How Do You Use A Mono Synth?

[cryophonik]

Mono synths are great for arpeggiated parts.

Yes, but you should be careful and be sure there are no overlapping notes correct? Otherwise it would cancel one of the two. So you can't really make a very fast arpeggio on two different octaves for example.

If you're playing your arpeggios in real-time then, yes, you need to be able to play them well enough to avoid choking off notes. I was referring more to using a synth's on-board arpeggiator or an external arpeggiator - these will cycle through the held notes without cutting them off and can play back arpeggios very fast, usually much faster and with more consistent timing than most keyboardists can play.

[vurt]

me? i plug it in, then let rip!!!

[Passante]

forgive me if my comprehension module hasn't kicked in fully yet but...

are you talking two different types of mono?

everyone here is talking about classic monophonic synths (minimoog etc), plays one note at a time yada yada but you keep talking about stereo. A single/not-stereo output is a mono output but not what people generally mean when they talk about mono synths....? Two different things, a monophonic synth can have a stereo output (stereo panned oscillators or effects) and old polyphonic synths could have a mono output (multiple notes but all coming out the one output).

Getting lost here. By mono I mean its literal meaning as "single, unique" and I assume that a mono sound should be centered...

[Shabdahbriah]

forgive me if my comprehension module hasn't kicked in fully yet but...

are you talking two different types of mono?

everyone here is talking about classic monophonic synths (minimoog etc), plays one note at a time yada yada but you keep talking about stereo. A single/not-stereo output is a mono output but not what people generally mean when they talk about mono synths....? Two different things, a monophonic synth can have a stereo output (stereo panned oscillators or effects) and old polyphonic synths could have a mono output (multiple notes but all coming out the one output).

Getting lost here. By mono I mean its literal meaning as "single, unique" and I assume that a mono sound should be centered...

It's easy to get lost. As stated, a classic monophonic synth will play one note at a time. Aside from multi-tracking, and/or using flangers, phasers, chorus effects and delays/reverb (et al) to enliven that seeming limitation, and enhance your experience, some monosynths (like my personal favorite here) have various tricks up their sleeves.

kicks in @2:13 :

[vurt]

a guitar is a polyphonic (more than one note) instrument, with a mono (not stereo) output for example.

[foosnark]

Getting lost here. By mono I mean its literal meaning as "single, unique" and I assume that a mono sound should be centered...

You can certainly pan monosynths, use them with stereo effects, or indeed have stereo sound generation in the first place even though you're playing one note at a time.

In terms of production and musical conventions, you want bass frequencies centered and narrow, and you want things nicely balanced in the stereo field for both headphone and speaker listeners, but otherwise there's no reason a monosynth has to be monophonic in the stereo sense, or centered.