Because you’ve polled every purchaser? Anecdotes on a forum don’t tell the entire story. FWIW, my encoders are fine.
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Same experience. Going from the Elektron encoders to the kind on the S4 was an adjustment, but I don’t think it speaks to poor quality. I haven’t had any issues with control or jumping, and I’ve had it since maybe batch 1 or 2.
Maybe there’s a wider issue with them, but not everyone is experiencing it.
I did order directly from them, I wonder if there are just bad batches or something?
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That’s your opinion and absolutely not fact. There are plenty of people who are happy with the device, and a particularly loud group (especially here) that make sure everyone hears their grievances/opinions.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the device, but how many more months are you going to preach your displeasure? Because it’s been a while…
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A lot of what I’m hearing here seems to be “not like Elektron encoders, therefore bad”. The only very slight criticism I’d have of the parameter ones is that maybe they could have used nicer caps than the hard plastic ones, but this is just nit-picking for the sake of it. Resistance is nice, all works well in the context of this box. The main one only skips for me if I overshoot the detent, which is how I expect detented encoders to work. Which coincidentally or otherwise are just not a thing in Elektron land afaik.
Again, not at all trying to dismiss people who have had issues and not saying my experience is universal. But I am for sure saying that the experience of “hardware issues” or “bad encoders” is not universal.
While I’m here, few thoughts after having it a while fwiw. I started off filling a usb key with a load of samples and thinking I’d be using this as a standalone granulator. Which didn’t work out at all, I’ve landed much more with using it over usb grabbing loops from Bitwig. Midi sync seems fine for this. Have ended up using it more as a four track than a granulator, which I think is where it really shines. The filter bank is really good for picking out frequencies / harmonics and combines really well with distortion, but finding the resonator less obviously useful so far.
In general, I feel like it’s more than the sum of its parts. The granular engine is a bit limited, you’d expect more flexible filter models and effects. But in reality the limitations probably contribute to how good it is for exploring a loop until you find something. I find that side of it really enjoyable, without fail if I keep tweaking I’ll get something nice out of whatever material. Love the UI and playability, the temp function is great. I think it’s really well designed, the way that it defaults locked to the grid feeds into playability and immediacy, but you can go a lot deeper if you want to.
But I still would like to see more flexibility. A straightforward resonant filter model would be good for a change. Possibly could benefit from better audio editing, but usually happy enough to just grab loops prepped in the DAW or from other gear.
A slicing engine with more control would be nice. It does a pretty good auto slicer thing by randomising start point in the disc engine, but would like to be able to go in and edit the random LFO stages, that would probably do it. Also for more Turing machine type uses it’d be nice if e.g. you could click the variation encoder and have it jump to zero when you land on something.
I’d like to see more sequencing options in the modulators, probably my biggest ask would be more rhythmic options for grain generation, e.g. euclidean or clocked by midi notes. Probably could get a lot of the way there by combining modulators. but it seems like a dedicated tool for this would fit right in here.
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Main encoder of the AH MKII had the same issues for a while i recall.
“you could click the variation encoder and have it jump to zero when you land on something.”
That brings me to the idea trying connecting a performance button to “variation” pushing and holding to something desired occurs and then release to hold. Edit: this kinda works but you have to leave the MOD screen to use the perform macro.
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I got a replacement unit and this one has all knobs functioning alright (they still feel cheap, but at least now when I turn the tempo knob clockwise it doesn’t go 30 BPM lower, which is a great improvement).
Starting to seriously play around with it, sync option is working great with Perkons and Pulsar…I’m now playing around with the tape machine and I’m wondering how to have it record just 2 bars of something that’s playing in my Perkons. I’m setting start to 0:0, length to 2:0, but when I press record it waits randomly to start the recording and then it never stops recording. I would expect that it would start recording as soon as the next bar initializes and would stop automatically after 2 bars. Is this how I should approach this? Web manual is outdated so it doesn’t even display the current version of the tape machine…
Good shout - it’s probably close enough for a lot of the time. Probably will just be adjusting variation until it lands and wanting to freeze it when it does.
Always kinda hesitant asking for “more” in a box like this, there’s often ways of maximising what it does have rather than loading things on and risking bloat. But I do think some kind of sequencing functionality, even if just based on being able to edit stages of the random modulator would be a great fit here.
Re encoders - afaik Elektron hasn’t ever used detented encoders in any of their boxes, or at least none of the ones I’ve used.
This one is up to date afaik?
Edit: I don’t really use tape machine that much vs disk but set it up in Bitwig with audio and midi over usb, length 2 bars and rotate untouched, worked as expected, i.e. quantised to the next bar after hitting record, records two bars then loops. Tested on both 2.0.2 and 2.0.3.
I was actually in the wrong instrument! I was using it as Disk, not Tape. Now it works absolutely flawlessly, thanks!!!
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Anyone else having mixed feelings about this color scheme?
My opinions which are strictly my own and not a reflection on the actual function of the device or meant to represent anyone else here.
I’m not trying to open up a can of negativity with this post but when I look at it, the first thing that comes to mind is when you find something from the 90’s which is kind of dirty at the thrift store or on ebay and the white has started looking old and the buttons are dirty from being touched a lot and also aging.
