Thanks, yeah, the workaround isn’t even a very big deal. I could see it being an issue for some, but I’ve been quite happy with the device. I just wanted to share my experience in case someone ran into it as well, so they’d be able to try the same thing.
It’s a good machine, I am just drawn to finding bugs and coming up with workarounds.
I find the Octatrack master clock to be one of the best in my studio, second only to Cirklon in its stability. Maybe that’s relevant? I’ve used my S-4 with a few different clock sources, usually a Sequentix P3 these days. It’s fine in terms of loops/glitches but then I’m using a very old firmware.
Yeah, for sure. And thanks for the tip. Even though I didn’t notice too many artifacts doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I think I will try using the S-4 as master next time I have a session. The visual jitter is kind of troubling anyways.
Wow. Good to know since it’s my main hardware sequencer. I could also imagine something like a MPC-2000/1000 would be up there as well. I remember the 2000 having a really tight clock. P3 and Circlon, never tried, but have admired both from a distance for years…Especially the P3. What a cool device.
I find the S4 always trying to be the MASTER clock. I have turn off my DTII Clock In otherwise it alternates between the S4 and DTII, and once that’s done the DTII fully controls the clock and the S4 just follows it. This is via the USB, and not the IN/OUT jacks.
The P3 remains my number one hands-on/jamming sequencer, mostly because it’s full of ideas I always wanted but, until Colin, nobody would listen to, let alone consider implementing.
Hi, first post here. I have a small collection of high quality gear to create music, electronic mostly. I like to play with hardware, and use Logic Pro as my recorder. I’ve been looking for a machine to create pads, textures, athmospheres and dub stabs. My request list is that:
Does the Torso S-4 tick all these boxes?
I have been eyeing for these duties things like the 1010music Blackbox and Bento, also samplers like the TE KO II series. The most important thing for me is that the workflow is easy and straignt forward to:
More in depth with point 5: in the 1010music Bento you can set, per track, that one track is 1 bar, another is 4 bars, etc… and then once you record into these tracks, that’s all you record and it plays back inmediatelly what you just recorded seamlessly so you recording is already looping on its own!. It doesn’t record “for ever”, just for the pre-set length. This is usefull for looping, for live looping, for recording anything that fits the general song tempo, etc… And also to create some polyrythms (one track loops every 4 bars, another every 7 bars, etc…)
A long post but I want to get the feeling from you experts.
I am one of these users that has been hessitant to buy the Torso for more than a year because I really hate bad quality / feeling knobs. I love the design of the Torso, btw. thank you for your responses. appreciate it.
You can set the length before recording! Worked fine with my setup (Ableton as main clock, 4/8 bars). But I’m reading on the Torso Discord channel, that people have issue with syncing to an external clock.
Had a Blackbox as well. If it’s just about sampling and playing samples, I’d go with the Blackbox. The S4 shines with the FX chain in my opinion — it’s more like an instrument.
I don’t think S-4 is going to be able to do what you’re hoping:
Secondary 3. You’ll likely run into clock jitter if syncing FROM your Syntakt.
Secondary 5. This is a tricky one on the S-4. You can’t pre-set recording length. A workaround is to load up a blank sample longer than the duration you want, then change the sample length to desired length. Here’s where it gets tricky:
If you’re using the Tape device, you can overdub on the looping set-length sample, BUT if your clock is synced to your Syntakt, then the ending of the tape loop will have serious jitter, and the Tape Loop will get out of sync. You can visually see this jitter occurring, thanks to their really nice display interface.
If you’re using the DISC device, the overdub functions differently. In this case you’re literally creating a new music file, with the original sample looping as the bedding. So if you have a 4-bar sample of slience, hit overdub on DISC, once it gets to the end of the 4-bars, the sample will loop, but the recording WILL NOT. So if you do an overdub that lasts 8-bars, the file you’ll end up with is 8-bars long, and that second round of 4-bars won’t be placed on top of the loop, but will be in its separate 4-bar section.
