM…the gainstaging and that 1 pole filter thing.

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#68

Those K5000 Macro Control boxes for the rack were $$$ and hard to find, but since it used MIDI CCs, a Kenton Control Freak came in handy. I too never enjoyed Roland romplers deep editing, wish they borrowed some of those ‘wizards’ from the Kawai’s architecture.

True, Sound Diver and PC editors were great, but once Cameleon5000 and FM7 came out, it seemed silly to keep the hardware. And MnM layering getting ‘close enough’ in much less time than even the software, IMO.

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#69

Thats so weird for me to hear… i owned a lot of premium gear. I had a couple of monomachines and the uw version machinedrum MK2 whatever. But come on, its 2024. There is much better gear now…

You like FM? Check twisted electrons

You like Sequencer? check Circklon or midibox

Don’t believe the hype.

YES IT LOOKS GREAT! And yes its nice and useable. Don’t pay more then 1000,- for it.

Move on, it’s like an ex from the past. ITS the Golden AGE of GEAR

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#70

Some humans will be forever unsatisfied cradle to grave.

I’m tuned a little nervously, for novelty and extremes. I understand that aspect, but my problems are always and ever internal with wanting.

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#71

Haha, I kinda agree to an extent. I will never get rid of my MD and MM, and I hope I never have to, but HELLLLL NOOOO would I buy one today: too expensive, and I can come up with some weird workflow with softsynths and a DAW that would satisfy that abstract creative space that the MM often fills.

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#72

Heh i sold my Mnm for 3500 euros and i regret it still :wink:

#73

Why don’t you buy it again?
Or did you spent the 3500,- on less good gear?

#74

Well actually i miss it quite often but id never buy one these days because the prices are crazy high, not the same as selling for that price. And yes, i bought an OB-6 keyboard; excellent synth, beautiful sound and the best layout ever!
What Mnm had for me is the right balance between capability and performance; I didn’t have to ‘think’, id just ‘do’! It wasn’t crippled, I’ve made so melodically complicated tracks with it that I can’t remember ever making with anything else, hw or sw!
Complex gear doesn’t stimulate me to produce complex music! It just has to be complex and capable enough (like Mnm) and i need to love it (like i loved Mnm, its looks, design, feel and sound). Im trying to replicate this with DN but i couldn’t get there bc i don’t like as much! (Yet?)

#75

Ill try to undertand, i do remember gear as Well. So what do you do when you really mis your mm? Watch Yt clips about it?

You have to move on and find a better replacement… what about the Toraiz sp-16?
Dave smith filter, you can load in scw. And a good sequencer. Sample Some good FM…

Never look back

#76

but didn’t songs using them win awards? :stuck_out_tongue:

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#77

Actress used the MM a lot for a good while. And he has lots of awards in my head at least!

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#78

Did he only used the MNM? Or Some fx or other outboard gear?

#79

I assume he used other stuff too for sure, I think he’s quite meticulous by the sounds of it. But pretty sure he used the MM as the basis for a lot of his stuff in terms of sounds and sequencing (gathering from bits and pieces he’s said - excluding samples from f course). He said in an interview for example that Karma And Desire was pretty much all Digitone if I remember right.

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#80

One of my points not to overlook is external hard/software… i remember me and my studio mate sequenced a Korg Minilogue if i remember correct… what the movie does not show is the cwejman filter we put it thru.

Same day, Korg used this movie in there social media :joy:

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