Mono Synth

Monophonic lead / bass voice with dozens of synthesis models in a single machine — plus FM, waveshaping, decimation and bit-crushing.

Available on: Track 8
Built on: Mutable Instruments Braids — MacroOscillator with 40+ synthesis models.

Character

A chameleon synth voice. The shape control steps through the full Braids model catalogue: saw, square, FM, wavetables, Karplus-style strings, additive, granular clouds, cymbal, drum, speech, and more. Each model exposes two timbre parameters that change meaning per model. Combined with waveshaping and lo-fi processing, it covers clean, gritty and glitchy tones from one voice.

Gotchas before you tweak — things that look broken but aren’t:

  • Scale only audibly quantizes when your sequence plays off-scale notes. A diatonic C major pattern passed through Ionian sounds identical. Try a chromatic run through Pentatonic Minor or Gamelan to hear it work.
  • Decay and EG Loop are truncated on noteOff. With short step gates you won’t hear long decay tails or full loop cycles. Increase step gate length (or use held notes in Play mode) to audition them.
  • Bit Red currently produces no audible change in this firmware — known issue under investigation. Use SR Red for lo-fi character in the meantime.

When to reach for Mono Synth

Use this If you want
Mono Synth Maximum tonal variety in one voice — 47 shapes from analog to granular to speech
TBD03 Focused 303-style bass with dedicated filter envelope + accent
Wavetable Osc Smooth wavetable morphing without the extras
PolyPad Chords, pads, evolving textures — polyphonic, 24 voices

Shape families at a glance

The 47 shapes aren’t a random list — they cluster into audible families. Use this as a navigation aid when hunting tones:

Shape range Family Character
0–5 Classic analog CSAW, saw↔square morph, sine/triangle, buzz, square+sub
6–12 Tuned oscillators Detuned pairs, triads, harmonic stacks
13–16 FM & wavefolder 2-op FM, feedback FM, folded sines — metallic to aggressive
17–19 Wavetable Banks of classic wavetable timbres
20–23 Physical models Plucked/bowed strings, Karplus, formant models
24–27 Harmonic + additive Drawbar organ, harmonics, additive
28–31 Noise & texture Twin peaks, clocked noise, granular clouds
32–35 Speech & digital Vowels, formants, digital modulation
36–46 Percussion + specialty Clap, snare, noise bursts, modal textures

The OLED shows the shape name next to the Shape knob. Step slowly on a held note to audition each — many are dramatic one-knob sound changes.

Parameters

The default Mono Synth performance macro is organised as four semantic pages:

Page Knob 1 Knob 2 Knob 3 Knob 4
Osc Shape Timbre Color Warp
Mod Tim EG Col EG FM EG Scale
Env Attack Decay EG Loop (empty)
Crush SR Red Bit Red — —

The Env page’s 4th column is intentionally blank (a hidden placeholder) so SR Red and Bit Red can group together on the Crush page — the two lo-fi effects belong on one page semantically.

Osc

Parameter What it does
Shape Braids synthesis model selector (47 shapes)
Timbre First timbre control (model-specific)
Color Second timbre control (model-specific)
Warp Signature waveshaper amount

Mod

Parameter What it does
Tim EG Envelope → Timbre amount
Col EG Envelope → Color amount
FM EG Envelope → oscillator pitch (FM)
Scale Quantize played pitch to a musical scale. Scale 0 = Off (bypass); 1–46 = Semitones, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, Blues, Pentatonics, Japanese, Gamelan, and ~30 Indian/exotic scales. Snaps off-scale input notes to the nearest in-scale note. Only audible when your sequence contains notes outside the selected scale — a diatonic C major pattern passed through Ionian sounds identical.

Env

An AD envelope shapes each triggered note. The envelope runs from noteOn for Attack + Decay seconds; noteOff cuts it instantly. Loop it on held notes for LFO-style rhythmic modulation.

