MONO2K Emulator

Six mono machines

A Monomachine-style synthesizer for a palm-sized FM synth. Six tracks, each one machine: sine, noise, chip, two kinds of FM, supersaw, chord, digital waves, a voice. A 64-step sequencer with parameter locks, trig conditions and ratchets. A bus that breaks the sound beautifully.

Controls

Solid labels are computer keys; the F-keys work too, F1 FX to F10 SEQ. Click the panel first, Esc leaves it. Drag or scroll a knob to turn it.

Keys

Z–M Q–O: The 16 lower keys: notes, or the steps in GRID (a new step takes the last note played).
S D F H J 2…9: The 11 upper keys: notes, or in GRID tracks 1–6, pages 1–4 (held: the pattern ends there), mute.
Step + knob: A parameter lock.
Step + [ ]: Its condition: chance, 1:2 … 4:4, 1ST, PRE, FILL.
Step + - =: Its ratchet, 1–4 hits.
Step + ; ': Its note, a semitone a click.
Enter REC, stopped: Step entry: each note played is the next step. G + = a rest, G + - back.
Step + , .: Accent, slide.

Buttons

5 EDIT: SYN: the machine's A–H.
8 ENV: AMP: envelope, distortion, pan.
0 SEL: FILT: base and width, resonance, envelope.
P FX: EQ and rate, delay, destroy.
L LFO: Three LFOs, two pages each.
K ARP: The track's arpeggiator.
G GLO: Tempo, lofi bus, SPU reverb, settings. Held: the editing functions.
1 HOME: The pattern in six lanes.
A SEQ: The keys play, or set the steps (GRID), sixteen at a time.
Space PLAY Enter REC: REC held: FILL.
\ SAVE: Keeps the pattern; held, the project.

Knobs

; ' SELECT: The track.
, . ALGORITHM: The track's machine.
[ ] PRESETS: The pattern, queued while playing.
Tab: Picks KNOB 1–4.
↑ ↓: Turns it; Shift is faster.
- =: OCT− OCT+; in GRID, the page.

Machines

Nine machines in six families, after what is published about the Monomachine's: written from scratch for MONO2K, integer only, to be tuned against the original by ear and by measurement. Point at a card and its mark turns, as on the screen.

Sequencer

Four projects of four banks (A–D) of sixteen patterns. As on the modern Elektron boxes, each pattern is a whole song part with its own sounds. SAVE keeps a pattern, GLO + SAVE reloads it, SAVE held keeps the project. GLO + REC, PLAY and SEQ copy, paste and clear.

Six tracks of up to 64 steps. Hold a step and turn a knob to lock a value to it. Trig conditions: a chance, every A of B loops, the first loop, after the previous condition, or only on FILL. A chance is drawn as its own density of dither; ratchets repeat a step two to four times.

Destroy

Every track has the Monomachine's chain: HP and LP filters as a base and a width, distortion, an EQ band, sample rate reduction and a delay of its own in 8-bit mu-law. Then bits, a wavefold and an XOR that mangles the samples.

The bus: an SPU-style reverb at 22 kHz, a beat repeat that slices the last sixteenth, tape wow and flutter, a 4-bit ADPCM crunch, hiss and dust, and a drive into the soft clip.

Status

A prototype. This page runs the firmware's C core as it is; the FM-1 build adds Felucca's platform (the hardware layer, USB, storage, the update loader and the installer) and has not been flashed yet. Saves may change.

Built on the open FM-1 work: Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments), CS-1, X0X, FoMni and the others. Orbitron and Inter Tight under the SIL OFL. Not affiliated with Elektron or M-VAVE; Monomachine is Elektron's.