Using the same logic, I’d be worried about buying an Elektron Syntakt/Digitakt/Digitone because it seems kinda limited to “that” Elektron techno sound you see and hear in most of the videos on Youtube.
As always, the power lies in the hands that guide the instrument. Of course, it’s a granular multi fx device so you will see a lot of people representing the same kind of noise/ambient/drone/glitch stuff because this is what the synthfluencer/instagram culture has brought upon us. You could say the same about Chase Bliss pedals, OP-1 videos, Microcosm.
Still, there are tons of artists using these tools to do so many different kind of music. It’s a multi purpose tool, it’s up to you to use it only as a knife.
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And that’s why i don’t have the said pedals!
Ive heard many examples of music made with Elektron gear not sounding so predictable. Until i hear the same from S4 examples I’ll probably remain skeptical.
I use mine like a 4-track tape recorder with a decent selection of effects and great modulation. So it sounds like whatever I record into it - then gets messed around with in various ways. I am still on the last beta that allowed me to work that way though and won’t be updating unless Torso have a change of heart. Yesterday I was using it and realised that nothing else works quite the same way so, even though I’ve been tempted to sell it in frustration at the new direction, I’ll just stick with what I have. I don’t think the Torso guys realised what an amazing thing they made initially.
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sorry, are you saying you’re not updating to 2.0 to keep the old functionality intact?
Exactly, I went back to a beta which has the 1.2.2 Tape device, no midi jitter and TEMP & COPY functions. If it is not reliable in the end, I will use the official 1.2.2.
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that’s what I’m saying. As a virtual 4-track tape recorder with the view of the waveform, free looping of whatever length per track, easy overdubbing etc. … it is wonderful and I’m using the beta that has the awesome performance macros and the essential envelope follower. It’s not totally bug-free and I wouldn’t trust it live but it’s working for me in this form.
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thanks for clarifying! is there a way to publicly get a copy of that firmware?
I’m still using one of the betas, which wouldn’t be right to distribute beyond the beta community, not least because if it bricked your S-4 you’d be justifiably upset with me and Torso possibly less than sympathetic.
I haven’t give up hope that Torso will reconsider or at least offer a compromise. I’ve made a few suggestions on the beta list and have written to them offlist too.
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finally placed an order
id like to thank our beta tester overlords who made the last update possible 
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Expect mine to arrive these days. Already busy collecting samples from everything and everywhere and converting the long files to the suggested 16bit-48khz and remapping my Blokas midihub to make this fit in my workflow.
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just spotted this 16bit 48khz in the 2.0 manual after a pal on the beta encouraging me to get everything in 24bit 48khz 
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That is because Torso claimed since the launch that S-4 supported 24bit 48kHz, but it’s lowered again with OS 2.0 just like Tape, grain numbers…
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Wonder why they choose 48Hz sample rate. That is typically used when audio is packaged with video ie. DVD format.
time to re-export/convert everything 
true the s-4 is not yet as a reliable product, i will stay on the tempera for now gonna let another year pass by on the s-4
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It’s still working on 24bit-48khz. My guess is the factory samples are too. For longer files, although no specific information what they mean by longer” they advice to use 16 bit samples. I think they noticed some bandwidth issues in some stresstests with longer files streamed from usb drives along with other things.
It’s still working, yes but you will experiment cracks and glitches if you use several Disc instances with long (?) samples and if you use crossfade… If you take a look to the S-4 presentation on their website, this is not what is plegged.
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And it is not only relative to stream from USB drive. It is the case with internal storage too 
Hoping they manage to fix it eventually. Reminds me on the first announcements of Overbridge, the developers excitement and long road to finally get the consumer happy.
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