This document was created while I was browsing the Elektron Users Forums looking for new ideas for things to try with a Monomachine. Some of these are new tips, some are just clarifications of features explained in the manual already. I have attempted to the best of my ability to make sure that each author is properly given credit for their tips. However, if you spot an error or do not wish to have your name in this document, please let me know and I will fix the problem immediately.
In all cases, tips were quoted using the author's screen name from the forum. This was done to protect each author's right to privacy, yet still provides a way for any reader to attempt to contact the author should they wish to do so.
First compiled on Oct. 25th, 2010.
This guide is broken into the following sections, click on each to jump to that section below:
- Sequencing
- Synthesis
- Performing
- General
- Reference
Faking arp Swing:
I've managed to make a "swing effect" with the arp alone.
If you set the arp to key mode, fastest speed. (1x) And only a trig on step one, and 9, it will have something like 65% swing. If you set the second trig on step 8, it will have something like 58%. On step 6, it has no swing. (50%) This way you can also have a lower swing than 50%.
Play with different settings, and you can get different swing values.
- Thomas
-----------------------------------------
Arp programming tips:
I remembered that the arpeggiator can do some unusual stuff like note off-sets and pauses and stuff, so I tried to copy the riff with the arpeggiator. A few note offsets, mutes and such later I had made my riff and it turned out way better than I expected.
I'm in love now, there's just so many cool things you can do with the arp, like setting it to 12 (or other) steps to make the arpeggio play a different time signature than the rest of the track and such.
I totally understand what the mini-sequencer within a sequencer part in the manual meant now.
- Barfunkel
-----------------------------------------
Arp triggering BBox machine:
A friend discovered this: time stretch on the BBOX! Use a high-speed arpeggiator to retrig the BBOX sounds. Use an LFO to scroll the start point (lfo speed+depth governs amount and speed of stretch), remove amp trigs from the arp, and set up a separate envelope to control amp in normal fashion from the sequencer/keyboard. Suddenly the BBOX became the number one ambient sound generator.
- Nils
LFO trig set to trig, saw.. depth all the way up it stretches it way out. It works with or without the arp on though.
- Thekm
I used to trig the amp env with the arp, and just controll the volume with an LFO. You can "filter" the sound some with the amp env, if you trigger it from the amp.
- Thomas
Last fab trick is similar to the retrigger bbox explained before. Im doing lot of melodies with this technique p-locking the retrigg time and using LFOs to move the pitch and sample start parameters that no longer sounds like the usual results you get on drums but really cool timbre changes. Also if you start the arpeggiator you get a combination of the p-locked "pitches" (retrigg times really) with wavesequence-ish fx since the arpeggiator would change the note and then the sample played in each step.
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Simple Transpose and Tempo changes:
Don't know if this has been covered before but I've been working on some patterns I want to keep outside of song mode but want to use tempo changes in...
In order to achieve a smooth tempo change I've programmed 4 different tempos for the same pattern in song mode on the mnm, when I want to change the tempo I drop into song mode, select the pattern with the tempo I want and then drop out again... Tempo change!
Repeat the process to get back to original tempo.
Just had a brainwave and this also works for transpose!
- Tib
-----------------------------------------
LFO Triggers:
A couple of words on the lfo's:
1) The lfo's will run whatever happens. That is. Whether you trigger a note or not, the lfo runs. So you cannot "turn off" the lfo. It is calculated anyway.
2) The lfo is always tempo synced. On the lfo page, you'll find the mult parameter which multiplies the speed of the lfo with a certain factor relative to the tempo. The spd parameter next to it, gives you a finer speed control which let's you break out of the 1/16 or 1/2 measure per lfo cycle speed. (I hope this makes sense)
3) The lfo is free running. This means that the lfo triggers on the lfo track are meaningless, unless you configure the trig parameter on the lfo page on "trig", "one" or "half". That parameter is very important.
When you configure the lfo trig parameter on "trig". Putting an lfo trigger on the lfo trig track will reset the phase of the lfo to the beginning of it's cycle.
Try the following experiment:
-place two notes on a track: one on step 1, the next one on step 9.
-go to the amp page and set hold on anything above 64. You have a continuously running tone now, while in fact it is built with two notes.
-go to the flo page:
-pitch on 80
-trig on free
-mult on 8
-depth on 100 or something
Now go to the lfo trig track. There should be two triggers, both on the same steps as where you programmed the notes (1 and 9). Program some extra triggers, I don't care where. To see how the triggering works, move into the lfo page again and put the trig parameter on trig, hold, one, half and free again ....You'll see.
- Merlin
-----------------------------------------
Recording Mutes in Song Mode:
I've found a kind of work around but it gets a bit confusing. You can copy the pattern lots of times with function+down (thanx btw) and stay in the 'xtra' menu of the song. then hit play and you can function +down to step thru your rows and mute and unmute kinda 'live' if you know what i mean. The problem is that you can quickly forget which row you're on and which row is playing.... its a bit messy but i found it a quick way to get something/anything kind of happening.
- Seboid
-----------------------------------------
Amp Trig trick:
In the MnM, tracks are more complex than in the MD. But with the Amp Trig page, you get a lot of spontanity. Just "mute" single notes by removing their Amp Trig, without affecting the melody, p-locks whatever programmed in the main page.
For example, imagine a drum beat on one track, BD 4 on the floor and hihats on the 16th in between. Usually quite static on the Monomachine without possibility to mute parts of it. Now, press Trig Select once and press the Hihat trigs so they switch to green. In this window you can set and remove trigs however you like. In this example, trigs in the 4th's will always play back the BD and on the trigs in between Hihats. Of course, this can also be used for melodies.
- MK7
-----------------------------------------
Reset all parameter locks:
I have not my MnM here, but have you tried copying melody first, then erase track and paste it to track again. Should clear the parameter locks. You can find this thru Supercopy (normal copy + hold buttons down longer). I think Superclear also have option of just to clear parameter locks (not sure).
- Toni
-----------------------------------------
Random MIDI Notes:
combine both the arp and an LFO controlling note pitch...with arpeggiator having a certain "area" of notes/chords and the random LFO with enough amount to add randomness but not going to far from your arpeggio notes...then you can control the depth of the LFO to increase the deviation of the random factor from the arpeggio...
using the mono itself just choose the ensemble machine and target the LFO's to the chord notes to get different chords...also you can modulate one LFO with another to get tempo changes in random fashion too...
another approach is just to use de GND sine wave and target the PITCH with the LFOs...you can use some in random mode and others in different waves to ad incremento/decremento of the random cloud (with sine) or jumps to another pitch region (square)...
to add more randomness try using an LFO to target the destination of another in a random way, then you got changes in different aspects of the sound, no only pitch but FX and timbre too
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Faking an extra delay:
Copy an arped track and use shift + -> to move the notes on the second track a couple of steps later in time. Then lower the volume a little and transpose to +12, +5 or whatever. Now you have some sort of delay where the second track "follows" the first one. Use filtering, note hold/decay, etc. to bring things to live.
- Merlin
-----------------------------------------
Mimicking tied notes:
Tied notes with MnM are so easy.
1. Make basic synth sound with SuperSaw for example.
2. Use Amp-Env to make is 1/16 length.
3. Program some notes on the sequencer
4. Now, program some trigless trigs, with the note changes next to normal trigs
5. Parameter lock the 'hold' value bigger for notes that you want to be tieing other notes.
6. Adjust the slide to your taste.
That's it. If you do it couple of times, you will get the workflow and start to think less technically this.
You should also do parameter locks for filter and different slide-times. Even more, you can use the
MnM Track-slide feature to make your sequence more liquid.
To make Acid lines with MnM, takes some time at first, because you have a lot of options and you
need to find your own workflow. One thing that I've found is that you tend to do too normal
sequences when you are using MnM sequencer in a normal way. The sequences will end up missing
the 303ish style. One great way to go around this, is to program simple melody to 'Arp-slot' and
trigger it different ways from the normal sequencer; this way you will get more interesting 303 lines.
I also think you can do some pretty nice acid-lines out of MnM, even 303ish.
