Audiothingies Micromonsta

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Mine arrived today, barely a week after I ordered it, which is pretty good for France - Australia. Of course, I'm stuck at work so I can't play with it but I'll be back with some impressions later in the week.
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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BONES wrote:I'll be back with some impressions later in the week.
I heard you do a good Sontarian :hihi:

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While you clearly specialise in idiot.
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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BONES wrote:Mine arrived today, barely a week after I ordered it, which is pretty good for France - Australia. Of course, I'm stuck at work so I can't play with it but I'll be back with some impressions later in the week.
wow that is pretty good shipping time!
i got quoted up to 8 weeks for a pedal from melbourne.

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Looking forward to reading any and all thoughts on this. - Scotty

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vurt wrote:wow that is pretty good shipping time!
i got quoted up to 8 weeks for a pedal from melbourne.
Better still, it came with lollies! Whoever packed it put a couple of sweets in there with it. Yum!

I hooked it up last night and did my usual new toy thing - played through the presets, tweaking a few things as I went and resaving them into empty slots. Sound quality is hugely subjective but I'll say right away that I like it more than the Minilogue I used to own. It sounds great and, contrary to what I'd read in a review or two, the filter is quite good, able to impart extra character to even bread and butter type sounds. To me that is far more important than self-oscillation or any of that other krap people carry on about when assessing filters.

What really impressed me was its usability. To be fair, the way it works is very familiar, given that my Ultranova, Pulse 2 and Analog Keys all employ similar systems, but the MicroMonsta is easily better than the latter two. (There is no beating the Ultranova's enormous screen.) For a start, the screen is bigger and much better than the AK or Pulse 2 and the way it works is better, too. e.g. When you start turning a knob, that parameter goes full-screen with a long bar to show where you are in the parameter's range. Very clever. And because you can assign whatever you like to the four knobs you can use without going menu diving, you can set things up to make using each patch much easier than with my other hardware synths. Also, the way it is laid out, with the screen, knobs and buttons one under the other, feels a lot faster to work with than any of them, even the Ultranova. Everything is in the centre of your field of view, you don't have to glance to the left or right to find the next button to press like you do with the others.

I had a quick play with some of the oscillator algorithms but I didn't dig too deep. The hard sync sounds great and is dead simple to dial in perfectly. I'll be using that a lot. Unison works well and the arp is very versatile, judging from the presets.

Someone said MicroMonsta isn't very good at harder, nastier sounds but I found a few and made them even nastier without too much effort. Once I dig into it more, I'm sure that side of it will get more exposure. There are also a few very, very nice bass presets that anyone could use out of the box, as well as some nice synth strings, both classic and more "modern" sounding, plus all the usual stuff you'd expect from a V/A. It's early days but so far I am really impressed with what I've heard and experienced.

If you want some criticisms, I can probably dig up a few. The power switch is tiny and feels like it may not last long. A lot of the presets are a bit samey and don't seem very adventurous. A Rob Lee bank would probably do wonders for their sales. Beyond that, it's well built, easy to use and sounds great. What more do you want?

Day 2 Addendum

Last night I got a bit deeper in and it impresses me more and more. That said, the phase distortion algorithms are bit disappointing, in that they chose three wave combos that do resonance. I'd have preferred some others because you can do resonance with the filter. Similarly, if there is a difference between the two super-saw algorithms, I can't hear it. OTOH, the difference between the two hard sync options is very obvious.

I found a VCA Drive parameter (in the Mixer section) that lets you put some real grit into the sound. The only downside is that there are no later gain stages to get the overall volume down, so if you crank it up, that patch is going to be much louder than the others. A quick twist of the Volume knob keeps it under control, though, and it sounds great.

The single effect is good. You get to choose from several different delays or chorus/flanger and you get plenty of control. It's more than enough to make it all sound very professional when playing along live to what's coming out of the PC.

What really pleased me was just listening to the patches I had saved in my "user bank" (my own designation for preset numbers above 300). As usual, they are mostly of a specific type of super-fat unison lead/pad kind of thing, but where with synths like the Pulse 2 I ended up with a dozen patches that all sounded disappointingly similar, the MicroMonsta has thrown up far more variety. Where I did have two that were a bit similar, a quick change of osc algorithms in one made for something very different but just as usable. That's what's exciting me about MicroMonsta - the ease with which any preset can be twisted to do my bidding. I definitely believe the presets don't really do it justice, you have to start making your own sounds to really appreciate how good it is.
Last edited by BONES on Wed Jul 18, 2018 1:48 am, edited 3 times in total.
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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A lot more polyphony, thats for sure.

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BONES wrote:
vurt wrote:wow that is pretty good shipping time!
i got quoted up to 8 weeks for a pedal from melbourne.
Better still, it came with lollies! Whoever packed it put a couple of sweets in there with it. Yum!

I hooked it up last night and did my usual new toy thing - played through the presets, tweaking a few things as I went and resaving them into empty slots. Sound quality is hugely subjective but I'll say right away that I like it more than the Minilogue I used to own. It sounds great and, contrary to what I'd read in a review or two, the filter is quite good, able to impart extra character to even bread and butter type sounds. To me that is far more important than self-oscillation or any of that other krap people carry on about when assessing filters.

