Toraiz is calling

The Lounge Other Gear
#122

I don’t think anyone is questioning the merit of the Toraiz UI. More a case of ‘what can I actually do with this UI?’.

Seems like they could have added a lot more functionality and capitalised on the hardware without in any way polluting the UI etc. Like if it’s a great UI in terms of simplicity etc but is only really helping me with the housekeeping/practical stuff like browsing/loading samples or mixing levels etc, I find that hard to get excited about.

Anyone can make a simple UI if it is simple due to not having many features. Genius design is in making complicated features and depth and turning them in to simple/fun. Admittedly in many areas Elektron haven’t totally nailed this either but from the opposite angle.

Guess I’d personally just rather deal with the slightly more awkward way of doing these things on other units in return for the extra functionality that this allows me when I’m actually making the music. Its going to be one of those very subjective things tho. Different strokes for different folks etc. And obvs things could change with updates.

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#123

Does the Toraiz timestrech have settings to specify bar length etc? Can’t find info. The manual is terrible! Thanks

#124

Yeah, that’s definitely a subjective call you have to make. I own a Squarp Pyramid, Abstrakt Avalon, Mother 32, Acidlab Drumatix, and OB6. When I think of what’s best for me, I think of my collection of gear, as should anyone in the market for this type of thing. For my sampling workstation, I want simple. I want Linux.

#125

Right now, my brain is mush from DJing Pop music and Hip-Hop for four hours. I’m definitely going to find time tomorrow though to play with Toraiz.

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#126

I get what you’re saying. But that metaphor doesn’t quite make sense unless you only use Linux to play hangman? :wink:

On an aside… Instant envy every time I find out someone owns an ob-6 :slight_smile:

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#127

You know, I’ve been on the defense of the Toraiz for this whole thread. When I initially found out about the Toraiz, I had far more criticisms than anything good to say. There are definitely things I would like to see improved about it, and I’ll go into more detail once I’ve had more experience with the machine.

2 Likes
#128

Well, we appreciate your user experience!
Keeps me from spending my money on smth i dont need.
Only natural to meet some form of criticism of the toraiz in the octatrack section of the elektron forum, on the other hand you are getting a lot of positive attention too :slight_smile:

Tonight: big live setup with OT, AR, MF104M, M32, Vocals. All into a VLZ4 802. This set is dependent on playing long backing stems from the OT, something entirely impossible on toraiz.

Last night was playing solo, trapcore to techno (tempos from 120 to 140), tonight is a psychedelic rock/electronica/rap band (tempos from 83 to 140). Two completely different approaches in music as well as set organization. The OT is capable of both.

Besides the artistic freedom bestowed by OT, it also makes more sense economically.

#129

DJs will use it with a CDJs and a DJ mixer. There is no need for transition tricks because they will mix it with full length tracks or use mixer’s FX.

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#130

Might be worth having a peep on the Toraiz forum for those interested:

https://forums.pioneerdj.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200467403

#131

Like this one:

I stand by my comment that toraiz right now should be compared to electribe sampler, not OT. It even loses against e2s IMO.

And the review/comparison on muffs is risible. Toraiz wins only on UI accessibilty IMO.

3 Likes
#132

Pioneer always made UIs that are fast to grasp and simple to use. Unfortunately this also means you can forget about any esoteric functions.

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#133

This thread carries very interesting information…

Thank you everyone to try to keep the discussion on track and stay relatively cool.
It could be polarizing yet you guys manage to not go wrong with it.

Thank you all :kissing_smiling_eyes:

4 Likes
#134

Maybe it’s because I just got one, but I’m totally in love with the Rytm, to the point that if I could keep one machine only, between OT and Rytm, at the moment I’d keep the Rytm.

The Toraiz is still not on my radar yet, I hope Pioneer will be at Synthfest UK, so I might try one there

#135

Interesting, I just sold my Rytm for practically what I paid for it 1.5 years ago. I’m not into the analog drum sound and arranging sequences was a chore compared to other machines. It’s relatively easy on the AR, yes, but there’s no converting multiple patterns into one and you have to be on a new chain row to do the mutes per pattern thing. I really wanted to jam out one pattern then copy it a bunch of times and mute individual tracks to build an arrangement. But by time I went into song mode and did all that, the inspiration was gone.

I also traded my OT for an MPC a month ago which does all of the above. And it’s a sampler. Sampling is a lot more straight forward on the MPC compared to the OT. Plus I like the character of the MPC versus the OT.

All I have left is the A4, which I sequence from the MPC. I have some other gear but the Toraiz is interesting to me. But I’m most interested to find out if you can arrange sequences the way I describe above.

#136

Hope elektron never does the touchscreen thing. It’s good on paper but in practice they’re always crappy unresponsive screens that muddle the experience and are a substitute for a well thought out button/knob interface.

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#137

it has a problem with touch feedback… Thats why it is not good for the cognitive ergonomy.

#138

It doesn’t really help for people to make comments about the screen’s responsiveness/usefulness who haven’t even touched or seen one in person. It is very responsive and very nice. I’m done trying to argue this point; it feels so strange having to try to prove to people that the screen on the Toraiz is preferable to Elektron’s little LCDs.

#139

I wasn’t talking about the Toraiz screen, maybe it’s great. But so far I’ve never come across a well implemeted touchscreen on any piece of music gear.

#140

Well, Toraiz’s implementation of the touch screen is awesome. That’s what’s relevant to this thread.

#141

And if you really want to get into it, a muddled interface and poor pad layout is exactly what I feel was the problem with the RYTM. Everything feels so cramped with the pads; I always avoided using them. Just look at this quick clip posted by AikiGhost on the Gearslutz forum. Can you not see how slick working with the Toraiz is? I couldn’t work like this on the RYTM; OT doesn’t even have pads. Again, the pads on the Toraiz are excellent. They feel good, and are really responsive to changes in velocity.