Electra One mkII

[eusti]

Wow! That sounds so interesting… Not sure how to create space for a second unit in my setup yet… Fascinating… Thank you, @martin !

[fragletrollet]

Just got my Electra mk2, and am happily mapping up my first device/preset.

Would love some video’s showcasing the functionality, although the documentation is great.

[Cubeinthebox]

Same here!

Some videos would be great while getting intro’d into the ecosystem. Documentation has been solid and really loving the midi/sysex sniffer!!

[fragletrollet]

Yes I gotta say I’ve gotten a real quality feel from the whole thing from the thing, both hardware wise and software side. The preset editor is very logical and easy to use, but some more info around some of the more advanced functions like the list applet, midi routing/merging and lua functionality would be helpful.

But my Pro-800 preset is coming along, gotten all the basic parameters mapped but am still figuring out how to apply the list applet to the various “secondary” functions like lfo waves and routing that have discrete values within a cc (which are not specified more than the number of the cc in the manual. Where are the thresholds? )

I’ve hooked up a Beatstep to the Electra, but am also a little confused if the various mapped parameters in my preset have individual cc identificators and where I can find/alter them. Lots to learn :=)

[xtrmnt]

Hi Martin,

I would like to purchase qty. 2 upgrades. Thanks!

[szszoke]

@martin

It is all ready to go. Meaning it it implemented in the firmware. The trouble why I did not enable them is that they do not work well with current grid layout. To fit them there, they must be rather small and it looks a bit awkward.

For those who don’t mind hand-editing presets in JSON, would it be possible to play around with the round knobs or they are disabled completely?

[adamc]

@martin

What is on the drawing board, greatly inspired by input from @NewIgnis and by what I saw on @phonaak desk, is a docking station for Electra One, that would offer additional 24 pots, a set of extra buttons to switch pages, presets, modes. There would be also an extra narrow LCD and larger encoder. The docking station would also feature more USB ports and a power supply. I am about to make a few prototypes. I am not sure if and when it would be actually manufactured.

This sounds cool also would be nice to get more 5pin ports or some kind of add on expander that hooks into one of the usb device ports to give an array of 5pins ready to go.

[icaria36]

Is the docking station still an idea? Today I was thinking how interesting would it be to have physical faders as good as the pots, although these pots are so good that matching faders would be very expensive, I guess.

[43e]

Hi! I just heard about the MKII and it sounds very cool. I might be replace my custom built system using a smart phone, a local web server, websockets… but something threw me back when opening https://docs.electra.one/ : the first thing it says there is to “open an account”.

What if we don’t have internet? Can one still customize the Electra One? I find this important for several reasons: what if the company one day closes down. Is the controller still usable? Or what if they are acquired and the new owner doesn’t want to support the online editor anymore? Basically I want to be sure I could use the device for many years independetly of the Internet still existing Does anyone have any info about this aspect?

Thank you

[NewIgnis]

Martin is indeed planning to make on offline editor for it, because of the reasons you mention. No idea what the status is.

The internet nor the account is needed to run the presets.

And for me the Electra forum and community provides me more advantages than disadvantages.
We share presets, learn from one another, build on top of each other’s work.

[Kaltar]

Hi @43e , I share your concerns. “what if the company one day closes down” is something that I have dealt with in the past, and it sucks. I’ve had experiences with “the main coder died”, “the owner retired”, “the company is down”, “a take over took place”, etc. This can happen with ANY company no matter the size.

But we have to understand the developers. An offline editor may look like a solution, but do you want to know what happened with all my software for macOS 9? The company needs to update the software so often, and it is something that is VERY resource consuming, specially for a device that you sold years ago and is not giving any new revenue. In this case, a web editor has been awesome due to the preset sharing and the forum, and it’s easier and faster to maintain.

However, as I stated before: It still can go wrong!

Electra One is not a company with hundreds of employees. As far as I know it is fully maintained by a small team of 2 -maybe it’s just Martin who codes the web editor and the electra- But want to know something? He cares and he listens! And the product shows it! Something you cannot say from many large corporations.

