You can also lower the Speed and extend the record time at the expense of fidelity. It’s quite forgiving dropping Speed by half. Anything less you can hear the degradation, though it can be an interesting effect.
My main bummer thus far is with “rotate” for tape - start and end point modulation are great in disc and missed with tape - would be nice to at least control the pitch “bendiness” when modulating rotate - ramp times are pretty standard in ppooll and Norns softcut, and feel important.
Either that, or being able to have smooth pitch modulation in disc mode (maybe possible? I’ve only seen octaves) would fulfill the cocoquantus kind of vibe, bendy pitch with jump cuts.
But overall, nothing like it for asynchronous stereo file playback in one box IMO - the sends are really nice, can use three lanes for playback and the fourth can be used for summing, variable-pitch resampling, and master fx - really like how it’s constructed as a live instrument.
It’s a small metal case that feels good. Nice combo of small light and sturdy. I like the formfactor. The encoders are a bit of getting used to. They feel less solid and precise as elektron encoders. They use a different algorithme for speeding up etc. But they can be precise and fast. The buttons are very nice. The thing i don’t like the most is the lack of a proper powerswitch. You can turn it ‘off’ but that’s a soft power off and you can clearly see the screen has still power.
I think that the post you quoted in my opinion is wrong. I almost sure is metal, no plastic, and it feels heavy and well designed. The knobs? Well I like it but there are a lot of people that dislike it a lot.
I really think the construction is good. I have an original Digitone and it’s on pair in my opinion.
Fair enough. It’s almost a year a returned mine, so I could easily be wrong. (I wrote I don’t remeber the actual material used for the enclosure tho)
But from memory it didn’t felt Elektron good, neither Roland bad, to be fair. The buttons felt like a regular consumer keyboard, where the Elektrons are more akin to a pro gaming one, and the worst part for me were the encoders: the tempo/main knob was skipping values and the others clustered to the right felt a bit flimsy.
The USB C port felt fragile and a little out of axis compared to its hole in the chassis, leading to an angled /unstable cable connection.
The screen was great!
I guess these are not deal breaker things for most, and probably a bit into YMMV realm, but all summed up with the unstable firmware (I had at the time) lead me to the idea of a rushed device either hardware and software wise.
All that said, I strongly invite @shigginpit and others to weight my words less than people with the actual unit in front of them.
I totally understand you, build quality is very subjective. For example, I absolutely love the clicky buttons, like my polyend tracker or Digitone. The rotary knobs are very very loose in my opinion compared with other machines but I can live with it. And the main chassis I’m almost sure is metal not plastic. And it feels heavy in my opinion. But as I said, is very subjective.
I think they’re not the same push button encoders as the T-1? I prefer those to the Elektron equivalents fwiw, although they are indented. Actually I generally prefer the button feel and build of the T-1 to my Digitakt.
I guess I’m wondering for those who have both how close the build/feel is to the T-1?
I know people say it’s buggy etc., but I’ve been wanting a Hologram Microcosm for a while now and this seems a lot like it plus more. And I had some disposable money burning a hole in my pocket anyways.
One question though: how many “Elektrons out of ten”, would you rate Torso’s support of their devices? I mean, what does your crustal ball say the chance is the S1 will get similar love as the first Digitakt got? This is my first Torso product and I have heard good things about the T1 (but it’s a simpler piece of kit).
Well, there was my reply S-4 is probably anodized aluminum. It’s solid and not creaky, but lighter than an Elektron. Elektrons hammers the nail in the plank, S-4 not so although it’s not flimsy. Elektron feels more like thicker sheetmetal. The finish has a tiny tad more structure on the Elektron too, S-4 feels a little bit smoother, but not very much. Buttons on the S-4 have a little bit less resistance when pressed, the rotary encoders don’t feel military-grade solid but also not wonky or loose. I have no problem with the tactile part of the S-4.
Got a wee issue here I’m sure someone will be able to clear up….
I’m not able to save any projects at the moment. Getting the “save failed” message. This is with all engines. Internal disc has at least 1gb free. Rebooted, etc. Running 2.0.
I can only find reports of this issue on older firmware.
Any thoughts please?
S-4 is probably anodized aluminum. It’s solid and not creaky, but lighter than an Elektron. Elektrons hammers the nail in the plank, S-4 not so although it’s not flimsy. Elektron feels more like thicker sheetmetal. The finish has a tiny tad more structure on the Elektron too, S-4 feels a little bit smoother, but not very much. Buttons on the S-4 have a little bit less resistance when pressed, the rotary encoders don’t feel military-grade solid but also not wonky or loose. I have no problem with the tactile part of the S-4.