Machinedrum source code / dream features

Elektron Gear Machinedrum
#13

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.

#14

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.

#15

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

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#16

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 :slight_smile:

#17

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
#18

Sounds like you need a rytm

#19

[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 :smiley:

#20

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.

#21

i’ve been enjoying this guys work recently, and got me thinking the only real way to mod the MDs firmware would be to expand it’s internal memory.
Alongside coding to add all the fantasy extras, i don’t know why everyones asking to write to elektron, the firmware is free to download and, i assume, the code is all there…

watching the strange parts videos memory upgrade looks awkward as f**k and you’d need a raft of specialist equipment, lots of time, patience, skill and risk bricking any machine it’s attempted on.

so not to say it’s impossible, but far fetched to think they’ll be one guy willing to undertake this service. Perhaps a brand new board internal switch up is a more realistic for a novice user to undertake.

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#22

There was some activity in trying to emulate the Machinedrum and the Monomachine in MAME a while ago. Looks to be paused. I’d pony up some major funds to see that happen. If you can emulate the hardware then you can safely test new firmware.

4 Likes
#23

The firmware is the compiled source code. It’s not really easily read or modified by humans.

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#24

I was not aware of this. excellent.

3 Likes
#25

i don’t profess to know what i’m talking about. my only coding experience was a “hello world” message in green text, think in Basic.

2 Likes
#26

Had an official answer from Elektron.
This won’t happen.

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#27

Party poopers

2 Likes
#28

Many of the features requested in this thread have already been implemented in MCL
(which is essentially a feature/firmware upgrade for the MD achieved through the MIDI spec.)

Modern MD sequencer with micro timing conditional trigs, individual track lengths.
Chromatic Mode.
Single oscillator waveform designer.
Live performance features.

There’s a massive thread covering the development
https://www.elektronauts.com/t/minicommand-resurrection-mclive/

13 Likes
#29

While still my least machine engines on the machine- the Bend parameter of these engines provides a great opportunity to really give a unique spin on this hokey sounds.

#30

yep this 100%.
Finally started digging into my Mega Command in the last week or two, and amazed at its ability to push the Machinedrum way beyond any other Elektron in certain aspects, while modernising it in others. Really turns the mD into a mk3.

Just one cool thing about it which could unlikely be faked in a firmware hack (as an owner of a mk2uw with no +drive), is how it can work as a kind of plus drive and store unlimited? snapshots of all pattern, kit and master fx for future recall.

2 Likes
#31

A post was merged into an existing topic: MiniCommand Resurrection // MCLive

#32

For me the very reason I bought Machinedrum was the existense of that exploit that, for example, sir JustinValer used in his new MCLive thing. Funny, eh?

I highly doubt that I’ll ever buy any Elektron box again*, as I do want full control of any hardware I bought with my own money, and that includes its firmware.

Yes I do know a couple of musicians with similar views - and some of them have original Mutable modules doubled: one with “factory” firmware and another with “parasite” alternate firmware. This way one identical module basically was sold two times to the same person, and is used as two different modules. Profit?

What I do not want for sure is to be dependent on someone for patching bugs etc. Makes me feel bad, and somehow I do not want to feel bad after paying a hefty sum. Or it’s just me…

[*] except maybe - just maybe - AK, because A4/AK partially works with aforementioned MCLive. The fact that it works only partially is the cause of maybes.

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