Monotron

[Aciphecs]

Hey All,

I just got my monotron in the mail earlier this week and let me tell you...this tiny synth pushes!

This is my first experience with true analog, and I wasn't expecting a whole lot from it, but I'm truly impressed by the richness of the analog. The bass that it produces can bust the speakers too if you're not careful!

It's not a groovebox I know, but I have it running through the audio-in on my ESX and can use the steps to make quasi-arpeggios(not sure if that's the right term ) and have been able to create some very interesting improvs with the combo. And the hands-on feel you get from this tiny beast, feels like I am texting to sound...she's almost the same size as my phone and when I use just my thumbs to jam it looks like a phone to the audience!

Just wanted to let everyone know that this was the best $60 investment ever of me musically! If you get a couple extra bucks and are looking for a lil inpiration, the monotron provides.

I've even created a hardware latch, that will hold the note down for you as you tweak with the LFO or VCF with both hands available! I'll get some pics up here shortly so you can see the MacGuyver job I did while at the office today.

[Blue Monster 65]

I played with a prototype ages ago and had a blast with it. Everyone I know who's bought one just loves it and a few guys have modded theirs, too. I'll look forward to see what you do with yours, A. I may just have to invest in one myself sometime!

[Aciphecs]

I've started loading my ESX with analog samples too! Man I love this little beast

[Aciphecs]

Played two live shows this weekend and rocked both sytems with my new setup...the lil monotron adds so much depth and richness to my tracks.

Can't say enough good things about my new Korg friend

[tjporter]

For true weirdness, I sometimes set up my Poor-Man's Modular™: a Gakken SX-150 and a Casio VL-1 both run into the Monotron with a Y-cable. Dark, noisy, and good fun for an hour.

[Aciphecs]

Nice! I was thinkin about picking up a SX-150 too! How do you like it? I hear\read it is where korg got the idea for the monotron.

[tjporter]

Nice! I was thinkin about picking up a SX-150 too! How do you like it? I hear\read it is where korg got the idea for the monotron.

Strangely enough, you are talking to the person who reviewed the SX-150 for IHaveSynth, but you should read the fuller version here: http://www.myspace.com/elegancedecadence/blog.

In the magazine that comes with the SX-150 (actually, the SX-150 comes with the magazine - I will never understand the Japanese), there is a photo of the Gakken folks showing the SX-150 to Korg, and it is pretty much taken for granted now that that moment planted the seed for the Monotron.

The SX-150 is not a versatile instrument by any stretch of the imagination, and trying to play it in a meaningful way with the stylus is possible, but there is a very good reason why most Google SX-150 results are about mods. I titled my review "Taming the Beast": it is a powerful little monster, but you have to find your own way to use it.

If you are into drones, you need one. If you are thinking about playing melodies with it, well...


EDIT: deleted myspace, review now on Blogspot.

[Dr Feelgood]

I've started loading my ESX with analog samples too! Man I love this little beast

That sounds really, really awesome. You should upload an ESX jam made with the Monotron samples just to give prospective buyers a taste of the goodness

[Aciphecs]

Will do. I just recently got a laptop and was without a home PC for almost a year. I'll hopefully have a bunch of new tracks recorded and uploaded to soundcloud soon. It's my un-official new year's resolution

[Aciphecs]

Just loaded 40 new monotron phrases on my ESX and holy wow! It feels like I have a whole new box

I bought my ESX from ebay 5 years ago and it still had a boat load of samples the previous owner had added. They were mostly hip hop based one-shots and almost all of them were pretty useless. I kept most of them because I never really was too comfortable with sampling and was scared to erase them...what if I might need that sample of someone yelling "Word!"

After reading and reading the manual and getting tips here for sampling - getting levels right, setting start/end points correctly, truncating, normalizing and play level +12 I finally am very comfortable with the process and now I have a box that feels like mine. Keep an ear out for upcoming tracks!!

Thanks fam!!