Dirtywave M8 Tracker - Handheld Synthesizer + Sampler + Sequencer

[thresholdpeople]

Sick. Yeah, this is gonna be really fun

How versed are you with the tracker workflow? I've never actually used one beyond messing with Renoise for a couple hours once. Do you have any recommendations for being able to grok the workflow possibilities, how to think about modulations/modifiers (? not sure the nomenclature), etc?

[tl]

Sick. Yeah, this is gonna be really fun

How versed are you with the tracker workflow? I've never actually used one beyond messing with Renoise for a couple hours once. Do you have any recommendations for being able to grok the workflow possibilities, how to think about modulations/modifiers (? not sure the nomenclature), etc?

The tracker workflow is not unfamiliar to me... Fasttracker, OpenMGT and Renoise. To be honest they were never my most used or favored tools. But I see the M8 as great handheld hardware addition to my regular software based workflow.
M8 has a specific approach to the tracker paradigm as it's based on LSDJ - a gameboy tracker. I don't have real experience in working with LSDJ but I see the advantages of its concept in handling and embracing the limitations of the handheld game console.
Modulation or modification of instrument parameters work with LFOs, tables and commands.
To learn and get into the M8 workflow I have prepared a Teensy with the M8 headless firmware. Together with the M8 meetup videos and the preliminary manual I feel confident that it will work out for me.

Regards,
tl.

[thresholdpeople]

thanks tl! i think we're in a similar boat then.

'note' progressions and sequencers aren't super interesting to me, so i'm quite curious in the other sequencing parameters, and having spoken with a friend about their nerdseq, i think there are all sorts of clever potentials in what the sequencer can do. i just don't have the context to wrap my mind around it yet. i'll wait and figure it out when it's in my hands, or mess around with renoise in the mean time to get the general paradigm across a bit.

[tl]

https://twitter.com/10kfreemen/status/1 ... 4427114499
great sample mangling, great wip toon - made with M8.

[tl]

https://youtu.be/i7PgOLOQz_o

m8 tracker demo by mickey303, a beta device user - all sounds synthesized and sequenced within the device.

regards,
tl.

[bmanic]

This looks awesome!!!

Seems like it's not possible to preorder at this time as it's sold out. What was the price of this thing? Definitely going to keep an eye out for this.

Wish this was ported for the PS Vita or something.. would love to have a nice little tracker for it.

EDIT: This thing also SOUNDS amazing! Soooo much better and seems a lot more capable than Polyend Tracker.

[tl]

This looks awesome!!!

Seems like it's not possible to preorder at this time as it's sold out. What was the price of this thing? Definitely going to keep an eye out for this.

Wish this was ported for the PS Vita or something.. would love to have a nice little tracker for it.

EDIT: This thing also SOUNDS amazing! Soooo much better and seems a lot more capable than Polyend Tracker.

As far as I can see it is awesome!
I'm sooo excited.

The shipping of the first batch of pre-ordered devices will start in less than a month I think. After that a new batch is planned. Regular pre-order price was 450$ but I ordered mine early-bird for more to help Timothy Lamb AKA Trash80 with this great project. You have to keep in mind the M8 tracker is a boutique device conceived and created by one person with great passion and the help of great community.

Regards,
tl.

[gentleclockdivider]

You can run it headlesss on your desktop using a teensy , it's runs the exact same algoritms ( fm and some mutable instr, stuff)

[tl]

My M8 arrived... I'm blown away.

After some initial problems which were resolved by Tim, the passionate developer of the device, I took it for some testruns...
Build quality is great - it's a solid built piece of truely portable gear. The operation via the eight keys makes totally sense in combination with the tracker’s interface structure. I haven't learned all the various key combinations yet but basic operation and navigation is very fast.
Going through the project files which users have submitted over the past months on discord gave me a very positive overview of the device's sound quality and variety.
Been foolin' around myself with really basic synth voice design and rudimetary sequencing via midi output incl. sending sync via midi clock.
For now I have to say I'm really happy with the device and very impressed by the support level on the part of the developer.
More to come...

Regards,
tl.

[bmanic]

That's awesome to hear! I'm definitely going to get one of these.

[kcearl]

This batch’s sold out…looks like a funky little gadget, could never quite pull the plug in the polyend

[bmanic]

Anybody know how the "a few units per week" selling system works? Today I kept refreshing the website over and over again as apparently every sunday at a certain time the shop should refresh and have a few units available.. but this is the second Sunday I missed out, even though I was literally camping at the website.

Is the demand so high that they literally go in seconds?

[SLiC]

It's a beautiful looking bit of tech in my eyes, the new OP-1 in many ways. If I didn't already have the Poly Tracker I probably would be trying harder to get one, I love this type of thing!

Of course this or the PT could be done exactly the same on an iPhone or iPad, but the hardware makes it so much more fun!

[tl]

Anybody know how the "a few units per week" selling system works? Today I kept refreshing the website over and over again as apparently every sunday at a certain time the shop should refresh and have a few units available.. but this is the second Sunday I missed out, even though I was literally camping at the website.

Is the demand so high that they literally go in seconds?

As far as I read it's Monday at 7am PDT and on Discord someone posted that on Monday the first of November the units intended for that day were sold within 4 minutes...
The demand is high and the amount of units is low... the units sold now are the remaining ones from the preorder production run. After that the next stack will be available in the beginning of 2022.

Regards,
tl.

[bmanic]

Ah I thought it was Sunday. Must have misread the email. Well, wish me luck tomorrow then.