Synthstrom Audible Deluge [inc. Open Source development]

The Lounge Other Gear
#469

Since there’s been some talk about the Deluge’s somewhat lackluster synth engine, as in some thinking that it’s no good, I figured I’d mention something about it here.

The presets don’t do it justice. I can agree that they’re a bit dull, some of them wanting to sound like those patches you’d expect - a deep bass, a 303 arp, a Moog lead, and so on. The Deluge doesn’t do this very well. If you’re looking at other VA synths, you’ll find those who do it better and you won’t have to look long.

At the same time, when I applied the Deluge’s filters and effects on samples, a lot of character just popped out, straight from the box. So I went to town yesterday and worked only on sound design with the synth engine, to see where it could take me if I disregarded the patched and just came up with ideas of my own.

I’d say the Deluge’s synth engine is great, but it’s not for everyone. Like the OP-1, it sounds shamelessly digital but has a tonality to it that suits itself very well for more abstract and broken stuff. You can’t make it sound like a solid replicant of a raw analog synth, nor can you get it close enough to Novation’s best VA offerings (to compare). Trying to take it to familiar territory, will probably leave you disappointed.

But trying to push it in that direction is selling it short, because once you apply the fx, filters and modulations on a clean patch from your own workshop and start to work with what’s at hand - and it’s a modulation beast, at that - you’ll find that it has lots of personality. But to find that, I’d say that doing your own sound design is essential. The patches are good for showcasing the synth’s features, but not where it can go, sonically.

If you’re a puritan and think Dave Smith’s moustache is worth to preserve in a museum once he’s gone, then the Deluge’s synth engine is not for you. Or if you’re into VA and you love your red Nords, then look elsewhere. If you dig the murkier digital domains, to which I count the OP-1, the MonoMachine and the Reface CS, then the Deluge might be for you.

I’m not saying it sounds like these three little gems (especially not the MonoMachine), but they all do something different with their digital engines and I think the Deluge does, too.

7 Likes
#470

So how’s the patch editing process? I really hate preset-heavy synths anyways and like ones that encourage sound design. It’s part of what I love about Monomachine and OP-1: lots of good starting points, easy to make my own sound (while a sore point I have about the Evolver is that it had no init patch and I had to make one manually).

Among things attracting me to the Deluge are that I have a Circuit. While I like the form factor of the Circuit, I just really don’t like its sound engine. I don’t know if counts as one of “Novation’s best offerings”, but the Deluge doesn’t sound worse than the Circuit, does it? (I know, this is probably all subjective, but the Circuit is driving me crazy… Maybe it’s due to lack of being able to craft patches on board the device so I feel like I’m stuck with someone else’s patch and editing via software feels as boring and uninspiring, to me, as editing a soft synth).

#471

Interesting points on the synth engine. I’m still tempted by one of these but paranoid on how much tax I’d get stiffed with by UK customs and I’d also need to sacrifice the DT or Live - can’t justify 3 hardware pieces any more.

Hope this one works out for you @andreasroman though!

1 Like
#472

I had the Circuit for a year. The sequencer is something else, really made to just inspire up ideas. The synth, however, was the reason I sold it eventually. I agree with your sentiment 100%. Even if you do decide to edit the sounds within the desktop patch editor, it’s just not that great. It’s a VA engine that goes to places we’ve all been before.

The patch editing process on the Deluge is very straight forward in theory, but takes a little getting used to, in practice.

In essence, the 16x8 grid that makes up the Deluge’s sequencer is also a big one knob per feature map. By holding Shift down and pressing a corresponding button the grid, you can edit a specific parameter. So they’re all within immediate reach. But given their sheer amount and the number of switches on the grid, as well as the fairly tiny text that headlines what parameter they influence, you need to get to know your way around the Deluge maze before you can reach for the right switch without thinking. Some of the parameters are directly accessible through the two golden knobs, and they in turn have a few short cuts to versions of their most accessible features. The Cutoff short cut has within immediate reach access to switch between the lo-pass or hi-pass filter, for example.

I don’t think it compares all that well to the Circuit. The Deluge is a sound design beast with a character engine and all features within reach. It’s a piano roll and scales kind of sequencer, though, and not as immediate as the Circuit’s super jam friendly play field. The Deluge also has a complete effect section with delay, reverb, EQ, sidechain compression and modulation fx. It’s not an SSL desk, but it is complete and it’s not difficult to make it sound good.

I should add that the Deluge is pretty great at learning midi. Any parameter can be mapped to any knob on whatever controller you use. I hooked it up to my Sub37 and mapped every one of the Sub’s encoders and buttons to the Deluge. And since the Deluge responds quite well to velocity, within minutes I was playing polyphony awesome sounds, tweaking them through the bleedin’ awesome interface of the Sub37 and working the track through the Deluge’s sequencer.

It’s very different. Last time I had this “What the fuck is this anyway?” experience was when I first got my hands on an Octatrack, three years ago or so. It’s the only gear that’s been with me so long (I’m getting another one, eventually). I don’t know where the Deluge stands in all this, but I do know it’s something else, and deserves attention for it.

