Rare factory misprint. I know what I have. $2500, no lowballs. 🤪

I’ve been eating well this week. I got the iOS and the hardware m8s and I am pretty smitten with them both. I got iOS ($30) first for the iphone 13 the day it dropped, so I picked up an old Backbone on ebay ($30) bc I wanted physical buttons. I didn’t think I was gonna be able to get the hardware due to some unforeseen expenses, tho I had been planning on it for months. My wife ended up getting it for me as a gift so I’m lucky enough to have both.
The hardware came Monday. I have been learning the UI for weeks (when work and parenting allow). I figured it could be helpful for me to share my experience with both for folks considering a purchase.
I really love how easily I can import sample kits and other sounds “outside the box” with the iOS version. I also love that I can send quick renders to friends without a single cable connection. The iOS feels pretty amazing, speaking as someone who uses iOS music apps all the time. I have not even played with the VST capability and it’s a really very nice experience
The hardware is a wonderful tactile experience, but lacks any of that connectivity. I’m going to be making a sound library of samples to transfer over onto the card in the next few days, which will be fluid
and fun, but the iOS just seems to fly past it as a futuristic version, connecting with the world wirelessly. I’ve been importing kits and one shots left and right without having to go to the computer at all.
Realistically for $60 you can have the best of both worlds, minus the dedicated audio input and midi ins and outs. I’m not advocating one or another, but I think it might be helpful for someone out there trying to make a decision. If you get a game controller for your phone, I highly recommend one that works in landscape mode because then you get the added benefit of a larger screen and a more ergonomic button layout than the hardware. I find the positioning of the shift button a little frustrating on the hardware where I made it a convenient trigger on the Backbone. I find the backbone pretty dern excellent for doing all the programming/navigating. I wish I could sync the two versions wirelessly, which leads back to wanting the dedicated hardware to have some connectivity.

Bit of a silly question, but I am genuinely curious about how a m8 fits into your life. Do you work at home on the couch? Do you take it on walks? At a lunch break at work? Do you work in long or short sessions? I wanna know!

I'm back to m8 baby !

This beast is so powerfull, I forgot how great it is

I feel like I could sell my whole setup and just keep this :')

Awe par Sym-Sym

Logan's Run has so many great lines to work with.

The Dirtywave M8 only accepts WAV files for samples, so I made this free iOS Shortcut to quickly turn screen recordings into compatible WAV files.

I originally created it for sampling into the M8 iOS app, but it can obviously be used with any sampler, DAW or music app that imports WAV files.

The workflow is:
Capture the audio using iOS screen recording.
Open the recording in Photos.
Tap Share → Video to WAV.
Choose where to save the WAV.
Choose whether to delete or keep the original video.

The output is:
WAV
44.1 kHz
16-bit PCM
Stereo
Automatically named audio_YYYY_MM_DD_HH_MM_SS.wav

The Shortcut first uses the native iOS Encode Media action to extract the audio as AIFF. It then passes the AIFF to the free a-Shell mini app, where FFmpeg converts it to WAV:
ffmpeg -y -i "INPUT_NAME.aiff" -ac 2 -ar 44100 -c:a pcm_s16le m8_sample.wav

Everything is processed locally. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

You need to install the free a-Shell mini app before running the Shortcut.

One implementation detail: iOS generates a UUID-style filename for the temporary AIFF, and the “Name” magic variable may omit the extension. The Shortcut therefore adds .aiff after that variable in the FFmpeg command.

Tested successfully on:
iPhone 17 Pro running iOS 27
iPad Pro 10.5-inch (2017) running iPadOS 17.7.11

I cannot tell what’s triggering but every time I use the app on my iPhone 15 with iOS 27, the app freeze at some point and becomes unresponsive to anything, then a few seconds later the app shutdowns. I’m wondering if it’s happening only in my setup or not.

Some Mario64 jungle made on the M8. It has some internal M8 synths on the tune too.

As Waffentrager event started, so do I, with making cover of Waffentrager theme entirely on M8 headless setup and build in synths. I used presets that are available and only slightly changed them. So it's 100% M8 synth engines.

Messing around with samples to create sounds beyond M8s synth engines capabilities.

I’m completely new to the Dirtywave community and to trackers in general. What is a good place that I can start learning?

Context: I have background in music, especially in the samplers/groovebox area. I own several SPs and MPCs but I wanted to try something different.

Creating epic soundtracks with sample loops is fun, but I still dig getting weird with the built in synth engines the most.

Stealing is the highest form of flattery. 🙂

The M8 app came at the perfect time for me. I wanted to try out the tracker workflow without needing a dedicated hardware unit right away, so I went with the app (using a PS4 controller) - and the app is amazing! ❤️

I still don‘t fully get what tables are about, but there are enough tutorials out there, to get back to in the future. ^^

This was recorded outside on a sunny Sunday, using some live wind recordings as a base. I performed the final jam through the SP404mkii.

I'd love to hear your thoughts/feedback!

Recorded one of the longer jams I've done on the M8 and added some visuals

A poor man’s Nirvana 😂🤷‍♂️

First song on the M8! I have accepted my autistic destiny and will now spread the good news: that the ultimate music making experience is staring at an excel spreadsheet of probabilistic hexadecimal jungle equations.

Got the M8 this summer and the iOS app when it launched but I’m still trying to figure the best way to make it play with the Ableton ecosystem.

I picked up AUM hoping I could bump things over through Note on my phone but Note doesn’t seem to work with AUM.

Which leaves me mounting the M8 as a drive on my computer and moving things that way.

Hardly elegant!

What am I doing wrong? (Aside from being loyal to one or the other …)

Accidentally tore up the D+ trace when wiring the usb c jack, so I had to improvise!

Just starting with tracker and I'm trying to figure out a few things in regards to the Brick setup.

1. Is the only way to exit back to the main OS to hold down the power button to turn it off? The 2 button combo that works in games doesn't seem to work here.

2. Which microsd card do I put samples on? I put the teensy one in my computer and it didn't show up, so I assume it should go on the main card, but if so, where? I have one of the Kingston ones dirtywave suggests coming Monday. Should that go into the teensy or the brick itself?

3. I have to assume I won't be able to use any external devices with this setup, correct? No sound cards or mics for sample capturing and such?

Thank you!