- Toni
The only thing Mono records is the note pitch or sometimes note off (I haven't figured out when note offs are recorded...). It doesn't record velocity, note length, pitch bend or so, unfortunately. I think it's a quite serious feature missing in Mono...
So you have to manually tweak the note lengths. For tied MIDI notes you need to set the note length to 127 for the note being tied to the next one.
- Texmex
-----------------------------------------
Fake Polyphony:
Ok, create a machine on track one, now go into 'Poly Mode' (track one) and record a chord (something polyphonic -let's say 3 notes). Finish recording the sequence, press stop, exit 'Poly Mode', copy the machine/track you just recorded on onto two other tracks (below is the best).
Now go to the second track, hold the steps down and press 'No' on the first note (removes it) and then press 'Yes' to access the second note (last one/third); press 'No' to remove it -and so on on each step. Now do the same with the third track (Press 'No' twice to remove the first two notes) *(and off course the first track, just press 'Yes' and then 'No' twice)
*bam* you have "fake" polyphony and still three tracks left!!
Take it a few steps further by varying the settings on each track and adding different LFO's.
- Hageir
-----------------------------------------
Importing Chords:
Enter Grid Recording mode, hold a trigger down in the track/position of your choice, and send a MIDI chord from your DAW to the MnM (i.e., start playback in the DAW): the chord sent from the DAW is automatically inserted on the held trigger.
If you create a chord progression, whilst you're holding the trigger down, you'll see the notes being replaced by the last chord sent.
Very handy for Arp or Poly mode.
Hope this is of some use!
- Teacherofstalker
-----------------------------------------
Intuitive Arps:
one day I was playing with the Monomachine and I had the ARP screen on and I was setting up an arpeggiator.
I know that the MnM's arpeggiator can have up to 16 steps.
And I know that you can program "offsets" in the arpeggiator*.
So basically you have something very similar to an old-school analog step-sequencer. Suddenly, when I gazed over the whole machine I realized two things:
1) I can now use the Monomachine's arpeggiators as old-school-16-step-analog-sequencer type sequencers (which I've always wanted).
2) I can probably/finally create the ever-wanted Poly-Rhythm on the Monomachine**.
*Hold down a green note on the arpeggiator for a sec. and the offset window will pop up and then you can program an "offset" from the root note (+1, +2, +3, etc. / -1, -2, -3, etc.).
So here's what you do. You program some sounds on the tracks. Then you just input a C note in the first step of each track. Then you open the ARP window on the desired track, choose how many steps you want (use something "off-beat" like 11 or 7 steps) now you take out the steps you don't want by pressing them (they will turn red) and now, because your note on the track is C you can program in offsets onto the remaining green steps (start counting on the scale from C; +1 = C#, +2 = D, etc.).
**When I tested this thoroughly I noticed that the Monomachine "restarts" the arpeggiator cycle if it doesn't "fit" into the 16 steps on the regular sequencer, so the Poly-Rhythm isn't exactly "free-running", but it's very close and I think we should ask Elektron to implement a function to turn off/on Arpeggiator-Restart (it restart when the internal sequence goes back to the start and plays the inputted C note).
BUT, while I'm writing this, I figured out it should be possible to use the ARP Mode that doesn't stop when you stop the internal sequencer (ADD?).
So you could start the Arpeggiators and then stop the internal sequencer and they should run freely OR even, just take out the trigger/note on the internal sequencer (C)!.
If this is the case (that the Arps restart when the sequencer hits the note again), then, ladies & gentlemen, I present to you; Poly-Rhythm on the Monomachine! ^^^I'll have to try this when I get home.
- Hageir
-----------------------------------------
Copy page/Note shift trick:
1. So you've got a melody on one page 1, shift the pattern a couple of steps (func+arrow) then copy page (scale+copy).
2. shift the pattern back again, then paste onto page 2 (scale+paste).
3. It copies the shifted page, whilst the original is unchanged.
So you easily get different variations of the melody on different pages.
- Molotov
-----------------------------------------
Back To Top
Overdrive tip:
Here's one of my little secrets: overdrive something that you would think is totally undrum-like using the filter and a hi Q (e.g., Digiwave or SID). Then use as tom, bass drum, etc. WOFS, BOFS can be used to bend the sound, LFO on pitch or other things as necessary.
The idea is kinda nu-old-skool - the old skool part being the "use a self-oscillating filter to make drum sounds" and the nu is that it's overdriving (can use EQ gain for this as well) plus making use of the many MNM features.
- Veets
Turn one of the filters resonance very high (watch your speakers/ears!!!), then while playing a single note move the cutoff to make the resonant peak match the note you are playing (or another to make a "chord")...then rise the distortion and play some notes...the res peak interacts very well with the distortion creating harmonics and some cool artifacts
you can do the same with the other filter´s resonance and get even more things happens
a slow LFO applied to any of the filter´s cutoff (or both) can make a lot of movement and unexpected results, usually great
- Darenager
-----------------------------------------
Stereo Generator:
The delay used as a stereo generator by setting it to zero time and pan the original and delayed signals in different directions.
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Making LFO's fade in:
you can do it quite easily
use LFO1 set the destination to whatever you like, but set depth to 0
use LFO2, set shape to ramp up (or down) and change trigger to once, and set destination to depth of LFO1
voila
- Tonnu
-----------------------------------------
Analog Kicks:
you can get a reasonable result by using the GND-SIN machine :trig a low note, set the hold / decay parameters suitably & I think I've also used an LFO on PITCH set up several octaves, to be trigged on each hit to get the MD-type 'ramp'. Its a fairly 'soft' kick,but nice & low & boomy!
- Xmit
I noticed that every machine can get punchy kicks in a different way. The classic trick to get the lpf selfocillate and get the punch with the filter env is good but I added other modulation to the sound.
Using the SID with a TRI wave (as oscillator), wdth turned to 0 and the HPQ to 0 LPQ to 127, wofs 36 and decay 43,
LFO1 ->amp-vol ->trig one , wave EXP, speed (as you like) , dpth 64 (THIS IS THE KEY TO GET THE PERCUSSION PUNCHY!!!)
LFO2 ->filt-hpq ->trig one , wave saw, mult2, dpth 55
LFO3 -> amp-dist ->t one, wave sqr ,mult 2x , dpth 64
..I can get a good punchy kick. Playing with the env, the Qs and the speed of LFOs you can obtain a great variety of kicks. Using the same settings but.... the LPQ turned to 0 filter dec 100 , wofs to 25 , the kick has a more harmonic feel, more 808 I forgot to mention that the amp ahdr is : 0 0 64 0 and dist is 0 and vol is 64.
- Notchsider
-----------------------------------------
Cool drum delay trick:
A nice trick i discovered is using the delay on a drum pattern:
1) Create a drum pattern using kick, snare and various hihats on one track.
2) Set DTIM to 48
3) DSND to around 32
4) DBAS to around 100
now you have a delay that only affects the hihats and maybe the top end of the snare. With the DSND you can control the volume of the delay hihats and with the DBAS you can control what sounds of your drum pattern should be affected by the delay.
- Sauna Sound
-----------------------------------------
Analog Snare:
I was trying to get some equivalents of analog snares but using more digital texture to get something like the synthetic drums in some early digital home organs, like casio VL-1, SK-1 and the like
So I use the classic model of a short tuned spike attack followed by a noise burst with longer decay
If you use an exponential decayed LFO in on-shot mode to modulate the wave of the SID you get a sound that could go from the triangle wave to the noise one very quickly, so this makes a really close approximation of the model I described...
