M8 Tracker

The Lounge Other Gear
#62

Yeah, me too!!! I sort of lost track of all the really cool features it has as I was following the development on Patreon. It’s been a long time since I was doing any heavy-duty tracking but it seems like the M8 allows you to get into more out-there territories than the Polyend so looking forward to diving into that.

The synth engine he’s developed is really good sounding and obviously the MI Plaits stuff will be decent too. Effects sound decent too - esp. the chorus. Lots to enjoy even before diving into the deep end.

#63

Definitely. As the sequencer is based on LSDJ it carries across all of the phrase/table stuff so you can do really interesting things with timing and automation.

2 Likes
#64

Plz plz make vids when it’s done

2 Likes
#65

I’ve got money put aside for when a public release is available, excited for this one

1 Like
Trackers - what's your story?
#66
5 Likes
#67

Latest update that came in yesterday was the pre-orders are starting to ship on Monday. I’m pretty excited.

3 Likes
#68

These things look so badass. Is there info on a public release or is it still in the beta tester stages?

#69

How do I pre-order?
I checked these but no luck:
https://dirtywave.com/

#70

I think via his patreon if im not misstaken,i think its linked earier in thread.

1 Like
#71

Preorders opened for a patreon tier about a month ago, and were limited due to it still being a kind of preproduction model.

I believe he’s going to work on a larger production run later in the year or early next year.

2 Likes
#72

Yeah there was a limited pre-production run available only to patreon backers, by the time I found it all the pre-production units were already sold. So :crossed_fingers: he does a production run later this year or early next. I’m close to buying the polyend tracker but this is more my thing with the synthesis engines.

2 Likes
#73

I was hesitant to buy into the pre-production run, because at one point he said the normal production run might actually end up being cheaper.

1 Like
#74

Good to know! Hope that’s the case :grin:

#75

First units are out in the wild now:

3 Likes
#76

Today’s update is that he’s starting to work with an engineer to plan alterations for the next run but that he’s taking a bit of time out to take feedback and recharge (sounds like it’s been more than a labour of love!!!) so it’ll be a month about before there’s more news on that front.

Elsewhere I’m excited to discover mine’s has managed to traverse the Atlantic Ocean and should arrive tomorrow. I’m less excited by the seventy quid customs charges!

6 Likes
#77

Just arrived here. This thing is amazing.

8 Likes
#78

Picked mine’s up from the delivery locker on the way home tonight. Got in, cracked open a super tasty can of North Brewing Lost Cosmonaut (I’m giving this beer a big thumbs up too, btw) and promptly lost myself for a couple of hours in it. TLDR, and as @Sugamo advises, this thing is amazing. Some more lengthy observations for those that are interested:

  • The unit is really beautiful in the flesh… if you like the look of the photos of it, then it’s definitely going to meet your expectations.
  • The buttons feel great - I went for the mechanical feel and they’re really tactile.
  • The screen is super crisp and looks the business… the waveform animations for the synth engines has a pretty cool ‘8bit oscilloscope’ vibe.
  • I’ve never used an LSDJ style tracker, however a literal 10 second look at the Quick Start guide and I could navigate my way through the device no problem at all.
  • On that note - super fast to use. Absolute lightning.
  • Haven’t yet done anything with samples, just spent time with a looping pattern checking out the onboard synth modes which are both really good…
  • The ‘wavsynth’ is way more than the ‘classic chip and console emulation’ they mention on the website. Your classic waveforms (nicely digital sounding) have a number of way to shape these such as Mult, Warp, Mirror… unsure of the technical details but they sound great modulated with the LFO so plenty of opportunity for tables and such like.
  • The ‘macrosynth’ is based on the Braids code from Mutable Instruments so you’ll have an idea for what is happening here. Typically nice sounding and the modulation options here are especially good for getting as much mileage as possible.
  • The onboard fx, especially the reverb, are surprisingly decent. I was getting some pretty nice sounds by manually modulating the settings whilst long tails were decaying out…

Overall then, early signs are good. I’d definitely be recommending it to anyone who might be on the fence about it.

23 Likes
#79

This would be an insta-buy if he can scale up to a decent manufacturing quota.

1 Like
#80

Just got mine today. It’s beautiful. I’ve made a few little sketches with it but can’t wait to go deeper and make some full tracks. It’s gonna be interesting to go back to writing “songs” again. I’ve been in the “iterate one pattern” Elektron mindset for so long, it almost seems like work to go back to planning out an actual structure, haha :stuck_out_tongue:

7 Likes
#81

I keep seeing this listed as open source. Perusing the git looks like the base pieces he cloned are there but the os isn’t and I don’t see anything on the hardware. Would love to play with building some version to mess with his workflow and contribute while he figures out production. Is the source available somewhere or am I just being dense? Both can be simultaneously true.

1 Like