Monomachine vs digitone

Elektron Gear Monomachine
#1

Hi guys, any reasons to get a monomachine over a digitone today?

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#2

Absolutely.

If you want wavetables, SID sounds, analog modeling, and only a little bit of FM(and also care more about having 6 analog outs vs Overbridge) then you should get the Monomachine

This will come at the cost of a limited sequencer, though(by modern Elektron standards)

The FX processing capabilities of the machine is cool, plus you’ll have 3 LFOs per track

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#4

Yea these are some of the reasons I own the DN and no longer the MM.

More voices, conditional trigs / micro timing / polyrhythms out of the midi sequencer, and the synth arp is programmable A4 style.

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#5

MnM poly mode is pretty dang good IMO, just need an external keyboard or sequencer. Sounds so good as a poly though

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#6

My biggest gripe with the MnM and why I had to get rid of it was the engines method- I’d always be uncertain that I picked the right one, and would switch and have to start over. The most beautiful thing about the DT, DN, and A4 is that you’re never locked into a specific decision(for sound design anyway)

Another thing OP needs to know is there’s no sound/kit pool on the MnM

#7

I never owned one unfortunately, but I have to say the most interesting and beautiful sounds I heard from Elektron synths came out of the MnM

6 Likes
#8

DN reverb > MM reverb

#9

i’m sequencing my MnM with my DT, if the DT had midi re-trigs it would be perfect. also running my micromonsta thru the MnM for extra goodness. no experience with the DN cos the MnM is very flexible so haven’t been tempted

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#10

not sure about the DN, but 3 LFO’s on the MnM is pretty cool

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#11

I often read that there are some arpeggiator tricks on the MnM that turn it into the most powerful Elektron sequencer…

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#12

Oh yes. The deeper you dig, the better it gets.

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#13

Thanks for your answers!

I’m actually more interested in the sound design capabilities of the two synths, from what I’m reading and hearing on youtube the monomachine seems to have a more diverse range of sounds.

I already own a digitakt so I don’t mind the lesser sequencer of the MnM.

FX-wise the two synths look similar to me ?

#14

I think the DN effects are on a master channel. Wheras the monomachine effects take up a track on the machine per effect. The monomachines effects can also be sequenced pretty extensively.

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#15

Yes. Monomachine is silver and sexy and solid and full of strange sounds and is reliable. Seriously stuffed with some really unique sound engines. I’m considering heavily minimizing my studio and Monomachine is on the “definitely keep” list while Digitone, while nice, is on the “I don’t really need this” pile.

Main reason: there’s nothing that sounds quite like Monomachine.

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#16

FX-wise, they’re very different.

Digitone has, as others have mentioned, its effects on the ‘master’ channel. You can send to them, but the delay and reverb and chorus settings are fixed per pattern. The FX track can be sequenced via MIDI CCs (and thus you can use one of the MIDI tracks and loop-back to do any FX sequencing). The reverb on Digitone is akin to the reverb on the A4: it can be very long/infinite and very pretty. The main per-track effect on Digitone is overdrive.

Monomachine, on the other hand, has per-track delay. This can be used as a sound design option for things like tuned delay / karplus strong kind of synthesis. Other per-track effects are sample rate reduction and single-param EQ. All of which can be used for sound design, and can be p-locked. The delay on the Monomachine is seriously fun.

Other effects on Monomachine have to be used as dedicated tracks, sacrificing one of the six voices for effects. Reverb and Chorus are this way. There’s also flanger, compressor, and a few other effects. The Reverb on Monomachine is based on the ‘Gate Box’ reverb from Machinedrum. It’s got a pretty short decay time and is not up to the kind of long/infinite reverbs of the A4 or Digitone. Gate box reverb can be a fun sound design tool, but if you want longer/spacier reverbs you will need to do external effects (which can include running Monomachine through A4 or Digitone).

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#17

Not to mention, the FX on the MnM works as any other sound source. For example, you could take a reverb and pan it separately from its source, LFO that pan around EQ it, SRR it, delay it.

There are a lot of cool things you can do to the FX on the Monomachine.

Definitely one of the top things I miss from the MnM

5 Likes
#18

Interesting, thanks!

#19

I owned a MM for a bit, thought it wasn’t for me, sold it, cried, bought another one a month later. It has its limitations, but I will never again part with it. It’s to much bloody fun.

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#20

Hi Ryan… Sorry to tell you this, but that specific gripe was… well, not actually a problem in the Monomachine. If you press “SHIFT+YES” when selecting a different machine for a specific Track, it only changes the machine, leaving the remaining parameters (envelopes, LFO’s, etc) untouched.

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#21

Whoa! That would have definitely cut my frustration in half

I still would have been a mess of uncertainty, though

1 Like