Interesting. Tbh I have issues with the Digitakt quality at times – I feel like it makes everything a bit darker? Still sounds great, but I’m always resampling to EQ
Lots of people mentioning the Deluge sound being bad though, which is worrying. I’ve watched some videos and haven’t noticed anything, but will keep my ears peeled. Feel like if there was some kind of Octatrack/Rytm hybrid I wouldn’t think twice – but the price tags for both of those machines… At the price of an Octatrack Mk 2 I could get the Deluge and another synth, or maybe a stereo sampler. Obvs there is Mk 1, which I’m looking into as well.
Man, this is such a tricky one. Bottom line seems to be there’s not much else for the price tag that can do everything the Deluge can – it sounds v much like a jack of all trades, master of none, but if I were to just get a midi sequencing brain like Pyramid/Hapax/Oxi One, I’d be paying nearly as much but without sampling or a synth engine, even if those features might not be the best on the Deluge. Also if I’ve read it right everything you compose on the synth engine can be converted easily into an external midi track? If so, I could just arrange on the Deluge and then live have it sequencing my synths instead of playing through the internal synth engine, right?
Would be interested to hear it without the Heat, but tbh I don’t really get the Heat. Could get a sick preamp for the same price, and I doubt live people can hear the difference whether it’s there or not. But I might be totally wrong about that, as I’ve never used it!
its basically the same argument towards hardware and VST´s but i get what you´re saying.
you haven´t really looked close enough if you think Heat is just another Preamp.
Filter, Distortion, EQ, Parallel processing, envelope follower, midi I/O, Audio Interface.
No matter how great a pre amp is these are functions which i don´t think any pre-amp has.
I really like the Deluge and imho, it might fit your needs (tweaking some live fx). I don´t think, that the Deluge does not sound good. The stock synth sounds are “special”. But you can tweak them and even add some samples to them (like “boards of Deluge” did).
The samples sound great! I think, that some people overlook, that it has a HPF and an EQ and just use the LPF. With some tweaking, even the stock sounds are great.
You can arrange your whole song, add some fx and do some live performance like stutter, filter in the style of an sp-404.
I own a Digitakt and an MPC One, two (and I would never sell them). But I really enjoy the Deluge. To be honest, it took some time until I felt familiar with all the features. I would definitive recommend it to you.
edit: If you do live performances, don´t forget to edit the custom fx “pitch all” and add another fx in this slot
Most of that song is samples including the reverbs, the Deluge reverb doesn’t sound dark like that, it’s extremely metallic.
I only heard one sound that could have been the synth engine and it was a brassy lead sound in the middle towards the end. If everything you use is sourced from other gear of course it can potentially sound great lol.
Cheers for the response! Do you mean to change out the custom FX? I watched one vid where someone (I think Red Means Recording) accidentally whacked something out of sync with the song and messed up his set – is that what you mean?
I’m gonna need to do some thinking about this – lots of people warning about the sound, but the workflow and features look amazing. Thing is I’d like to get this sorted before I go back on tour, but it looks like that’s gonna be near impossible with the learning curve involved in all the gear mentioned. Knowing my luck I’ll get the Deluge and either they’ll release a mark 2 or Elektron will finally bring out some kind of successor to Octatrack to rival the MPC line ha.
That would be my worry. Even if the mark 2 turned out to be exactly the same except for a display that let you see long file names, I’d be kicking myself.
I haven’t watched this one in awhile but I’m pretty sure he goes over it. That said… I don’t think it’s nearly as good as the SP-404. You can press tracks and manipulate the parameters from the Clips view. The stutter is pretty useless cuz the sequencer can’t sequence it and you can’t easily lock it into time segments that make sense… plus it doesn’t duck the volume or anything so it’s really loud and not really musical in my opinion.
I know I’m being a negative Nancy about the thing but I did want to balance it out by saying the Deluge is a great sketch pad and great at getting the basic of a song down. It’s a great portable groove box if you’re allergic to iPads. I just with it had more unique features instead of feeling like a “not nearly as good” ableton but stand-alone. Same reason I dislike the MPC lineup, (though a lot of my issue with that is interface gripes, I would take the Deluge over that any day of the week personally).
