For folks with one - how are you using it? What’s been your experience so far? Is it a keeper?
To date, for me it’s working out to be a better side piece than the main thing.
Sample browsing is a PITA compared to the DT2. Also, why does the TV read all the files in my sample folders? The Ableton .asd files don’t even show up in the OT’s and DT’s sample browsers. WTH!?
Bouncing from page to page and track to track is super cumbersome at the moment as well. So performing with it is not smooth or enjoyable at the moment for me.
I love love love the new FX and routing. Yes!
It sounds super clean and high end. But my samples for some reason sound thin with little bottom end. I use these same samples in the OT and DT and they sound way bigger and beefier. What’s up with that?
With all that said. Sync’d to the OT, the TV is awesome for some sample based melodic and rhythmic sequences. Good stuff.
Verdict so far from me: If you’re on the fence, I’d stay there until this $1500 box gets some major updates.
I checked the spectroscope reading in RX with a white noise sample. I can tell you the TV outputs a pretty full frequency signal, no larger holes in the nyquist range, just a smidge of a rolloff at both ends of the spectrum… This has to be something else. I’ve yet no explanation on why my true peak and RMS levels were so inconsistent vs. the “control” sample, however… (see the screenshots I posted earlier)
Investigation is ongoing, but one thing is clear… TV does something to the samples, no doubt about it. Way too early to say anything conclusive, but it is almost as if there is some sort of “sampler emulation” process happening to the samples… like, it redraws the waveforms somehow…
As to the OP - still figuring it out. I haven’t started making any music with it per se just yet, I’m just getting familiar with the UI, all the features, experimenting with creating patches, metadata, all of that. I’m knee deep in the “study” phase still. I dont even want to start musicing on it “for reals” until we get the first OS fixes, and until I can fly around the UI without messing up with my track focuses and STEP EDITs etc. In the beginning, I almost started filing bug reports to some issues that were user error hehehe!
I personally think it has the bones of a great device - very few showstopper bugs for me, and not a single crash or freeze yet, which is a huge contrast to my experience with the OP-XY on release; my only two major gripes are the lack of trig/step preview, and the inability to do page loops, with having the option to use so many pages per pattern, it’s infuriating to not be able to preview a step or loop a page while working on that part of a pattern.
For context, I was an Elektron user for years, I own most of the boxes, and loved just jamming on a single box rather than a complex setup, but realised over time that the music I wanted to make (deep/hypnotic techno, ambient) was much more suited to being made on a DAW, because the sound is much more about effects processing than the raw synth sounds/samples, and I find the Elektrons lacking in that department (except the OT maybe but I never clicked with the UI and I didn’t like the effects, and I guess the Syntakt has some more effects but it still feels a bit limiting because there’s only one shared FX block).
So I went deep into Ableton and I really love it, but I started realising I was missing having something I could just jam with on the sofa after work without needing to use the computer (I work at a computer all day and sometimes just don’t want to stare at the screen like that) – but whenever I pulled out an Elektron, I found myself frustrated with the lack of effect-based sound design ability – even more so than I used to be, because now I have a much better understanding of how to make the sound I want to make from using Ableton (and it’s mostly about effects/processing).
So the TV kinda feels like it was designed for people like me! It takes the Elektron formula and opens it up with effects processing capabilities. I came into it knowing there would be limitations and frustrations, I’ve used enough hardware now to realise nothing is going to be perfect – my mindset now is that I’ll use Ableton if I want to be unbounded and do “proper music”, hardware is for fun and I’ll accept the limitations rather than stress about them.
Some of the bugs are frustrating but I’m confident Elektron will fix these soon. They’ve nearly always supported their devices well (pour one out for the Model:Cycles which never really got an update). Any extra features would be lovely but I’m totally happy with the feature set as is (and wouldn’t have bought it if I was not).