Try move the speed and depth of the LFO to get more "membrane" or more "snare"...you can further process them with both filters to make a more restricted band of noise
- Anselmi
or snare-ish things you can use 2 waves and interpolate between them with a one-shot (1-cycle-only) LFO wave 1 is the membrane timbre, the pad, you have to use some "tuned" waveform: sine (classic), triangle, square (distorted) o other...as well as you increase the harmonic content your snare became more "tuned" as the note is more perceptible ...something inharmonic could give you a more "metallic" flavor
wave 2 is the "snare" part, so it well represented by a noise waveform...tri different noises: white, pink, brown, quantized, rattling (series of short impulses), etc
then use filtering to make a noise band and apply some resonance...and of course a percussive amp envelope...also sweeping the filters a little could make it more animated...
using both the amp e.g. and the LFO, or the retrigger function for the attack you can turn your snare into a clap sound...just add more resonance to the filters or boost a region within the EQ to emule the resonance in the "cavity" created by joining both hands leaving air in between
also some controlled reverb (even short delay) could help both types of sounds to get some "space"
- Anselmi
----------------------------------------
-
Dirty bass:
recently I get some really disturbed bass from the MnM that I never get before
just turn the resonance of the HPF to the max and same for the distortion parameter, turn the HPF cutoff to min and start to rise it slowly...that way you get a high peak in the low region of the spectrum that hits hard against the MnM dynamic ratio reduced by turning the distortion up
works excellent with square wave ...start with a 50 duty cycle square, the turn PWM on a bit and hear all kind of new harmonics...any other oscillator modification could affect the flavor of the distortion
you can tune it with the EQ by making a notch and sweep the frequency until you hear some interesting OFF the key tracking for the HPF vary the effect a lot as you guess
also a second resonant peak using the LPF cutoff could make other flavors of distortion
at any change try again moving the HPF cutoff, the results are really different with just 1 unit in some ranges
recommended for dubstep, ebm, industrial, any other style from the dark side
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Dual track synth tricks:
My favorite simple mnm superpower is combining two tracks into one nicer synth. I learned it partially because i love recording all my parts down as separate tracks in my DAW for mixing. If you combine tracks this way you end up with a single "combo patch" for each of the 3 audio output pairs.
Variant 1:
dpro ens on track 1.
Set up the pitches to play a nice minor chord
dpro ens on track 2
Set it to trigger track 1, and set up the pitches to play a different voicing of the chord
Transpose track 2 up/down an octave
Now you have a really fat stack of notes.
Variant 2:
Do some crazy fm sound on track 1, adding plenty of distortion and rate reduction etc.
Add one of the fx machines with 'neighbor' routing on track 2.
You can further sculpt your sound with another set of filters / amp env trigs, etc.
The architecture for your "one sound" becomes:
osc -> amp/dist 1 -> filter 1/2 -> tfx -> fx machine -> amp/dist 2 -> filter 3/4 -> tfx2 !
Oh and you then have 6 lfo's to work with.
- Jdn
-----------------------------------------
Warm Sounds:
Id start off pointing out, the MnM is probably not the machine to go for if you are after warm sounds, not that it cant do it, just there's probably better suited machines out there.
having said that, I was mucking about creating my own waveforms and uploading them, have tried cutting up all sorts of source audio - in particular something that already has the characteristics you're after - I've been chopping up string tones and the resultant patch in the monomachine has a warmish analogue quality. Try uploading sin wave waveforms, or something with a regular or simple shaped waveform, triangles can be warm too.
Or just use the preloaded sin wave - with a bit of processing it can be really versatile or use it in combination with another track to make up that big warm bassy bottom!!(wahay)
hope this helps.
- Midimonkey
-----------------------------------------
303 Clone:
Parameter locks of portamento combined with note changes without lfo,amp,filter triggers. Then you can get pretty close.
I like to use the Sid machine. Then run it through an input machine to get distortion after the filter. And i also like to use a random lfo on oscillator pitch. Just a small amount.
- Thomas
Yeah definitely SID SAW for 303 emulations. And cutoff key tracking off. Also, try using exp lfo on WDTH instead of the regular cutoff env, it's much more pleasant sounding to me (and snappier).
- Texmex
-----------------------------------------
Guitar Strums:
you can get really nice "guitar strums" with the arpeggiator on spd 3 - 5 ish. set a long arp pattern length, but only include arp trigs for as many notes as you want in your strum. whenever you trig the track with a chord, you'll get a nice quick strum.
- Jdn
-----------------------------------------
Making string sounds:
MnM STRING-MACHINE-LIKE PATCH
a somewhat DIGITAL version of the ARP classic string machines like the solina or the omni II of course not at exact replica
VERY IMPORTANT : FIRST turn OFF the keyboard tracking of both filters!!!
KIT > ASSIGN > KEY > HPF and LPF has to be in OFF!!!
then set as follows:
SYNTH > SUPERWAVE ENSEMBLE MACHINE
PITCH 1 = -12
PITCH 2 = +12
PITCH 3 = OFF or add a fifth (+7)...i like it with a fifth
WAVE = 127 (SQUARE)
PW = 63
CHRL = 63 or more
CHRW = 127
TUNE = 0
AMP
A = 44 or more
H = 0
D = 127
R = 63 or more
DIST = 0
VOL = 0
PAN = 0
PORT = 0...or try it
FILTER
BASE = 1
WIDTH = 82
HPQ = 21
LPQ = 15
A = 49
D = 89
BOFS = 0
HOFS = 17
FX
EQF = 42
EQG = -9
SRR = 0
DTIM = 16 or what you want...in 16 sounds more like a spring reverb than delay
DSND = 41
DFB = 50
DBSS = 21
DWID = 76
LFO 1
PAGE = SYNT
DEST = PW
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 1x
SPEED = 8
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 36
LFO 2
PAGE = FILT
DEST = WDTH
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 1x
SPEED = 57
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 2 or 3
LFO 3
PAGE = SYN
DEST = TUN
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 32x
SPEED = 44
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 10
try it in multi mode from trigger octave 4 and up
the low notes sounds closer to the ARP machines...if you can get something "analog" out of the mono...
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Evolving Drones:
Well as you can chain stuff I got some pretty insane evolving drones out of a single chord trig into FX machines reverb and chorus on track 2 and 3, Input A/B, outputs AB/CD/EF. Then set up an flanger machine on track 4, some ring mod (any old effect will do) on track 5, set their inputs to C/D, outputs to A/B and E/F, then some final reverb on track 6, taking input from E/F, output on A/B... now.. this is already pretty messy, start adding different LFO speeds, Delay times, feedback, srr, distortion etc on each of the fx tracks, pan some around, place triggers rythmically with short gate times and p-lock the heck out of it all...
great for really weird soundscapes.
- Trondc
-----------------------------------------
Better explanation of the filter settings:
The ATK and DEC parameters control the Filter Envelope Attack and Delay speeds. The BOFS and WOFS parameters control how much of the envelop amount will be added to the filter Base and Width parameters.
There is one AD-type filter envelope, ATK & DEC control the envelope shape. (Manual says Delay where it should say Decay). BOFS = Filter Base Envelope Offset, meaning how much the envelope modulates the cutoff base (BASE) and WOFS = Filter Width Envelope Offset -> how much the envelope modulates the cutoff width.
- Texmex
The total length of the BOFS/WOFS envelope is the combined length of the attack and decay portions. It has no sustain portion, which means that it rises until the attack reaches its top point/end, and then falls according to the decay setting. Both A and D are time settings, the amount is controlled by BOFS and WOFS.
Now, an important thing regarding the MnM filter is that the BASE setting and the BOFS setting affect BOTH filters - high pass and low pass. So if you apply BOFS, you actually affect both the high pass and low pass portion. The WOFS setting, on the other hand, only controls the low pass filter.
The cool thing about this is that if you want a band pass filter sweep, you only use the BOFS. If the filters weren't "coupled", you would have to apply both BOFS and WOFS in equal amounts to make the band width stay the same.
So the low pass filter is actually a slave filter, always following the "movements" of the high pass filter - unless you affect it separately with WOFS, an LFO or a lock. This means that if you only want the high pass to rise or drop, and the low pass to stay static, you have to apply the same amount in the opposite direction to the WOFS. If BOFS is +20, you have to set WOFS to -20 to remove any offset to the low pass filter.
There are loads of possibilities with a filter configuration like this. The simplest way of making vowel sounds on a synth is by using two filters with a resonant peak, controlled independently. On the Monomachine, you can make a standard sawtooth (from the SID or SWAVE machines, for example) "talk" by varying the band width. Try using a positive WOFS and a negative BOFS, raise the BASE setting to well above zero, and turn up resonance on both the low pass and high pass filters.
