Deluge is a one man show and that’s Rohan Hill’s. It’s enough that something personal went down in his life, for the entire project to grind. Not saying that’s the case, but when the critical resource is just one man, anything can cause delays, not just development challenges.
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FYI, I’ve been keeping tabs on the Synthstrom site, and this is the latest on the next firmware update (on 7 Aug) from Ian Jorgensen: “The update just ended up being WAAAAYYYY bigger than we anticipated and is taking longer than we expected, but its still under intense development, there is some MAD coding going on here, we know peeps excited for this and Rohan is busting hump to develop it.”
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That was me 
in my experience, Synthstrom is very open about the betas so I thought it was appropriate to share ~ hope I didn’t make a faux pas 
Grateful for Ian to share a sign that they are alive and well and it’s the size/complexity of the update that is taking time as opposed to life issues from someone on the team.
This is an interesting point (I figured MPE was the hold up) and got me pondering about the edge cases.
Here’s my tangent: they’ve teased that each kit row can have its own length. Let’s say you have rows with 7, 8, and 9 steps. Extrapolating from how the Deluge currently operates, in a possible implementation if you trigger that kit clip to engage/disengage from song mode then it may wait up to 504 steps (the LCM) before doing so.
Which got me thinking … maybe they will implement clip launching quantization options, a la Octatrack plays free or Blackbox sequences. Wishful thinking and I could be off with that train of thoughts but that would certainly elevate the Deluge sequencer into another level (and it’s already great as is!)
I also don’t gel with Elektron sequencers, and your posts in the past have helped me come to terms with that 
Over the past weeks, I’ve been GASing for a Digitone (to potentially replace the Deluge) but I know that, rationally, I am happy with what I have 
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They pair really well together. I wouldn’t replace the Deluge with the Digitone, I would find a way to have both I’ve been sequencing the Digitone with the Deluge, can’t say enough how wonderful the flow works.
Haha 
I hope that’s a good thing.
Ironically, Elektron sequencers these days have the same effect on me as a daw - too much going on, too much opportunities, so I’ll over-process stuff and try too many options and never finish anything.
This plays to the Model series advantage - all the stuff that’s great about Elektron, but very defined. Which is one of the points for going hardware, for me.
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Absolutely! Your reviews (and back and forths between gear) have served as a proxy to me actually trying out instruments, saving me much money and frustration in the process. From a place of gratitude and selfishness, I thank you
Yeah, my experience is that the Elektron sequencer feels too much like programming (or playing a video game) as opposed to playing music. It’s fun, but not what I’m trying to get out of it. I think we come from similar enough perspectives on composing for your musings to be useful to me.
@mrisney Yep, that’s some sage advice right there. I don’t have the space for now and am going to stick with the Deluge. It can do pretty good FM sounds. And I’m just starting to scratch the surface of creating MIDI LFO/automations and using these to modulate parameters on the Blackbox and Bluebox.
I’ve also been exploring the Deluge as an audio processor. Right now, mostly as filtered delays with drive. I can barely imagine the possibilities when incorporating parameter automation and the sidechain with the FX on external instruments. Would love to hear about others experience/tips doing this
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I actually paired the Deluge with an Akai Rhythm Wolf and it was super enjoyable. I sequenced the Wolf with the Deluge using a MIDI kit for the drums and a MIDI synth for the bass. I then ran the audio for the drums and bass separately out of the Wolf into the Deluge and assigned the Left and Right inputs as two separate mono inputs with their own separate audio tracks. For each I added their own amounts of saturation, chorus, delay, etc. It was a pretty nice marriage between the two. I didn’t use sidechain or parameter automation but certainly could have, and will probably go back and mess with this arrangement again.
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And… to bring it back to Elektron, I used this to get the separate audio tracks into the Deluge. 
Dope track! Thanks for sharing, with the video and all 
In the past, I’ve used the Deluge as an all-in-one box but I think I’m moving towards how you’re using it here - MIDI sequencing and FX processing (and maybe 1 or 2 internal synth engines).
The parameter automation for both audio and midi tracks doesn’t feel as immediate as an Elektron box but it’s quite powerful in its own way.
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Only took ya 5 days. Really trying to keep to your word 
(pretty looking setup btw)
To make this post more relevant, here’s another comment about the firmware from Ian (at Synthstrom) for those not on FB:
we didn’t want to do any more teases…it was becoming very behringer of us, just want to get it done ya know. Some stuff Rohan is implementing in this makes my head turn in circles just thinking about it.
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Some of the things that still aren’t fixed in the current firmware make my head turn in circles but I suspect that’s not what he meant…
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Rain just won’t stop here, so I sat down with the Deluge and wrote a song. This is Deluge only, all synths from Boards of Deluge Vol. 5. Some live tweaking through the CXM 1978 for additional movement outside the structure -
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I’m more and more attracted to the idea of working with the Deluge only for a set of compositions, applying whatever comes out only to a carefully designed master chain. I’m quite happy with how the results above turned out, especially since it took me less then a day from nothing to something finished, and I feel the freedom of the Deluge’s compositional environment could be a strong enough case to try this approach, after all.
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Lovely 
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Yeah nice track! The presence of the field recordings sits nicely in the mix with the synths and percussion.
The all-in-one nature of the Deluge is a feature that draws me in again and again. Going on a vacation, pack the Deluge. Isolating from the rest of your house, take the Deluge into your room. Feeling like making music on the couch … you get the point the combination of portability, functionality, and ease of use (aesthetic?) is unparalleled in my opinion.
I’ve been in a similar-ish place - removed all the synth presets except for BoD5 (so nice that existing songs still have their synths) - and also been working on compositions focused in the Deluge. In my case, my “mastering chain” involves the Matriarch and so inevitably bring some of that analog goodness in. Due to the modularity of the Matriarch, I almost have to record the songs shortly after writing. Once I sit down with the Matriarch and dial in a setting I like, I don’t want to be forced to keep it like that discouraging further creativity. Looking forward to sharing some music soon 
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Interesting. How’s the Matriarch part of the chain? Do you run the Deluge through the Matriarch or is it the other way around? And what do you use it for? I’m intrigued
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When you say things like this it makes me wish the Deluge was more readily available to try. But then again, I am loving my Tracker as my all-in-one box for those times when I need it to be, so I am thankful that.
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