It’s why the Dirtywave M8 is exciting to me, it has features that my other gear doesn’t have and I can get really crazy with modulations. Also why I love Elektron gear. The Deluge just feels vanilla at that front but probably works greats for a lot of people.
I find that it’s usually the opposite online – lots of people gushing over new gear and spreading GAS! – so it’s refreshing to have a negative nancy haha.
I’m surprised you think the Dirtywave M8 would be better. From briefly looking at it I couldn’t really figure out how it would be that hands on. Guess I’ll have to take a closer look. I can’t really see how it would work in a live situation.
I think with the Deluge it’s the sequencer I’m interested in first and foremost, then the sampling, and finally the synth – I could take or leave the synth really. I guess maybe I could try and get the Deluge or something similar to sequence the Digitakt, sort of adding a song mode, but I’ve heard Elektron devices can be weird about accepting program changes. Could maybe run the Deluge’s output through the DT compressor as well…
In terms of sound, is it the case that the Deluge’s output is actually colouring the sound? Like would samples sound worse? Or is it just the synth engine and effects that sound bad?
I don’t think so. It normalize them, so sometimes you have to turn volume down on freshly sampled sounds. But then I don’t feel any difference between the original and the sample.
it’s definitely a situation where you’ve gotta nail down what features you need and how you are going to use them, the M8, Deluge, and MPC are so different as to not make sense comparing them unless being really specific…
for example I own a Deluge and agree with chompski about that , but imo the mpc one spanks the Deluge in as many ways as it is different from the deluge.
That’s why I asked for some links to clips that really show the Deluge in the right context of these comparisons… Love redmeansrecording but he’s not going to go deeply into that sp-404 territory… the Deluge does not feel like the 404 at all to me so I agree. I initially got it to have a small, go, anywhere groove box vibe that I currently use the model samples for and have now largely regulated it to being a control surface and sequencer for hardware synths… imo the Digitakt outshines the Deluge, I guess I feel like I have a better experience with the Deluge when the freaking of sounds takes place outside of the Deluge and then brought in, which is the complete opposite for me with the Digitakt. I really wish the Deluge had a performance and pattern FX section akin to the polyend tracker, that would make it insanely good for my use case
Polyend are releasing a new box soon which will certainly be a sequencer and maybe a sampler and/or synth. It could be something to consider depending on what it is.
Apparently it will be on show at superbooth 2022 in May, but maybe more details out before then.
I would say the M8 is better for my purposes which would be for a portable production device. I don’t know how it would fair in a live situation.
What I like about the M8 is how programmy it is. When you’re in a car or plane any bump can throw off your timing and working with a OP-1 specifically that’ll be frustrating.
The M8 is sort of like if you combined the Digitakt, Octatrack, Digitone, Monomachine, and Machinedrum all into one portable device. It’s crazy that one guy made that thing and is selling it for how cheap he’s selling it for.
But I must stress, you’re definitely programming a beat with it. For me that scratches a different itch that something like the Deluge could never, that being said the Deluge is more hands on and more about performing your phrases. But I think the tools the M8 provides can create far more complex phrases than what the Deluge can do.
Ultimately they are apples to oranges though. Deluge is far closer to being an MPC or Maschine+ than an M8.
Edit: also while we’re talking about it, Trash80 (the M8 developer) did mention that he used the Deluge as an example of what not to make his reverb sound like and the Digitakt is the example of what he was trying to get it to sound like. He posted that in the Dirtywave M8 thread in this forum.
Looking at it though … admittedly low-res leaked photos aren’t much to go by, but it doesn’t seem as feature-rich as the Deluge. And if they are bringing out a pair of matching boxes, maybe it will be taking a leaf out of Elektron’s Digitakt/Samples+Digitone/Cycles pairings.
Another thing the Octatrack and MPCs have that trump all these other options is i/o options. Looks like this new Polyend box is lacking in that area as well.
BUT maybe it’s going to be a case of waiting til May and seeing what happens at Superbooth.
Not familiar with this functionality on the Tracker – could you elaborate? If it’s a feature they include in their new boxes that might make me more intrigued…
I was actually tempted by the Tracker a while back but ultimately didn’t like that way of arranging vs the Elektron way, which is probably also why the MPC hasn’t clicked with me either