Technically there are two filters, one high pass and one low pass, and since you can control them independently (with LFOs, the AD env etc) and adjust the resonance independently, I'd say they count as two. (Btw a band pass filter technically consists of two filters, one high pass and one low pass in serial, just like on the MnM).
But that's not really significant. My original thought was that thinking of them as two filters might open people's eyes as to what you can do with them. Controlling them independently makes for some very nice effects.
- Nils
-----------------------------------------
FM Tips:
The Monomachine's FM machines are perhaps the most versatile, but also hardest to understand. Here's a quick tip to making sense of them:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may00/articles/synth.htm
Specifically, look at figure 13, and notice that this is the same arrangement all the MM FM machines use. The great thing about this is that you can think of all the individual modulators as part of a separate FM chain, all of which are mixed together as if they were distinct patches. So, to find a sound you like in the FM machines, set the volume of all but one of the modulators to zero. Adjust the remaining modulator to taste, then start layering in the other modulator(s) to get the overall sound you want. Makes all the parameters a little less daunting, at least to me.
- Kuniklo
-----------------------------------------
Deep Bass Tips:
Double Draw & SID constantly produce the goods for me....the latter I find consistently produces the most 'analogue' sounding basses....The former is more digital but is capable of some deep, deep tones....
- Xmit
for me the swave saw machine with its square sub enough to get good bass sounds in an analogue(ish) way
the filter is key, try de-engage the tracking for different flavors of the basic tone
the HPF too, if you rise the resonance and tune it to your fundamental (or octave below) you get a big boost
same for the EQ, both fixed and keytracked
sometimes go down with it to tame unwanted mids is better than rise lows and lost definition
- Anselmi
I mostly apply the typical technics I learned from drum&bass. There are no big secrets.
1. Decide where your kick and bass sit. Either the kick hits above the bass or vise versa. I don't do side-chaining
For this EP, the decision was easy because the Monomachine kicks hit fairly high.
If the kick and bass don't work together, reprogram the bass or the kick.
You can also decide what is more important to your track, the kick or the bass. You can then build the not so important part around the more important one. A huge bass without the context of a track is worth nothing.
2. To me, bass consists of two parts. the midrange (tone) and the sub (weight).
I concentrate on the midrange part first. Most of the time this has to be higher than I assume. I think I mostly put it somewhere between C3 and C4 (could also be an octave lower). I almost always use SAW or PULSE for bass( I want to get into the other machines more).
I play the melody and then start to work the sound parameters. At this stage I only concentrate on the midrange sound. I don't even want to have any sub frequencies in this. The midrange is where I apply all the modulations, like LFO'd filters for wobbles etc.
Most of the time, i filter down the midrange and then mix the midrange with a sub sine until there is a nice balance of weight and tone.
The sub is easy, just mix in a sine one or two octaves below the midrange bass.
3. I like to add very subtle and low-feedback delay to the midrange bass. It takes a bit of time to get the right delay timing and mix, (use the parameter to filter out the lows). This subtle delay can give a bassline a lot of movement, especially with wobbles.
4. This is not really sound design advice, but I started to play around with the attack, hold and decay for my basses a lot more. If I program it right, I can get very groovy stuff just by making notes of different length or attack. I combine very short bass stabs with longer notes. You will hear this on the forthcoming tracks
5. Work with what you have got. Every synth is capable of good bass sounds. It just takes some time to find the sweet spots of your synth.
6. Get crazy on the midrange. Use distortion, SRR, unusual filter settings, multiple lfos, lots of chorus, parameter lock every step multiple times, delay, all sorts of FX, and so on...
To me, the most important part is to distinguish between midrange and sub.
- Sauna Sound
Specifically for Bass:
- Decay variations can take a drone bass to a stabby punch
- Attack tuned to the right of centre can allow the kick to KICK and the bass to come in the back door
- Delay time at a VERY short rate is lots of fun, it can give you a bit of unison sound
try putting it at anything below 10 and play with your dsnd/feedback/filtering
- try 2 basses. each panned slightly to each side. with your kick at centre, you can have WILD variations of all kinds on each bass and have it really separate itself from the kick.
*love putting an lfo on the panning of all kinds of devices*
- ARPS, 'nuff said
- Filter gain/reduction. use sparingly either way and you should be able to make most any tinny sound rumble or any rumbling sound tinny.
- Johnathon Doe
Add just a little distortion to the sound, barely audible. Combined with a fast filter envelope adds a bit more definition to the attack phase of the sound. Distortion could also be controlled by a triggered single shot ramp LFO.
Turn on filter tracking for the base frequency, turn up the resonance for the high pass filter a bit and tune the base frequency to your sound. The EQ. 'nuff said.
My favourite MnM machine at the moment is definitely the DPRO BBOX. It's really excellent for sharp, heavy basses when retrigged with a very short loop. With a total of 24 retrigged drum sounds you end up with a fantastic potential for different tonal characteristics. True, you're back to MD "stone age" lock programming of note values, but it sounds so cool that it's totally worth it.
Try the following:
- Load the BBOX to a part
- Enter random notes in a 16 note pattern, something suitable for a bass line
- Tweak the retrig time to a short value, giving the effect of a note
- Tweak AMP decay time, lower the low pass cutoff frequency, and add a short envelope to the filter to get an attack.
- Apply slight LFO to the SYNTH - PITCH parameter to get movement to the sound.
- Add a slow square wave LFO to the RETRIG TIME - this will give you alternating "notes". Alternatively you can manually change all the locks. Which reminds me - there should be a lock offset function in the MnM!
- Experiment with the notes in the pattern, add some delay, tweak until it sounds right!
- Nils
Here's my recipe for bass that I use.
Make SID 6581 and leave everything to default except:
Synth:
WAVE: SAW
Amp:
HOLD: 10
DEC: 58
REL: 23
Filter:
Key follow for BASE & WDTH from Assign menu: OFF
BASE: 23
WDTH: 37
DEC: 35
WOFS: 25
LFO1:
PAGE: FILT
DEST: WDTH
TRIG: ONE
WAVE: EXP
MULT: 32x
SPD: 77
DPTH: 10
Exp curve to the filter cutoff is the key for snappy bass. Replace SID with DPRO+ WAVE for more variety in tone. FM+ is not handy because it doesn't have much spectrum to carve stuff from... Not that great basses can't be created with it, it's just different beast.
- Texmex
For really fat basses I'd like to have that 2 OSC machine. Most important is the osc types and their relative pitch ratio. For example OSC 1: square wave, -1 octave OSC 2: sawtooth wave, +0 octave makes a really nice bass sound.
OSC WAVE CONFIG
osc types: square, sawtooth, triangle, sine, more (max 8 waves, making 64 combinations)
OSC1 WAVE MOD
for square: pulse width
for sawtooth: sawtooth -> triangle -> inverse sawtooth
and so on.
OSC2 PITCH
OSC1 pitch is always the note pitch
OSC2 FINE TUNE
OSC BALANCE
MOD CONFIG
ring mod, fm (2->1), ring+fm, pm (2->1) and so on
MOD AMOUNT
0 = mod has no effect, 127 = full mod
OSC2 AMP ENV
0 = no attack, quick decay
64 = very short attack, long decay
127 = long attack, long decay
Quite simple yet powerful I think.
- Texmex
Use the ensemble machine, but tune up/down a whole octave instead of a normal chord. Add some distortion and PWM movement by LFO and finish of with the filter.
- JGB
FM+ is always my first port of call for basslines (I'm a big fan of sega megadrive sounds), just experimenting with the envelopes on simple FM ratio settings can give wild bass sounds.
The filter works like a band pass filter with double resonance. lots of resonance on the HPF will result in a resonant peak at the lower end of the audio spectra, whereas resonance on the LPF gives more emphasis to the top end of the spectra. There is in fact only one filter envelope. BOFS, WOFS are the filter envelope destinations, filter base and filter width respectively.
