Ember-1 vs MiniMax M3
Ember-1 took 25 min 56 s and $1.78 at list price, MiniMax M3 took 33 min 3 s and $0.21 at list price. MiniMax M3 took 1.3× as long, and Ember-1 cost 8.5× as much.
Ember-1
Fireworks · $15.00/M out · 589 HN pts
MiniMax M3
MiniMax · $1.20/M out · 144 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop in Rotterdam dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive. We work on the machines that shaped electronic music — analog polysynths, temperamental drum machines, early digital oddities — replacing tired capacitors, rebuilding keybeds, and coaxing silent oscillators back into tune.
Between us we bring decades of experience in electronics, instrument design, and music-making, but what unites us is simpler: we believe these machines were built to be played, not displayed. Every repair happens by hand at our benches, with period-correct components wherever possible and thoughtful modern solutions where reliability demands it. We test everything the only way that matters — by listening.
Whether your Juno has lost a voice, your 808 has lost its kick, or a flea-market find needs a full restoration, we treat each instrument as if it were heading back to a studio, a stage, and a long life of making noise. Because it is.
Patchbay began in a cluttered apartment in Rotterdam, where three friends spent weekends coaxing old synthesizers back to life. What started as a shared obsession quickly outgrew the living room. In 2016, we opened our first proper workshop in a converted warehouse on the south side of the city, and we have been soldering, calibrating, and listening closely ever since.
We are a small team of three. Niels handles the analog work, coaxing warm tones from aging oscillators and reluctant filters. Marijn focuses on digital systems and the occasional stubborn MIDI quirk. Sanna manages restorations, sourcing rare components and keeping long projects on track. Between us, we have decades of experience with the machines that shaped electronic music.
Every synth that passes through our doors carries decades of sound inside it. Our job is to make sure that story continues.
Specs and numbers
| Ember-1 | MiniMax M3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Fireworks | MiniMax |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 24 Sep 2026 | 31 May 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $3.00 | $0.30 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $15.00 | $1.20 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | 589 | 144 |
| Time for the six prompts | 25 min 56 s | 33 min 3 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $1.78 | $0.21 |
MiniMax M3 was cheaper: $1.57 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Ember-1 was faster: 7 min 7 s less in total, and faster on 3 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Ember-1's rebuild matched the screenshot at 67%; MiniMax M3 was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Ember-1's game passed 5 of 5 checks; MiniMax M3 was not in it.