Mononoke for dummies

richardyot

I know that not everyone is going to read the manual, so I thought I might post some tips in this thread, because this synth is very different to a traditional synth - starting with the very basics which is note input.

So first of all Mononoke is not one synth, but two completely independent synths, each of which can play 4 notes. The 4 keys on the left control the left-hand synth, the 4 keys on the right control the right-hand synth:

The left-hand synth plays an octave lower than the right-hand one.

So at the most basic musical level you need to think carefully about which notes you want to assign to those keys. My first instinct was to use the 8 pads to assign notes in a scale, but that is really not going to produce the most musical results because the first four notes in the scale will be played in one voice, and the last four scale degrees in a completely different voice, and an octave higher. So you need to rethink the whole idea of a keyboard here and use a fresh approach.

One approach that could work is to consider the left-hand instrument as a musical bed, and assign notes as if you were making a chord progression, for example: A, C, E, A (with the second A an octave higher).

Then you assign 4 notes to the right-hand synth that play the role of a melody or lead, you could use the same notes, or a variation - but be careful choosing the intervals because how consonant or dissonant they are is going to affect the resulting sounds profoundly. Choosing octaves or fifths is going to be nicely harmonic, choosing 2nds, 4ths or 7ths is going be more dissonant.

So for example if you are using A minor you could assign the notes A, C, E, A to the left-hand synth and then assign some of the notes of the minor pentatonic scale to the right-hand synth, for example A, C, D, E or A, C, E, G.

If you wanted a Mixolydian flavour you could assign the notes C, E, G, A# to both sides (the results will be nicely musical).

But the main point to bear in mind is that you are limited to a very narrow range of notes, so choose those notes very carefully. The synth is designed for drones, so this makes perfect sense in that context.

And remember that these limitations still exist even if you are using an external controller, each of the two synths can only pay the notes that are assigned to the keys, notes outside of the mappings will simply be remapped.

anickt

Thanks! 😎

iOSTRAKON

Appreciate the info @richardyot

gusgranite

Nice info 👍. Would you mind correcting the thread title please for future search results? Thanks 🙏

richardyot

@gusgranite said:
Nice info 👍. Would you mind correcting the thread title please for future search results? Thanks 🙏

Oops - done 😱

White

Thanks for the info 😊👍

JohnnyGoodyear

Thanks Richard, this helps hugely.

AnalogCortex

Awesome post, thanks. I was going to avoid Mononoke because I figured I’d get frustrated trying to understand it, but your post may change my mind.

Charlesalbert

@richardyot sincerely thank you for your post.

Krupa

Does anyone know if the pads use 3d touch on old iPhones? Also if the midi out can control other synths?

Ta,

Chris

richardyot

@Krupa said:
Does anyone know if the pads use 3d touch on old iPhones? Also if the midi out can control other synths?

MIDI out should work, no idea about 3D touch though, but likely not.

barabajagal

I’m a dummy
File under
After a trip to the doctor to see if I have a wonky heart , this machine is beginning to sound like the inside of my head!!

Krupa

Ta Richard👍

audio_DT

@richardyot this is really helpful. I was just firing away with no clue 😂👍

david_2017

@barabajagal wow. Period! „Ma heartbeat“ is the best i have heart yet
Thanks for sharing. I was trying to get something like Celer or Hotel Neon or maybe mount shrine. You nailed this one!

royor

@richardyot Thank you for sharing your insights of Mononoke.. makes much more sense..

david_2017

@royor said:
@richardyot Thank you for sharing your insights of Mononoke.. makes much more sense..

Yeah sorry I wanted to second this of course. Thanks for making the effort to give a quick start, man!!!

ahallam

Thanks for this. I haven’t picked up the app yet, but it’s nice to know what I’d be getting into if I do..

richardyot

Here's a quick jam in C Mixolydian, with a few additional FX apps:

Krupa

Very nice sir, think I'm going to be like one of those rats with an electrode in its pleasure centres with this instrument in my headphones 🤣

reasOne

great stuff here!

Halftone

@richardyot said:
Here's a quick jam in C Mixolydian, with a few additional FX apps:

Awesome! Best video I've seen yet for this app (as in NOW I want to get it after watching). Great stuff!

richardyot

@Halftone said:

@richardyot said:
Here's a quick jam in C Mixolydian, with a few additional FX apps:

Awesome! Best video I've seen yet for this app (as in NOW I want to get it after watching). Great stuff!

Thanks! Glad you like it 😎

JohnnyGoodyear

@richardyot said:
Here's a quick jam in C Mixolydian, with a few additional FX apps:

Airport lounge in heaven.

robertreynolds

When playing mononoke with my Seaboard block or Roli block in AUM or Cubasis, do I need it set to Midi?

I get nothing in either host when setting Mononoke to MPE, which seems counterintuitive.

brambos

@robertreynolds said:
When playing mononoke with my Seaboard block or Roli block in AUM or Cubasis, do I need it set to Midi?

I get nothing in either host when setting Mononoke to MPE, which seems counterintuitive.

No, you need to have it on MPE when using MPE controllers as you’d expect. Are you routing the controller into Mononoke?

realdawei

@richardyot said:
I know that not everyone is going to read the manual, so I thought I might post some tips in this thread, because this synth is very different to a traditional synth - starting with the very basics which is note input.