- Wavecircle
Turn off key-tracking for high & and low pass in the aasign-menu. That helped me for creating a good low bass.
- Peter
One thing that comes to mind is the AMP-envelope. MnM has untraditional AHDR-envelope. You might be unconsciously trying to make body of a sound which is similar to more common ADSR-envelope. Use Ramp and Exp waveforms of the Lfos to create more traditional body of sound (map it to volume). This way you might get more profound attack of the bass. You might also try same thing with the Filter-envelope. Hope this helps somehow..
- Toni
That said, I managed to get some good basses out the Mono. I mainly use the Saw engine, single osc with maybe a little bit of sub,reso low to none and width to about 50 or less. No key tracking on the filter. Tends to get really 101ish.
- Reset
Now you can use distortion on the MnM or use Digipro to create juicy overtones over bass-tones, but use of filter always filters them out. Distortion is build between HP and LP, and when LP is used, it filters the upper spectrum out.
I tried to cure this thing with the compressor effect and thought it could add something. Normally I hate when people tend to offer compressor as a solution to every problem, but it just might work here.
I made bass patch with SAW-machine. Nothing special, just very filtered, just low-end working here. Then I routed it to compressor. Attack and release to low enough that compressor will distort a little. Dig very deep with threshold and adjust ratio to your liking (it seems to harden the bass). Distorting compressor creates distortion to bass-tone and creates some overtones, while at the same time reduces dynamics to zero. Bass becomes more present and range seems to broaden. At first you might lose some low-end, but then comes the EQ on compressor track. Use it to boost where you want your bass line to have balls.
- Toni
-----------------------------------------
Parameter Locking Slides:
I parameter lock one of the LFO's on the note that has to slide to the second one. The waveform I use is saw up ( /| )for slide up and saw down ( | ) for a slide down.
You have to play a little with the speed and amount etc to make the slide work, and MOST IMPORTANT you have to transpose the note you're sliding because it's really out of tune because of the LFO you apply.
- Robbienerve
-----------------------------------------
Organ sounds:
organ sounds are like chords themselves, I mean a single note have several strong frequency components that could match other note frequencies than the fundamental, even in a single played note
so you could use the ensemble machine´s "notes" to get something similar
sometimes with this machine the added notes could be too loud to get just harmonics but try it anyway...with a bit of low pass filtering you could make those high frequencies softer leaving the fundamental dominate the timbre
a very common thing to do while making organs in analog synths is to use a sub oscillator TWO octaves below the main oscillator, both making square waves
you can get such oscillator arranges by using the superwave square or ensemble
in ensemble you can also get some "middle" harmonics by setting notes to specific intervals...and don´t forget to set the wave parameter to achieve an square wave
then set a low pass filter (static, don´t modulate it) in a low to mid frequency and turn up resonance...
with classic ADSR you could use the amp EG to simulate the characteristic organ click at the start of the sound, but you got no luck whit the odd EG on the monomachine...
Instead of this trick you can use an LFO with max modulation applied to volume in order to get a spike at the start of the sound...
Just put the LFO in one-shot mode, choose a linear or logarithmic falling curve and set the speed fast top get a short "click" at the attack of the sound
another way is to set the filter EG to minimum time attack and decay, and turn up a little the EG depth of the filter
the amp has to be controlled by a kind of gate EG, so choose minimum attack and release and set decay to max to get infinite sustain
use the other LFO to achieve leslie-style FX by modulate pan and pitch in a doppler way...
if you´re in the ensemble oscillator you can fat your organ using the chorus in the synth section
put some reverb with long decay but in very little quantity, so you can only hear the tail when you leave the keys
FM is another way of get organ sounds because of the ability of this synthesis method to get several harmonics from just 2 oscillators...try exact multiples of modulator/carrier frequencies relationship to get those harmonic regions in the organ
after that you could shape some things with the EQ ...I mean get some harmonic region lower or higher in amplitude...It works better making a deep notch and then sweep frequencies to find different variations...when you like some point try adjusting the level again rising a little the gain so the notch goes less deep
distortion on the MnM is very crude and digital so maybe it not suited for dub organs ...I think you´ll go better with an external analog device, a tube one ore a modeling thing like the some of the POD models
ORGAN PATCH (MnM)
VERY IMPORTANT : FIRST turn OFF the keyboard tracking of both filters!!!
KIT > ASSIGN > KEY > HPF and LPF has to be in OFF!!!
then set as follows:
SYNTH > SUPERWAVE ENSEMBLE MACHINE
PITCH 1 = -12
PITCH 2 = 2/3
PITCH 3 = 12
WAVE = 127 (SQUARE)
PW = 29
CHRL = 9
CHRW = 127
TUNE = 0
AMP
A = 0
H = 0
D = 127
R = 0
DIST = -9
VOL = 90
PAN = 0
PORT = 0
FILTER
BASE = 2
WIDTH = 79
HPQ = 84
LPQ = 31
A = 0
D = 0
BOFS = -6
HOFS = 16
FX
EQF = 79
EQG = 11
SRR = 0
DTIM = 2
DSND = -19
DFB = 56
DBSS = 22
DWID = 81
LFO 1
PAGE = PITCH
DEST = 1/12
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 32x
SPEED = 64
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 33
LFO 2
PAGE = AMP
DEST = VOL
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 32x
SPEED = 50
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 12
LFO 3
PAGE = AMP
DEST = PAN
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 16x
SPEED = 64
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 55
now go to octave 6...play step keys 9, 13 and 16 rhythmically, then holding that interval move the whole chord 2 semitones and you´ll be transported to bossa territory instantly
if the sounds too dissonant in some chords you can change the interval of the osc pitch 3
try change the wave, PW, filter width and EQ freq parameters to get another tonalities
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Faking Reverb Predelay:
One of the things the mnm lacks is a predelay setting on the reverb machine, that is: the original sound is heard dry and after a bit of silence the reverb kicks in. Such a setting is found on many fx processors and on several synths as well, but the mnm doesn' t offer one.
There is a flexible workaround for this which in turn yields a lot of creative potential:
Set up any kind of machine you want to be reverbed and trigger it on, say, the first note. The sound has to be fairly short.
On the second track place a reverb machine which has it' s input, off course, set to neighbour. Trigger that machine on the same note and set the decay parameter of the amp envelope to max so the reverb keeps going. Put the mix parameter nicely in the middle: 64.
Now set up an lfo, parameters:
waveform: inverted square
trigger: one
modulation destination: the mix parameter on the synth page
modulation depth: 64
Speed: x4 or x8
Once the sound is triggered, the reverb machine is tirggered as well but the reverb is not heard because the lfo drives the mix parameter to 0. After a short time, the lfo will drive the mix parameter to 128 and you hear a full reverb.
Speed, waveform and depth can be used to tweak this according to taste, but the key thing is that the lfo is abused as a simple switch to turn the reverb mix from off to on.
Once you combine this with delays and pan settings on both tracks, unnatural things can happen, for example:
You hear the original sound first in the left speaker, then the reverbed part on the right speaker, then the original dry signal on the left again (the delay does that), the the delayed reverb on the right again, etc.
If you put another effect behind that, (phazer of flanger or chorus or so) and you use the same lfo trick on their mixsettings as well, things run out of control even further.
The use-lfo-as-switch-trick is an old one by the way, but very effective in this context.
- Merlin
-----------------------------------------
Karplus Strong Synthesis:
Load up one GND-NOISE machine and a FLANGER machine.
Route the NOISE machine into the FLANGER and mute the NOISE channel (i.e. unroute it from AB ). Make sure that the FLANGER is set to neighbour (the FLANGER should be immediately after the NOISE machine channel-wise).
Set the NOISE machine's envelope to no hold, short decay and maybe short release so that you end up with a clicking type sound going to the FLANGER.
Turn the FLANGER's LFO off (i.e. turn DEP to zero). Set the FB parameter fairly high (i.e. over 60). You'll want to set a fairly long envelope for the FLANGER too.
Enter some notes in the sequencers of both the NOISE and FLANGER machines. Ideally, these should occur on the same steps.
Parameter-lock the DEL parameter of the FLANGER machine.