Now, the controller is 100% usable without internet! The web editor is just a super easy way create a preset. In case of a catastrophe where there is no more internet and no more web editor, and somehow you still have electricity, you can still update your presets: You will have to send your presets in json format via SysEx. It is a well thought out device!

I do not work in Electra One, do not receive any money or free devices from them. I’ve had dozens of MIDI controller thru the years, have built my own from scratch and now I own an E1 mk1 and another mk2. Honestly, I can say that E1 is THE BEST MIDI CONTROLLER HAS EVER EXISTED, and by a lot! It is gorgeous, great screen, nice quality on the pots, and It can do so much more than just send CCs, notes, SysEx or any other midi message like other controllers: it is a prototyping machine for MIDI projects thanks to it’s lua scripting. Super useful for so many things that it actually replaced multiple devices I owned, from special controllers to midi routers.

Do not think it too much and join in, you know you want a MIDI miracle this Christmas!

[43e]

Thank you @Kaltar and @NewIgnis for your feedback.

For me being able to use the editor is essential because I don’t plan to use any presets. I don’t even own musical instruments: I use midi controllers to control real time visuals (my custom software).

Creating cross-platform desktop software is very time consuming indeed, but this is not needed: if the editor software was open source, then if something goes wrong we can continue to fix and develop the software ourselves.
Instead of an offline editor we could just run the online editor in our own computers (typically just an npm start​ command away).
Or bundle the online editor with an Electron app or similar, removing the necessity to maintain more code bases.

I am looking forward to try the Electra One once I am no longer concerned about this

Thanks to Electra One for having so much source code already online I think the world would be a better place if more hardware companies open sourced their software

[martin]

Hi, just mentioned that in another thread. We are adjusting the online web application so that it can be safely bundled as an Electron app as well as we want to take advantage of the firebase storage to handle both online and offline operation.

As the E1 project has made a big step up in functionality in last year we are also making more substantial changes to the application itself. The main goal is to make the user interface more users friendly (given the number of new features) and add some of the features our users are crying for. And yes, there is 1.5 developers here

I am sorry for slow responding I was down with a flu. Back working now…

[Kaltar]

@martin

And yes, there is 1.5 developers here

Is the .5 due to working with a 1m tall elf? I knew there was something christmasy on the Electra!

[Kaltar]

@martin

We are adjusting the online web application so that it can be safely bundled as an Electron app as well as we want to take advantage of the firebase storage to handle both online and offline operation.

That is absolutely amazing news! I need to read the forum more often!

[icaria36]

I hope the .5 is not the same Martin working the Heinzelmännchen shift when everyone i sleeping…

@43e see also Offline editor?

[Dolleman]

Hey guys, New user here, this week I will place an order I think.
I was reading this thread and I was wondering if there is an update about the Loopop demo/review? There aren’t many video’s that showcase the use. I would love to use this beast inconjuction with my Deluge or GR-1

What will be happening in the near future:

1. Loopop making a review. He has been an E1 user for about two years now. I did not want to make a review when we did not have any units in stock. That has changed, we should be able to manufacture hardware without any problems this year and on. Loopop also shared/suggested several great ideas. We are definitely going to reflect some of them.
2. SoundOnSound review

the SoS is finally there, thats great! Electra One MkII
I’m still waiting for the Loopop demo/review, when will this drop? the near future is already the past imo

[martin]

@Dolleman

I’m still waiting for the Loopop demo/review, when will this drop? the near future is already the past imo

I had a talk with Loopop at the Superbooth, we agreed that it makes sense to wait for the upcoming E1 Mini. The Mini hardware is ready. We are working on the website update to open pre-orders. We will soon provide prototypes to the testers. Loopop is one of them but it is fully up to him to make the planning.

[Dolleman]

upcoming E1 Mini? I completely missed this news!
Where can I found more information about this?

[fragletrollet]

Looking forward to the Loopop review, he’s a great tutor.

Also, the more work being done by the dev’s on additional professional presets for popular hardware would definitively add to the value for many users. Keep’em coming!