The new Metal Works pedal is essentially the same as the XP-1. Obviously, the foot board is different and there is a cam adjuster, but the rest is pretty much the same. It's performs very nicely.
I think it can compete with all the high end pedals. It's tough to crack the drum market. We'll see what happens.
Taye doesn't talk about the Ayyotte departure, but there was word that there were disputes over patents (one of them being the XP-1). When he left, the XP-1 disappeared.
That's a really big simplification of the what happen.
-Robert