the watmm GAS thread

[xox]

 

Also frankly it is very small and cute and I love the idea of throwing it in my bag and sneaking off for a 15 minute noise jam at the drop of a hat.

 

this definitely

[auxien]

 

Also frankly it is very small and cute and I love the idea of throwing it in my bag and sneaking off for a 15 minute noise jam at the drop of a hat.

 

this definitely

 

lol what a weird thing to do

 

*hat drops*

 

I'm going to sneak away with my bag! Don't look in it!

 

*noise jams for 15 minutes*

 

hehehe

[sweepstakes]

Hey the POs are great for the bus!

[auxien]

:)

[sweepstakes]

Also are you seriously calling someone a weirdo on an IDM forum? lol

[DevilDust]

I am trying to avoid buying anything else at the moment, I have to sell off a few bits (Yamaha CS6x & CS10, Waldorf Blofeld Keys, Arturia Minibrute) before I can justify another splurge. Last purchase was a minty Roland SH101 and Roland Juno 60 at bargain price, I did have to drive a 7hr round trip but it was more than worth it. I think if anything, the next purchase will have to be another keyboard rack to clear some floorspace (moving the sofa upstairs to the bedroom out of the way firstly).
There's just so much nice stuff out there, seriously tempted on grabbing one or two of the Roland SE-02's and might even have a nose at the Behringer Model D as it's not too hefty a price tag. I did mess about on the Deepmind12 and MatrixBrute a couple of weeks back and those are both nice, but the Matrixbrute is a beast in sound/size and price....the deepmind not so bad.

[xox]

Also are you seriously calling someone a weirdo on an IDM forum? lol

 

yeahes, that's a weird thing to do

[YangYing]

I guess with the bit ranger in particular it seems to be capable of making really nice melodies but the way you get at them is weird enough that I'm not going to figure it out quickly and get bored. Of course there's other ways to get similar kinds of environments I already have access to but they aren't battery powered.

 

Also frankly it is very small and cute and I love the idea of throwing it in my bag and sneaking off for a 15 minute noise jam at the drop of a hat.

all of your arguments are basically the same reason I'm thinking of getting a softpop just after buying an erebus 3 days ago...

 

wat doo wat doo dee doo

[xox]

ok. me imagining the impracticals and what i'd do with them.... 100% monomachine, 1 bar loop jam (what can i say, im lazy;) but this is just a presentation anyway

 

p.s. it's night so i couldn't 'master' it properly

 

https://soundcloud.com/notein/ksgfejedheob

Edited July 20, 2017 by xox

[sweepstakes]

 

 

 

I guess with the bit ranger in particular it seems to be capable of making really nice melodies but the way you get at them is weird enough that I'm not going to figure it out quickly and get bored. Of course there's other ways to get similar kinds of environments I already have access to but they aren't battery powered.

 

Also frankly it is very small and cute and I love the idea of throwing it in my bag and sneaking off for a 15 minute noise jam at the drop of a hat.

all of your arguments are basically the same reason I'm thinking of getting a softpop

Oh I want one of those too lol. I'm not really in a hurry for that one though as I'm kind of thinking of it as a nice little filtering utility box. I've wanted the ms20 since it came out for similar reasons and to have something that's cheaper, battery powered, and uses v/oct like my microbrute, is that much better.

 

Plus I am a sucker for subtly evolving arpeggios and LFSRs, and what's more elegant than pulse waves?

[modey]

if you sell your monomachines, may i ask, what would you buy with that money?

 

 

I'm not sure really. I'd be tempted to sell my Circuit (trying to sell that now actually) and perhaps also my Reface DX (only using it as a controller), which could potentially leave me with $2100AU to play with. I dunno what I'd buy, it's a tough one. I could go for a Digitakt and try to track down a Nord Rack 2x or 3, so the plockable program changes could be like/better than Monomachine plocks.. Or a Squarp Pyramid as the sequencer. Totally surplus to my needs though, but then again I can say that about all of my hardware.

 

I just feel like the monomachine is kind of a jack of all trades and it's rare that I do anything with it that excites me. But you're right, it does a lot. And I think I already mentioned that is more of a shortcoming of me than the machine.

I think what happens with me is that I try to do too much with it, but not actually put the effort in to get things polished. I can't seem to adopt the same level of strict minimalism as with for example, my nanoloop 2 tracks. I think I need to just get used to it a bit more, either that or just use it in poly mode and sequence the Nord Lead using the MIDI tracks. But then the sequencer is very limited compared to later Elektron machines, augh..

