Synthstrom Audible Deluge [inc. Open Source development]

The Lounge Other Gear
#1648

I was playing around with sampling today to get my head around the various approaches. A lot of fun with recording into a kit quickly and recording a ukulele note to play across the keyboard range. Stuff like that. Good times.

I couldn’t get my head around audio recording though (song view, holding pad + select, “Audio1” shown in display). They seem really handy for recording quickly but I couldn’t work out a way to load the actual recording into a kit for slicing (for example). I could transpose and adjust start/ends but which is useful but am I missing something? Seemed like they might be limited to say a vocal/guitar part to layer over an arrangement but I suspect I might be missing a piece of the puzzle.

There’s another approach to this that I could swat up a bit more on but this sort of recording actually made sense to me! Anyone able to shed some light on things?

1 Like
#1649

When you use an audio track, the recording is saved into the CLIPS folder only after you save the song. You can then start a new kit and load that audio as slices, etc.

AFAIK, the audio clips are designed for live looping and are less flexible than kit recordings.

3 Likes
#1650

Yep. It actually makes sense. Fire and forget into the audio recorder, but if your live loops turn out awesome, just save the project and you can then use the recordings as regular samples in a kit.

2 Likes
#1651

Ah ha! That explains why nothing was in the clips folder! Thanks both!

2 Likes
#1652

Yeah I enjoy the behavior as well :slight_smile:

Bonus is that in a few instances where my Deluge froze, some crucial audio recordings were saved in the TEMP folder (accessible only in a file browser)

1 Like
#1653

Also worth noting, audio recording can start and stop recording after the clock, for perfect loops. You can be as free form or Kraftwerk-tight as you want :blush: I’ve used it extensively for improvisations where I’ve felt they turned into keepers, and stopped recording on the beat. Very convenient if you’re going to sync them to other stuff within the same BPM or time stretch, if you’re into that.

#1654

@circuitghost I may or may not be a math teacher during the day… let me know if you want me to send some worksheets :wink:

@bibenu visualizations of envelopes would be cool! Don’t really mind the lack of decent screen (yet?)

I’m with the crowd here, not much excitement for wavetables or MPE. Would love to see refinement of the current synth engine first. The sequencer is where it’s at.

Agreed, although I would want some synth engine (or maybe just the ability for multisamples) to really utilize it as a portable sketch pad. For better or for worse, I currently relish the all-in-one approach… at least for writing.

That being said, my current use has been focused on creating sketches and short jams. Curious what limitations I will run into as I start to make more “serious” works.

I pretty much use audio loops exclusively for this reason. Still figuring out the logic how to get everything to stop when I want it to but pretty happy with the Dellie as a looper.

#1655

I wish the audio recording was as simple as most other operations, I always have to check the manual - I wish that you could just go to arranger, select a grid pad where to start, select a grid pad where to stop and record direct like that, simple and easy.

1 Like
#1656

I agree. For some reason, recording into the audio recorder doesn’t quite stick with me in the Arranger view. I’ve mastered it in the Track view, and since I mostly don’t write full songs on the Deluge anyway, it works for me. It really is an assembler of material, sequences and clips for me, which all go into the Blackbox where I write the actual song.

But it’s indispensible as such. If it ever got a killer sound engine with multiple out, it really would be that box we’re all dreaming about from time to time.

1 Like
#1657

I recently got a Morningstar MC6 to reign in control of Chase Bliss Audio and other midi enabled guitar pedals. A bonus is that it can also control the Deluge.

I’m experimenting with assigning the MorningStar to control the Deluge’s looping & recording functionality. So fun to simply click the “Layer” button to add another layer of recorded audio. One MorningStar button can trigger up to 16 midi events, so I may try assigning loop recording on Deluge and Blooper at the same time, and experiment with that…

I really need to put in more time with the Deluge (and Blooper), but it really is rewarding when I do.

#1658

@Rabbon Thought it might be helpful to you and others to share this comment from the creator of Downrush (shared on Facebook on 12/30/2020):

(highly recommend joining the FB group if you own a Deluge or have one on order, that’s where most of the community seems to prefer to discourse)

I haven’t been working on Downrush for awhile now. The biggest reason is because I myself have stopped using it.

