Elektron Musical Instruments

Hi elektromites!

I posted a suggestion for a possible OS upgrade in which the MD could 
accept/record keyboard input sometime ago. I think we got lost in a flamming 
war by then, but I believe this is really a nice feature that would bring a 
lot more to the MD workflow.

I think that the UW upgrade solved all issues related with the variety of 
the machines/sounds available and I truly see the MD as complete in that 
area. On the other hand I often feel frustrated for having these really cool 
sample based sounds and not be able to play them as in a kbd. Sampling is an 
option but it brings all the disavantadges of sampling. plus you lose the 
all in one factor.

I think that with this option the performance capabilities of the MD would 
increase even more. Being able to record your lines in realtime fast would 
make it a perfect performance machine.

Now as I said the other time, and I may have been cynical by then, this 
would bring the MD into MM territory. However I think that this wouldn't be 
the case, since the MM continues to offer polyphonic sequencing and the 
ability to record CCs without the need for triggers.

The perfect scenario for a MD kbd input would be that it's receive pitch, 
gate times and volume (velocity). Gate times would be translated into 
different parameters depending on the machine used. Hold for ROM machines, 
decay for synthesis machines, gate time for midi machines. this would be 
perfect but I can see that there could be some tricky programming needed to 
make it happen this way. Overlapping notes etc would make it tricky. On the 
other hand I think that just the ability to record pitch + trigger would be 
good enough already, and would make it even more distant from the MM in 
terms of feature overlap.

Since this is a "drum machine" I think it'd be ok to have trigger info only. 
You could quickly program your gates with the locks after the melody was 
there. not the perfect view for a live situation but ok nevertheless.

On a different perspective this could be an upgrade tied to the sampling UW 
expansion, and make this capability available only for the ROM machines. I 
think in this scenario you could expect a full sequencing capability (pitch, 
gate, velocity). This would make it the most intuitive/fun sampler on the 
market, and would bring more users to update/buy the UW version. While I'd 
like to see this kind of sequencing power on the synth and midi machines I 
find that the ROM machines are the ones that would benefit the most with it.

one possible way to make this happen is to have a way to select a midi 
channel that receives the kbd input in the global menu and have this channel 
specifically for kbd input. (for example, you could choose 5 midi channels 
instead of 4  in which the first or last would be for this input). Whenever 
a track is selected it'd send the midi info to it's sound engine (or midi 
out if also implemented on a midi machine) as in a "monitor on" mode. When 
in record mode, notes and triggers (or gates) would be recorded. Also, this 
would be available as a parameter lock input for pitch when in step rec 
mode.

I remember Daniel saying that this would probably take one month of work to 
implement and while I know that this represents a lot of of R&D effort I 
consider it to be the missing link to make the MD the ultimate, godly, 
super, most massively superb, performace machine on the planet. The UW 
upgrade brought it this close, but it's frustrating to have all these great 
sounds that the UW allowed without being able to sequence them with your own 
swing and groove.

I hope I'm not misinterpreted. i love the MD, I have it since the early 
times when it came out, I always supported it and recommended it to my 
friends, and I'll continue on doing it. However I think that this little 
feature would represent a huge step forward in terms of realtime "writing" 
possibilities.

I think that if there is enough interest of our part in this feature maybe 
Daniel and the elektron crew would reconsider it for future OS release ( 
It'd make a beautiful OS2.0). Also if this was tied to the UW upgrade it 
could possibly make it feasable from the economical point of view. Actually 
I would mind paying extra to have this feature alone.

sorry for bringing this issue up again but I really think this would be a 
really exciting new feature.

best to all,
Rui