Hi Francis! Thanks for listening to all the sounds! It is the way to understand the different possibilities… I would say that the effort and the results are personals and different for everyone…and how you use the machine. I normally take 3, 4 hours with each of them, with pauses, trying things, trial and error…lots of listening forwards and asking myself if it trips me…and then, I don’t know if the sounds stands as tracks…I feel I need to mix other things, so the creative process is not finished… I’ve been doing lots of this kind of tracks after 3 months, not all are good, but i like working with the S-4, I would say it helps my creativity more than it is a third wheel… but others maybe feel different…limited…
Edit: I would say that the time spend with it is quite therapeutical for me, so no lost time and it is full into my creative process. I mean, the S4 does nothing for himself, you are the conductor of the orchestra, so it needs ‘you’ to take decisions and those decisions make the loop worst it or not…
as mentioned, most of what i said is based on assumptions/educated guesses based on my own hardware/software development experience, so take it with a grain of salt.
but then again, if you break your leg and get an x-ray, you don’t need to see 1000 other x-rays (so you have a higher sample size) to confirm your problem is in fact, a broken leg.
Sure. But to transfer your X-Ray metaphor to faulty hardware, it would mean that you have actually taken measurements on the hardware to be able to say, for example, that it is a brownout or that Rev. 9 of the daughterboard is causing problems. At the moment you are diagnosing a broken leg without having done an X-ray. I personally wouldn’t trust you as a doctor. And this is coming from someone who teaches electrical engineering at university.
Let’s say I’m not a doctor but a nurse so this is not the first time I’ve seen a broken leg around. And obviously my observation is not based in putting the S4 on a table and staring at it for hours. The whole analogy being the broken leg is based on that. It’s not inflammation, it’s not some allergic reaction, it’s probably not cancer. You may need to have a medical degree to perform surgery fixing that broken leg, but I don’t think you need to be a doctor to tell if the tibula is broken or not.
Even Torso themselves said (they replied to my support ticket today) it needs to be sent back as it’s not fixable through software. The doctors themselves confirmed the case, that means my assumptions were correct. But still it’s not about me being right or your reluctance to trust me as the doctor. The only thing that matters is, this problem “exists” and sharing my experience, in hopes of helping another fellow human being to avoid such unpleasant situation, not whether I can be trusted as a doctor (even if I have never claimed to be one)
Following the metaphor, I even suggested in goodwill that if anyone really wants to risk breaking their leg, they should at least skate at the skatepark next to the hospital (buying directly from Torso rather than a retailer) because the halfpipe there does not have cracks on it. And even if you still manage to break your leg, at least the hospital is nearby.
Anyways, TL;DR for anyone not reading the whole post. After days of investigation and mail/chat traffic, it’s been indirectly confirmed that there’s been a batch of units that doesn’t let you use USB Mass Storage mode. So if you feel like risking it, at least buy it directly from Torso, since a replacement unit from the same retailer is likely to have the same issue cause it’s probably from the same batch.
What is it with this company? They’re cursed!
Hello. This is a live full set around Torso S4 with a lot lot of visuals. Until minute 27 all is S4. It is a raw mix not edited straight from the mixer (didn’t add anything, only changed volume a little mastering). My S4 had the main encoder broken, I was loading and mangling samples on the fly… At minute 27 I began to sequence plucks loaded into S4 with OXI one. There are some voices from a 404 and finally LXR02 and Polyend synth. I’ll post later if you don’t mind on another threads. The video was recorded on vertical. Thanks for listen and if you like it you can subscribe 
Cool, @Bardial ! Some of the footage is northern spain?
Yes!!! North of Spain. 
edit. I’ve recorded all footage.
Xixon power!
In english “north of spain” = france. But in france everything in english is bullshit….so im confused now haha just trying to be funny again!
I don’t understand very well what you are saying 
Actually my S4 is being repaired, the main knob has an erratic behaviour and it’s been confirmed by torso that is a faulty unit.
I’m amazed how well OXI one handle S4. In the video, at minute 29 I think S4 is sequenced by torso. And LXR02.
Following this thread has effectively subdued my GAS for this one, sadly… what a shame that such a cool device has been held back so badly by its hardware.
Apropos of nothing: anyone have recommendations for replicating the 48-bank filter tone in a VST? I’m getting close with Logic’s EVOC20, but the tonality on this thing is a whole other level.
I must say that my device was very stable. I’ve not experimented any freezing. Except the faulty hardware knob and when loading projects the start)end points of samples changed, has been a very stable unit. An instrument like no other.
I definately align with using the time for music as therapeutic / meditational. Will also be interesting to hear how it plays with other voices ina mix, though if s4 tracks are your starting point you can design a sound pallette to fit which will be interesting. To me it sounds like adding sounds would sit beneath the s4 track as distant elements. But to me the s4 sounds stood fine on their own.
You can maybe leave an S4 track free to send all the other boxes through it and use it like an end of chain “submix” to let all the external sound sits in the same space as the one directly processed by the S4 in itself.
Yes! You can use it also like that, it gives me ideas for my live set. As I understand what @Francis says ( maybe not, of course ) is that it already takes a lot of place in the frequency spectrum ( with all the noises, fx, modulations and what not ), so mixing other boxes with it could be difficult. It demands reflexion or you find yourself in a very busy mix…
Love this ultra short collection of power/pro tips from the Torso team.
Another great video demonstrating the S-4 and live input to create a world of sound.
Yep, but that does seem valid for a lot of other boxes too, either sample based or not.
The nice thing about boxes with an audio input is that you can more easily blend external signal through its fxs to have a more cohesive sound signature, but you clearly still have to put some effort in sound design and mixing to avoid mess and muddiness. This is valid for every piece of gear IME, not strictly related to the S4
These are really great. They’ve really inspired me to dig deeper into the possibilities of the S-4.
I wish more synth makers would take such brave moves like Torso have. The S-4 is a very unique device which constantly surprises me. It has a very unique workflow which can’t easily be replicated by other devices (if at all).
Future classic.
