I’m going to live in China in less than a month and will be out there for at least a year.
I’m taking my Monomachine and OP-1 in the Peli 1510.
I generally use both machines on their own and I’m happy to do so, with the help of a BigSky.
I do have a little space left in my case and I’m open to a little last minute GAS for a companion to the Mono, but not another Elektron (too big).
I generally create experimental / ambient stuff and would be interested in any ideas. I’m not GASSING for anything right now, but interested in a curious “what if” kind of way.
Maybe the most obvious choice is an iPad. If I was going to be away for a year and needed to keep things minimal and compact, iPad + MNM or OT would likely be my setup.
I’ve been messing around with Blofeld sequenced by MnM lately.
It’s a powerful combination that makes full use of MnM’s 6 midi tracks, thanks to Blofeld’s multi-mode.
Since each of the 16 channels in multi-mode can have any midi channel assigned to it, you can use those extra 10 channels in multi to do some layering.
It gets very deep if you want it to.
Also, the SL sample option allows you to set up some drum map samples, which I personally love. It’s nice to break free from the FM and BBOX percussion sometimes, and bring in some fresh drums, yet keep it all on the MnM sequencer.
And, of all the Elektrons+partners combos I have (Rytm+midi controller, A4+NordDrum1, MnM+Blofeld), it’s the combo that I would definitely choose over the others for travel. The routing+synthesis capabilities are deepest with this combo. With a total of 44 filters, and 66 LFOs to be manipulated, I would never get bored.
I had also considered the ND2 as MnM partner.
My ND1 makes a great partner for A4 (also, great coincidences with 4 tracks --> 4 CV triggers, A4/ND1 respectively send/receive midi program changes, A4’s ability to p-lock pans of the external input to stereoize ND1’s mono output, etc.)
But then when I saw the video for the Attack pack drum expansion for Blofeld, and looked at how it handles samples, it seemed like a better MnM partner for $100 less.
ND2 is definitely faster to setup for drums with MnM, but I appreciate how deep the Blofeld can go, and how versatile it is. After taking the time to setup a few multi-templates for drums that utilize dense sample maps with 100s of drums hits,it is a bit quicker to go from zero to inspiration.
The Analog Voltage sound pack is another good example of its capabilities as a virtual analog. I always felt the V/A implementation in MnM was a little simplistic, but not in the way the Nord A1 is with its quick results. Blofeld fills the V/A gap well with added depth.
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