This is beautiful too
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Iām going to hopefully run through all the sampling functions later this weekend when I find time. But it seems this will really work for me. Plan is to to sit in front of my couch with my Sony D6C Walkman, and record all types of random shit from my cassette collection. Iāll say one thing right now, the Toraizās interface has gotten me eager to do this. Iām looking forward to editing parameters on this screen; this is a good sign.
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Good review so far.
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Be sure to tell us about the actual sampling experience. If sampling is a breeze, this oneās peaking my interest now.
Thanks to this topic the Toraiz got my attention. Visual user interface is a major plus on a sampler for me.
I sold the OT and replaced it with Push 2. I really like the Push 2 but for live performing the Toraiz seems ideal.
This review is excellent - the OP in the end chose to keep both his Toraiz and Octatrack, each for its relative strengths.
Iām curious about what transition trick will be needed with this one???
If it is aimed at DJ crowd, this must have an integrated feature to transition easily between projects/songs?
Toraizā more interesting future seems to be as a key middle box in a DJ rig.
Thereās huge room for innovation there in terms of bpm & pitch/key detection of incoming signals, blended FX, loop logic, fast control keys etc.
Going after the surgical OT market of loop mangling awkwardness seems to be a mis-focus. I love the OT as a swiss army knife, midi strong, bulky well-timed alternative to the Op-1. But it isnāt a smooth blend DJ box and it needs long term heavy user engagement to understand the depth of its capabilities.
Toraizā future should focus more on multi-loop tone integration and rhythmic sync with incoming & internal track audio in my view, rather than trying to be a half-assed OT with some slicing and FX ability.
I think thatās the part a lot of people fail to see. The Toraiz is in a good state for an initial release. They can add the right things with vast user feedback to really get the most out of the design. This thing doesnāt have to be an Octatrack, Electribe, MPC, etc. It surely will share common features that most samplers share, but this is something different. Itās already beyond just a DJ accessory though imo.
Itāll be interesting to see how sales go and if they get that vast user feedback and it is singleminded in its requirements. Elektron got lucky with the timing of first releasing the OT and have built a loyal userbase, despite that that constituency has had diverse requirements and only a certain scope of which have been satisfied,
Getting the DJ fraternity to want the live improvisational freedom suggested by the concept of Toraiz, an expensive but limited maschine/ableton/traktor in a box tool, could be a challenge. It will need to go beyond being a hot button for fills and transitional breaks between CDJs and establish itself as a real standalone studio compositional and long interval/whole track performance tool, with meaningful live sampling and re-interpretative capabilities as part of a performance or studio improvisation.
Currently I can see it as a great way of taking deconstructed stems of your own compositions and lite-remixing them live. But is that exciting enough at $1500.
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So far, if you check various forums (as well as their own Pioneer forum), you will see a lot of sensible requests. It seems like the majority of Toraiz owners (at least first adopters) are mostly producers. I have so much confidence in this machine right now. They got all the basics right.
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Your strong faith in it is encouraging Prints. Iād certainly be interested in it as a receiver and resampler of incoming audio from other sources. My use of it would pretty much be as a live looper on steroids, as I currently understand its capabilites.
Looking forward to seeing some videos of it performing this sort of task.
Itās not good for that in its current state. People are asking for this though.
Yeah, so i just had a blast rocking out live on the OT for an hour at a packed outdoor venue (just OT, hooked up main and cue to a pioneer mixer). I dont think, with the current toraiz OS, that I could have done this OT style blend of djing chunks and loops at different tempos and micro-mangling samples and fx at the same time, who knowsā¦
Maybe in 2017 iāll have a look at the Toraiz features again and see what happened.
Had toraiz come out in 2010 like OT, I would have bought it. 
Just wanted to point something out that might not have been obvious to everyone. There are a lot of updates and improvements in store for the Toraiz as it is in a state of infancy. The Octatrack, on the other hand, has been at the end of its developmental process for years now, and will Iikely never see another OS update.
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They should sell it now for $1000 for early adopters and then jack it up to the full $1500 when they fulfill the promise.
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Letās talk about what the Octatrack was like upon initial release.
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Some Pioneer scout ought to hire me as a salesman.
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If I understand properly, if the toriaz more comparable to the Rytm than the OT(just without analog percussion). If they update the Toriaz to be able to sample layer, I could certainly consider exchanging my Rytm for that. My rytm is my designated fat drum machine, with some synth effects, which, like you, I donāt really use because I have synths for that. But if I could have thick fat drums from layering samples instead of a sample over an analog voice, that might be ideal. AND with better sample editing?! Yes.
Or do like me, and pair it with an analog drum machine like the Acidlab Drumatix.
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