 

Having said all that, I'm having another dual monomachine sound design session with a friend tomorrow so maybe I can dig deep into using it properly.. and perhaps the monitors I bought last week will help with getting things sounding right..

[modey]

ok. me imagining the impracticals and what i'd do with them.... 100% monomachine, 1 bar loop jam (what can i say, im lazy;) but this is just a presentation anyway

 

p.s. it's night so i couldn't 'master' it properly

 

https://soundcloud.com/notein/ksgfejedheob

fuck that sounds awesome

[auxien]

Also are you seriously calling someone a weirdo on an IDM forum? lol

not seriously no lol we're all weirdos obv

[sweepstakes]

 

I like the bit ranger........................... It is fairly impractical (if by practical you mean able to do the standard synth tasks that have hardly changed since 1987) but how prone it is to happy accidents seems like a great feature to me.

 

 happy accidents is something that i always liked but i can found them almost anywhere. the mnm is full of them imo. im making the track right now, 5 min working, 5 min watmm :) and almost everything i made so far on this track is by h.a.'

cause of h.a.' sometimes i can feel a machine or sw as if they're alive... sort of like a 2-way communication

 

https://youtu.be/zG7n-oRlCps?t=20m29s

 

regarding impracticality, yes, kind of like that too cause it's fun and at the end i can make a track with piece of paper and pair of scissors, i mean, nothing's THAT impractical. but at the end i want to make music, or some sort of organized noize/sound ;) 

Great video. Interesting that he seems to be making a point almost the opposite to what you said earlier - that your choice of tools greatly determines what your product will be like. I wholeheartedly agree, not as an excuse for GAS (which he addresses) but because like he said, electronic music is a conversation with the tools. I also appreciate what he said about irrational tool choice being fine because music itself is irrational :)

 

I indulged myself yesterday, listing off a bunch of tools that I already know and love, and what I love about them. That was fun :) I was feeling too lazy to actually do anything with them, though, go figure.

 

ok. me imagining the impracticals and what i'd do with them.... 100% monomachine, 1 bar loop jam (what can i say, im lazy;) but this is just a presentation anyway

 

p.s. it's night so i couldn't 'master' it properly

 

https://soundcloud.com/notein/ksgfejedheob

Very cool, care to share any of your process or machine selection? You managed to make the filters sound physical in a way I've struggled with on the MnM. Those noises 2/3 way through are great, make the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Reminds me of that dog monster from the first Half Life... what the hell did you do there??

 

 

I just feel like the monomachine is kind of a jack of all trades and it's rare that I do anything with it that excites me. But you're right, it does a lot. And I think I already mentioned that is more of a shortcoming of me than the machine.

I think what happens with me is that I try to do too much with it, but not actually put the effort in to get things polished. I can't seem to adopt the same level of strict minimalism as with for example, my nanoloop 2 tracks.

I'm not sure if you're talking about the same kind of rut I get into, where I try to assign a noise-making machine to each of the 6 tracks and don't use any effects or input machines, and they all end up sounding weak.

 

On the other hand, one of the MnM tracks I was most proud of from WB last year was this, where I stacked several fx machines to create a rhythmic drone and melody: http://weeklybeats.com/#/license/music/wet-beale-sky

This is the kind of stuff that excites me on the Monomachine, when these textural, rhythmic, or even melodic patterns emerge from the interactions between all the parameters and machines. Also the times when it's able to sound weirdly physical. I seem to have a hard time finding those sweet spots but I'm probably just out of practice.

 

Also are you seriously calling someone a weirdo on an IDM forum? lol

not seriously no lol we're all weirdos obv

lol OK just wanted to put it in perspective and yes it is possible that I'm even a weirdo among weirdos. 

[modey]

 

I'm not sure if you're talking about the same kind of rut I get into, where I try to assign a noise-making machine to each of the 6 tracks and don't use any effects or input machines, and they all end up sounding weak.

