Is Tonverk magical or a hybrid approach with makeup?

Elektron Gear Tonverk
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I voiced my thoughts elsewhere, so might add them here as well:

Adding FX in Ableton isn’t too much fun tbh. With Tonverk you can sample all your instruments (then sell them, lol) or even every Serum patch and tweak them using a hardware box with tactile controls and nice routing and effects sequencing. Live, or in the studio. It sounds a lot of fun if you are not too invested in having multiple hardware boxes to tweak in real-time. It does feel like a lot of work managing this kind of huge sample library and essentially using a rompler (that can sample) with nice effects and sequencing. Still, I’m sure the results would be satisfying and it would be endless fun to use.

It is not my cup of tea though, as I like my boxes for their live tweakability and synthesis as opposed to sampling in general. Plus, I sequence five additional boxes using the Digitone and appreciate their analog filters and knob resolution etc. I don’t want to commit to a preset really. I also don’t need that much FX sequencing as I prefer things to sound good with effects but like them often static, and that, I can get easy multitracking my synths into DAW. This approach is not as fun or explorative for sure, but it offers freedom to do basically anything I want in the mixing stage while keeping me focused on the songwriting stage.

I guess it ultimately boils down to me being a synthesis type of guy (never really gelled with sampling in any form). If I only had like a eurorack setup then I would probably be all over this, filling the card with best VST sounds and using euro for beeps and bloops. Now, I’m happy waiting for Synverk and using my DN2-as-brains, synthesis-based setup which feels exactly my type of workflow that I’ve been after for years.

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Exactly my thoughts. On paper, TV could be one hell of a stem player/remix machine. Each subtracks machine has 8 voice stereo polyphony. So I guess you can just load up 8 stems of a song to a subtrack each. They’ve also each got their own filter and LFOs and share two insert FX. This is like 8 mini octatracks in one machine. Yes, I know, there’s no fader, bla bla bla, but there are 4 four additional sequencable FX buses. And three send FX. And a master track! Crazy flexible, imho. And with the SD card and 4gb RAM, you don’t have to worry about memory limitations (but maybe about loading times).
Add to this the ability to have a library of high quality multi sampled real instruments (pianos, strings, mellotron, etc). This just isn’t possible in any other elektron. I know, this might not be relevant for techno heads who produce the same old boring four on the floor stuff, but has lots of potential for many other genres of music.

I’m honestly a little baffled how many post I’ve seen here stating that they don’t get what the TV is about. I try to see what an instrument is capable of and how I could use (or abuse) it to make music. A lot of posts here have it the other way around. “If it can’t slice, has no synth engine,” or whatever “I can’t make music with it”. Valid opinion, of course, and nobody must love the TV or what it does. I’m just a bit shocked that so many people here do not see the potential the TV might have for them and dismiss it very quickly. This is an elektron forum! People have been getting creative, using and abusing their instruments and pushing them to their limits for years. And TV already seems to have a very wide boundary until there’s any limit in sight, imho. But whatever floats your boat. To anybody who doesn’t gel with the TV, no offense.

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everytime i read discussions like these i keep myself reminded performances like…

https://www.instagram.com/p/DL2_0XJBFI4/

There is no excuse for not being creative with what you already have (indulging in fear, overthinking and laziness excluded).

Tonverk will be the beginning of a new chapter of elektron machines we have not experienced before. Looking forward what people will create with it!

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If you give a TV for free to every ppl complaining about lack of something or don’t understand whats the point of TV, I’m sure they will enjoy the gear and create something cool in their workflow and genre.

I think most of people complaining about features is in reality features / price ratio for their usage.

In absolute gear realm, nothing bad about TV.

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True.
Still a bit funny, as it’s even cheaper than a new OT, lol.

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OT has a mature feature set and proven reliabillity on stage, TV still has its umbilical cord on

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I’m not saying the OT doesn’t have it’s place, as it does some things no other hardware sampler can do. In fact, I’ve had it for a few years and it was mostly fun. But in terms of value for money (which is subjective on an individual basis), what the TV offers already seems like a better deal to me.

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I mean if you have this question then just don’t buy any of them… Just because a new device is out it doesn’t really change anything.

