Third Time's The Charm / Marble Machine X-T, New Design Collection and Crowdfunding Closure

One aspect I enjoy about the MMX project is seeing how Martin and his team tackle challenges and recover from set backs. It makes the project more human, more relatable, and also more honest and authentic! The project is worth every single dollar of my support!

The thing I probably loved the most about the marble machine X project & videos was the inspiration, regarding what a _normal_ human being can achieve, if they _believe_. I don't think this will be given anymore if everything is perfectly planned beforehand and assembled by professionals. The mistakes and problems of real world assembling seem to be part of the experience for me. I'm quite sad that you won't continue the MMX project (properly), but am also really glad that I was there for the process. I am convinced that you could have made it, but maybe I'm just too deep in the sunken cost fallacy myself. Anyway, I guess I'm trying to say thank you for the past years, which were all the more enjoyable due to the _process_ - regardless of success. I'd only wish that you assembled the MMX-T yourself (potentially with community support, of course), to keep some of the authenticity. In the end we (or at least I) support you whichever decision you make though.

I want to see a potentially flawed performance (as a trumpeter, every performance is flawed) of the almost complete (as a trumpeter, we are at best almost complete) MMX. That's what I am here for. I don't expect I would attend a live performance. This can be under controlled conditions in your beautiful studio. I favor installing all the existing parts, and then debugging to the point of acceptable performance. I heard Arturo Sandoval play a stunning US National Anthem. It contained a number of both musical and physical performance errors, but was inspirational nonetheless. I haven't invested hundreds to hear the MMX-T.

Dan Swinehart

Thank you for sharing the journey so far with us Martin. I'm delighted to have contributed my small bit to bring us all here, and to set you up well to get to the end, and beyond! There are just two more things I want from you!! :-) #1 Think about an email list for your past supporters - and a promise of at least one catchup email per year to let us know how it's going, even as some of us drift away from social-media channels over time. #2 A CHANCE TO PURCHASE A T-SHIRT (or three) WITH THAT "Third Times A Charm" SKETCH, AS IS. No adding any apostrophes! Make it past-supporter only if you want. This is a moment in your journey — in our journey with you — that I'd like to remember with a souvenier. Onwards, upwards, downwards with sufficient over-rotation for graceful motion, etc.

Martin, thank you so much for this journey! I followed your channel since videos about construction process of the first Marble machine. You have inspired me (and plenty of people) over these years, we shared your happiness from successful assemblies, and felt your bitterness during failures. You taught us that pain is temporary but glory is forever. ☺️ I will be looking forward for anything you create because I don't following the machine I follow you! Machine actually is useless by itself🙈, though it's very cool! But you put so many life into that idea that literally thousands of people will wait for it whenever it will be ready. And that's really powerful. And even if you will decide to abandon the project completely, we'll just enjoy that journey with you (and the team). I completely understand your willingness to focus and finish the project. And in case you need our support just let us know ☺️ p.s. Your content it's one of best on YouTube in my opinion. I know that you struggled a lot because competitive priorities but it totally worth it.

Martin, this Project is an absolute win for society. It showed how dedicated people can work on a common vision. To see how many people were building prototypes and contributing in various ways to this project was magnificent. It was entertaining and it is still going on. Just with a new iteration. This is how we learn. And please try to see it as something bigger than an unfinished machine. The idea of overpromising and not delivering is a nagging beast. Don't let it hold you back!

Daniel G

If your Patreon is shutting down, will YouTube be the best place to get future updates?

Knight in DC

It was an honor to participate via Patreon. Looks like the absolutely right decision. First machine = R&D, 2nd machine = engineering prototype, 3rd machine = production. And often in the real world it takes a few iterations in-between!

CuriousMarc

Definitely glad to hear it all! I am sure all your plans will be realized and will be successful! And the design of the t-shirt is just great. This collaboration was worth it!