One big reason for that is that the FlashAir card does not work very well with my MacBook. When the FlashAir is active, my wireless mouse often stops working.

Another reason for losing interest in Downrush has to do with the fact that Toshiba is discontinuing the FlashAir product, which is causing the price of existing cards to go up.

So what to do next?

The best set up for a future Downrush involves exploiting the fact that modern web browsers have decent Midi support. Access to SysEx messages is possible as long as the web site involved uses HTTPS (encryption).

An ideal setup would be for Downrush to be served-up from the web, running in the browser, using SysEx messages to access the file system on the Deluge. No information about the files themselves has to go into the cloud.

The SysEx commands we need are: list directory, upload file, download file, rename file, delete file, & trigger reload. While I would love to see Deluge extended to do much more, like allowing you to change synth settings individually, the file manipulation stuff is all I need.

Using SysEx and USB Midi (assuming you can handle a bitrate way bigger than 30K baud) will make Downrush (and many other 3rd party apps) available for the Deluge without requiring users to buy anything.

I encourage everyone interested in Downrush to clamor for this change incessantly.

2 Likes
#1659

Thanks yes I did see this over on that forum a few days after posting here. My hope is that I don’t run into those same wireless interference issues. I also read someone reporting that the air card caused some form of clicking interference noise on their inputs.

I did go ahead and purchase a flashair card for myself even knowing all these troubles cause it just sounds like too great of a feature to skip out on. Given that flashair cards won’t even be produced anymore, I just had to make the leap of faith.

I agree with Jamie that having the Deluge team implement all that SYSEX functionality would be great but they may not even be considering it. If flashair is the only way I don’t want to miss out.

Thanks!

1 Like
#1660

FWIW had no wifi interference or clicking with the flashair in my Deluge.

#1661

It’d be great to see Synthstrom open things up feature-wise for other external management tools. Fingers crossed!

#1662

Friendly reminder to give any requests you support an upvote/comment/thread (whichever is appropriate) over on the Synthstrom forum :slight_smile:

These seem relevant to our discussion:

1 Like
#1663

Anyone compared the Deluge to the Oxi One … just the sequencer aspects of the Deluge obviously.

To me (not owning either) the Deluge architecture (“add as many tracks as you want”) seems more flexible and more understandable than the Oxi One offering.

May be an unfair comparison, taking into account the price differential, and the fact that Oxi One is still changing and no-one but the developer has hands on the machine as yet.

#1664

I don’t know the Oxi One too well, but just from looking at the specs:

  • Deluge tracks can be any number of steps (Oxi limited to 64)
  • Related: Deluge tracks can have resolution up to 1/384th of a beat
  • Oxi has an LFO per track (Deluge only has LFOs for internal sounds)
  • Oxi has 8 cv outs, Deluge has 2
  • Oxi has CV portamento and vibrato - can the Deluge do this?
  • Oxi has a loop function, depending on how this is implemented it could be more flexible than the Deluge.
  • Oxi has different playback directions, I think the Deluge is getting this in the next update, along with Euclidean sequencing
  • Oxi has “Intelligent and musical pattern randomizer and Innovative chord function” … don’t think there’s really an equivalent on the Deluge (although there is a nice probability on the Deluge)
  • Oxi has swing per sequence, Deluge has swing per song (erhm, not exactly sure what an Oxi sequence is but I’m gonna leave this here)

Just listing those, it seems the Oxi adds some functionality and flexibility not seen in the Deluge. For me, the first point (unlimited steps per track on the Deluge) is the kicker and imperative to my style of composing. I’m sure there are also a lot of workflow differences.

And of course, the Dellie is also a sampler and synth.

Oxi One Hardware Sequencer
#1665

And it’s made in Middle Earth. Gandalf is all over it. :woman_mage:

4 Likes
#1666

:rofl:

1 Like
#1667

Don’t get me started. Their chosen terminology has made it hard for me to understand.