Useful, thanks, saved for hopeful future need 
1 Like
A few more relatively cheap and easy enhancements for M8 headless setupsā¦
- Midi out - for under 5$ you can source the few components needed to toss a 5pin din or trs midi out port onto the teensy (usps seems to have misplaced the perf. board and wire that I ordered and I got tired of waiting, soā¦itās not the prettiest right now, but it works!!!). ((I saw this video and caught inspirationā¦ https://youtu.be/BEqFc5MtHGY
- Lap/tablet as UI - I found great deal on a very low end 11ā 2-in-1 windows laptop/tablet and knew immediately that it was destined to be my new dedicated M8ā¦. The ālaptop modeā with keyboard control and the ātablet modeā with on-screen touch control are equally comfortable in use (I gotta say, M8headless felt portable enough on a 16ā chromebook, but this is certainly an upgrade!).
If anyone else out there sucks at waiting for thingsā¦. this setup is definitely making the wait for the real M8 a whole lot more bearable.
10 Likes
For people using the headless version: have you noticed any performance issues? I feel like I remember Tim saying that the M8ās SD reader circuit is faster than the one that comes soldered on the Teensy, and one consequence could be sample playback latency in headless mode.
1 Like
I kinda remember the same thing, was there also something about having a lot of long samples loaded into a project that is reported to cause the lag??
Samples from micro sd have worked really well for me so far, but I havenāt gone beyond a few short one-shot drum samples at a timeā¦ Iāll spend some time trying to stress that out.
(Also, with the midi out hack you could just trigger samples from elsewhere tooā¦ if the sample playback ceiling ends up being lower than desired).
Iāll report back with any fishy behavior found.
2 Likes
oooo, this looks like a great solutionā¦
How hard was it to get it set up with the tablet?
I have a wi-fi usb SNES gamepad I was going to use, wonder if I can get that running with it too!?
1 Like
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that my headless m8 setup was crashing more and more, I realised yesterday that the SD card had come a bit loose, after pushing it back in I didnāt have anymore crashes. Worth trying that if anyone else notices the same thing, the card isnāt locked in place on the teensy, the m8 is so good nobody wants any interruptions to their tracker flow!
1 Like
Essentially it was plug and play after updating chrome browserā¦. but Iām using a 2-in-1 so it has the io of a regular windows laptopā¦.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/193948952480
Iām guessing that a USB adapter would be required for most standard tablets but I canāt speak to that actually working.
Both a standard wired Xbox one controller and some random usb knockoff Xbox controller worked right away for me. SNES technically has enough buttons so I donāt see why not. (Standard keyboard control is comfy too and touch screen control works on the 2-in-1, so, there are options.
1 Like
thanks, might try and save some junky 2 in 1 from the trash and give this a go in that case!
1 Like
The 2-1 that I linked was apparently a Walmart exclusive at some point over the last two years, so my local pawn shop still has several seemingly new and in the original box for 90$. I donāt think that the one I got was even taken through the initial windows setup before it got tossed. One mans trash, as they sayā¦
Raid them bins!
a buddy of mine let me borrow his beta unit. for anyone wondering, these things are more than amazing in person and blow all my expectations out of the water. made this in the first couple hours messing around.
10 Likes
I made my first track using the M8 headless. This little tracker is a beast! I canāt wait till I have it in October!
8 Likes
Seen a few posts now with various control options for the headless m8. Laptops, tablets, pi, and ps4, xbox, op-z, various MIDI controllers being discussed/used.
Got me thinking. This may be sacrilege but could M8 run on other hardware, such as a Polyend Tracker or an MPC Live for example? I donāt imagine it would be as simple as plugging an SD card or teensy in the USB and mapping some pads and buttons, but the hardware, CPU and connectivity would be in place on those machines?
I think it would be technically possible, but you would probably need to crack either one and run linux or something. Probably much easier to get a little tablet and keypad to run it. I want to say the hardware itself has some features that are missing from headless.
1 Like
Yeah Iām sure some reasonably heavy manipulation would be needed! M8 is by far the most appealing tracker software, Iām sure it would be top on one of those hardware platforms. I could run the headless easy enough on my Mac of courseā¦
Not really run natively if that is the question. EG: Polyend tracker uses a much slower processor (identical to the teensy 3.6) but I imagine one could hack the thing with quite a bit of effort to run custom firmware to be used as the headless interface.
5 Likes
Appreciate you commenting, I realise Iām talking about shoehorning your product into someone elseās hardware! Seriously great job developing M8, itās excellent.
1 Like
New mix of M8 tracker originals with a few from my last mix !!! 
6 Likes
Looks like the M8 is getting very close to shipping over on the discord channel. Anyone wanting one should keep there eyes peeled because any extra over the preorders will be up for sale once the preorders are fulfilled. They probably will disappear fast though.
4 Likes
is it me or itās really a very very interesting little machine for the Elektron crowd? Reading the manual it reminds me a little bit of a slightly more flexible Monomachine on synth engines choices, that together with the tracker sequencer which ofc is based on plocking parameters, portability, etcā¦ I mean, where is the trick? 
4 Likes