NakedSunFlower

My SO and I have often commented on how much work you must put into the videos, in addition to the machine. They've been wonderful and we've really enjoyed following along over the years. You created an inviting and interesting series, while also inventing, designing and building a new musical instrument / machine. Among other things! Congratulations on all you've accomplished, and thanks for sharing your process. Fully support you making the changes you need to make. Best wishes on the MMX-T. Looking forward to seeing it in concert one day!

Laura

Your Patreon never promised a finished project. Funding you so you can keep going and seeing the process and getting your learnings was more than enough. There were a couple of videos you had where you shared books you've been reading that made me reflect on my habits and that was unexpectedly insightful. I feel like you and I have similar challenges with focus and ideas and executing, so I'm glad to have you make the mistakes for me so I can just take the learnings :P. I'm looking forward to what you produce next! I'm still optimistic and excited to see your next step. Good luck and thanks for everything so far!

Dear Martin, the world needs more people like you who recognize and admit that, sometimes, it is not possible to follow the current path to its intended goal. You have demonstrated to your audience that it takes a lot of ups and downs, bloot, sweat, gears, persistence and angle grinders to pursue a dream, and that a dream can have many iterations. What a journey this has been! Without it, you wouldn't have gained the invaluable experience to level up from MMX to MMX-T. I'm glad that I could come along for the ride, thanks a lot! Dear MMX team, thank you for providing all of this awesome content. It's one of the best things the internet has to offer. Dear MMX community, thank you for being a great community. Mutual respect, constructive criticism and group effort to constantly improve things are rare things in today's internet. I still believe! ;-)

Martin and team, I can assure you that even if the MMX does not make it to the stage, your work has not been wasted! We have all learned something from your work and now you are standing on the shoulders of a giant! You can now see much further off into the horizon than when you started and that has immense value! I appreciate your honesty and look forward to seeing your new projects as we move further along! Note that all of your work has also inspired many people to build their own projects (I myself have a half-finished modulin prototype sitting on my shelf that I intend to get to at some point). I made a trip to Utrecht to see the museum and the dom because of you! Thank you again Martin and team!

Davinder Chandhok

I just want to let you know how clear it has always been to me that everything you do is in good faith and that you are a good person. Every video that I've watched has shown me that, and that you work so hard for us, the fans and viewers. In my eyes, you have never let me down, and I doubt you ever will. Thank you!

Chris Roelofs

I understand your frustration with not being able to deliver the MMX as you wanted. But I would also point out that compared to other crowdfunding projects, yours has very much been a success. Not because you reached your goal but because you have constantly have been showing what it is you have been doing and sharing your failures along with your successes. It was the journey that we were funding more so than the goal. Well, at least that was my reason for joining. I would love the see the MMX or MMX-T playing music. But I've already received more than enough back from my meager support I've provided. Can't wait to see what you bring us to enjoy next!

Billy Buerger

It was all great content and taught the very hard lessons of function over form. Still one of my favorite scenes is when you were *ahem* tig forging, then you got out a grinder and said "hiding my crimes" cracked me up and still does. I share the sentiment of disappointment to never see the MMX play a track, but maybe you can get a set of programming plates made up to play its farewell song in its current state. I look forward to the new content and can't wait to see you at the world tour!

hey im really happy to be supporting you thru this endeavor on such a wonderful machine, will the people that are approved for vip tickets get an e-mail or patreon message regarding details or is that still too far out to know anything? all the best of luck with everything you deserve only the best :-)

Nope. Just believe in something different now :)

Thank you Martin for everything you've done so far. When the MMX-T comes to Boston on the World Tour, I'll be the first in line to buy a ticket.

Adam Rosenfield

:/ so the "I believe" shirt is useless now...

Marvin Emil Brach

We trust you Martin <3

It's been a genuine pleasure watching your determination and persistence. Best of luck to both you and Wilson on Marble Machine X-T!

toby cabot

To everyone above expressing support, you never fail to amaze me. The deep understanding you all have for what i am actually trying to do is evident. The trade off between making entertaining videos and a functional machine is hard to understand for the majority. im going all in on function and you all here understand that, thank you!