So first of all Monoke is not one synth, but two completely independent synths, each of which can play 4 notes. The 4 keys on the left control the left-hand synth, the 4 keys on the right control the right-hand synth:

The left-hand synth plays an octave lower than the right-hand one.

So at the most basic musical level you need to think carefully about which notes you want to assign to those keys. My first instinct was to use the 8 pads to assign notes in a scale, but that is really not going to produce the most musical results because the first four notes in the scale will be played in one voice, and the last four scale degrees in a completely different voice, and an octave higher. So you need to rethink the whole idea of a keyboard here and use a fresh approach.

One approach that could work is to consider the left-hand instrument as a musical bed, and assign notes as if you were making a chord progression, for example: A, C, E, A (with the second A an octave higher).

Then you assign 4 notes to the right-hand synth that play the role of a melody or lead, you could use the same notes, or a variation - but be careful choosing the intervals because how consonant or dissonant they are is going to affect the resulting sounds profoundly. Choosing octaves or fifths is going to be nicely harmonic, choosing 2nds, 4ths or 7ths is going be more dissonant.

So for example if you are using A minor you could assign the notes A, C, E, A to the left-hand synth and then assign some of the notes of the minor pentatonic scale to the right-hand synth, for example A, C, D, E or A, C, E, G.

If you wanted a Mixolydian flavour you could assign the notes C, E, G, A# to both sides (the results will be nicely musical).

But the main point to bear in mind is that you are limited to a very narrow range of notes, so choose those notes very carefully. The synth is designed for drones, so this makes perfect sense in that context.

And remember that these limitations still exist even if you are using an external controller, each of the two synths can only pay the notes that are assigned to the keys, notes outside of the mappings will simply be remapped.

Nice. This one unblocked me 👍

robertreynolds

@brambos said:

@robertreynolds said:
When playing mononoke with my Seaboard block or Roli block in AUM or Cubasis, do I need it set to Midi?

I get nothing in either host when setting Mononoke to MPE, which seems counterintuitive.

No, you need to have it on MPE when using MPE controllers as you’d expect. Are you routing the controller into Mononoke?

I am. For example.

1. I connect my block in AUM through settings (it appears connected)
2. I add mononoke to a channel.
3. I add Noise melody to a channel.
4. I route the block to both Mononoke and Noise Melody using midi routing.

Result: I can play Noise melody AU fine. I get absolutely nothing in Mononoke.

I’ve restarted iPad. I’ve also duplicated in Cubasis 3. Neither block or seaboard block work with Mononoke In MPE mode but work with other MPE synths.

I’m likely doing something really stupid here, but I can’t figure it out.

reasOne

@robertreynolds said:
When playing mononoke with my Seaboard block or Roli block in AUM or Cubasis, do I need it set to Midi?

I get nothing in either host when setting Mononoke to MPE, which seems counterintuitive.

you gotta really press hard on the keys... kinda weird i dunno if that’s a problem with mpe, aum , noke , me 🤷🏻‍♂️ but for example the mpe in spacecraft requires very little pressure

brambos

@robertreynolds said:

@brambos said:

@robertreynolds said:
When playing mononoke with my Seaboard block or Roli block in AUM or Cubasis, do I need it set to Midi?

I get nothing in either host when setting Mononoke to MPE, which seems counterintuitive.

No, you need to have it on MPE when using MPE controllers as you’d expect. Are you routing the controller into Mononoke?

I am. For example.

1. I connect my block in AUM through settings (it appears connected)
2. I add mononoke to a channel.
3. I add Noise melody to a channel.
4. I route the block to both Mononoke and Noise Melody using midi routing.

Result: I can play Noise melody AU fine. I get absolutely nothing in Mononoke.

I’ve restarted iPad. I’ve also duplicated in Cubasis 3. Neither block or seaboard block work with Mononoke In MPE mode but work with other MPE synths.

I’m likely doing something really stupid here, but I can’t figure it out.

Does AUM's built-in keyboard work when you switch to MIDI mode?

robertreynolds

@brambos said:

@robertreynolds said:

@brambos said:

@robertreynolds said:
When playing mononoke with my Seaboard block or Roli block in AUM or Cubasis, do I need it set to Midi?

I get nothing in either host when setting Mononoke to MPE, which seems counterintuitive.

No, you need to have it on MPE when using MPE controllers as you’d expect. Are you routing the controller into Mononoke?

I am. For example.

1. I connect my block in AUM through settings (it appears connected)
2. I add mononoke to a channel.
3. I add Noise melody to a channel.
4. I route the block to both Mononoke and Noise Melody using midi routing.

Result: I can play Noise melody AU fine. I get absolutely nothing in Mononoke.

I’ve restarted iPad. I’ve also duplicated in Cubasis 3. Neither block or seaboard block work with Mononoke In MPE mode but work with other MPE synths.

I’m likely doing something really stupid here, but I can’t figure it out.

Does AUM's built-in keyboard work when you switch to MIDI mode?

Yessir. AUM keyboard works fine. And both the block and seaboard also work when in midi mode.

I’m using the latest version of Mononoke on an IPad Pro with iOS 13.3.