I was one of the first people to have an MM back in the day - played live with it - learned all the sound design tricks. Sold it in 2009 for $1100 much to my regret. So I have a gear budget and looking to get some new sounds. I’m an expert sound designer and comfortable tweaking all the Elektron stuff. I have a Syntakt and an OT. Is The MM still worth that beefy $2000+ price tag? Or will a DN fit nice in my setup? I love clean, weird digital sounds which is why I’m thinking MM again. I assume it will not lose value - unless Elektron reissues it (possible?)
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DN can cover a lot of the same territory, minus the wacky drumkit and vocal synth. I think the wavetables were in part made using FM synthesis from the Nord Lead 2 so I was able to make similar buzzy tones on it. For superosc-like sounds you could use detune and ensemble together with chorus.
EDIT: Typo! DN not DT
(Beware: DN = Digitone / DT = Digitakt)
What’s the part you particularly liked in MM?
For FM, Digitone is IMO way better, but it has its tone, I found.
Playing with it is quicker than on MM, I found.
It doesn’t feel limited to me, if you take it for what it’s good at.
Some users can push it hard:
Now if what you like in MM is the modularity, the weird behavior of filters pushed to their limit, waveform and whatever makes the MM rather unique, well all I’ll say is 2k€ is quite some money on an old synth, but yours to see.
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Thanks - need convincing away from the MM. The lure of nostalgia when I used to play techno sets in weird clubs of my youth!
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Where was this?
I have both MnM and DN but I’m no expert on either but FWIW I find they push me into very different directions. Both are obviously capable of a huge variety of sounds but with the DN I usually end up in the lush/dreamy realm whereas the MnM often seems to invite a more experimental approach. But this is just me, obviously people make beautiful AND weird stuff with the DN as well!
Personally, I’m biased towards the MD/MnM workflow with kits etc (for whatever reason I just don’t enjoy using soundlocks) so I’d choose MnM over DN any day but if I had to buy one now, the price at ~500€ vs 2k€ would make it hard to decide.
One thing you could do is buy a 2nd hand DN first and see if it scratches the weird digital sound itch enough? Plenty of them around and easy to sell again at cost if it doesn’t fit your needs.
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Somehow the Syntakt feels much more like the MnM than the fm specialist DN.
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Well I also have both units and I think they are two totally different beasts. The MNM always pulls me into a very deep and weird rabbit hole and in my case the DN is more of a preset workhorse with a very quick and modern groovebox workflow. Soundwise they are also quite different. So I guess it really depends on the sound you’re trying to achieve.
In my opinion, no not even close, DN is a fine machine for sure, but aside from the totally different sound the DN is a much simpler synth.
DN - nice modern implementation of a FM synth. A mid price machine, with nice features.
MM - Multiple synthesis methods and a fair degree of modularity. A flagship machine.
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I would say “it’s a much more deep synth (because it focus in only one kind of ‘machine’) but a much more simple and streamlined machine overall with some nice quality of life features and sequencer improvements (although this is missing some features too)”
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Yeah. I will quickly say MnM for quick dirty techno.
I miss my MnM very often, and regret selling it. Never miss the DN, and found the sound very uninspiring. Can’t think of anything that sounds like the MnM, honestly.
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I like Digitone because it’s an amazing 4-op FM synth that is kind of like having Ableton’s Operator in a box.
I love Monomachine because there’s nothing else like it.
In their own way, the OT and A4 seem closest to the MnM, but both are still very different. Nothing really comes very close to the MnM
Recently got the DN and it quickly became my main song writing tool. Love sound and it invites a completely new way of working with the new sound structure (previously kits). I use patterns as versions during the process which makes A/B-ing melodies and sounds/mixes super intuitive.
Don’t have the MNM but most demos sound pretty vintage to my ears.
The Digitone reverb and delay is on another level.
I love the MD and it can sound more ”modern” to me. Since you don’t need to use that much reverb on percussion.
*edit: worth mentioning that I prefer to make more or less finished productions OTB