Dude! Relax and enjoy the show!! Life is too short to allow other’s negativity to determine yours!!
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That would be amazing.
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It sucks that the design files for the algorithms were lost and the best they could do now is approximate by ear.
Whoever owns the rights to the MD/MnM code should open source it so the community can reverse-engineer it for Elektron.
Though I don’t think any digi update could satisfy mnm/md cravings, there’s pretty good reason to believe that the silver faceplates are just part of building anniversary hype, leading up to a legacy machine-satisfying update announcement. I’d be surprised if new Syntakt machines and digi features didn’t add some of what is desired here
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what?
I don´t think that Elektron does not have the Source Code. Isn´t there even a custom Firmware? It´s not encryptet…just compiled? Does anyone know what it´s written in?
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I don’t have time to look for the post but all this is straight from the horse’s mouth.
The DSP code is written in assembly specifically for the MD’s CPU which is discontinued.
The custom firmware only deals with user interface stuff. That’s wrong, somehow they gave access to unused features of the DSP so technically it’s not just user interface stuff but the DSP code is “black box”. I don’t know how it all works but not everything was opened up to the X firmware devs.
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Salt is a really bad parallel as it refers to one of the five basic perceptions of taste, so its kinda not subjective at all
What would be very interesting is the source for this information.
The research that lead to the algorithms is documented in an article by Erik Larsson and available in English thanks to the big job of @big_job_head.
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It was someone who sounded official! I don’t know how I’ll find the post again…
This is awesome though.
So Elektron could take this and remake the Machinedrum machines on a new box? What about the legal stuff? Did that only apply to the product and not the software?
Never saw that thread, thanks for posting it 
If the author of the paper is the same guy who programmed the EFM machines, I spoke to him back in 2002. He came up to me after we had done our show at the Elektron Super Party in Gothenburg, and was quite pleased when I told him we used 90% EFM machines in our set 
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Presumably they could do what they please …
Just as Pink Floyd could remake Dark Side of the Moon … but why go over old ground if you are moving forward, sure there’s interest, for a consumer, and maybe a maker, but is there motivation … why not move forward, let’s not forget, they couldn’t give these things away a few years ago !!
How would it feel if folk always said, make music like your first stuff … as miles said, he’d rather make unheard bad music that was at least new than revisit his past
sure - it sounds like a market opportunity, but is it really … and is it a cop-out or even just not interesting … especially if it’s people potentially being asked to redo what others created
i don’t see why this doesn’t fit better in the what’s next for Elektron topic, especially if it gets thrashed through to the nth degree … let’s not forget the topic title here when going down the rabbit hole … it’s about these specific releases, less about the road ahead, or the road past
at least the thread is getting bumped, but perhaps they’re close to being all sold now
having said all of that - if they want to release successors to either (which i still think would be odd, because, they sorta have, but in a here and there kinda way across a few devices now) it’d be appealing for sure based on what was unique with them … just not quite what this news is meant to be about, as for the future news who knows, it’s 50/50 right
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I’m pretty convident that a person who is able to do amazing work such as Syntakt’s Swarm engine is also able to create modern versions of any of the mm and md machines without the need of looking at the original code.
Btw., I have never someone mentioning how organic the Machinedrum sounds. It has that in common with the Nord Drum. If you program some steps at the same pitch and same velocity, all steps sound slightly different. Not so on Model:Cycles and their Machine versions on the Syntakt. Swarm being a wonderful new exception that makes me look even more forward for whatever new could come.
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I might be in minority, but I’d say there’s absolutely no need for any MnM/MdM reissue/rework/etc. Elektron is the one of a few companies which deserve respect for thoroughly contemporary, no-nostalgia approach. The old machines are there, as glorious as they were. If anything, their ideas were developed further with the new ones. And I’m all for new flagships —a sampler, a mixer, a synth, a better FX box, whatever — but I’d welcome them developing new ideas, not serving the old ones on a better plate.
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Because people on the internet have very selective memory and weird rose tinted glasses for everything that’s ‘old’ (it’s been 7 years):
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What would be a new idea? A kick drum is still a kick drum.
Freely assigneable LFos is still a cutting edge idea.
Personally I’m only interested in some of the mm and md machines because they offer a few universally useable flavours that are currently missing.
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Here is one nice and one not so nice piece of Elektron history.
First an amazing overview of Elektron presented by @Dataline on sonicstate 9 years ago.
Secondly this occasion is a good time to also take a moment and remember Daniel Hansson: Daniel Hansson, Elektron Co-Founder and CEO, Has Passed Away - CDM Create Digital Music
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A machine shop! Also FX machines to combine with the machines. 3 cascading slots. Voila.
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Respectfully …
By your logic, one might ask why Elektron has developed 3 similar-but-different samplers yet not discontinued the oldest one because that would be more “interesting”
I don’t really follow the logic of not offering an unavailable synth for sale again (or models from it) for creative reasons.
