Continuing on with a review of Ivity’s MD UW Editor (for the first part of this review, see here).
Next up is what I think of as the main instrument (or machine) selection area for the software. This area appears in tan at top right. It’s a little confusing at first but here’s how it works. You need to click to select “MD Synth Type” AND then click to select “Machine Type” in order for the software to update. Once you have clicked on both of these, then a number of the other screens will change with the update. For example, if you select E12 as “MD Synth Type” and Rimshot as “Machine Type”, then one of the parameters you will see at top left is Rattle. In addition to machine selection, this area also lets you configure that machine’s LFOs and the output routing of that machine.
Machine Selection Area
The top to middle left area correspond to the three main programming pages on the MD. If you have used the Machinedrum for more than a day, these should be very familiar. Below that at lower middle left is the Effects controls. These will change depending on what Effect Select you picked in the navy colored box in the center. The background color of the Effects controls also changes depending on what effect you pick. It’s a nice touch that gives a visual indication of your effect choice.
There is also a really cool “Kaoss” (X/Y) pad in the software. Here you can pick two parameters and assign one to the X-axis and one to the Y-axis. Moving the cursor box around in the pad area modifies both parameters simultaneously. The two parameters can either be for the same track (i.e., the same instrument) or can be for two separate tracks. The X and Y positions update as numbers on the screen to show you what you are sending. Below this is a light blue area for sending track trigs and track mutes.
Virtual Kaoss Pad
Finally, there is some really advanced stuff that does not have a lot of documentation. At right in the center there is a Randomization option with three different kinds of randomization (periodic, drunk and Brownian). You can also set the periodicity coefficient (?!) and specify what kinds of parameters are affected. Next at bottom left there is also a Patch Genetics area where you can, I guess, procreate your patches. You can indicate how much of the baby patch’s genetics come from Dad and how much come from Mom. Tucked away under the File menus is also some more MIDI Setup functionality. There is also an enigmatic Overdrive option under Edit. Hmm… Perhaps this the long-lost predecessor to Overbridge?
Ivity had uploaded the software to his website and I remember downloading and using the Windows version. At the time, and even today, it was and is a pretty epic piece of software. In one of his last posts on the topic, Ivity mentioned wanting to add VST support to the program but was lacking the time. He indicated that the program was open source and that someone else could work on it. However his website eventually disappeared and the executable files became harder and harder to find (the source code seems to have disappeared entirely). Fortunately a young(-er) Elektron User name Rusty (who has since done a bit of Elektron programming of his own) posted them up to the Files section of that forum. Here are the direct links for Windows and for Mac . The main thread for this software is here.