So basically if you want to be able to do live-looping that is synced tightly to another device, the S-4 is not a great machine for doing that.
(love it for other things, though)
@miragemechanics I‘m not sure they changed something with the latest firmware (had mine about 3 months ago), but setting a fixed recording length worked fine. Recording started with the next bar, all in sync with Ableton.
@sehmaschine What version are you on? I’m on 2.1.3.
To double-check my memory, I just tried pre-setting recording length with both DISC and TAPE and no luck.
DISC just records until you hit stop. TAPE recorded until it hit the 30-second limit. Neither paid attention to the length I pre-set.
@miragemechanics I don’t have the S4 anymore. But it definitely worked with my setup. I even had an email conversation with Torso exactly about that topic — they also mentioned „quantisation setting“ with track config, but I can’t remember if that is necessary.
Let me know if you figure this out. Would be great for printing loops. It’s not in the config settings that I see.
I think you’re describing an Octatrack 
Thanks. I understand you had no problem syncing from an outside source, I’ve watched many videos on yt of people syncing it to various clock sources, so the question would be: how did you sync it? Usb? Midi to midi in on the S4?..
Regarding the sampling, I like the hands on experience and modulation on the S4 more than the blackbox, so I want to dig in on the most basic sampling experience with it:
When you select (or record) a 2 seconds sample and place it in a track, imagine that one bar is 3 seconds long, what can you do with this sample?:
A. Free looping? (The sample will loop every 2 seconds without changing pitch or timestretch)
B. Time-stretch to make it one bar? (3 seconds in this example)
C. Pitch bending (like a tape machine) to make it one bar? (3 seconds also)
D. Something else?
And then another question in that line is:
After you record the 2 second sample (from the internal mic for instance) does the sample start playing right away on its own?
Thanks. Regarding the last part of your message, how would you typically record on both disc and tape mode, let’s say, in a 120bpm track, an external synth playing a 1 bar melody, so that it just repeats itself every bar after recording it?
Thanks. That means that. The S4 always free-records until you press stop, and then what? It loops this sample?
By the way: dors it do well the fade in / fade out in the initial and ending points of the sample, without clips and pops? (Ableton and 1010music and akai do it without problems when recording new samples) this is also a pretty basic functionality but if heard some videos that didn’t manage this well. Maybe is the old firmware.
I’ve posted my setup on the Torso Discord channel, so I’m just copying that one …
Ableton = Master Clock
MIDI Setup:
Mac USB (1) to Motu M4 (Track & Sync)
Mac USB (2) to Torso S4 (Sync only)
MIDI from Motu M4 to 0-Coast
MIDI/CV Flow:
MIDI Clock via Motu M4 to 0-Coast
MIDI Ch2 via Motu M4 to 0-Coast to 0-CTRL (Reset Trigger for 0-CTRL)
CV1 via Motu M4 Output 3 to 0-CTRL (Stop Trigger)
CV2 via Motu M4 Output 4 to Strega (Misc)
Audio Setup:
0-Coast to Motu M4 IN1
Strega to Motu M4 IN2
Motu M4 OUT1 to S4 IN1
Motu M4 OUT2 to S4 IN2
S4 OUT to Mac (USB)
With this setup, I can use the S4 as a Looper with exact length synced with both Ableton and 0-Coast/Strega (via 0-CTRL). I can use Ableton FX, before the S4 (though I rarely do that).
Recording can be done with either the S4 (Main) or with Ableton (both Main and all channels via USB).
On your other questions … I cannot answer everything, but you can do (live) recording/looping only with TAPE (DISC is for playing samples from the storage). And if I’m not mistaken, you have a setting for how the sample starts after recording (e…g play/overdub).
How do you typically record new samples and sync them, usually? (Asking about your workflow). Thank you.
Thanks. I will check the discord. Can you send the audio from the S4 to your daw in 4 separate tracks via usb?
Or do you have an aggregate device as the interface (motu 2 tracks + torso 1 track)