Elektron-Users

What follows is a discussion of this sysex file for the Elektron Monomachine. I've put this article together in order to inspire and help others who enjoy using Elektron hardware and want to learn new techniques.

Download the sysex here: http://www.allerian.com/music/sysex/FromAbove.syx

This is the sysex from my song, "From Above". This is a industrial piece consisting of the Monomachine and a few external voice samples. I recommend a Tempo of 91 bpm. I can't stress enough the importance of checking your volume setting before hitting play on this one - this isn't like the factory presets. You'll want to enable track 6 and 4, muting the others as a starting point. Now let's get into how it all works.

Track 1 - Clanky part. Pots and pans bounce down an up escalator. BBox with a touch of nearly every effect in the Mono with random LFO on SSR, pan, and pitch.

Track 2 - The hammer. The Monomachine as drop forge. Again, it is filtered, SSR'd, BBox with a touch of Retrig. Head for Track 6 to see the explanation of how this goes from "bump" to "BOOM".

Track 3 - Twitchy part. The humble Noise machine with an interesting "random vibrato" created with a fast LFO on pitch to give it a gulpy, mechanical adjustment sound. The other LFO's are worth a peek as well.

Track 4 - This creates the pulsating rhythm of the song. A repeating sound that brings to mind a rolling press. Retrigged BBox with a driving delay.

Track 5 - Freight train a'comin. You're looking at a discordant Ens machine with some creative parameter locking on the portamento to give it the whooshing sound of an approaching horn.

Track 6 - The magic that takes this from a bunch of klankity-ding-dong to a relentless pounding beat is the use of an overdriven Reverb machine. Tracks 1, 2, and 5 are routed to track 6 via the CD bus, a Reverb machine whose Input setting is cranked into overdriving. Try muting out 6 and then listen to 1, 2, and 5 soloed. The difference is striking. In the kit, Track 2 is not initially routed to the AB outs, you will need to enable this to hear Track 2 by itself.

The recorded track itself can be heard here for reference - and again, please check your levels before listening:
http://www.allerian.com/music/From_Above.mp3

Cheers,
-Robert (aka Allerian)
www.allerian.com

this looks very nice allerian. well presented.

This is a industrial piece consisting of the Monomachine and a few external voice samples. I recommend a Tempo of 91 bpm

score! I will definitely be taking these tips to heart to get more clang out of the mm!

Nice techniques here, will upload into the mono this weekend and take a closer look, thanks.

I used some of these noises on Untitled Sketch #2 on my virb....

http://elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=28&func=view&catid=10&id=31093#31093

Wow, fascinating to hear the familiar in another context. Nice vibe to the track.

Thanks, goes nowhere but I kind of like that.

It was really interesting working with your kit actually, miles away from anything Ive come up with on the machine really; its the little things you pick up from others patches, ideas I'd not thought of etc.
I might try and dump a few kits in here myself before I go, Id be really interested to hear what others do with them.
Thanks for sharing Alerian, twas a very nice way to learn.

Edit: forgot to say, will be taking a closer look at your website, theres some really interesting stuff on there monomachine and other, nice work man.

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to listen.

But thanks even more for trying this sysex out. I'd wondered if people would take to downloading and trying it out, looks like it worked so I'll have to post another.

Great stuff, Ill look out for it...

Id like to take a look at how you got the sounds in "monomachine overdriven", Id imagine its in a similar way to this but with more dist. Theres some nice feedback sounds in that, they created inside the mono itself or externally?