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Ha, this is funny—you’re basically contradicting yourself. On one hand, it’s “don’t be lazy, just make music with what you already have,” and on the other, it’s “just buy Tonverk, new chapter . . . ” Classic consumerism at its best. :wink:

As I mentioned earlier in my chat with Aleschko, some of the tracks on the TV product example page serve as a reminder: many of them could easily have been made with existing gear (and often sound better than the TV remake)—if you just know your gear well enough. :wink:

At the end of the day, the point for every product maker is to sell hardware to the masses, not to please a select few but make money. Obviously, companies like Elektron or 1010music survive by selling hardware, and it’s always tricky to innovate within your own portfolio while still staying unique and original.

That said, I’ll repeat myself: this feels like an unfinished product. If multisampling was the key feature, why not go further? A pressure-sensitive keyboard, punch-in FX like the SP-404, resampling, and granular capabilities—that would’ve been a home run. It could have wiped out entire product lines from other makers . . and funny enough, thats what people were asking for.

Life’s too short—too short to get lost in consumerism, half-baked compromises, and things you think you need but, in reality, don’t. If TV hits the spot for some, that’s great—for them and for Elektron. But for me, this product misses the mark. It falls squarely into that “too much of everything is never enough” category I try to avoid. Honestly, it’s the first Elektron in 20 years that I find as confused box— confused results by confused demo users as all demos are so far :wink: Confused in design and mainly - who it’s actually meant for. :wink:

…and as always, I am sure I’ll eat my words soon enough.

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This might change over time when people start sharing their files and banks of sounds. Could create nice community where you can just download synths you always wanted to have but couldn’t afford.
Or the sounds from synths and modular that you have but with different vision.

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Yes, I do also believe in many cases omissions are part of the plan, timed updates with added features to keep the sales going while abandoning existing support of machines in the lineup. This is common practice - TE, 1010music etc.

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I admit, the keyboard is a letdown, but TV can resample and has a granular delay effect. With p-lockable routing to the buses, you can even have your own customizable punch in FX.

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yeah, TV can punch in fx with the best of em. Copypaste your patterns, set fx routings differently for every cloned pattn, direct jump away, Bobs your uncle and Fanny’s your aunt

I think ppl are not able to read between the lines yet. The intersection of all the features on tap, thats where the gold resides in TV, a bit like on the OT

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True but it’s only on the delay FX, not real granular - Bento/Lemondrop/S4 do better job. I was so eager to see proper granular on this box. PunchIn FX would make sense for live when you can live resample - perfect with OT. Also don’t forget 2min load up time for projects / multisample.

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I remember hacking my OG DT, setting a trig start point template to slice a sample then resample it to have a perfect loop then passing thru usb overbridge to process it with a vst plugin and resample it… This was not in the manual ! I think the Tonverk allow tons of hack to sample and resample and have creative and enjoyable process. This is not in the manual. I’m surr the features of tonverk is mostly how creative you are.

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This is just my opinion, but I rarely find that “vintage gear mojo” from any of the Elektron products. These are tightly controlled machines for very precise, intricate programming work, not boutique DIY devices which fetishize opamps, converters and “nonlinear” output stages, transformers etc…

If one is looking for that, particular… lets say “GS fetish mojo sound”, Elektron might be the wrong place to be looking for it in spades.

just my 2 cents (jm2c)

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What is one just wants a decent room reverb for percussion and a delay with slightly more character?

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ext fx like the rest of us I’m afraid… internal fxs are always a red herring IME

At times, I use the “mooreverb” trick ie configurating the delay as a crappy short verb. Doesnt work for everything of course

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I actually really like the Roland FX on the TR-8S.

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core elektron users are capable to connect all machines in daisy chain like DT->DN->ST->TV->OT->AHFX or in other order

I am talking about “business decision”, and it looks good from this perspective, Elektron rolls out new platform step by step.

-Release few machines on legacy platform as features recombination
-Add Shark dsp into existing coldfire architecture, rewriting code and debugging, then sell not one but two boxes on this hardware
-Release new platform with MVP firmware

Sure, its smart decision, much better that releasing something innovative, as Elektron made with MD or OT previously.