I thought I would give a follow-up to my posts on the First Impressions thread, as I think three weeks is probably enough time to form some more coherent thoughts on my feelings on the DMNO overall, which are markedly more positive than before.
It looks the part of course, you’ve all seen that no doubt - the black version which I opted for feels every inch like some weird dusty pre-production relic from Oberheim’s heyday, like something Trent Reznor or cEvin Key would wheel out on-stage in the early 90s. It also feels like the kind of thing they could throw about on-stage too - it’s built like an absolute tank. Unequivocally best build quality of any instrument I’ve ever owned.
Unlike, say, ASM’s Hydrasynth, Arturia’s Minifreak or a lot of other modern digital / hybrid synths, where you tend to do a lot of upfront work dialing in a complex timbre at tone generation and then send it through the filters for shaping, DMNO kind of works the other way around - the oscillators are deliberately straightforward fare. The filters are the real star of the show - an endless joy to tweak, heaps of character. By default, the osc+filter combo has that ‘Bristol / UK’ sound everybody talks about - precise, restrained, classy, the kind of stuff you’ve heard in a bunch of the demos.
What seems to be less talked about is that DMNO can sound absolutely feral when you start to push it. Start feeding osc2 into the filter modulation and you can very quickly get into Polivoks-type territory, all snarling, gurgling overtones and nonlinearity once you crank up the resonance and start overdriving the filter. As a fan of all things abrasive and industrial it sounds absolutely stupendous. Heck, and I’ve not even talked about things getting even crazier when you switch the filters into series! Aside from that, you can also get into some really beautiful lo-fi territory very quickly if you’re more restrained with the filter and feed a bit of noise into it. It’s very good at Boards of Canada-style warble and hiss.
Notably, I had some strong initial criticisms in the First Impressions thread, but the more time I’ve had to sit and play with it, these pain points have mellowed and it’s become easier to suss out what this synth’s strengths are. DMNO really is doing its own thing in a lot of ways, and that is absolutely to its credit. It’s probably given me more upfront friction than any other synth I’ve owned, but it’s the good kind of friction - nothing works quite as you’d expect, and those quirks lead you to places you maybe wouldn’t end up with other synths. God, it could really do with being able to free-run the oscillators though. And the missing MPE and step-seq functionality.
In the space of about three weeks though it’s gone from a whole bunch of gripes and friction and frustrations to possibly my favourite out of all the synths I own. Almost every night I find myself coming back to it and dialing up a new patch. Once you get comfortable with its quirks, it’s just an incredibly fun synth to play. For everybody? Absolutely not. I suspect, however, that the rivetheads, sound design freaks and IDM nerds are going to hold this in very high regard!
Here’s a pic of it now with pride of place in my setup.
