Audiothingies Micromonsta

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Just wondering if anyone has one of these? I'm quite liking what I'm seeing and hearing here. What's your opinions on it?

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Some sounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... Cy8xMTANs8

The guy uses 2 of them in this video, pretty impressive bit of gear IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... KjWn7_qh08

Here it's shown with another product https://www.audiothingies.com/product/doubledrummer/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP4ynw2AbWU

Other vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-veWdNm-Dp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLg9W0c2IFk

I only came across this whilst looking for something to hook up to Digitakt:

https://novom.ru/en/watch/JTnbtIK9lTg

Cheers

Rob

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I don't own one, but everybody i saw on forum owning one loved it a lot.
I think that some KVR membres have one, so they might chime in :)

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I have one and it is great! :tu: Probably best 300€ anyone can spend IMO.

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EvilDragon wrote:I have one and it is great! :tu: Probably best 300€ anyone can spend IMO.
Thanks lads at this price I can't really go wrong then, just gonna hook it up to Digitakt I think for a nice little mobile rig.. I'm tempted to buy 2 of them lol

Rob

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I have one. It's nice. No time for music so it's collecting dust.

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Hello Mr. EvilDragon... can you give a bit more insight into your appreciation of this little beast? What sets it apart?

rob_lee wrote:
EvilDragon wrote:I have one and it is great! :tu: Probably best 300€ anyone can spend IMO.
Thanks lads at this price I can't really go wrong then, just gonna hook it up to Digitakt I think for a nice little mobile rig.. I'm tempted to buy 2 of them lol

Rob

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The more I hear this synth the more I want one.. in fact I want 2 of them at these prices :D :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Yeah, I'm thinking I need one now, too. It would go perfectly with my Seaboard Rise 25 now that it supports MPE.

I have been reading through the manual - read it here. It seems to me that the demos barely scratch the surface of what this thing can do. e.g. Two of the Oscillator Algorithms (you choose an algorithm for each osc, not just a waveform) are dual-osc set-ups for instant Hard Sync (one with a saw modulator, the other with square). All you need to do is modulate the SHAPE parameter. That's genius! It also has two different Supersaw algorithms (which they say are free of aliasing) and three different Phase Distortion algorithms (that's what's sold it to me) and that's before you get to the wavetables! They've even hard-wired specific modulation sources to each osc - LFO 1 for Osc 1 and Env 3 for Osc 2 - so that you don't have to fiddle with the mod matrix for simple things. On paper, at least, it's really impressive.

Just to put the icing on the cake, the price seems to have dropped to 252.50 Euros (10 more if you want a PSU).

EDIT: I resisted the urge for fully an hour, then bought one. Even with postage to Australia it's only about two-thirds the price of a Minilogue, including PSU and PayPal's $23 cut, which is just ridiculous for what it's got to offer. Now I just have to sit around for a couple of weeks and wait for it to arrive.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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Seems like you are paying for the hardware. What does it offer that a software synth doesnt, apart from PITA menu diving?

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BONES wrote:Yeah, I'm thinking I need one now, too. It would go perfectly with my Seaboard Rise 25 now that it supports MPE.

I have been reading through the manual - read it here. It seems to me that the demos barely scratch the surface of what this thing can do. e.g. Two of the Oscillator Algorithms (you choose an algorithm for each osc, not just a waveform) are dual-osc set-ups for instant Hard Sync (one with a saw modulator, the other with square). All you need to do is modulate the SHAPE parameter. That's genius! It also has two different Supersaw algorithms (which they say are free of aliasing) and three different Phase Distortion algorithms (that's what's sold it to me) and that's before you get to the wavetables! They've even hard-wired specific modulation sources to each osc - LFO 1 for Osc 1 and Env 3 for Osc 2 - so that you don't have to fiddle with the mod matrix for simple things. On paper, at least, it's really impressive.

Just to put the icing on the cake, the price seems to have dropped to 252.50 Euros (10 more if you want a PSU).