You should then have something that works a bit like Karplus Strong synthesis.
- Futureimage
-----------------------------------------
Electric Piano:
I needed a electric piano sound that I could play in poly mode on my mono. Since I couldn't find a how to about this I thought I'd share the fruit of my labor with you.
Machine:
FM+ Par
Synthesis page:
[1FRQ = 1] [1 ENV = 44] [2FRQ = 1] [2ENV = 0]
[3FRQ = 1] [3ENV = 0] [TONE = 98] [TUNE = 0]
Amplification page:
[ATK = 0] [HOLD = 4] [DEC= 55] [REL = 12]
[DIST = -24] [VOL = 127] [PAN = 0] [PORT = 0]
Effects page:
[EQF = 64] [EQG= 0] [SRR = 0] [DTIM = 16]
[DSND = 21] [DFB = 32] [DBAS = 0] [DWID = 127]
Filter, LFO 1, LFO 2 and LFO 3 page:
Use default values.
Level: Max
Poly mode: On
Know issues:
Problem: The volume on this patch is rather low as a result of trying to eliminate distortion when playing chords.
Fix: Turn up the master volume. Just remember to turn it back down when changing to another patch.
Problem: The sustain doesn't respond as naturally as I'd like given that I use the 'Hold' parameter to emulate it.
Fix: Tweak the 'Hold' parameter to taste while playing or use parameter locks with it.
- Batni
Thought this improved the sound a little bit:
Bring 3ENV back up to 64
In the Assign Track 1 menu, go to Velocity control and map it to AMP - DEC - 21
It gives you a bit more "feel" when playing it. You could also map the velocity to 3ENV to get that nice overtone kinda thing...
- Futureimage
-----------------------------------------
Creating Pads and drones on the MnM:
Lower the tempo right down, overdrive things into the Efx, use the locks with slides, slow lfos, lfo the lfo, fm machines, slow arps locked to transpositions... the list is endless.
- TIB
its all in the filters with the mnm. try rising the resonance and lower the filter width, then lfo's and such have a much bigger effect. use the ENS-machines, and DO use the fx-machines with another delay setting than the ens machine. play with srr, p-locks on the "adsr equivalent" parameters. lower the distortion.
but above all, experiment and find your own style
- Trondc
Pitched down Bbox hits routed through an FX machine can offer gigantic sounds.
Boost the EQ and modulate the frequency.
Use very slow arps to bring the tempo down even further.
If you have an MKII, the DENS machines offer some user-friendly drone.
- Allerian
I totally agree with the "low and slow" approach mentioned here a few times...
However, I would also suggest a "high and almost dry" approach in spots...that is ...crank the speed of an LFO to the maximum or near maximum but then only apply its effects minimally. You can get some very interesting ambiences by doing this on any number of parameters.
Also, I like to find a sound that appeals to me and then apply gradual LFOs to that sound to give it subtle motion and depth.
I'm also big on filtering out the high frequencies...when it comes to ambience I like a lot of lows/mids and save the highs for something melodic or relatively melodic.
I think my main overall suggestion would be when you're about to reach for one knob, grab the one next to it instead - you might surprise yourself.
- Earsmack
very slow arpeggiator, a bit of portamento, long attack and decay, delay... also the dynamic FM, with slow LFO on the Synth parameters. With some fine tuning you can get all kinds of soundscapes, from lush to alien.
- Sauna Sound
but, for those of you who missed this ...i found this works well.
if you're looking for a traditional attack phase (slow attack):
1. set one of your 3 lfos to VOL
2. set the trigger setting to TRIG
3. set waveform to IEXP
4. set your DEP to taste.
- Johnathon Doe
My favorite machine for pads is the SWAV ENS.
With slight modulations to the pitch of the various "oscillators", you can get a great deal of motion in the ocean.
The chorus, though not as thick as a Juno's, is quite pleasant.
Don't forget about the filters! Slow modulations can be achieved with the LFOs.
Throw on the delay with a heap of feedback.
One trick that I'd recommend: use multiple tracks as effect tracks. That is, have track 1 (ENS) go into track 2 (reverb) and have that go into track 3 (chorus)...remember, that's three tracks with delay, lfo's, eq, distortion...and filters!
- Glitched
Another way I've used the MnM arp is to create a sort of pad sound that can shift or just be a sort of wall of sound in the background
load a synth and turn the decay settings up (play with any other settings too in the amp page)
put the speed of the arp to 1
then you can record some trig locks with filter changes or synth changes
good for droning
- Bot23
some nice slow LFO's routed to the EQ and Filter section parameters can really at some nice atmospheric pads. also, with the slow attack and long release tip, add some delay to make a mono sound a bit 'bigger'.
FM can also take you there
- Actuel
yeah, you have to go into poly mod. The saw machine is quite ok and the FM ones can get you some nice glassy sounds too. add some slight pitch modulation with with the LFOs and blend them with some delay to mimic the effect of osc detuning.
- Pix
Ensemble Wave is your friend for classic Roland-ish pads.
I"ll post the sysex file of my Eva W Was track.
Nothing but Ensemble Wave and two reverb tracks (apart from the drums of course).
Don't forget
-the chorus parameter or add a chorus track.
-parameter locking the sub oscillators for adding 9tths-7ths-sus4's etc.
- Eminor9
try using the EQ as a notch filter for phasing effects: set gain negative and sweep frequency slowly with an LFO
you can get shimmering tones with the high pass filter: start with the cut off high and sweep slowly into the mids, with some LFO for extra movement. Slow values of the interlace parameter on the LFO can also add sparkling effects. Sweeping SRR can also give sparkling tones, especially into a delay.
you can also build up washes of delay by setting the feedback close to 64
personally i don't think you need to go into poly mode to get full sounding pads. layering two tracks with related tones can already get pretty lush sounding
- Konkrete
-----------------------------------------
Making dub-style organs:
A short "lesson" in how to get there:
1. Use a minor chord (both ensemble machines are good for this, but the superwave ensemble machine have more modulation possibilities)
2. Add some distortion
3. Tweak the sound itself, narrow pulse width usually sounds better when distorted
4. Cut some frequency using the build in eq for the sound
5. Low pass filtering, just a little resonance
Now you should have something that sound quite nice. The next step is to use the LFO to modulate parameters in the sound; eq frequency, pulse width, etc
Do not forget to use the sinewave for bass, the best one for dub in my opinion
- JGB
start with a supersaw
set the three pitches to taste
automate filter sweeps with lfo
- Sorgenkind
A very common thing to get organs in analog synths is to use a sub oscillator TWO octaves below the main oscillator....then choose a square wave for the main oscillator. You can get such oscillator arranges by using the superwave square or ensemble. In ensemble you can also get some intermediate harmonics by setting notes to specific intervals...set the wave parameter to achieve an square wave. set a low pass filter static in a low to mid frequency and turn up resonance...
with classic ADSR you could use the amp EG to simulate the click at the start, but no luck whit the odd EG on the mono ...still you can use an LFO with max modulation applied to volume to get a spike at the start of the sound...just put the LFO in one-shot mode, choose a linear or logarithmic falling curve and set the speed as fast as you can
another way is to set the filter EG to minimum time attack and decay, and turn up a little the EG depth of the filter. the amp has to be controlled by a kind of gate EG, so choose minimum attack and release and set decay to max to get infinite sustain. use the other LFO to achieve leslie-style FX by modulate pan and pitch in a doppler way...
if you´re in the ensemble oscillator you can fat your organ using the chorus in the synth section. put some reverb with long decay but in very little quantity, so you can only hear the tail when you leave the keys. organ sounds are like chords in itself...with strong frequency components that could match note frequencies, even in a single played note. so you could use the ensemble "notes" to get something similar
sometimes this notes could be too loud to get just formants but try it anyway...with a bit of low pass filtering you could soft the higher ones leaving the fundamental dominate the timbre. FM is another way of get organ sounds because of the ability of this synthesis method to get several harmonics from just 2 oscillators...try exact multiples of modulator/carrier frequencies relationship to get those harmonic regions in the organ
after that you could shape some things with the EQ ...i mean get some region low or high
OK, here´s some patch I transfer for you...
