Hi. I have one & I like it a lot. That's a cracking video, about the only one currently showing what it's capable of in the right (skilled) hands.
Yes floor shaking basses and cutting leads are easily produced & even a primitive kick drum via a simple pulse. Remember though it is monophonic (one note at a time) - so be aware that you won't get anywhere near the range of sound that you would from a conventional synth - as to make chords you need a polyphonic synth engine - one that will sound more than one note at the same time. Theoretically you could build simple chords with it in conjunction with a good (long) looper. Bloody hard work to make a whole song structure from but certainly a good route to building interesting textures.
You can certainly roll off the edges of the tones it produces by modulating the sound waves.
You can also process external sound sources such as your electric guitar thru its filter - further extending its usefulness.
In addition to being monophonic, having a limited filter configuration (unless hacked) accordingly limits the sound permutations, but it is kind of refreshingly simple. Being analog proper it has a warmth to it and a beefy sound that belies its tiny size once it's externally amped.
As to explaining synthesis - a bit involved for a forum post & my actual technical knowledge is more hands on than factual but - basically to synthesize sound you are changing/modulating the frequency rate of the signal produced by one or more oscillators and filtering it. (already out of my depth.. LOL)
The Monotron provides a bit of an either or solution to this as you only get one VCF, VCO & LFO. (voltage control filter, voltage control oscillator & low frequency oscillator). So you have limited parameters due to having limted combinations. With no internal memory as such nothing is saveable so you have to loop or record on the fly. Keeps it spontaneous though.
You can produce a stable note that will sustain as long as you touch the keypad & it can be subjected to that brightening up/dulling down sound effect used in good old techno by twiddling the little knobs in realtime. You can also get the Monotron to chop the sound into pulses that you can change the speed and length of: as in k k k krr krr krr krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, b b b br br br br brrrrrr, z z z zr zr zr zrrrrrrrrrr etc. and when speeded up you can get doppler/harmonic/distorted sonic timbres.
It can also be persuaded to change pitch up or down very slowly - thus the 'wheeee' kind of noise, shorten it and you get a bleep, up the resonance and you get a a whistle/screech. Shove it thru an effects box and you can process these thru chorused, flanged gated delayed reversed effects etc.
With a little dedication you can get some very interesting sounds and the general fidelity is very good. As you can modulate sounds to change their texture easily it doesn't have to bleep or squeal unless you want it to.
Limitations often prove a good thing to set your creativity against, but whether these will frustrate or inspire depends on your mindset and the type of music you are wanting to make.
The video shows it multitracked - using a PC sequencing program - and with reverb inserted into the signal path. The sound is otherwise representative of what it produces & generally I am very happy with accepting what it does & doesn't do - although the filter can occasionally get a bit hissy but that's probably an analog characteristic.
As you prob gathered from my 'cheap case' post below, I have a stylus to use with it but with practice - unless you have sausage hands - it works OK with thumb or finger.
It's not as buzzy and lofi as a Stylophone in its raw state, the Stylo is basically producing a primitive fixed saw wave, whereas the Mono allows you to change the shape of the wave and filter the results. The pressure sensitive ribbon pad membrane is smoother than the Stylophone's on/off contact surface, enabling swift note exchange (glissandi). Just a small tip or twist of the finger will allow a change of one note to the next and back again so although not properly velocity sensitive as such - it is quite expressive and with practice can produce simple riffs to order.
As a footnote - if you get into keyboards- you may find a cheap secondhand one rather than a Microkorg may suffice to start you off. Again effects pedals are your best friends here. I use a Yamaha PSS 390 which has a minikeyboard & has a primitive FM synth incorporated into it - it cost me about £15 - & gives out some mad lofi textures when tortured & processed enough. It's capable of some surprisingly nice gritty bass textures. I combine all sorts of strange things. In the end it ain't what you have but the way you use it & lofi seems to be the new black these days...
God - I'm wordy tonight..LOL
Hope some useful info for you in there.
I placed my order today.
