1. Enthusiasm and nostalgic praise
Many commenters expressed excitement about having a Machinedrum‑like tool available in the browser or as a software option, highlighting the joy of revisiting classic Elektron hardware.
- “I'm really liking this, I used to own one back in the day.” – tab8000
- “This is pretty great. Having the physical knobs to do the step locking tweaks makes the experience a whole lot better…” – devin
- “I love Elektron gear, I have a Syntakt and it is the piece of gear that I'm the most productive with.” – polytely
- “Truly one of the most interesting developments in software synthesis in the past few years.” – MomsAVoxell
2. Concerns about accuracy and missing features
A recurring theme was that the current implementation feels incomplete or only a simulation, lacking several hallmark functions of the original Machinedrum.
- “It doesn't actually do most features, so probably not.” – wheels
- “It’s not emulating, its simulating.” – MomsAVoxell (repeated)
- “It’s kind of accurate, but on iPad it’s a bugger to play like the real one… One of the great things about the real Machinedrum is you can just kind of ‘swipe’ across the pads to mute things - this doesn’t really work in the web version…” – MomsAVoxell
- “I have a UW (user wave) version. It doesn't look like they implemented some of the more interesting parts of the MD.” – dnewcome
3. Naming confusion – device vs. musician
Several participants debated whether the name “Machinedrum” referred to the Elektron drum machine, the electronic musician, or both, and speculated on the origin of the artist’s moniker.
- “I wonder if the author is aware that Machinedrum is also an established American electronic musician.” – wartywhoa23
- “The Machinedrum is a drum machine created by Elektron in 2001 the title only reflects this. That's interesting though since I think the musician Machinedrum released his first album in 2001 too.” – piacos_
- “I've always thought he named the act after the instrument.” – ngcazz
- “It's also not a very original name. What's next, The Prodigy being named after Moog's Prodigy?” – input_sh