Synthstrom Audible Deluge [inc. Open Source development]

I got the link to the preorder yesterday, and did a last internal review to decide if the Deluge was the better bet for me after all, despite wife’s wisdom and fellow Elektronauts’ advise.

In the end, I decided not to go for it and stick with the Digitakt.

I’m much more into samples these days, and have grown tired of the synth oscillator sound. As if there’s such a thing, but I kind of think it is. I’m not moved at all by the Novation Peak, I couldn’t care less about the Deepmind, and even the Prophet-6 has faded before me. They all sound like they come from more or less the same place.

I do love the Moog, I think it has a special spot in the sonical landscape and I enjoy playing it so much. It really speaks to me. And I love the Yamaha Reface CS. Where the Moog is raw and clean, the Reface is like an old tape from one of David Lynch’s labs. Twisted and distorted, weird and wonderful.

But other than that, a synth that just sounds damn good, but also like many other synths, VA or hardware, just doesn’t capture me anymore, no matter its features. It’s hard to find character in a modern electronic instrument today, and when you do, you should hold on to that. And samples reflect so much more of your own character, poured into an instrument. Well, it does, for me. Obviously, to each his own.

The Deluge might have plenty of character and since I don’t have one, haven’t played one, haven’t heard one in real life, I don’t know what I’m talking about. But it’s not like an end of the world decision, just a clear realisation that samples are really my thing these days, the pue synth oscillator not so much, and the Digitakt seems on paper pretty flawless to me.

There’s just no reason to go anywhere else, when most of what I’m looking for is inside me and I just need to pour it into something that can transfer my ideas into exactly what I want. The Digitakt’s it.

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Always comes down to personal preference/requirements and DT looks killer and will sound great judging from the vids :slight_smile: Deluge is a sampler too tho? With more voices + polyphonic tracks + timestrech + insert fx + more storage + p-locks (I think?) + save/load kits + a hungry dev… If I bought a Deluge it would be because of its sampling features, seems a lot more rounded out there than DT? the onboard synth’s just a bonus for me :wink:

You’ll probably be proven right to say there’s more character on the DT tho, likely it has better filter/distortion etc. 'Sound’s equally as/more important than features… So you’re gonna be happy with DT :slight_smile: That ‘mojo’ kind of stuff is frustrating to try and guess without playing both boxes in person…

Hope DT works out for you, throw some vids up when it arrives :slight_smile:

3 devices really interest me at the moment. digitakt, deluge, and malekko manther. if DT didn’t exist I reckon I’d defo pre-order deluge but it’s 1 or the other for me. dt takes the gold personally. what a time to be alive tho innit eh bais :slight_smile:

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It is a sampler, but there’s a few key features it doesn’t do at the moment - start and end points of sample playback, reverse play, stuff like that, which I do all the time when I mess with my Volca Sample. But I wouldn’t put it past the kiwis to get that in place pretty soon. They seem very dedicated.

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I feel sorry for the old timers who came before us, and had to mortgage their mum to afford a one voice synth. And I feel sorry for the kids that come after us, confused by them computers with all their endless options and thinking that’s a good thing.

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Don’t pity the future kids, they’re all gonna be surrounded by £100 behringer Octatracks and Moogs/Oberheims :wink:

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Grrr, I was hoping that I’d have gotten my Deluge yesterday just for time for the weekend - but no, it’s stuck on Finnish customs/postal trap.

Yeah, got my eye on the Malekko Manther… or BFF… seem very promising, good price point too. Just waiting on some decent demos of production units.

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Yup! would have been great to have received my Deluge before the (UK) bank holiday… ideal as the weather is standard British weekend (rain). It will arrive Tuesday/Wednesday… I’ve waited 6 months so a few more days won’t matter

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Err. I bought a really nice 64 voice sampler in 1998 for the equivalent of what you now pay for an OT.

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Those were the days :blush:

Finally!

First fast verdict after a few hours- damn good!

  • Initial test with built in spaker: Oh god it sounds terrible. The quality of the speaker is bad, not suitable for anything else than to test that the device works.
  • Synth sounds much better than I anticipated. Pretty good bass, even!
  • Workflow: Oh mi god! This is so great and hands on. The person designing this did an excellent job. It’s so easy to put notes on, change track length, see which note you are always entering. Song mode is super simple and usable. Diving “inside” a track and back to top level is so nicely done. Triplets view and “cross screen” (the notes you edit on one page are also edited on “other pages”) are really awesome with drums.
  • External midi sequencing worked great, nice to edit Nord Drum 2 with it!
  • Working with samples: Well, I didn’t feel being at home yet - I guess I have to read the manual more. Couldn’t find an easy way to sample incoming signal fast. Don’t know if it’s even possible to sync the recording to your tempo and track length. Hopefully that’s possible.
  • Didn’t try the CV part with eurorack yet.
  • Display is bad when you try to find correct samples (transferred some breaks to the device, works great but you need to have some sort of naming convention). But otherwise I didn’t feel a need for better display - it’s so intuitive otherwise.
  • Once the device froze. Some bugs are known and developers are working to fix those.

Really happy that I jumped into this train.

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Just ordered me yesterday :wink: one question: is the line input stereo? I mean, can you record stereo samples?

I was about to answer straight away “no” - but checked the manual. Yes, it samples stereo, based on which kind of 1/4 connector you put to input jack.

Thanks, looking forward to more thoughts. I’m getting the Digitakt now so I’m on Deluge pause, but still keeping my eye on it.

Sweet! Once you are having some more insights/videos/music, etc just keep posting do that I can Chek them out :wink:

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second batch of the best hardware sequencer ready for preorder !

https://synthstrom.com/product/deluge#overview

deluge plus digitakt should be one fantastic sampling and sequencer combo

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This baby keeps impressing.

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Agreed. It does look (sound) very good. Filling it with the short waveforms worked a treat!

I didn’t have time to watch it yet. Will do tonight. Does it have timestrech across different pitches when layering samples in to the synth?