What really impressed me was its usability. To be fair, the way it works is very familiar, given that my Ultranova, Pulse 2 and Analog Keys all employ similar systems, but the MicroMonsta is easily better than the latter two. (There is no beating the Ultranova's enormous screen.) For a start, the screen is bigger and much better than the AK or Pulse 2 and the way it works is better, too. e.g. When you start turning a knob, that parameter goes full-screen with a long bar to show where you are in the parameter's range. Very clever. And because you can assign whatever you like to the four knobs you can use without going menu diving, you can set things up to make using each patch much easier than with my other hardware synths. Also, the way it is laid out, with the screen, knobs and buttons one under the other, feels a lot faster to work with than any of them, even the Ultranova. Everything is in the centre of your field of view, you don't have to glance to the left or right to find the next button to press like you do with the others.

I had a quick play with some of the oscillator algorithms but I didn't dig too deep. The hard sync sounds great and is dead simple to dial in perfectly. I'll be using that a lot. Unison works well and the arp is very versatile, judging from the presets.

Someone said MicroMonsta isn't very good at harder, nastier sounds but I found a few and made them even nastier without too much effort. Once I dig into it more, I'm sure that side of it will get more exposure. There are also a few very, very nice bass presets that anyone could use out of the box, as well as some nice synth strings, both classic and more "modern" sounding, plus all the usual stuff you'd expect from a V/A. It's early days but so far I am really impressed with what I've heard and experienced.

If you want some criticisms, I can probably dig up a few. The power switch is tiny and feels like it may not last long. A lot of the presets are a bit samey and don't seem very adventurous. A Rob Lee bank would probably do wonders for their sales. Beyond that, it's well built, easy to use and sounds great. What more do you want?
That little review sounds great BONES.. didn't seem to take long for delivery to you either, I'm looking forward to ordering mine in August. Will be able to control the Micromonsta via my Digitakt or Digitone.

Cheers

Rob

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Thank you for the feedback, Bones.
And because you can assign whatever you like to the four knobs you can use without going menu diving, you can set things up to make using each patch much easier than with my other hardware synths.
Unless I am mistaken, this is something we can do with the A4, isn't it ?

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AnX wrote:A lot more polyphony, thats for sure.
Two units can be poly-chained for 16 voices :)

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Yeah, for twice the price :roll:

32 is the minimum really.

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AnX wrote:Yeah, for twice the price :roll:

32 is the minimum really.
Part of the reason i like soft synths. :P

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sinkmusic wrote:
And because you can assign whatever you like to the four knobs you can use without going menu diving, you can set things up to make using each patch much easier than with my other hardware synths.
Unless I am mistaken, this is something we can do with the A4, isn't it ?
Yeah and the Ultranova has a long row of dedicated knobs for it but it's a lot more obvious in those things. This is a bit more of a surprise package and the much bigger screen makes it a lot less confusing than the AK, too. There are also a few things you can set up there that a lot of other synths have a dedicated button for, like ARP on/off. interestingly,I've never bothered to set any of that stuff up on either the Ultranova or the AK but I've already assigned parameters a few times on the MicroMonsta. So I suppose it's handier, rather than better.
AnX wrote:32 is the minimum really.
Why? Sales of the Minilogue would tend to indicate plenty of people find four sufficient. This thing has SuperSaw, so you can get those mad, crazy stacked oscillator sounds going without having to sacrifice polyphony for unison, so eight voices is plenty. In fact, I think eight is the sweet spot, as it lets you do pretty much whatever you need to without having to worry about running out of voices. e.g. Big, lush chords or fat unison with release that doesn't cut off when you play the next note/chord.

I get why you'd want tons of polyphony if you only had one synth but when you can have as many synths as you like, and at these prices you can pretty much have exactly that, it is completely irrelevant. Seriously, for a couple of grand you can have a Rick Wakeman-like bank of synths at your disposal these days.

That said, if we get to tour overseas again, I reckon the Micromonsta is the only hardware synth I'll take with me, along with a MIDI controller to play it (of course). It's nice to have the AK and Ultranova to play with at home but they are a PITA when you have to fly to a gig.
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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chk071 wrote:
AnX wrote:Yeah, for twice the price :roll:

32 is the minimum really.
Part of the reason i like soft synths. :P
Thats all it is, which is why 8 is very poor.

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That makes no sense. I only need as much polyphony as I need. I couldn't possibly put a number on it, although "1" would probably work as often as not. I think the Ultranova is 18 voices but I honestly don't know why I would ever need that many as it's not multi-timbral. Of course there are plenty of softsynths with less voices than the MicroMonsta - The Legend only has four and Vacuum Pro maxes out at six. I restricted most of my SE synths to four, too, back in a time when CPU cycles were a lot more precious than they are now. Even DUNE only does 16. And if you have a low powered computer, you may not even be able to use all those available. e.g. Good luck getting 32 voices going simultaneously in Diva on a lot of the good patches without a very expensive machine.
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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