Over the last few years, we’ve released a lot of products. Mixers, sequencers, voices, effects – you name it, we’ve got it. We’re known for our digital products, and since 2020, most of our digital modules have been field-updateable so that we can release changes to customers as necessary (a few remain on an older processor that doesn’t allow for this easily). These days, all of our digital products we release are updateable. Many of our products haven’t needed any sort of update and are still rockin’ their release firmwares, but on occasion, we’ll get an email from a customer suggesting a change we really want to make. 

We focus a lot on community – we just started a Discord server so that we can chat with all of you cool people even more easily – and our products have really been shaped by all of our wonderful customers. In this post, we’re highlighting a few examples of updates we’ve made directly from customer feedback over the years. 

Desmodus Versio: crashing is bad

Desmodus Versio was a big release for us. It was our first digital effects module, it was our first field-updateable module, and it was our first platform release. We spent a lot of time on every part of it: making sure the hardware sounded good, making it look how we wanted it to, and refining the characteristic infinite tails to sound exactly how we imagined. On release, we were thrilled to finally get it out into the world, and the support was immense. 

We were flying high on one of our most successful releases ever, until someone wrote in with an… unintended behavior (read: their reverb sometimes stopped reverb-ing) they had discovered. In certain settings, Desmodus would give up on the idea of synthesizing any sort of tails and shut down, requiring a reboot. We reproduced the issue and had a fixed version released two days later. 

Desmodus also marked the first product we had made that was user-updateable, and this whole process confirmed for us that this was the correct path forward. We test a LOT but it’s always possible for something to get missed!Only a few modules had made it into the wild when the bug was fixed, and it was easy for us to help all of the early adopters install the fix using the shiny new firmware app we’d just rolled out.

Electus Versio: clocks are cool

Speaking of Desmodus, one request we received from a surprising number of people (shoutout to Broken Circuits for being first!) was that of a clocked version of the reverb.

When we initially heard the idea, we didn’t really know what to make of it. But as we explored the concept further, we learned that clocking the delay lines that made up Desmodus created some really unique sounds that weren’t really like anything we’d heard before. 

Thus Electus was born. Since this was such a departure from the original Desmodus – it changed the behavior of the button, gate input, and switch, resulting in very different sounds between the two – we decided it needed to be its own thing instead of a firmware update.

Gamut Repetitor: gate behavior

Gamut Repetitor was another highly anticipated release. By the time we brought it to market, we’d shown it off at a few events and quite a few people were asking about it. Our friend Ricky Tinez grabbed one the day it was released and made an awesome video about it, highlighting how he used it in his setup. 

He also shared his thoughts on the gate behavior: originally, the module’s trigger outputs were completely random, but he suggested that it could be more musically useful if the trigger outputs fired any time there was a CV change. 

We thought this was a great suggestion, and put together a new firmware with the new behavior. He was right: the module was even more musical and fun to jam on, so we released the update and thanked Ricky for his expertise.

Alia: platforms

A few years back we had to discontinue the famed Basimilus Iteritas Alter due to parts availability (you can read that whole story here) and replaced it with the all-new Alia line. Alia’s development, from the ground up, worked to make sure that every aspect of the original Basimilus could be recreated as a near-exact copy.

One thing that we did decide to change, though, is that we made it a platform: if you owned a Cursus, and wanted to try out, say, Ataraxic, now you could. Over the years, we’d received numerous requests from owners of the original Iteritas asking if they could swap them to be different oscillators or voices. When it came time for a redesign, all that feedback made us realize that a platform was the right move. 

Xer Mixa: a whole lot

Xer Mixa was a massive development project for us. It was our first module that used a screen, our first module to combine both audio and MIDI, our largest module ever, and our first module with a digital expander. 

We’ve actually released multiple rounds of updates for Xer Mixa: there’s so many things that we can do with it, it always takes quite a bit of discussion and planning to finalize a set of features we want to add. 

Xer Mixa also changed how we test firmware for release. Generally, our products are simple enough that testing all of the inputs and outputs, running through the expected ranges of the parameters, and using it in a few patches is enough, but Xer Mixa has so many fun options that we had to make a much more in-depth plan for firmware releases. Before a new XM firmware makes it out into the wild, we test any new features, run through our factory test plan, use it in a few patches, then, finally, run through a 70-line spreadsheet that tests all MIDI functions and digital parameters to make sure everything is working as expected.

Clock muting

This concept was a fun one that actually came from a comment on Reddit. It’s incredibly useful – and also incredibly difficult – to mute and unmute parts of a patch in time with the tempo of a patch. Since Xer Mixa has both analog CV inputs and MIDI inputs, we were able to add clocking options for both analog clocks and digital clocks with a number of division options. My personal favorite application is to use a measure clock and cue up a bunch of mutes/unmutes to happen at the start of a bar.

Quad/hex

Speaking of performance options, a few folks asked us to add options for quad output configurations. Since XM has six outputs, it was easy to repurpose two of them to be left and right rear outs. We had a great time testing circular panning and adding LFOs to throw sounds around the room.

Near the end of test, we realized that, with six outs, we could conceivably support hex speaker configurations as well. While less common than quadraphonic configurations, we put together the necessary firmware changes and tried it out, and were really happy with the results. 

We don’t know of too many people using Xer Mixa in non-stereo configurations, so if you’re a fan of extra speakers, drop us a line – we’d love to hear what you’re doing with it! 

Solo and Trim

Another request we got from quite a few people was to add ways to trim the inputs of channels, and a way to solo a channel. Xer Mixa’s mixing is entirely analog, but digitally controlled, so it was a simple matter of adding a few options to the interface and all channels could be trimmed for easy performance mixing. And you can solo a channel by double-tapping the select button now, too!

MIDI and workflow tweaks

The cool thing about releasing a deep module like Xer Mixa is that we get people who integrate them deeply into their workflows, and, as power users, have deep suggestions. We’ve made numerous changes to the MIDI behavior and specifications, workflow tweaks to improve menu navigation, Expando Expandi routing, and other under-the-hood changes to make the module even more usable. All these suggestions add up, and make our current products (and products we’re working on behind the scenes) even better.

More to come…

As usual, we’re actively developing lots of new products, and customer feedback plays a vital role in our development process. If you have an idea that you want to share, drop us a line – we always want to hear from our community!