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ModAbleton MoveElektron Machinedrum

schwung-machinemodule

sd88me/schwung-machinemodule · ★ 2

The Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 UW sound engine on Ableton Move, as a Schwung sound generator.

README from GitHub, AGPL-3.0

Machinemodule for Schwung (Ableton Move)

The Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 UW sound engine on Ableton Move, as a Schwung sound generator. It is the same engine as the desktop plugin and the MPC builds: the Machinedrum's own DSP code and OS running in an emulator, with its track effects, mixer and master effects. The 16 tracks sit on Move's 16 drum pads, and the pages follow the pad you hit, in the style of DR32.

Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Elektron. No firmware is included: you upload your own Machinedrum OS file.

Playing it

Tracks 1-16 are the 16 drum pads (notes 36-51). Hit a pad and every track page shows that track. While a pattern runs, only a pad you hit with your finger moves the pages, not the notes the sequencer plays.

Jog moves through the pages:

PageKnobs
Kita list: Init, the factory kits, then your own kits ("User:"). Choosing one loads it
TrackTRK (the track on screen), MACH (its machine), LEVEL, MUTE
Synththe machine's eight SYN knobs, with the machine's own names (CTR-8P: its targets instead)
Amp/FilterAMD AMF EQF EQG FLTF FLTW FLTQ SRR
MixDIST VOL PAN DEL REV
LFOTRACK PARAM SHP1 SHP2 UPDTE SPEED DEPTH SHMIX
EchoTIME MOD MFRQ FB FLTF FLTW MONO LEV
ReverbDVOL PRED DEC DAMP HP LP GATE LEV
EQLF LG HF HG PF PG PQ GAIN
DynamixATCK REL TRHD RTIO KNEE HP OUTG MIX
MasterFX, LTNCY, VELMD, ACTHR, ACAMT, VOICS, LOAD, PEAK

The machines are all of the UW's except MIDI, RAM and INP: there is no MIDI out, sampling or audio input here. CTR-AL, CTR-8P and CTR-RE/GB/EQ/DX work as on the Machinedrum. The ROM machines need the flash image.

Master page

  • FX: the Machinedrum's master effects. Full is all of them. Rev+Echo skips the EQ and Dynamix, which saves about a quarter of their CPU; it sounds louder, because the Dynamix is a compressor. Off saves all of it.
  • LTNCY: how far ahead the engine renders, in blocks of 2.9 ms. Default 2 (5.8 ms).
  • VELMD: MD plays the Machinedrum's way: a hit at or above ACTHR is accented, a softer one plays ACAMT softer. VEL makes velocity set the level, like Move's own instruments.
  • VOICS: how many tracks may sound at once (4-16; 16 = no limit). Default 10. Past it, the oldest voice is cut. A ROM machine counts as two.
  • LOAD: the engine's CPU use now. PEAK: the worst moment of the last 5 seconds. Under 100% plays without clicks.

Buses: each track can go to its own Schwung bus. It then leaves the main mix with its level and pan, and gets that bus's effects instead of the Machinedrum's master section.

Saving: a Schwung set saves the whole kit and the settings. Copy and Delete of a track use the host's hold-and-hit gesture.

CPU

The emulation is heavy: a busy kit with ROM machines and the full master effects is close to what a Move can do. If it clicks, watch PEAK on the Master page while it plays, and in this order:

  1. Lower VOICS (8 or 6).
  2. Set FX to Rev+Echo, or Off.
  3. Raise LTNCY to 3.

Measured on a standard Move (CM4): a typical beat uses about 40-60% of one block's time; a busy 16-track sequence with ROM machines plays clean at the defaults (LTNCY 2, VOICS 10, FX Full).

Install

Requires Schwung 1.7.3 or later (tested on 1.7.3, on a standard Move).

  1. Download machinemodule-module.tar.gz from the Releases page. In Schwung Manager, open Modules and use Install from File.
  2. On Machinemodule's page in Schwung Manager, upload your files:
    • os (required): the Machinedrum UW OS 1.63 .syx, a free download from Elektron's Machinedrum support page.
    • flash (optional): the Machinedrum UW flash image .bin. It gives you the 16 factory kits and the ROM machines' samples. The first start after the upload imports it by booting the emulated Machinedrum once: about 6 minutes, with the module silent meanwhile. After that it starts in about 2 seconds.
    • kits (optional): your own kit dumps (.syx, one or many kits per file).
  3. Restart Move, add Machinemodule to a track and play the pads.

Building

git clone --recursive https://github.com/sd88me/schwung-machinemodule
cd schwung-machinemodule
scripts/build.sh                          # Docker (ubuntu 22.04's aarch64 toolchain): dist/machinemodule-module.tar.gz
scripts/install.sh ableton@move.local     # or Schwung Manager's "Install from File" with the tarball

The engine is sd88me/mpc-vst-machinedrum, a submodule in libs/machinemodule. This repo holds the Move-only parts:

src/plugin/md_plugin.cppdsp.so, inside Move: the kit table, pages, MIDI, kits, state and buses. It starts and watches the engine
src/child/md_engine.cppmd-engine, the engine process (cores 0-2, made real-time by the plugin)
src/common/md_shm.hthe shared memory between the two
module/module.json, help.json
tests/md_hosttest.cpploads dsp.so as Schwung does and plays it in real time on a Move (run as root for Move's priorities)
tests/md_busybench.cppa kit's CPU cost per block on a Move, for each engine setting
tools/md_watch.cppthe running engine's late blocks and block times, live (as root on the Move)

PROPOSAL.md has the design and the measurements behind it.

Credits

  • Elektron, for the Machinedrum. Its firmware and sound are theirs; this module ships none of it.
  • The emulators:
    • dsp56300, the DSP56300 emulator and JIT the Machinedrum's DSP code runs on (through our fork), with its bundled asmjit.
    • gearmulator-md-mm by Joe Landers: a full-system Machinedrum and Monomachine emulation, built on The Usual Suspects' Gearmulator. It was the reference for this engine, and its mdProbe is what imports your flash image on the Move. Its Musashi 68k core, by Karl Stenerud, runs the OS's machine routines.
  • shnolk's Monomodule: the Monomachine emulated the same way, the approach this engine follows (the machine's own DSP in an emulator, a model of the main processor), and its OS-file decoder.
  • legsmechanical's Monomodule for Schwung: the way to host an emulated Elektron engine on Move, which this module follows: a separate engine process, shared memory and a supervisor that restarts it.
  • legsmechanical's DR32: the interface this follows: Schwung's own knob grid, few menus, and pages that follow the pad you hit.
  • Schwung by Charles Vestal, the framework this runs in.
  • The engine, shared with the desktop plugin and the MPC builds: sd88me/mpc-vst-machinedrum.
  • Built with Claude Code.

Licence

AGPL-3.0, as the engine. src/host_api/plugin_api_v1.h is Schwung's (MIT, see src/host_api/README).