The first Elektron SID was done without too much part left for SID chips.
That does not stop them to build it.
I guess there is new chip similar to the old one which could be used to put back a new MD on sell. IIRC the « math » chip is the same family that the one used by lots of Waldorf, Novation, Virus. A famous chip DSP chip which is only good at crunching numbers. The DSP5630 cousin.
You can see it here :
Machinedrum Guts
If people had been able to reverse engineering part of the code of the firmware to make new firmware of the MD. If this chip has been reverse engineer to allow a VST of the Virus. My guess is there is lots and lots of documentation available for new developers at Elektron.
My guess is they stop MD, MnM just because sells was low, not because part was not available. They would have made a MK3 if it was selling really well.
But maybe doing a batch of 10 000 unit is a risk for Elektron. They need to upgrade the unit to ‘new standard’ if they release it again :
- usb
- new sequencer feature to match other product
- overbridge
Then the current things said by everyone
When does new firmware will bring that…