The second thing that comes to mind is that it strikes me as a little bit cheap looking compared to the black one and I was trying to figure out why.
While I recognize the OLED can probably only display certain colors, the white of the screen profile vs the cream white of the case stand out in stark contrast and the black screen bezel carried over from the black model further exaggerates the mismatch.
If they decided on grey buttons and encoders, they should have at least done a custom dark grey bezel to match the ctrl button for the white edition, or at least light grey to match the other buttons and encoders. Or even off-white to match the machine and blend the panel in.
I realize that these are cosmetic issues and if someone loves it I’m not talking shit and trying to start a fight over the “white” S4, but while I thought that I would be a little jealous or gassy for the white one, seeing a better picture of it actually had the reverse impact on me.
I’m super glad to have the black, slightly more elektron-ish version and I think that maybe i’s just hard to mess up when designing a black device and as long as you don’t put a bunch of cheap behringer silicone backlit calculator buttons on it then it will look pretty good, which to me the black torso S4 looks super well put together visually and I like the sparse control layout but when I see it presented in mismatched cream white, I think about all of those aging thrift store electronics that look like they need a good bath in dish soap before you use them.
Generally i don’t really like white gear too much but somehow this ^ one looks pretty cool to me. Reminds me a bit of the MPC 2000. I think i prefer the black one though.
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I prefer it to the black on black vibe where everything disappears (at least in my studio).
I can see that being a good reason. I generally like the appearance of white or grey colored stuff, but I can’t shake the feeling that this one looks like an Ikea kitchen food weighing scale. It may just be the specific shade of white, I don’t know precisely what it is but doesn’t vibe for me.
I might try out that light visual theme though.
Actually, now that I mocked it up to see what it would look like, it might be a little bright for me. I tend to use stuff in fairly low light conditions, so I’d have to try it out to really know.
Looks cool though.
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white might be a little easier to see than the black? idk. i don’t hate the look of it, but they should’ve went bold & done a bright blue or a stark yellow or something weird, idk. that’d catch more eyes than the beige/white/grey.
re: encorders, i’ve never loved the Elektron ones for what that’s worth, i had no clue everyone was throwing them around as the gold standard. they’re good, sure, but not great. i’m also not a materials design guy (& i’ve got a shit memory) so i can’t say a particular better example of that type of endless encoder off the top of my head? the S-4 encoders are a little different & maybe not quite as consistent as Elektrons (i’ve only used Mk1 Rytm & A4 to any extent), but not been a problem for me. could be better tho, for sure.
looking forward to future updates on this to see if i’m going to keep it or not. for my use cases i don’t know if this is something that warrants as much investment as it is. i still need to explore some in general, but def looking forward to what they’re adding in for the next firmware upgrades.
I know this is Torso s4 thread, but found this plugin interesting you might wanna check out
Same people did this reverb, maybe a good combo for less money.
Map all knobs on a midi controller…
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I have the impression their gear is designed to be used by touch as much as visually, hence the rows of 5 buttons or 8 (4+4) on the T-1.
I like the white, but have the black and like the black.
It’s worth mentioning that the button text is illuminated so the black buttons are arguably better in terms of clarity. The grey buttons with white illuminated text/icons have less contrast.
For me the bigger attraction for both boxes is the new white background screen - think it looks great.
If that were the case I’d have expected the little icons on the buttons to be central rather than bottom left though. The positioning gives your brain a little translation job each time, or at least that’s my excuse for frequent mis-hits. Not that I use my S-4 so much at the moment (and I’m still on the old 6 min tape firmware so trapped like a fly in amber).
I love Hikari, sounds great - will definitely be checking out Smear and any other plugins Lese come out with. Also highly recommend the free Codec plugin.
But on this I’ve been reappraising how I use hardware recently and what I’m going to keep and what’s basically just doing things I can do as well / better ITB. The S-4 is for me a good example of hardware that hangs together as an instrument in a way that makes it far more than the sum of its parts.
In theory I could build e.g. a set for Ableton / Push standalone that does the same stuff more or less, but it would take a huge amount of time and effort and probably would never get there - the magic here is in how it’s been put together and how these choices complement each other. Similar feeling about the T-1, having spent a lot of time previously trying to put together something similar in Live/Push.
On the tape/disc machines, I got mine after 2.0 and have been using disc pretty much exclusively because in many/most cases I want to be able to modulate start time without artefacts. But it does seem like there are weird discrepancies between the two - I’d never even noticed that disc doesn’t do fixed length recording because I usually like to record two or three iterations of a loop and then use start/length/offset to fine tune it rather than messing around with latency compensation or transferring files. But it seems strange that they didn’t include this functionality on both machines.
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I’ve been looking for a device to make unique textures and percussive sounds while laying in bed off the Macbook, but is there anything that this machine does that Simpler, Granulator III, and a few effects/filters can’t do? I don’t really understand what a “tape machine” is and how that differs from a basic sampler, but I’ve seen modules like Morphagene and Lúbadh use that phrase. Does the S-4 have some of that functionality?
Also these Lese plugins look really good
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No. In the grand scheme of things, Ableton can do all those things and better. What you pay for is the workflow, form factor, and limitations — all of which lock you into a certain zone that might or might not yield good results (that’s up to you).
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