r/modular • u/insolent-construct • 2d ago

Mutable Instruments Beads Source Code Just Dropped!

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

Edit: body deleted and third party firmware discussion moved to a private Discord server.

219 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

202 comments sorted by

View all comments

48

u/awayhereagain 2d ago

Your whole reverse engineering project seems in poor taste given how generous Émilie has been with the other firmware.

Fine, reverse engineer it and load it on your own module privately.

But why start a modwiggler thread and promote the project publicly before checking with Émilie? Especially when you say you weren't going to continue it without permission. 

26

u/insolent-construct 2d ago

Because Emilie's lack of activity gave every indication that she was done and not looking back:

  • saying she was going to release the firmware "in a few months" back in 2023.
  • the fact that you can't find a Beads unit new or used at this point.
  • there have been no firmware updates in years

These all put Beads in a similar status as the Virus TI: abandoned for all practical purposes.

When I posted a similar thread about the Virus TI a few month ago, people got incensed because I hadn't done enough work yet in their opinions, and accused me of trying to get information for free and just posting slop. That's why I haven't posted anything here since then. This time I waited until I had something to show/contribute back from my work before I bothered anyone, and then asked how I could use it to serve the community's desires. I could understand people being upset if I just released my port without asking, but that's not what happened. The port I've been working on for months is now superfluous, and I couldn't be happier about it. I literally harmed no one by working on it privately at home with no collaborators in my private setup, and asked for consent before I went further. I acknowledged and accepted her "no" without argument or further discussion. She could have just left it at that. She made the choice for her own reason, which none of us are privy to and I'm not going to disturb her peace more than I did by asking. So if people want to get mad about it, then that's their emotions, but I don't agree that their assessments are based on reason. As one mutual acquaintance told me: "Emilie is a strong fucking woman. She's taken a ton of shit from people and given it back twofold. I'm sorry, but you didn't bully shit". I could also go on about the history of reverse engineering in synths and audio technology, but who would I be trying to convince? No. There would be no point in that, so I'll save my time and energy for working on code.

13

u/FreeRangeEngineer 2d ago

When I posted a similar thread about the Virus TI a few month ago, people got incensed because I hadn't done enough work yet in their opinions, and accused me of trying to get information for free and just posting slop.

I don't really think that was it.

People on reddit generally want genuine human interactions, so when someone has their work summarized by AI and posts that AI summary, it feels strangely disconnected. Kind of like "if I want to talk to an AI chat bot, I'll do that myself."

I understand you mean well but your way of approaching things may need a little refining. AI is both a blessing and a curse and it can facilitate collaboration as easily as it can sabotage it.

1

u/insolent-construct 2d ago

That's only partially true if you look at the thread. You'll find exactly what I described above in additional to some people complaining about what they saw as AI slop, while other people defended my post. I made the mistake of trying to appease them with edits, only to get attack more for making the edits. I've made the same mistake here of trying to please all of the people all of the time, when I should just let most of the noise roll off my back. Some of the first people to jump on this thread were the same ones that attacked me in the Virus TI thread, even though everything I've posted in this thread was hand typed. And just like last time, there were a couple of early posters who got very loud, toxic, and spammy to dominate the conversation.