# Let's Get This Party Started! - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2010-03-24 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2010/03/lets-get-this-party-started/ The Musikmesse pictures are starting to roll in. It already looks like it's gonna be a good show, which makes it pretty much the opposite of Winter NAMM. A couple cool things you probably already know about: 1\. Korg Monotron. ([Short YouTube video.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v0FT8lXGSo)) This will no doubt take Best-Of-Show in most people's minds. It's rare that one of the big manufacturers does something this... uh... cute? It should be savored. We'll all buy at least one, of that I have no doubt. 2\. Elektron Octatrack. ([Some pics at Gearjunkies.](http://www.gearjunkies.com/news_info.php?news_id=4910)) Nothing but these pics yet, but I think it's pretty obvious what it does. A throwback to the era of the Studio 440, MPC60, and SP1200. Want. **EDIT**: YouTube video [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzszHo0VMIo) It looks like Roland brought their A game as well, with a couple new synths already. The GAIA doesn't look too bad, but I imagine it's the same VA engine that's in all their knobish synths now, just in a nice white box. We'll see what else the Big Three come up with. ## Comments (10) **Crashproof** (2010-03-24): Could be wrong but that Monotron looks smaller than a Stylophone. Huh. That Roland keytar thing is amusing too. I expect to see fifty of the damn things circuit-bent on eBay within a week after release. **seancostello** (2010-03-24): Monotron: all analog. MS-10/20 filter. Ribbon controller. Audio fucking input. $85. Yeah, this is on my "get it the day it comes out" list. Seriously, how cool is this? I'm sure that Korg will be making money hand over fist with this, as it is undoubtedly surface mount, and doesn't have to have any of the expensive components that a tunable analog synth will have, like matched transistors. It's a cheap plastic toy. With an MS-10/20 filter. And an audio fucking input. **bleen** (2010-03-24): Sean, you may have to fight me for the first one in Seattle! **Electromorphic** (2010-03-24): Okay, digging on the Korg box, but seriously what is Korgs aversion to midi? They ruined the new wavedrum by failing to include a midi/usb input to program new patches via computer, and now they are blowing what would be an AMAZING synth/filter by failing to include midi control for it. Why the f* not? It's not that expensive to implement midi. It would maybe make this synth cost like $100 rather than $67, but isn't the extra $40 to make this machine infinitely more usefull worth the cost? I just know we are going to be seeing midi mod kits costing $50 out there for this thing, and that is just silly. **seancostello** (2010-03-24): I doubt that the oscillator has any sort of stable tuning capability. It may even be linear, with an exponential ribbon controller. Or have a simple, two transistor, no matching exponential converter. You'll never notice when ribbon controlling, but if you tried to run this via MIDI, all the shortcuts will come out to play. **studio nebula** (2010-03-24): Hmm. $85? It might be worth that just to gut it for the filter. --Adam **beauty pill** (2010-03-24): Yowee! That Elektron thing is sexxee. The need/want ratio is tilted full-on to the latter, though. - c **Chris Randall** (2010-03-24): I think the Octotrack, assuming it doesn't have the (rather extreme) timing issues of the MachineDrum, will be absolutely fantastic for people like me that don't want to have a laptop in front of them for a show. Judging from the videos, it seems to be essentially a Studio 440 brought up to modern standards, and that's just wall-to-wall win, in my book. I'm almost certainly going to get one. -CR **megamaeng** (2010-03-24): My primary piece of gear is an sp1200 and having just dumped another $300 into it for repairs I'm always looking out for something that can replace it if it fully dies. I was so excited about the octatrack until I saw that video. I dunno. Maybe it's the demo that just sounds like bad nordic hiphop wankery but it's probably going to be twice as expensive as an sp, and half as easy/fun to use for me. I can see how it can be useful live for extreme tweaking but for a composition tool, I'm more interested in the OP-1. The octatrack just gives me the sense that it's going to be too complicated to use quickly, which might be ok for mpc users used to menus but I think sp1200 users will be adverse to the parameter surfing. If it's going to be that complex, in the studio at least I might as well use ableton. Of course these are just assumptions on my part. **shamann** (2010-03-24): I'm with Chad, I sure like the looks of it, but my inner voice has a very worried-sounding, "really, you don't need it" kind of tone right now. Should I ever do live shows again, I'm in the same camp of not wanting a laptop in front of me. I will note though that I've seen shows of guys just rocking a Machinedrum that were about as exciting as a laptop show. Dude just tended to dance around more than the laptop guys, which is something I actually hate more than the motionless flatscreen jockeys.