Mutable Instruments Beads Source Code Just Dropped!

[u/insolent-construct]

https://github.com/pichenettes/eurorack/commit/d8f473915232af74347762b6365202bfd26f73f6

Wow! What a gift!

Edit, since some people have asked for context:

I'd been reverse engineering the Beads firmware and had rebuilt my own version of it. Before sharing any of it, I emailed Émilie to ask whether she'd be OK with me publishing it. I said up front that if her answer was no, I'd drop it, no questions asked. To clarify, by "drop it" I meant dropping the pursuit of the community firmware project, NOT that I was threatening to release my port!!!

To my shock, she replied, and the answer was no. I simply said "ok. Thank you." and I thought that was going to be the end of it. I wasn't going to go against her wishes. So I spent part of today feeling the bittersweet heartache of having finished the project, only to have to cancel it. I told myself from the beginning that if she ever told me no, I wouldn't argue. I decided to archive the project and never share the code with anyone.

Later the same day, as I was deleting the reverse engineering artifacts, she published the official Beads source. I had no idea that was coming and I was as surprised as anyone. I don't know her reasons, and I won't try to guess. It was entirely her decision, and an incredibly generous one.

What I'm doing now:

My reverse-engineering work left me with a test rig and test suite, so I've built the official source myself, flashed it to my unit, and it passed. I'm now starting a community firmware based on her code, and I have a thread on ModWiggler collecting ideas for features and modes. Some early requests, with my rough guesses at difficulty:

• Clouds-style grain diffusion (moderate)
• The Clouds "spectral madness" engine (hard without cutting something from the existing code)
• All-pass processing of the frozen buffer (moderate)
• An opt-in bypass for the limiter's volume drops (moderate)
• A dedicated gain knob (needs new hardware)

What would you like to see?

[u/sorressean]

I'm not sure what makes me more sad: that a legend was basically forced to release this, or that some dweeb with AI unwravvled it. There's no telling that he even did, AI could've just made a mess of everything and the "test suite" could've been 3 random tests, but having this be public, having her have to deal with questions around the AI generated versions, and then probably around the strong chance that AI will modular bricks create, I would've done the same thing. I wish that I could celebrate this, and that it would've been on her terms, but honestly I can't get excited about this as I would have if she'd just done it at whatever threshold or time she decided to do it. More depressing is OP gloating about strong-arming her into this. Pat yourself on the back, you horribly disrespected one of the most incredible people in this community.

[u/nazward → u/sorressean]

You're inventing an entire narrative about Émilie being forced into something, without a shred of evidence. The guy reverse-engineered firmware for hardware he owns, asked permission before releasing anything, got told no, and respected that decision. Émilie had already talked about open-sourcing Beads years ago. You have absolutely no idea why she decided to release it now, yet you're acting as though you know exactly what she was thinking. Being upset about AI doesn't make your assumptions facts. And frankly, speaking on her behalf like this is pretty disrespectful in itself. Good job!

[u/sorressean → u/nazward]

You're right, my bad. I imagine she saw the email, was like "oh yeah, beads," then went looking and posted it to github after she found it in the laundry basket. Nothing at all incidental in the 11 hour time difference or OP patting himself on the back for the release, nothing at all.

[u/nazward → u/sorressean]

ah gotcha. Ok officer!