ELK OS for Music

https://www.mindmusiclabs.com/http://cdm.link/2018/01/low-latency-os-change-music-gear-made/

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1ms latency claims don’t just involve the OS. Here, ELK delivers a complete hardware platform, so that’s the actual performance including their (high-quality, they say) audio converters and chip. That’s what stops you from just grabbing something like a Raspberry Pi and turning it into a great guitar pedal – you’re constrained by the audio fidelity and real-time performance of the chipset, whether the USB connection or onboard audio. Here, that promises to be solved for you out of the box.

Some big claims here. I'm not sure how believable what they're saying is, especially throwing around what they are on their website (https://www.mindmusiclabs.com/). Some of you may be able to shed more light on it, but in my general experience if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

That said, chips/OS with super low latency and cheap & easy to design and integrate could really open up with software/hardware music equipment market. It's already pretty open imo, but more in that direction could lead to some really great innovations.

Shit like this (new post-sales revenue stream!) does scare me though:

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 On top of this, ELK is the only solution allowing hardware manufacturers to produce musical instruments that are easily upgradable and natively connected, opening up a potential new post-sales revenue stream from software, content and services for their devices.

Pie-in-the-sky until we see this shit hitting the market?

If it's a proprietary Linux build that doesn't multitask and therefore doesn't have the inherent timing problems of a multitasking, general purpose OS, it could work really well. I would love an OS with modern functionality but the solid timing of an Atari ST or a DOS based system.

On the other hand, my understanding of this kind of stuff isn't exactly deep so I am probably wrong.

EDIT: I also agree that the whole "it's natively connected!" Internet Of Things angle is a negative not a positive.  I'm probably in a minority these days, but the last thing I want is for my music making gear to be connected to the Internet.  A big part of the appeal of gear to me is that each piece of gear, whether it's a rack unit or a pedal or a modular synth or whatever, is more or less a closed system that does what it does and doesn't change. I can't recommend Living With Complexity by Donald A. Norman enough in general, whether you're a designer or not, and in this case specifically for his great discussion of why oversimplified interfaces (i.e. Apple products) and contemporary "fluid" interface design tend to actually make devices more complicated and less intuitive in use, and I've definitely found that to be the case in software where every minor software update brings subtle changes to the UI, with the end result of the user never really fully "knowing" their own tools because the tools themselves are constantly in flux. 

The last thing I want is hardware that can update itself.

Big claims indeed, but on the other hand nothing unreal either. I get the point is that it's a full hardware+software platform built with a real-time Linux kernel. The claim of 1ms latency kind of makes me skeptical, but then I got my Live running at buffer size 32 samples, which is roughly 0.75ms at 44.1kHz. To be honest I do not know if I can compare it like this, but it sounds logical off the top of my head.

I think this sort of fits the timeline next to things like Axoloti where you could get a small real-time thingy to run your custom patches. The two significant upgrades with ELK seem to be that a) you can run this on your custom hardware if it's compatible with the CPU/motherboard and b) it is an actual computer and will run your existing plugins without too much fuss (if those plugins are properly coded of course).

I also absolutely hate the IoT-looking aspect of it, but I guess it's just there to ensure people that they can upgrade their "patches" (i.e. plugin chains etc.) without having to mess with firmware updates or a soldering iron.

I think the most suspicious bit on that website is actually the first paragraph that says originally they wanted to build a 21st century guitar. Talk about getting sidetracked! I wonder if they have heard the story of that drummer guy who eventually got into herding goats so he could make his own skins...

  On 2/1/2018 at 11:33 PM, RSP said:

If it's a proprietary Linux build that doesn't multitask and therefore doesn't have the inherent timing problems of a multitasking, general purpose OS, it could work really well. I would love an OS with modern functionality but the solid timing of an Atari ST or a DOS based system.

 

On the other hand, my understanding of this kind of stuff isn't exactly deep so I am probably wrong.

 

 

EDIT: I also agree that the whole "it's natively connected!" Internet Of Things angle is a negative not a positive.  I'm probably in a minority these days, but the last thing I want is for my music making gear to be connected to the Internet.  A big part of the appeal of gear to me is that each piece of gear, whether it's a rack unit or a pedal or a modular synth or whatever, is more or less a closed system that does what it does and doesn't change. I can't recommend Living With Complexity by Donald A. Norman enough in general, whether you're a designer or not, and in this case specifically for his great discussion of why oversimplified interfaces (i.e. Apple products) and contemporary "fluid" interface design tend to actually make devices more complicated and less intuitive in use, and I've definitely found that to be the case in software where every minor software update brings subtle changes to the UI, with the end result of the user never really fully "knowing" their own tools because the tools themselves are constantly in flux. 

 

The last thing I want is hardware that can update itself.

Agreed with all, particularly the last point. Not read the book but in general I agree with how you've described the points of it.  It could work really well but I'm definitely not knowledgeable enough to know if the claims are realistic.

  On 2/2/2018 at 1:49 AM, thawkins said:

Big claims indeed, but on the other hand nothing unreal either. I get the point is that it's a full hardware+software platform built with a real-time Linux kernel. The claim of 1ms latency kind of makes me skeptical, but then I got my Live running at buffer size 32 samples, which is roughly 0.75ms at 44.1kHz. To be honest I do not know if I can compare it like this, but it sounds logical off the top of my head.

 

I think this sort of fits the timeline next to things like Axoloti where you could get a small real-time thingy to run your custom patches. The two significant upgrades with ELK seem to be that a) you can run this on your custom hardware if it's compatible with the CPU/motherboard and b) it is an actual computer and will run your existing plugins without too much fuss (if those plugins are properly coded of course).

 

I also absolutely hate the IoT-looking aspect of it, but I guess it's just there to ensure people that they can upgrade their "patches" (i.e. plugin chains etc.) without having to mess with firmware updates or a soldering iron.

 

I think the most suspicious bit on that website is actually the first paragraph that says originally they wanted to build a 21st century guitar. Talk about getting sidetracked! I wonder if they have heard the story of that drummer guy who eventually got into herding goats so he could make his own skins...

Yeah, there's nothing impossible that they're claiming, but the broadness of how they're saying what it will be is a bit too much to be realistic. The points you make about it being sort of already happening in a way is what makes it seem more believable and possibly like something that could gain traction and be important to music tech over the next few years. OTOH, this could be the last time any of us think about this because it doesn't work as claimed and fades into obscurity quickly. :)

Hadn't noticed the part about making a guitar. That does make me worry, just in that I'd worry about any person/s that think they can 'make the 21st century guitar!'

  On 2/4/2018 at 4:34 AM, auxien said:

Hadn't noticed the part about making a guitar. That does make me worry, just in that I'd worry about any person/s that think they can 'make the 21st century guitar!'

 

 

flol that's some fucking trash right there.

I mean there's maybe an interesting idea or two in there as far as control implementation extras for a guitar, but just, overall that is just a fucking laugh riot. Thank you.

Yes - having the position and orientation and a million touchy bits matter on an instrument which is particularly famous for moving on around the stage and incorporating various other gymnastics into the act of making music - it is a very good idea. Definitely this is the revolution a guitar needs. What were you asking...? No, this white stuff.. uhh it's chalk dust from all the research and development we do, yea.