VERY IMPORTANT : FIRST turn OFF the keyboard tracking of both filters!!!
KIT > ASSIGN > KEY > HPF and LPF has to be in OFF!!!
then set as follows:
SYNTH > SUPERWAVE ENSEMBLE MACHINE
PITCH 1 = -12
PITCH 2 = 2/3
PITCH 3 = 12
WAVE = 127 (SQUARE)
PW = 29
CHRL = 9
CHRW = 127
TUNE = 0
AMP
A = 0
H = 0
D = 127
R = 0
DIST = -9
VOL = 90
PAN = 0
PORT = 0
FILTER
BASE = 2
WIDTH = 79
HPQ = 84
LPQ = 31
A = 0
D = 0
BOFS = -6
HOFS = 16
FX
EQF = 79
EQG = 11
SRR = 0
DTIM = 2
DSND = -19
DFB = 56
DBSS = 22
DWID = 81
LFO 1
PAGE = PITCH
DEST = 1/12
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 32x
SPEED = 64
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 33
LFO 2
PAGE = AMP
DEST = VOL
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 32x
SPEED = 50
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 12
LFO 3
PAGE = AMP
DEST = PAN
TRIG = FREE
WAVE = TRI
MULT = 16x
SPEED = 64
INTL = 0
DEPTH = 55
now go to octave 6...play step keys 9, 13 and 16 ritmically, then holding that interval move the whole chord 2 semitones and you´ll be transported to bossa territory instantly
if the sounds too dissonant in some chords you can change the interval of the osc pitch 3
try change the wave, PW, filter width and EQ freq parameters to get another tonalities
- Anselmi
-----------------------------------------
Using the Scale function for live tweaking:
the scale function just defines which notes are allowed on a track, it has no rhythmic or sequencing or arpeggiating function at all...
when you set it to d min for example, try to play a chromatic scale, you will hear that the notes that are not in d min will be transposed...
i mainly use it with the arpeggiator and transpose. so if you specify a scale, you can twist the transpose parameter at will, it will always sound harmonically, cause only the notes of the scale are being played.
- Smoof
-----------------------------------------
Looping patterns from different banks:
Well, this is possible, although if you want the MD to have the same functionality, gotta choose for it to accept Pattern Changes, enable MnM to Send Pattern Changes..
anyways, MD is another story, this thread is about MnM...
hold down E
press Trig 3
release E
maintain hold on Trig 3
click and hold bank G
with Trig 3 still held, click Trig 4
voila, now Pattern Mode loops between E3 and G4
- Previewlounge
-----------------------------------------
Insert effects unit:
the monomachine sounds great as the insert effects unit on the send/return buss of a pioneer dj mixer .. 'activated' by selecting an effect of the same name.
everything was connected correctly, using a monophonic signal send to input A, returning via output E; and yet, there was audio feedback.
switched the global audio routing to 3*stereo mix (previously on 3*stereo + ab mix) and everything sounds fantastic.
the monomachine really shines as the effects unit, working with sound of other instruments in the mix .
- Previewlounge
I tell you something really fun to do, set the key tracking to delay time, then fiddle with the delay settings after putting in a sequence until you get something rad, I had some 80's Eventide type sounds going on using this method.
Another thing which is cool is to have something like the flanger speed set to key tracking, then run your MD hi hats into the MnM flanger, then tune the settings of the flanger to be in key with you track, put in a sequence and your hi hat pattern will swirl around in sympathy with the track.
- Darenager
-----------------------------------------
Guitar processing:
There's a lot of fun to be had in this department. Run the input into two seperate tracks..
Filter one down to just the bass frequencies, eq to boost bass, short hold, whatever decay works for you, add some triggers in a nice bass pattern, season with delay to taste.. then when you play chords on the guitar you get a bass line out of them too.
Then off the bass on another track, and the rest of the chord will be heard there.. good place to stick a phaser.
One more, that I alluded to before. Assign joystick up to increase delay feedback and to close the filter(whichever direction) move modwheel/joystick all the way up, tweak the ADD amounts until you have a mellow wash of sound, with just a little bit of the dry sound coming through before it goes into the delay.
Now you've got a fade to grey. You can simultaneously push the sound down and smear it all over the place, whenever you want to.
- Thekm
-----------------------------------------
Real-time fills:
On a Bbox track, you can add live variation or breaks to a pattern easily by tweaking the Transpose controls.
- Allerian
1) mute all but the track you are to solo in poly mode (e.g. track 1),
2) start the sequence and play track 1 in poly mode, layering the sound to create some kind of natty atmosphere,
3) go back into normal mode and the layer you've made keeps playing until you unmute the other tracks (2-6)
You get quite a nice effect as the layer breaks down into the sequences you programmed.
- TIB
-----------------------------------------
Reloading a kit:
Pressing the KIT button and YES is all it takes to reset kit (just make sure the tab is on load and not on save!!). The simplicity factor is identical to the MD imho but since the Mono has more options (arps, note offs, trigless trigs, etc) it may look a bit more difficult at first.
-----------------------------------------
Quick soloing:
Unrelated somewhat but I think for soloing in MNM you can flick the track into poly mode.
- Tib
-----------------------------------------
Tweaking all tracks at once:
Use MIDI channel 7 with the PB and MW to control ALL the tracks, great for build-ups, breaks, etc.
- Hageir
-----------------------------------------
Changing songs via sysex:
There is away:
SYSEX song request:
MIDI Byte | Purpose
------------+----------------------------
(SYSEX init)|
$6a | Song request ID
%000aaaaa | send song %aaaaa (0 to 31)
$f7 | SYSEX end
Can be assigned to a button on your midi controller,if you have one.
- Sounklinik
-----------------------------------------
General live tips:
hi all, this may seem very simple, however i am going to mention it anyway, just in case some people can use it to good effect...
try pressing play-and-stop at the same time on the MnM ... it plays the first note only. and if the MnM is connected via midi to another device like an MD or EMX, it plays the first note of that sequence too.
so, it can then be possible to play that first sequence multi-note 'tap' in a percussion way.
a simple way to create some variations in the atmosphere of your piece tempo. or, as an intro, etc.
- Previewlounge
sometimes I will clear a pattern and then just play notes you can even stop the MnM and keep playing
sometimes if you mute a track you can catch a note that is p-locked and it will extend it or a long decayed sound it will extend it
you can catch it on a stop and then restart on beat maybe half a bar off for a cool change
- Bot23
First of all, some stuff I'm doing consist of 8-bar loops. That in itself cures the problem of things sounding loopy and old as you say.
Secondly, quite frequently my aim is to create a balanced (circular) pattern in the MnM alone - this is bloody hard, and it takes a lot of time.
Moreover, introducing some kind of subtle variation helps an awful lot (i.e., random detuning in a pad, subtle filter sweep on the bass).
I'm also trying to plan ahead with regard to the tweaks that I'll perform. So if a pattern already sounds good as is, my next aim is to find 3-5 tweaks that will change the balance between tension and release.
- Teacherofstalker
-----------------------------------------
Safe delay feedback without blowing your speakers up:
This is much more 'controllable' than just tweaking the feedback parameter:
In stereo delay mode (any value above 63 on delay parameter), set feedback at setting around 63 or slightly above. Now tweak the Width parameter between 63 and 127.
- Eminor9
-----------------------------------------
Maximum userwave time:
I did some fooling around with this back in January - have a search for pseudo-sampling if interested. If you try to load something longer than about 0.1 of a second, there is no way you can pitch-shift it back down to the original pitch. You can load longer ones, but it will play back in the range where only dogs can hear You will hear only the weird undertones you did not know you had.
Yes about the two cycles and the one octave up. One cycle = original pitch.
- Veets
-----------------------------------------
Exit button shortcut:
Just found something simple but useful. One thing I noticed was that if you're ever doing anything deep in the Global menu, like switching Digibanks, or moving sysex around, it takes like 5 or 6 presses of the Exit button to get back to the home screen on the MnM. A much quicker method is to doubletap the Tempo button.