For me, being able to take a sound and twist it into something totally new with multiple layers of effects is what I enjoy doing, and I’ve never come across another piece of single-box hardware which can do it like this – especially factoring in the amazing Elektron sequencer and UX, which I already know and love. I’m not sure how many finished tracks I’ll make with it, maybe it’ll be more of a fun device and an input into Ableton, but let’s see. It’s nice to be back in the Elektron world
I need to spend much more time with it to say anything definite but I’m also on the fence if I should send it back. It does do the thing I hoped for, I get (a few) voices of multisampling that sounds great. The new FX units and routing really open up the machine for sound design and I’m happy to see the addition. The sequencer being awesome and directly connected to everything under the hood is the killer feature as usual but that’s not unique to this box, but it will make a greater impact if the feature set is significantly expanded.
The samplers are very barebone right now and the lack of a roadmap is concerning even though I know Elektron does update FW and feature set until the machine is “done”. There seems to be more work needed to smooth out the UX to match DT2 too. Having the 8 sub tracks share FX is manageable IMO singe you can p-lock other stuff but it still doesn’t quite match the capability of my DT2. I know it’s normalized in this industry to release near-or-not-so-nearly-finished products but it still irks me, I’d rather wait.
I’m out of first impressions and need more time with the machine.
I’m also in study phase but for now, I love what I saw. I’m used to OG DT with simple sample machine and the Tonverk is like a super DT. Everything I wanted on the DT is on the tonverk : the arp, the chords, resampling with more FX than distortion or bit reduction.
I don’t care about slicing actually I use PLock sample start point.
I hate timestretching, I will not use it if it exist.
I also don’t care about bugs, I’m very confident the great Elektron team will fix it.
So, it’s a keeper for me. I own many other Elektron boxes (I keep them all) but I’m really excited only with the Tonverk. (and OG DT )
I don’t want to use more than 1 gear at the time, I feel the Tonverk have everything to be the standalone masterpiece.
Yeah you sound a lot like me. I’ve never really used slicing or timestretching as the DT didn’t have them when I used it a lot, and I never really work with breaks or loops like that. But I get that it’s important to others and I’d definitely play with it if it had that feature – but I also respect that Elektron focus on the core idea with a simple interface rather than trying to tick every feature box. There are other boxes that do it all, but the trade off is the interface will be way more complex.
I also don’t really care about multi-sampling, I’m not sure how much I’ll ever use that, though it’s definitely a neat idea and I might find I use it more than I expect.
I think timestretching would be nice to have so that the sample playback stays the same length per key when playing chords with notes on the regular sampler, or on the mulit-sampler when outside of/inbetween the ranges of the keygroups.
And I agree, I rarely slice on the DT -preferring to prep any slice samples on the computer, which I can still easily do via the multi-sampler config.
I also love the smaller footprint vs the OT, just need my decksaver to turn up to stop the cats from sitting directly on it whenever I’m not looking!
I was really hyped for the auto sampler, but so far it’s been quite hit and miss. Here are some random opinions:
I was surprised the auto sampling screen is not “modal” — as in, I assumed that when I was on the sampling prep screen the TV keyboard would be routed to the chosen channel, and monitoring of the chosen input would be automatically enabled. This doesn’t seem to be the case, I needed to configure a midi track and monitoring in the project in order to actually use the sample prep screen. Would definitely prefer the other way if it was possible.
The auto detection of latency is impressive conceptually, but imo threshold-based auto sampling is critical. I know there are some bugs with timing now, but in my experience, there is enough jitter in almost any system that big ol’ auto sample banks are at risk of having bum notes sprinkled in on almost any device. Whereas if we could just auto sample based on input threshold (just like the single player sampler), then although that wouldn’t be workable for say, very soft pads, it kills this problem dead in all other scenarios. Nothing is worse than recording like 100 mb of samples that end up with wonky timing.
“Manual” multi player sampling à la the XY or anything else would be great. I had a lot of fun yesterday making some nice melodic stuff out of some single player machines, and if I’d just had the ability to add one or two more samples to the instruments to facilitate better transposition, that would have been enough for me.
