Monomono Mono Two is a new Korg MS-20-style Synthesizer device for Ableton Live M4L with two oscillators and two filters.
Last year, Monomono released two Roland-inspired synthesizers: the Mono One, an SH-101-like synth, and the Maya (article), a Juno-style synth. Both M4L synths are authentic and great-sounding, and better: they work in Push 3 Standalone.
For their third Synthesizer, they turned their backs on Roland and looked to another legendary Japanese company. Monomono has released Mono Two, a new M4L Synthesizer inspired by one of the most legendary instruments from Korg.
Monomono Mono Two
Mono Two is a new monophonic Synthesizer device inspired by the legendary Korg MS-20. Monomono Mono Two is not a plugin but a Max for Live device that runs in Ableton Live, meaning you need an M4L license or Ableton Live Suite.
The device’s UI is heavily inspired by the original. I like it a lot. One click away is the second UI screen, which houses a lovely patch matrix that lets you patch the synth like the original semi-modular synth.
Like the MS-20, Mono Two features two oscillators and two resonant filters. VCO 1 offers triangle with PWM, sawtooth, and noise, while VCO 2 adds sawtooth, square, pulse, and ring modulation to oscillator 1.
From there, it goes into dual resonant filters that follow the same high-pass-into-low-pass series routing as the original hardware. You can switch between OTA and Korg35-style topologies with circuit-accurate saturation.
On the modulation side, it has a syceable morphing LFO that continuously morphs from falling sawtooth through triangle to rising sawtooth. It also has two envelopes: one HADSR envelope for the VCA and a fast three-stage AD envelope with delay for the pitch and filter.
To add more authenticity, it comes with component-tolerance-style pitch and filter drift between channels, plus a chorus transforms the mono signal into a wide stereo image
MS-20-Style Patchable Synth
Right out of the box, the Monomono Mono Two is a synth with a fixed signal path with which you can play around. You can break the path! Click on the left side of the UI, and you reach the patch bay with 15 modulation sources.
In this shrunken version of the MS-20 patch bay, you can rewrite the synth in real time and achieve more complex sounds. Talking of sounds: the filter and output stage run at four times the sample rate for pristine audio quality
Full MPE and aftertouch support gives the synth a modern twist. So, you can play it expressively with per-note control.
First Impression
Releasing synth emulations directly as M4L devices is, in my opinion, a very good idea. They are fully integrated into Ableton Live, and they run in Ableton Push 3 Standalone right on the hardware.
From the first demos, this is another great-sounding Synthesizer device from the developer. I can’t definitively say how authentic this is, but it definitely gives off strong MS-20 vibes.
Monomono Mono Two is available now for 32,40€. It requires Ableton Live 11 Suite or higher, or Ableton Live 11 Standard with an M4L license. It also runs in Ableton Push 2 and Push 3 Standalone.
More information here: Isotonik Studios
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