Small, but simple.
- Tarekith
-----------------------------------------
Quick kit browsing:
Hold down Function while pressing arrow keys and browsing kits. Now each arrow is like a page down where you will go through 4 kits with each press.
- Veets
-----------------------------------------
Clarifying Super Copy options:
to copy a page's worth of notes, engage Record, and then... attempt the double-key press:
press 'scale-setup' and 'record/copy' at the same time, to copy the Page's worth of notes. similar double-key press technique to paste the Page's notes to another Page ("Page" referring to the 1:4, 2:4, 3:4, 4:4).
note:
Page Copy will copy the notes *and* P-Locks,
individual note-copy technique will not copy or paste the P-Locks
related note:
to clear the P-Locks (on the monomachine), hold Function+Clear for three seconds to achieve access to the secret Super Menu options, and choose "Locks"
when selecting options in the Super Menu, to escape clearing anything: release the Function button and keep holding the Clear button, then press Exit/No.
- Previewlounge
-----------------------------------------
Quick scrolling:
When scrolling the Kit list, holding down Function zips the cursor along really fast!
- Allerian
-----------------------------------------
MnM as 3 band compressor:
yesterday i woke up and had a strange idea. is it possible to build a multiband compressor with the mnm's abilities? so you would have one stereo signal send to 3 inpAB "audio thru" machines, each separately filtered(low,mid,hi), routed to 3 "dynamix" machines, each send to one output pair. the problem is the lack of one more output pair, because you have to route the filtered audio from "audio thru" to a "dynamix" machine and there would be nothing left to send the final signal to.
so i tried this:
set global routing to 3xstereo
:::track 1: "audio thru" machine "inpAB" to "AB" out bus --> INP127 this track lets you monitor the original signal
:::track 2: "audio thru" machine "inpAB" to "CD" out bus -->MIDs - INP127 - FILTER HiPass20-LowPass40
:::track 3: "audio thru" machine "inpAB "to "EF" out bus -->HIs - INP127 - FILTER HiPass40-LowPass127
:::track 4: "dynamix" machine "inpAB" to "AB" out bus -->LOWs INP64 - FILTER HiPass0- LowPass20
:::track 5: "dynamix" machine inpBus "CD" to "AB" out bus -->MIDs INP64
:::track 6: "dynamix" machine inpBus "EF" to "AB" out bus -->HIs INP64
don't forget to trigger all 6 tracks and setting the AMP envelopes so the signal will not cut off. please be very careful with ALL VOLUME and INPUT settings cause I am not responsible for any broken speakers. i twiddled about an hour to get everything working the way i wanted it. the sound is quite, lets say dirty, its not really nice 3band compression, but you can use it as a multiband distortion/compression fx.
track 1 is quite handy for listening back to the original signal. compare track 1 with the others to find the right filter and volume settings, to get the signal through as natural as possible, before cranking up the compressors. once you mess around with the compressor settings you will have SOME fun!
-Paalaala
-----------------------------------------
Hear dry signal when FX machine input set to neighboring track:
The mix parameter in the synth menu of the effect will adjust dry/wet signal. If you still have dry signal when set to full wet I'd try to leave all outputs blank in the routing menu for that track.
- Eminor9
-----------------------------------------
Routing ideas:
take a look at the presets, there are a lot of cool ideas for routing settings. for example rout track 1 and 2 trough c-d. track 3 is a fx-track with the inputs from c-d and the out-bus back to a-b. so you only hear the effected sound from 1 and 2. nice results can be achieved when you make a layered noisy synth sounds (maybe with a lfo on the filter) on track 1 and 2. the c-d bus may sound very harsh now but if you choose a reverb on the fx track an do some filtering, very cool tunes came out of the a-b bus
- Kellerkind
-----------------------------------------
Simple note copy:
to copy a note on the MnM: press and hold the note you wish to copy, and whilst keeping finger on that note. press the trig key of the sequencer step where you wish the note to be copied to. that is all - no 'copy' and 'paste' required..
- Previewlouge
I don't think you need to keep it held down, just give it a longer hold than normal... ie couple of secs until the keyboard pops up.
- Tib
-----------------------------------------
Some quick tips:
- For basses remember to disable filter key tracking
- For layering fat sounds use the track trigger (you can set T1 to trigger also T2)
- Digipro (or other synth) with arp and delay directed to internal reverb with threshold can create some fresh sounds.
- SRR works as a low quality low pass filter, you can combine it with the real low pass with high resonance get those progressive house filter sweeps. Boost highs with the internal eq to emphasize the SRR
- delay times work with power of two minus one, 2^N - 1. For 1/4 note, use 63, 1/8 = 31, 1/16 = 15 etc
- LFO times work 2^N, 64=1/4 note (with multipliers you can get large LFO time range)
- positive delay send -> ping pong delay, negative -> stereo delay (panned sounds will have delay panned to same position)
- Texmex
-----------------------------------------
Easiest way to connect Machinedrum and Monomachine?
i found the best/quickest was:
mono stereo out>machinedrum input A and B
create INP A panned hard left - INP B panned hard right
add a trig on the first note of each machine on the MACHINEDRUM
NOW this allows you to pan the 6 mono synths of the MNM internally
and the MD picks up on that.
- Jonathan Doe
-----------------------------------------
Chart of VO6 vowels:
http://elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=247&Itemid=30
-----------------------------------------
Monomachine EQ Frequencies:
40Hz - 1
60Hz - 10
80Hz - 16
100Hz - 21
150Hz - 29
250Hz - 41
300Hz - 44
500Hz - 54
1000HZ - 68
1500Hz - 76
1800Hz - 80
2000Hz - 82
2500Hz - 87
3000Hz - 90
3500Hz - 93
4000Hz - 96
4500Hz - 98
5000Hz - 100
6000Hz - 104
7500Hz - 109
10000Hz 114
12000Hz 121
- SaunaSound
-----------------------------------------
MIDI Memory:
Midi memory limit is 400 midi notes (single or root) and 192 chord notes.
Using this info, a single step for single midi track can have an astounding 193 note polyphony. However, you can only enter 99 chord notes per step, so the actual polyphony is 100. Using all six tracks you can trigger 5 more base notes so you can get 198 note polyphony.
Well, nobody is going to use all that on one step, so the polyphony is spread across the steps. For example, you can have 4 note chords for every 64 step, and this would make total 64 base notes and 3*64=192 chord notes. You would have still 334 base notes for other midi tracks and they would have to be monophonic because the chord notes are all used for the 4 note chords.
So, the amount of polyphony on Monomachine is a bit unclear by its definition. But you seldom max the midi memory out so I wouldn't worry about it.
Important thing to note is that notes are shared between all the tracks inside the pattern so entering a lot of chords on few tracks eats the polyphony from others. And this limit affects only the Note on-steps. You can still have all the triggerless steps you like for controlling CC and PB.
- Texmex
-----------------------------------------
MnM Patch Randomizer for PureData:
http://elektron-users.com/images/fbfiles/files/controlmonomachine.zip
- Human Koala
-----------------------------------------
Monomachine SuperPoly tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O-p-Kbrt9o
- Veets
-----------------------------------------
Free Wavetables:
http://www.adventurekid.se/akrt/waveforms/
On a more personal note, if this guide (or any of my other guides) has helped you in your music making, please consider a small $1 donation via pay pal to the email address below. Even a dollar here and there really helps me and my family out more than you can realize. Thanks, and I hope you find this guide useful.
Peace and beats,
Tarekith
Tarekith@Gmail.com
------------------------------
I'm the owner of Inner Portal Studio, a Seattle-based facility with over 10 years experience providing quality mastering and mixdowns of electronic music for producers around the world. I have been writing, releasing, performing and DJing electronic music of all genres for over 20 years, and currently I'm one of the few independent artists with music for sale on Addictech.com. You can find my blog, original music and DJ mixes, as well numerous audio production related tutorials available for free at http://tarekith.com.
Feel free to pass this document on as you see fit, though I ask that you do not modify it from it's current form, and give proper credit. If you see any errors, please let me know so I can correct them asap.