9 Likes
#473

I’m pretty interested in this, but I’m in no rush to buy anything soon; gonna wait and see how I feel in half a year or so.

But… just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your eloquent, considered views on things. I was very happy to see that you were picking up a Deluge because I knew I would get to hear all about it :slight_smile:

5 Likes
#474

Thanks @kippertoffee yeah, I mean, I just don’t know how to quit :slight_smile:

And on that note, let’s go into modulation. I’ve spent a few hours with a cup of coffee and the modulation options of the Deluge. It’s impressively deep here. The Tempest comes to mind.

Basically, you’ve got a bunch of modulation sources - two LFOs, but also stuff like note, velocity, even the sidechain compression, random and stuff like that. So a bunch of sources.

You can assign these to any parameter across the matrix, so there’s really no end to what you can modulate, and lots of sources to modulate it to. They even call it patching in the manual, and use a kind of patch cable analogy to describe the flow, which makes sense. It does feel like a small, digital modular system, just like the Tempest matrix.

Given the somewhat crude but charming nature of the synth engine, and the various modulation sources, you can quickly get into a lot of trouble when you’re into sound design and end up in all kinds of weird places, which is only cool.

When saving a patch, you can also save versions of it. So if you’ve got Awesome Patch, and you’ve got like three defaults that you like, you can save an A, B or C version of it - I haven’t pushed this too far, but I guess it extends down to a Z version. This goes for songs too, which is handy when you use the Deluge live and want to switch from one variation of a song to another, but still make sure you’re within the same track. Pretty neat.

7 Likes
#475

Same here.
I’d like this but I have a Live, so I think I might be better off with something like a Deepmind Desktop or some other knobby desktop synth to feed the live with delicious sampling material…

#476

Some next-level thinking onboard with this one for sure.

#477

I had the DM12 briefly. It can sound fantastic. I was thinking I’d prefer something multi timbral but the Live is so easy to sample with that it wouldn’t be a problem - I doubt I’ll ever play “live” with Live after all.

#478

Well, I could go on about this and write up another lengthy review about the Deluge’s traits and perks.
But I’m done with that now.

This instrument has given me peace of mind. I’m done with my gear hunt. This is the one.

7 Likes
#479

I was charged £106 of tax for the import.

2 Likes
#480

I’ve explored building a song with the Deluge now, and it’s such a different experience, I figured it was worth a post.

The Deluge has one song in memory at one time. One song consists of an endless amounts of tracks. A track can be either a melodic part (from a synth or a sampled waveform) or a drum kit. They behave differently, but in essence, the melodic parts are your piano roll sequencer templates, and the drum kits are your typical xox-pattern based stuff. Any track, no matter its nature, can be as long as you want it. One step or hundreds of steps. Each track is individual from any other track, so creating polyrythmic stuff is stupid easy.

Each track belongs to one of twelve sections. A section can contain as many tracks as you want and can easily maintain duplicates of tracks. This means that a section can be considered as part of your song, and when you move from one section to another, the tracks belonging to those sections start playing instead. You can compare a section to a pattern, but with no end to the length of it or the stuff it can trigger. The limitation, then, comes from that you only have twelve sections, then. If you use the sections like you use patterns, then you’d run out of sections, despite their pimped up nature.

However. Each song is stored on the SD card. And each song can be stored as a variation on itself. So on the card, your song can be called 01. And then, you can store a variation of this called 01A, and another one called 01B, and so on.

Loading a new song from the SD card is instantaneous. It also doesn’t load until the longest track of the current song has finished playing. So if you’re playing song01, and you wanna fire up song01A, then it still doesn’t start playing until the current song’s longest track has ended - which essentially works as moving from one pattern to another, on more traditional pattern-oriented instruments.

I can’t state enough how powerful this approach is, once you get to know it. At first, it seems awkward and messy. But once you realise its potential, there’s literally nothing you can’t do, in terms of composition and structure. With endless amounts of tracks and endless lengths in each track, sections to group any number of tracks together and then instant loading of songs that wait for the perfect beat before they launch, makes me feel the Deluge is like the groove box sibling of the Octatrack. There’s so much new and alien stuff going on here, yet it all makes sense once you get to know it, that you need to unlearn before you can properly learn.

11 Likes
#481

what about an upload as reference? thanks!

#482

Stop. Giving. Me. GAS. :joy:

3 Likes
#483

I want one but the fact that they are located in New Zealand is stopping me at the moment from buying.

@andreasroman how long did it take from shipping to actual arrival of the deluge? Maybe I order one in the next batch…

#484

Shipping for mine was about 4 days from NZ to the uk. The only other thing to consider is the import tax which for mine was £106.00

1 Like
#485

Six days, from NZ to Sweden. Full tracking at all times.

1 Like
#486

:blush:

#487

I’ll see what I can do👍

2 Likes
#488

yeah i’m really interested in this device. id really like to hear some sounds from it