I paid around $1100 for my MDUW in 2013 which I found to be a pretty fair price. Frankly I think it’s one of the absolute best drum machines ever created and an essential and iconic instrument, if I didn’t already have one I would easily spend 2k plus to get my hands on one…not to say that that’s what they should be going for but unfortunately when an instrument like this gets discontinued the second hand prices go up, I don’t really get the logic of fluctuating prices of “vintage” gear but that’s just the way it goes I guess.
Either way, my answer to just about anyone who’s asking if they should get a Machinedrum is YES absolutely! As long as you’re the kind of person that enjoys programming you’re own stuff from scratch and make electronic music then the answer is always yes regardless of genre you can fit the MD into literally anything that benefits from electronic percussion as long as it’s programmed properly. If I were forced to sell off all my gear the MDUW would be one of the few that I couldn’t live without for sure
If you’re talking about the Syntakt, dont think it was built with that sort of expandability in mind? One would think a delightful weirdo would’ve already found the connectors if so.
A personal email from Jon Mårtensson who used to work for Elektron. I asked him when the mk2s were introduced in Nov 2007, and I bought the very last UW upgrade they had in stock.
A cheap Strymon Deco mk1 was permanently hook to my MD, I sold it to fund a CBA GenLoss2 but it was more appropriate.
A Boum is also a very good choice, if you have the money.
Could not refuse this when it showed up for sale. I thought the new panel and screen would be sacrilegious but in person it’s quite a thing of beauty. Albeit, a fingerprint-attracting beauty. Luckily the original panel’s included if I change my mind.