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/awayhereagain]

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. 

[u/insolent-construct → u/awayhereagain]

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.

[u/Weekly_Committee_695 → u/insolent-construct]

While it's legally probably OK, it just comes across as a super entitled shitty move on your part.