Now that the MD is discontinued, is there any chance Elektron will release the firmware source code? (Probably not, but it’s fun to pretend.) What would you add?
- Trig Conditions like in the A4
- A 303 machine or basic subtractive synth
10 Likes
This is a great idea!
I would probably make Elvis appear more often.
7 Likes
JJOSMD
8 Likes
Elektron indicated at one point that there wasn’t room left in memory to expand the MD’s capabilities any further, so one way to look at this would be:
If we could tighten up the OS code so it could potentially have more capabilities, how would we do so?
And if that’s not an option, what remaining bugs would we want fixed using the precious little space that remains?
anyway @bolandross - you’ve got my vote 
Ah yeah I remember reading that too. I have no idea how the MD works internally so I’m not sure if they mean runtime memory or memory on disk. Or maybe the entire OS is loaded into RAM straight away? In any case there are ways to reduce memory footprint, if only by removing features. If it were actually open source the operator could pick and choose what features they wanted at compile time via ifdefs. Personally I wouldn’t mind ditching all of P-I in exchange for new features. Trig conditions could be implemented in well under a kilobyte of instructions I’d imagine? Again not sure of the MD’s architecture but if it’s something similar to x86…
To me the biggest issue would be the risk of bricking your MD with bad code. As long as there was a way to hedge against that I would experiment all day.
1 Like
Scale per track and microtiming like on the OT.
2 Likes
Would be an interesting proposition. I, for one, would love to see sequencer updates. The aforementioned trig conditions and plocked micro timing are the obvious choices and would make my machinedrum the ultimate drum machine. I would also pay a pretty penny for said upgrades whether it be to an elektronaut or elektron if they decided there are enough people like me to take another look at the OS.
1 Like
So while we’re on Wishful Thinking Island, Linn’s MPC 60 OS upgrade was accomplished by throwing out some less-used features (the Help files and Midi SDS). For the MD, some things to throw out might be the P-I machines and the compressor. There is also IMHO a small sweet spot for BRR and SRR so I could live without those plus you can already do SRR and BRR by resampling with pitch or volume differences in the UW. If you take a look at the Sonic Potions LXR, they have a number of code forks so people who want X more than Y can pick their flavor of OS. That’s the nice thing about open source OS. There are some really interesting forks over there.
1 Like
nooo the P-I machines are awesome!
But yeah a modular OS would be great.
1 Like
Yes I quite like the P-I machines as well.
1 Like
gotta add my love for the P-I machines here as well. the cymbals alone are worth the price of admission. took me years to appreciate them though. i suspect the reason they get so little love is because they require so much restraint … most of the md internal synths do, but to make a P-I machine work in a mix i generally have to carve away nearly all of its frequency content, leaving just the little sliver i need, and then lfo what’s left in some highly dynamic way as well.
i’m sitting here right now listening to last night’s jam and the light, toppy backbeat snare i initially made with an EFM-SD wouldn’t be nearly as engaging without the touch of layered P-I HH it’s trigging.
Nope. because with the source code you could build clones, as well you give away important company secrets, which are included in never firmwares as well ( or a part of it)
And developing such stuff is not cheap.
I guess development cost for software around 300.000€ up to 450.000€ until today.
3 Likes
I agree with freelancer77 regarding cost of development (might even be higher than those figures) and evident issue with IP, although my feeling is that competitors who could put something on the market are few and they probably have things figured out.
It reminds me of mutable instruments which publishes all firmware code of their modules, that also allows competitors to pretty much bundle the same logic in their own hardware or software shops to bake the same logic.
I wish after many years since last maintenance (and no perspective for future development) such software was released for the sake of allowing the die-hard users with software skills to fiddle with the hardware.
That being said, if the community demand is big enough, it is definitely possible to fund third party development from scratch or reverse engineered parts of the OS.
I hadn’t really jammed out on the P12 machines until I read your comment, I immediately went to my MD and played around with it. The sounds were pretty wild and they definitely has an essence that could be pretty useful. I hear a lot of potential in those engines.
If I had to throw out any machine engine I’d definitely say the E12 ones. It immediately reminds me of old karaoke backing drums. And that just seems depressing for some reason.
P-I is a pearl.
E12 is really nice for retrig ! But yes if we should sacrifice an engine, it would be it.
I would prefer not throw any engine, nor anything else. This is the best product of Elektron, the one that not suffer from not having limitations in view of preserving other features on other Elektron gear (that is the case for more recent product).
The MD is the more finished, accomplished (16 midi sequencer with 64 step and triglocks ?, incredible and capable gear according to the date of production, compared to the other black Elektron gear witch are less capable for the nowadays possibilities. Commercial choices and gear limitations, that have often been discuss here, makes our old lady MD being the real Drum machine pearl with so much possibilities.
To turn back to discussion, if we could we must reprogram without lost too much functions
1 Like
E12 is pretty redundant on UW I guess, but not sure on PI either, very rarely like the sounds that most of them make, they seem to have badly chosen parameters or limited range within their scope, for example the BD always has that sharp attack which renders it unsuitable for doing softer kick sounds.
No love for BRR or compressor here either, BRR is just not that useful, and compression is handled better externally.
My feature requests would be independent track lengths, step conditions, chromatic tuning for all machines which make sound, maybe push turn to jump in semitone steps? That’d do 
Probably next up for cutting would be the E12, yes. I actually like the “real” E12 sounds quite a bit and from memory, the MD doesn’t really capture them. It’s been a few years since I really sat down with them. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough.
It would probably only save a sliver of memory though. The old boxes had next to none.
1 Like
Sounds like you need a rytm
[quote=“darenager, post:16, topic:31124, full:true”]No love for BRR or compressor here either, BRR is just not that useful, and compression is handled better externally.
[/quote]
damn, I love the BRR, it adds some nice texture to some of the lower sounds like kick and toms… that said I’m an oldskool tracker kid so I love my sounds with a bit of grit 
Any news on this ? Did anyone ever write to Elektron ?
I’d die for some minor tweaks. Like the routing saved in Kits instead of Globals.