Any Elektron Monomachine users here?

[dubathonic]

I am pretty much an Elektron head, and when I decided to get a synth, it was a hard choice between the Virus Snow and the Monomachine. I borrowed a Mono for a few months before deciding, and in contrast with the Snow the Mono proved a tough instrument to love at the outset ... Elektron presets are notoriously bad at demonstrating what their instruments can do. I found that while the Mono has many sound design possibilities, it took a lot of effort to wrap my head around them. So I went for the Virus.

Sadly, I haven't gotten nearly as much use out of the Snow as I'd hoped, mostly because I travel a lot and I find it easier to compose by whipping out a single piece of self-contained hardware that has an integrated sequencer. And Elektron's built-in sequencers are quite flexible and inspiring. In fact I'd say that's one of the best reasons to go for an Elektron device: the sounds can be phenomenal, but they require digging, and good results are tightly dependent on complex sequencer interactions.

If I were more of a DAW kind of guy, I'd probably be giving the Snow more attention. If I could tweak and sequence the Snow with an iOS app, I would *definitely* enjoy it more. But these are my personal issues. If you're a happy Virus user, I doubt the Mono would give you much you don't possess already in terms of broad synth power.

Its sequencers, on the other hand, will likely blow you away. Integrating Elektron devices with DAWs can definitely be done, but that's not the direction the company is focusing on -- they're more about getting away from the computer than wrapped up in it.

If you're curious about what the Monomachine can do, I highly recommend searching for Cutoph on Soundcloud (he has several pages), plus check out this: http://soundcloud.com/lemnic/mnm-dem...-bank-from-lem

[MBTC]

Originally Posted by namnibor

Would Virus Control 'play nice' with other hardware like Monomachine and other midi synths at same time?
This post is prime example of how electron monomachine has facilitated looking creatively 'outside the box'.

My personal experience with a Virus Ti2 desktop was several years ago and with a specific DAW (FLStudio on PC at that time). I returned it within my 30 day window because:

1. I found the Virus Control too latency prone, unreliable and generally wonky when used over USB (the way I wanted to use it), and it would have been so disruptive to my existing workflow compared to soft-synths
2. I found the overall sound to be competitive with but not substantially better than higher-end software synths
3. I found the overall power of the Ti2 to be disappointing given the price tag, as one of my primary reasons for purchasing it was to remove some load on my CPU due to heavy pads and the like. This determination was based on experimenting with the presets only, I never did try third party sounds, and I have very few synths (soft or hard) where I was happy with presets.

However, some things like #3 might have been a side effect of lack of experience with it, and might have changed over time. #2 was judging how it sounded, overall via USB. In theory if all of that wasn't configured optimally, I might not have been hearing the Virus at its best, but it was how I planned to use it at the time.

In short, my recommendation would be to be thankful if you get VC working well with the DAW. I would not expect VC to work well with other hardware, because I doubt Access tests VC beyond a few officially supported hosts.

That is one of my reasons for moving to Cubase, supposedly it is the DAW that the Virus works best with based on feedback from others here, and I am seriously considering giving Virus another chance in one form or another (I've been dabbling with eBay auctions but have not yet had great luck there). In addition to the Virus, I also like the fast that the VST standard is defined by Steinberg (also inventors of the ASIO driver) and therefore VST format plugins tend to be very well tested inside of Cubase (see also my thread called DAW Discussions where I've been discussing my recent DAW thoughts).

I do not know how the success rate with VC and Reaper is but I would definitely research that if you have fixed on Reaper as your DAW of choice. Some folks have been reporting good luck with Ableton Live on Mac as well.

[namnibor]

Originally Posted by dubathonic

I am pretty much an Elektron head, and when I decided to get a synth, it was a hard choice between the Virus Snow and the Monomachine. I borrowed a Mono for a few months before deciding, and in contrast with the Snow the Mono proved a tough instrument to love at the outset ... Elektron presets are notoriously bad at demonstrating what their instruments can do. I found that while the Mono has many sound design possibilities, it took a lot of effort to wrap my head around them. So I went for the Virus.

Sadly, I haven't gotten nearly as much use out of the Snow as I'd hoped, mostly because I travel a lot and I find it easier to compose by whipping out a single piece of self-contained hardware that has an integrated sequencer. And Elektron's built-in sequencers are quite flexible and inspiring. In fact I'd say that's one of the best reasons to go for an Elektron device: the sounds can be phenomenal, but they require digging, and good results are tightly dependent on complex sequencer interactions.

If I were more of a DAW kind of guy, I'd probably be giving the Snow more attention. If I could tweak and sequence the Snow with an iOS app, I would *definitely* enjoy it more. But these are my personal issues. If you're a happy Virus user, I doubt the Mono would give you much you don't possess already in terms of broad synth power.

Its sequencers, on the other hand, will likely blow you away. Integrating Elektron devices with DAWs can definitely be done, but that's not the direction the company is focusing on -- they're more about getting away from the computer than wrapped up in it.

If you're curious about what the Monomachine can do, I highly recommend searching for Cutoph on Soundcloud (he has several pages), plus check out this: http://soundcloud.com/lemnic/mnm-dem...-bank-from-lem

Thanks and thank you for the shared link to music. I will be using a DAW mainly for recording audio as I learn more on utilization of midi automation. However, you are correct in that the Monomachine is quite deep and has a different work flow but as you said, those sequencers (external midi and internal) coupled with Parameter Locks, seems to be a nice match on paper with my Virus KC or KB. I provided examples in earlier posts where the Virus is used integrated with Monomachine. I got such a great deal on Monomachine MK1 that I am sure would make a small profit if I decided to sell it in future.
No question on fact Virus synth engine is deeper and more immediately tweakable to get great sounds BUT in my limited experimenting with Monomachine, doing some deep diving, can also get great sounds but as you stated correctly, the extremely versatile and utilitarian sequencers on Elektron are their strong point and notwithstanding, their superb customer service and constant updates. Also, all OS updates to newer Monomachine also applicable to my first version and the user manual is same way--very smart.