Configurable auto sampling layers would be great. I want to sample 2 velocity layers but not equidistant, instead like 64 and 100. I want to sample two layers where the mod wheel is different for each layer. Or 4 layers with different velocity, mod wheel, and AT per layer. This would instantly make the auto sampler a tool for really creative sound design by being able to “macro” snapshot interesting spots on another instrument, not just equally spaced velocities.
one thing I will say, being able to p-lock the effects is amazing, and then having the bus and send tracks for more effects really fun.
it’s a little more confusing on the subtrack as you have to do it on the supertrack, but is cool that you can then use probability and so on for effect p-locks.
is it possible to put probability on a p-lock on a ‘normal’ track’s note trigger, that only effects the effect, but on the same key?
I find all Elektron devices very fun but Tonverk is the most fun I’ve had with any of them. There are plenty of bugs to be ironed out, and a few things just don’t work at all (Undo/redo for example), but as someone whose favorite production workflow is long complex effects chains in Ableton as well as an emphasis on melodic and harmonic development my songs, it’s perfect for me. Haven’t touched ableton since I got it except to record the output of the tonverk
The anticipation of future features is exciting, I don’t know what they’ll be but I’m not waiting for them necessarily (besides velocity mod)
The sheer combinations of processing with not only the number of FX to use (which, with half the device’s focus being FX, it’s reasonable to expect more FX to come), but also the order of them to use, p-locking bus sends… the combinations are endless
I’m not upset about there not being more I/O, that’s not relevant to me, and some people want the crossfader, I guess those would have been cool but given that those are fundamental to the construction of the hardware… it’s kind of just set and done
The sound library sounds great too, I’ve only imported about 50 samples of my own but haven’t used them much. Multisample & subtrack presets already being set up for you is just really convenient.
unpopular opinion, but I never liked the OT crossfader… you couldnt do crabs or chirps with it. Its not good enuff for scratch DJs. Not sure what the fuss is about…
I don’t know either tbh, I had the mkII for a few months, but I see the crossfader so highly praised in discussions about the OT that I feel like I missed something, but I don’t have the device anymore and likely won’t get another, oh well
scene stacking is the kller feature of OT IMHO, not the fader itself… I wish Maschine+ lock states had stacking, they’d give OT scenes a run for their money
Probably not yet. It sounds great, and the feature set is mostly ok, but there are some things that I immediately missed when playing around with it:
velocity macros: I use an external sequencer, and I want that kind of expression
macros for bus tracks for realtime control over effects via a Faderfox
an amp page for bus and send tracks: LFO to Volume FTW
self-contained projects: I shuffled stuff around in my library, because for the TV it made sense to change the structure a bit, and I had to fix all the sounds afterwards
I also find the limitation to 8 parameters per effect a really odd design decision, some effects can benefit from a second page, or maybe a config page like on the OT. The result is that the effects are a bit limited compared to what is possible. But I can live with that.
There’s also a few bugs and UI quirks and inconsistencies that need to be ironed out, but I trust that will happen sooner or later, and I can live with that, too.
However, latency and timing issues make it completely unusable for me in its current state. I notice audible timing differences between sounds played on the ST and TV (synced to the same clock), and when I route external synths through TV’s input, there’s also a significant delay that makes my tracks sound off.
While I am pretty sure that timing and latency will improve eventually, with a new platform and new hardware there is always a certain risk involved that timing and latency might never become as tight as need like them to be.
So if I don’t see a sufficient update within my return window, I’ll have to send it back. A bit sad, because as a whole does fit my workflow much better than DT 2 or OT. But I can’t afford €1400 of hardware sitting idly on my desk.
I think the mix track leaves a lot of headroom because the gain staging can be pretty serious, with a lot of drive that can be introduced at the track, track effect, bus effect, mix effect levels.
I’ve only had it long enough for a couple of relatively short sessions, but adding some dirt in a bus has made it a lot punchier for me.
I echo the sentiment above that I feel this box was made for me. I have loved my DT for many years, this replaces it instantly for me.
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