Parameter What it does
Attack Attack time, 0–5 s, exponential. Hi-res encoder — 14-bit NRPN internally, so the low-end (plucks, clicks at 1–10 ms) feels responsive. Most musically useful range sits in the lower ~quarter of the knob; beyond that you’re in pad/drone territory.
Decay Decay time, 0–5 s, exponential. Truncated at noteOff, so increase step gate length (or play long held notes) to actually hear long decays.
EG Loop OFF / ON — loop the envelope for tremolo / LFO-style modulation via Tim EG / Col EG / FM EG. Only audible on held / long-gate notes (short sequencer gates end before one loop cycle completes).

Hearing EG Loop: set Attack to minimum and Decay low (roughly the bottom fifth of the knob) so one loop cycle completes in ~200 ms, set step gate to maximum, then turn up Tim EG and Col EG to route the envelope into timbre modulation. With short attack+decay and long notes you’ll hear rhythmic tremolo-style movement.

Crush

Lo-fi sample-rate and bit-depth reduction at the tail of the signal path.

Parameter What it does
SR Red Sample-rate reduction, 0–30. Each click = one DSP decimation step. Audible progression from clean → grainy aliasing → heavy 8-bit-style digital distortion at max.
Bit Red Bit-depth reduction, 0–5. Values reach the DSP correctly, but the intended audible crush does not manifest in the current firmware — known issue, under investigation by the DSP maintainers. Leave at 0 for now; SR Red provides audible lo-fi character.

Preset recipes

Dial these in quickly to audition MonoSynth’s range. Each gets you to a recognisable voice in under 30 seconds. Values shown as approximate knob positions (0–100 %).

Pluck — Plucky Bass

Knob Value
Shape 1 (Morph saw↔square)
Timbre 30 %
Color 40 %
Warp 0
Tim EG 40 %
Col EG 20 %
FM EG 0
Attack 0 % (≈ 0.5 ms)
Decay 25 % (≈ 200 ms)
EG Loop OFF
Scale Off

Acid — Acid-ish Lead

Knob Value
Shape 2 (Saw↔Square hard)
Timbre 60 %
Color 30 %
Warp 20 %
Tim EG 80 % (a lot of EG→Timbre for the squelch)
Col EG 0
FM EG 0
Attack 0 %
Decay 40 % (≈ 500 ms)
SR Red 10 %

Drone — Evolving Drone

Knob Value
Shape 15 (Granular Cloud) or 28 (Twin Peaks)
Timbre 50 %
Color 50 %
Warp 40 %
Tim EG 60 %
Col EG 60 %
Attack 40 % (≈ 200 ms)
Decay 30 % (≈ 300 ms)
EG Loop ON
Step gate MAX (essential — see Gotchas)

Bass — Round Bass

Knob Value
Shape 2 (Saw↔Square)
Timbre 20 %
Color 50 %
Warp 0
Tim EG 20 %
Col EG 30 %
Attack 0 %
Decay 35 % (≈ 400 ms)

Chromatic → Gamelan

A Scale demo. Programme a chromatic step pattern (C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B) then sweep Scale:

Scale value Effect
0 Off All 12 notes pass unchanged
15 Gamelan Snaps to the 5-note Gamelan scale — pattern “flattens” into Gamelan character
11 Pent.Mj Snaps to pentatonic major — friendlier than Gamelan
24 Bhairav Indian raga — characterful flats / sharps

Noise Percussion

For one-shot perc layers:

Knob Value
Shape 29 (Clocked Noise) or 36+ (percussion family)
Timbre 60 %
Color 50 %
Attack 0 %
Decay 15 % (≈ 100 ms)
SR Red 30 % (extra grit)

Performance tip: lock per-step Timbre or Color values via Parameter Lock on the step buttons. Shape + lock turns one monosynth into 16 different sounds in a bar.

See also

  • TBD03 — same oscillator in a 303-style chassis.
  • Wavetable Osc — dedicated wavetable voice.
  • PolyPad — 24-voice polyphonic companion.

Origin & credits

Built on Mutable Instruments Braids MacroOscillator (Émilie Gillet, MIT-licensed). TBD-16 integration by Robert Manzke / CTAG (GPL 3.0) adds the AD envelope, modulation routing, decimation, bit-reduction and scale quantizer.