My MonoMachine review...

Okay, after having this thing for a few days, I think I have a fairly good handle on it. Obviously, there are many “official” reviews available on the Intertubes, from SOS, FM, CM, and even the American magazines if you want to go that route. (Personally, I’d skip ’em, like I have been for the past decade.) Since that is the case, and most of these reviews go in to great detail on the various features of the MonoMachine, I’ll just jot down a few quick impressions and we can move along. In no particular order:

1. If there’s an opposite to “phatt,” when using that tragic term to define some hazy sort of audio quality, then the MonoMachine is it. Can I propose “thynn” as a viable alternative? This box is not “phatt,” if that means “warm, analog-sounding juicy goodness.” It is very digital sounding. This is most definitely not a bad thing. But if you were gonna buy this to be your main Bass Box, you’re gonna be making some thin-ass music down the road.

2. So, assuming you’re hip to the little bleeps, boops, and bloinks that the MM is good at, the provided engines are quite capable, and I really appreciate the fact that they can make a pretty good synth voice in five different flavors with just 8 parameters to control it. I haven’t found a use (nor will I, most likely) for the voice thing, which I find somewhat silly. But the others are nice. Superwave is coolest, I think, but I’m warming to the FM.

3. It has the same filter as the MachineDrum. I had a hard time warming to this filter topology in the MD, and I’m having the same hard time here. The “BASE” knob, which sort of controls the center frequency, isn’t logarithmic, but rather linear. This means that the Good Part is a very narrow band of about 2/5th of the knob’s total travel. I like the general idea of their filter, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Quite frankly, I would prefer a normal MMF. But, that said, the filter is part and parcel to the MM’s unique sound, and is appropriate to the application at hand, other than the point I mentioned with the scaling, which is a silly oversight IMO, as these guys are on their DSP game otherwise.

I’ve been an Elektron customer since there was an Elektron. I bought one of the very first SIDstations, and with this latest acquisition I’ve now owned every product they’ve made. I’m quite comfortable with the way they do things, and once you realize that they don’t really follow industry norms for the way their kit works, and you get in to their vibe a bit, you’re gonna be well-served by all their products. If you want something that sounds like a MiniMoog or a 909, you’re shit outta luck. The MM and MD sound like, well, an MM and an MD. I’m fairly happy with the purchase, but it will take a while to fit it in to what I do, just like the MD (which sat unused for maybe 6 months before I really got in to it.)