 

On the other hand, one of the MnM tracks I was most proud of from WB last year was this, where I stacked several fx machines to create a rhythmic drone and melody: http://weeklybeats.com/#/license/music/wet-beale-sky

This is the kind of stuff that excites me on the Monomachine, when these textural, rhythmic, or even melodic patterns emerge from the interactions between all the parameters and machines. Also the times when it's able to sound weirdly physical. I seem to have a hard time finding those sweet spots but I'm probably just out of practice.

yeah pretty much. The best stuff I've done with it has been where I've run some machines out through external effects, like this KP3+ glitchfuck track:

also contains some Virtualizer Pro reverb

 

It still sounds pretty weird and lo-fi though, which may be the KP3 but also may be my lack of sound design ability lol

 

I'm liking the sounds in that weeklybeats track, very crunchy/physical/natural sounding. I should get into using the internal effects routing more. I did a track once using one big chain of routing that turned the original, somewhat bland sounding acid line, into some weird ambient drone; I was just fucking around but it ended up being one of the most interesting ambient tracks I've made lol:

https://enderecords.bandcamp.com/track/pselodux-cell

 

 

edit: btw just ordered a 0-coast :P

Edited July 21, 2017 by modey

[sweepstakes]

yeah pretty much. The best stuff I've done with it has been where I've run some machines out through external effects, like this KP3+ glitchfuck track:

also contains some Virtualizer Pro reverb

 

It still sounds pretty weird and lo-fi though, which may be the KP3 but also may be my lack of sound design ability lol

 

I'm liking the sounds in that weeklybeats track, very crunchy/physical/natural sounding. I should get into using the internal effects routing more. I did a track once using one big chain of routing that turned the original, somewhat bland sounding acid line, into some weird ambient drone; I was just fucking around but it ended up being one of the most interesting ambient tracks I've made lol:

https://enderecords.bandcamp.com/track/pselodux-cell

 

 

edit: btw just ordered a 0-coast :P

Doesn't sound particularly lo-fi to me, I guess you mean where it gets kinda saturated about 1/3 of the way through? Digging the groove and the textures here. I always love that chorus-soaked chord sound you get out of the ensemble machines too, I think that's one of those sounds unique to the MnM that works really well. That FM bass is nice too, and I like the slight detuning between the two.

 

I think whatever you're doing with the KP is giving the MnM a nice edge to it. That reverb sounds pretty damn good too!

 

Shit you are making me want to dust mine off :) I think it's been a couple weeks now since I fired it up.

[sweepstakes]

That ambient acid thing is pretty crazy... I guess it just goes to show you that the MnM rewards going deeper.

 

Enjoy the 0-coast, that's definitely on my lust list :)

[auxien]

^That Velefex track is fucking good dude. I'd say it could use some good editing but it's a strong groove/melody combo. Just the right amount of lo-fi imo.

 

Also fuck you for getting a 0-coast before me, I've been wanting one since they were out. Will be very curious to hear how much fun you have with it 

[psn]

But then the sequencer is very limited compared to later Elektron machines, augh..

No it isn't. Unlike the the analog machines it has a proper song mode with BPM per line, pattern start point and pattern length per line. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with that!

 

And the Digitakt doesn't even have a song mode...

[modey]

thanks guys!

 

Also fuck you for getting a 0-coast before me, I've been wanting one since they were out. Will be very curious to hear how much fun you have with it 

I'll make some videos :D

I'm planning to use it with the volca kick for some super minimalist tech stuff, but it'd be great with the OT as well.. and it'll be an opportunity to get the kastle going again.

 

 

But then the sequencer is very limited compared to later Elektron machines, augh..

No it isn't. Unlike the the analog machines it has a proper song mode with BPM per line, pattern start point and pattern length per line. There's a lot of cool stuff you can do with that!

And the Digitakt doesn't even have a song mode...

 

True, but I don't use song mode at all. I should give it a try sometime, but I was mostly talking about pattern lengths/speeds being locked to all tracks in a pattern. I can probably get away with sequencing some monomachine tracks from the OT if I want to get some polyrhythm/polymeter stuff happening.

[digit]

ok. me imagining the impracticals and what i'd do with them.... 100% monomachine, 1 bar loop jam (what can i say, im lazy;) but this is just a presentation anyway

 

p.s. it's night so i couldn't 'master' it properly

 

https://soundcloud.com/notein/ksgfejedheob

 

 

this is really good!

 

for those getting bored with the monomachine, nothing wrong with putting it on the shelf for a few months. i've done that before. then come back to it with fresh ears & ideas or just a different headspace.

 

sometimes it helps to use it in a way you're not used to. i spent a couple of months just using it in poly mode without the sequencer running. no parameter locks. just making complex drones using one machine at a time playing chords. i'd spend hours tweaking each sound. great way to learn all of the machines and build up a little library of patches to use later.

 

in the end it's not a good idea to rely too heavily on any one piece of kit in my opinion. you might end up getting bored, burnt out, or just disappointed with the kit in question. better to rotate things around a bit and keep it fresh.