Thank you Victoria for the understanding! I posted the same on youtube and the message was met with a wall of understandable disappointment. Very happy to hear another reaction here on Patreon! Hopefully, once the MMX-T start splaying music, my actions will make sense to the majority, that's what im working towards :)

I'm excited for what comes next Martin. Congrats on being true to your vision, it was a pleasure watching this journey so far and being able to be a supportive part of it. I also happily read your entire message hearing your accent in my head haha. All the best from Australia - hope to see you here eventually :-D

Hi Martin and Team, Thank you for the update. It sure has been a journey. I have been a passive viewer (but active learner) of all your videos and I have been a proud Patreon of Wintergatan. I think we all saw something like this coming and sensing the frustration when the MMX wasn't as reliable as you expected. Still, a part of me is really sad that the MMX is ending is this way. Because I have learned just as much from the problems, errors, redesigning, etc. as from anything else, the process has never felt frustrating for me. I could have happily kept watching. It's probably your frustration, that more and more came through in the videos, that makes the decision understandable. So, I'm sad. I really felt as part of the MMX project and I will morn its passing. I will miss the experience where my kids find me on the sofa, protecting the remote, watching one of your videos. How they sigh "are you watching the marbleguy - again?", but still they can't resist snuggling in beside me and we share your frustration and successes on screen. Best of luck with the future and the X-T and thanks for all the good times. This community rocks!

The only expectation I had was for an interesting journey and that was delivered tremendously. Thank you for sharing the magic of it with us.

Hi Martin, Thanks for the update. Regarding your statement about over-promising and under-delivering; I get what you mean but I've been supporting your project because I've been fascinated by following along. It has never been just about the end product. So in that sense I don't think you've under-delivered at all. And I will continue to follow your progress, no matter what the future will bring. Thanks! Miegel.

Thanks for the excellent content Martin ❤️❤️ watching the MMX grow has been an absolute pleasure. Good luck with the next iteration. It’s bound to be a goodun x

Rory Walker

It was a entertaining. It was inspiring. It was a pleasure. See you at the World Tour.

Magnus Köhler

Well, at least it doesn't go the same way as Star Citizen development. But it's quite unfortunate that we won't see even a single track with MMX. Last time you said that it deserves it.

Seems like a good plan for you and a great future for the Marble Machine, excited to see it! In my experience the Internet always had CRUD, maybe ownership is a useful addition, I hope fairness comes with it and not greater social disparity like ownership in the real world tends to do.

Philipp Roensch

What a brave decision. I will silently curl up in the fetal position in a dark corner and gently weep.

Can't say I'm not disappointed that you won't finish the MMX. To see such a journey end without result feels wrong.

Enkelados

Great decision. Looking forward to seeing what comes next...

I'm excited to see what comes next. I've always seen patreon as a direct support regardless of the output. That is to say I don't see my patreon money as paying for a product, but rather a recurring tip for all that you've done and will do. Also my FIRST Robotics Team is names Blood, Sweat, and Gears! (Team 1247)!!!

I beg to differ. The Internet, and World Wide Web as a part of it, was for a long time a gatekeeperless, do-it-yourself, anarchist community, where everybody could join their server and do whatever they wished with it. And that hasn't really gone anywhere; it's just that Web 2.0 has grabbed the attention. Web 2.0 was, if you will, the corporate takeover. I'm glad if people are seeing more and more ways out of it and back into the original ideals - you may call it Web 3 if you wish, but I say that's what it was about all along :)

Janne Peltonen

Be careful about encouraging Web3. At this time it is inseparable from blockchains and NFTs, which in turn mean environmental destruction, art theft, and money laundering.

Nathan.Eilisha Shiraini

Do you not post videos on YouTube? Discord has so many titles that I can't get to the information I'd like to know. Posting to your blog or Patreon was very much appreciated.

The journey so far has been a joy to follow. I wish you the very best of luck with the MMX-T, and a huge thank you for the incredible effort, the enthralling videos and the spellbinding music!

Victor Engmark