EDIT: I resisted the urge for fully an hour, then bought one. Even with postage to Australia it's only about two-thirds the price of a Minilogue, including PSU and PayPal's $23 cut, which is just ridiculous for what it's got to offer. Now I just have to sit around for a couple of weeks and wait for it to arrive.
I'll order mine next month as I just forked out nearly £600 last night (whilst pissed) :lol: on the Digitone to partner my Digitakt but this little thing at that price is a no brainer for me going off the videos and your comment there BONES :tu:

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AnX wrote:Seems like you are paying for the hardware. What does it offer that a software synth doesnt, apart from PITA menu diving?
Of course you're paying for the hardware. What it offers is a level of immediacy that you don't really get from software. I won't have to turn my computer on to use it, for example, and it will be easy to go around to my bandmate's place with just that to plug into his mixer (because my MiniLab controller lives at his place).

The main benefit, though, will be MPE support. As my host doesn't support MPE, it will allow me to utilise all the MPE functions of my Seaboard Rise without having to stuff around running the standalone Equator synth and trying to make that work alongside everything else.

On stage it means I can run it independent of my laptop so that I can be making noise with it between songs while I load the next thing on the computer.

Because it is so small, it will fit into my existing, overhead locker sized road case (Pelican camera case), alongside the Rocket, my USB audio I/O, my Pulse 2 and my KeyStep controller (I have a lot of controllers). So next time we perform overseas, all my gear for the show will be part of my carry-on luggage, yet I'll have three hardware synths with me. To me that's just ridiculous because the main limitation of hardware has traditionally been size - in the 1980s and 90s I had a van to get all my stuff around to gigs. Now I have a tiny sports car and everything fits easily.

That's four practical reasons that this hardware has value to me but, ultimately, it just looks like it will be a lot more fun to play with than most softsynths. I will only ever use software when I am producing for an album but I don't enjoy that process. For me, softsynths are just tools where hardware synths are a lot more like toys. This synth, in particular, reminds me a lot of my favourite toy, the Waldorf Rocket, (only on steroids) so I have high hopes that it will be enormous fun (in a way the Pulse 2 I hoped would be even better than the Rocket but isn't). Also, hardware is one way we differentiate our live sound from our recorded sound. For me that's an important part of what NOVAkILL is because I hate going to see a band whose live sound just uses the album tracks with the vocal switched off as their backing tracks (and there are plenty of those bands around).

To look at it from a different perspective - how much did you pay for the computer you use to make music? I paid $250 for mine, which comes with some limitations on processing power, memory and storage. Instead of spending more money on a better computer, I'd rather spend that extra on hardware instruments to take some of the strain off the PC I have.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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There is barely any menu diving on Micromonsta. Everything is available on the buttons which flip pages, or occasionally Shift+button press. There is no third or further level menu diving on it. It is much faster to get around than, for example, Blofeld, which has more complicated menus.


As for what sets it apart is - it simply sounds great! I can't make it sound bad, really. It's in permanent sweet spot, this synth. Reminds me of Yamaha AN1x in that regard (but of course, has a different character). One thing to note - this synth is not for gnarly nasty sounds (unless you do the legwork yourself and insert some nastiness via user wavetables, but the filter is going to smooth it out at least somewhat). The filter is extremely sweet and smooth and doesn't screech up when you bump the resonance. It's very Rolandish in that regard. For 300€, it's a really great little box.

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Thanks - I appreciate the detailed feedback.

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Audiothingies service seems very good, too. I got my tracking number yesterday, at what would have been Monday morning in France. And it seems they've paid for express delivery, too.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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EvilDragon wrote:One thing to note - this synth is not for gnarly nasty sounds (unless you do the legwork yourself and insert some nastiness via user wavetables, but the filter is going to smooth it out at least somewhat).
Lucky for me, then, that the channel I plan on plugging it into on our AG06 mixer is the one with the distortion effect built in.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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