[Guest Chesney]

I don't use the MnM for full tracks (apart for the comp obv) I try and use it to add stuff to already developing ideas that way you approach it different every time you turn it on. It's easy to get in a rut with an Elektron box. You can easily overdo a pattern to the point you can't add any more externally and then you're stuck in the loop unable to break out and turn it into a track without doing a jam track with basic mutes and tweaking.

 

Also to the dude way above,WHY SELL THE CS10? Such a great sounding synth, way nicer than the SH101. Sell the overated Rolands if anything ;)

[sweepstakes]

for those getting bored with the monomachine, nothing wrong with putting it on the shelf for a few months. i've done that before. then come back to it with fresh ears & ideas or just a different headspace.

 

sometimes it helps to use it in a way you're not used to. i spent a couple of months just using it in poly mode without the sequencer running. no parameter locks. just making complex drones using one machine at a time playing chords. i'd spend hours tweaking each sound. great way to learn all of the machines and build up a little library of patches to use later.

 

in the end it's not a good idea to rely too heavily on any one piece of kit in my opinion. you might end up getting bored, burnt out, or just disappointed with the kit in question. better to rotate things around a bit and keep it fresh.

Yeah, I agree with all the above. I don't think I would sell mine but I have shelved it for a while and I think it's good to do so. I think I did get bored and burnt out with it last year when I was trying to make a track using only the MnM almost every week for the first half of the year. I always liked the idea of an all-in-one hardware box and the MnM seemed like the ultimate, right up to that point. The last track I did, I was using the OT to sequence the MnM across separate tracks, but I think using an Elektron to sequence another Elektron is kind of silly, wasn't really different enough to be interesting. Just using it as a polysynth sounds nice. 

 

I don't use the MnM for full tracks (apart for the comp obv) I try and use it to add stuff to already developing ideas that way you approach it different every time you turn it on. It's easy to get in a rut with an Elektron box. You can easily overdo a pattern to the point you can't add any more externally and then you're stuck in the loop unable to break out and turn it into a track without doing a jam track with basic mutes and tweaking.

Good idea and I completely agree about the Elektron ruts. This is exactly where I find myself when I start with one of them. Probably more productive to treat them like very fancy Electribes than like a DAW (or MPC) replacement.

[xox]

fuck that sounds awesome

 

this is really good!

 

Very cool, care to share any of your process or machine selection? You managed to make the filters sound physical in a way I've struggled with on the MnM. Those noises 2/3 way through are great, make the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Reminds me of that dog monster from the first Half Life... what the hell did you do there??

 

thnx for the kind words, guyz!

 

track 1: GND>SIN

- that's the sound that's like a sweep acidy single note, goes from the start, later changes to single note low-end rumble and at 05:10 min returns back to the original state but with a longer decay

 

track 2: SWAVE>SAW

- the main ritmic puls, the quazi-stereo stuttery kick and the bass puls; same track, p-locked

 

track 3: SWAVAE>PULS

- main lead that changes octaves/phases

 

track 4: GND>NOIS

- that's the noise that enters at 2/3 of the way. dec all the way up, q's of the hp and the lp filter set at 1 o'clock, wdth at 11, bosf and wofs at 9, a bit of srr. lfo 1 on srr, lfo 2 on filter base, lfo 3 on filter wdth. start playing with that. if you'd needed i can write everything down, in numbers

 

track 5: DPRO>WAVE

- bass melody loop that goes from the start

 

track 6: FM>STAT

- arpeggiated melody that enters briefly at 4.10 and 6:something

 

lots of p-locking and real-time manipulations. it was late last night so i couldn't listen to it properly but now i hear that the upper bass region is 3-4 db too loud, in my room anyway...

 

regarding lifting the hair on the back of you neck. that must be one of the best compliments i've received  so far.  ...anyway, that's the power of music! same thing happened to me while working on the track i could barely turn the knobs. one thing we can be sure about; if we felt it, someone else will feel it too. lately i was looking to buy a distortion-fuzz-filter pedal or a sample/bit crusher pedal, something wild, so with that noise i wanted to try if i can make mnm screeeeaaam

 

i think that i'm in peace with my monomachine (md too). what i really need are effects, pedals or something that i can process all of those lovely separate outs. i want more sreaming so, i'll probably buy the greiger counter

Edited July 21, 2017 by xox

[Guest Chesney]

I have had my finger over the button for a geiger counter for a long time. I really want a stereo version and it's a little expensive to buy 2.