Looking to buy a monomachine.

- ask away
Post Reply
AK
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 1973
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:01 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by AK »

Do you remember me asking how you do chords on the mnm? I gather you can have up to 4 note chords on a single machine and be able to alter intervals with paramter locks but I'm trying to understand whether that machine would ALWAYS produce a 4 note sound in the sequence. For example, if I were to make a sequence that went say, Gm7 to Gm7(b5), I'd just be flattened the 5th of the interval for the 2nd chord but if I then wanted another chord consisting of just the root and fifth like a G and a D, what happens to the other 2 notes that were present in the other 2 chords? can I lose them completely in that sequence or would I be better off using a different track altogether with a similar patch set up?
Barfunkel
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:01 pm

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by Barfunkel »

You can turn any of the tuned oscillators off if you wish. So, you can play, say, a chord that's root +3, +7, +10, the next one just root + 7, however you wish, using the parameter locks.

It's really a lot simpler than it sounds, I don't know how to explain it properly.
AK
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 1973
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:01 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by AK »

I'm kinda getting the idea now, that does make things a lot more flexible, I just thought you were stuck with 4 notes for that entire sequence.
AK
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 1973
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:01 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by AK »

What's the main difference between the mk1 and mk2 monomachines?

I read it's just userwaves, is that correct? In terms of the userwaves, how do people with the mk2 use this feature, are they wav samples created by you like single cycle waveforms or something?
Barfunkel
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:01 pm

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by Barfunkel »

The difference is the user waves, which work the way you described. and more importantly, the Ensemble machines. You can't play chords using a single machine on a MK1.

I'd NEVER buy a MK1, no matter how cheap, as I use the Ensemble machines on practically all of my tracks and I feel they are the most useful of all the machines available.
Barfunkel
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 313
Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2009 5:01 pm

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by Barfunkel »

BTW, here's a new all Monomachine jam I did yesterday. Genre is ambient dub techno or something. People often tell me how cold and digital the MnM sounds, but it's just the user's inability to use it properly imo, the Monomachine is full of warmness, it just needs to be dug pretty deep to find it.

AK
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 1973
Joined: Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:01 pm
Location: Worcestershire

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by AK »

I think I have established what the differences are now but I had no idea at all about the chords thing. So you just can't do chords period, on the mk1? I also read the signal to noise ratio is worse on the mk1, that the unit is larger and then obviously the inability to use your own single cycle waveforms.

I got offered 2. But one was in Europe and I have to consider P&P and the bank system as I don't use Paypal so I was looking in the UK as local as possible. One came up and it wasn't until the last minute I actually realised it was the mk1. I pulled out because I wasn't sure of the differences at the time.

I know the sounds it can produce, I really like some of the music Berkson & What put out and the MnM is all over a lot of their stuff doing weird and wonderful things. The lack of warmth as you put it ( or whoever! ) isn't of concern as I would intend to use it with other stuff too. I quite like the mix of digital and analog type sounds anyway, shame it doesn't have a noise oscillator mixed in with the regular oscillators, I find noise can add a certain softness to sounds which really take the edge of 'dead accurate digitits' and sharp envelopes etc. But like you say, noise is avaliable albeit as a separate track. I guess you could mix it in if you wished.

I'll check out your stuff when I am at a PC with sound, just got iPod type things on this.

What would you reckon to be a fair price for a mk2? I see the mk1's people are selling seem to be somewhere around the £450 mark, sometimes a little more.
User avatar
hydrogen
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 2689
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:41 am

Re: Looking to buy a monomachine.

Post by hydrogen »

I dunno if I would get mk1 either.

I mean lack of chords isn't that big of a deal. But to me it's an incomplete machine without them. I really like the textures you can build with the ensembles and LFO combinations. But if you've already got a polysynth you'll be fine.

I think for me i just dream of selling everything but the elektrons and can still make music. :)
------------------------------------------------------
http://soundcloud.com/kirkwoodwest
Post Reply