background / where are we ?
Ive discussed this before here, but essentially much of the old eigenlabs downloads are actually not that useful anymore. but we need to look at this from a couple of perspectives:
from a platform perspective:
Windows :
the EigenLabs downloads have ‘faired’ well, simply because Windows has good backwards compatibility. with the exception of Windows ARM 
MacOS:
the downloads are pretty much useless except to someone running a very old version of macOS.
the main significance here, is that I do not want support these old (e.g. 32 bit) platforms.
EigenD has always been resource intensive, so newer machines bring so many benefits - most have upgraded by now.
there are 4 parts to the eigenlabs downloads, lets look at each in turn,
look at issues involved and the future in next post.
1. EigenD including application code.
This is open source, and I have provided up to date variants, as discussed in first topic.
Also my EigenLite API means we are able to create new applications for the Eigenharp.
lets say this is ‘dependancy-free’, though thats a simplification, but we will kind of get into this below.
2. EigenD Runtime
this is just the python runtime and the windows driver (discussed separately)
there is nothing special about this python runtime, its just a particular version.
for EigenD I’ve moved away from using this supplied version to remove this dependancy, and we install directly from python.org.
though the main issue here is Python 2.x is now EOL, but having the EigenLabs download does not help this side at all!
3. Windows Driver
windows traditionally needed specific drivers for different usb devices, and this could not be in ‘user space’, so Eigen Labs created simple driver that talks to the Eigenharps and the messages to the application in user space.
Its actually a pretty simple driver, as most of the ‘functionality’ is still in EigenD core, and the driver ‘merely’ forwards this back n’ forth between usb and shared memory.
HOWEVER, this code was not open sourced, I suspect it was done by a 3rd party, which may have made this tricky for Eigenlabs. so we do NOT have access to this code, or the ability to build it.
4. EigenD Resources
this is a bunch of samples and vsts, that are needed for the factory presets to work ‘out of the box’
the vsts are now years (decades?) old, and are pretty much pointless, and 32 bit etc.
users can replace with their own, more modern/supported versions.
samples/loops, really nothing exciting here… Ive no idea of their origin, or copyright nature.
again, you can use your own.
convolution samples - ok, these are a bit tricky, as things like cello expect these to be present.
user could replace, but feels a bit ?!
from a distribution perspective:
the eigenlabs downloads were huge, and bloated - and also have some elements that are not free from copyright… so hosting has legal complications.
I frankly don’t have the space to host, nor want to get into these ‘cloudy’ waters of legality.
esp, as discussed above, a lot of the content is not required anyway.