unfortunately, I cancelled my preorder.
I should have waited for more information before preordering
my mind, left to wander, took this concept in directions other than what Torso has shown so far, so it was looking quite different than I imagined and I had to bow out.
Same experience for me. Iām super excited to get this thing.
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I wonder what the ratio of preorders to cancellations is, as the videos have been released?
In other words, how have the vids affected business? 
Soz I started asking how your refund went then went another way, not a reply to you specifically @midnightoperator94 
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reminds me of this song (title)
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When they announced it, I was very excited. I was seeing a potential serious Octatrack killer (for my use, as a live sampling/remixing/mangling/FX box) but more they release video and more I want to get back an OT 
This demo is like flipping through a Fairlight patch list of found sounds.
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Communicating with customers (and potential customers) is very poor across the entire industry IMO.
There are countless eurorack makers that just DO NOT get it.
What Torso should do is explain why there havenāt been any full workflow demos - likely the firmware still WIP, something that everyone would understandā¦after all theyāre not set to ship for a couple of months.
This is one of the most common problems with small manufacturers - they might be really good at hardware and software, but that doesnāt mean theyāre good at anything else - this isnāt a criticism per se, just an observation (Iām looking at you Rossum).
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Ah so it is! But just in case anyone missed it, looks like itās much more expensive (for us in the US, at least). Ā£789 on Signal Sounds which is around $999 USD, vs $899 direct from Torso.
It doesnāt seem like a lot of depth is being showcased in these videos. Iād really love to see a sample playing back polyphonically while itās parameters are being modulated to slowly change over time, or a sample track preconfigured to trigger different machines at different points in its playback. I was under the impression that these were some of the capabilities of the S-4, but maybe Iām mistakenā¦
That being said, itās promising seeing how fast and seamless it is for the S-4 to switch between samples. I know it currently doesnāt sample chop, but maybe you can send program changes to seamlessly switch between samples (with their preconfigured modulators and effects)? If thatās possible, then I can see it doing some pretty cool stuff with sound collage. So far most of its potential has yet to be seenā¦
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This thing is just basically a multitimbral granular synth isnāt it? It sounds like what I think of when I think of granular synthesis. I donāt see any way to sequentially lay out audio clips to create compositions. I just see a looper.
This seems useful for layered granular drones. Iād be more interested if it was designed for multitrack recording like the OP-1ās tape.
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From Torsoās description on their site:
āS-4 has four parallel stereo tracks, each of which contains a chain of five audio devices tailored to cover specific sonic areas and applications. Create everything from glittering textures to broken soundscapes or evolving synth sounds.ā
I think their use of the word āchainā made me think that you could chain multiple audio engines together, as opposed to stacking them. To me the use of this word describes something linear, as if different audio engines are being triggered at different points.
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I really want one of these since it was first announced, but itās true that the demos have had an adverse effect on me, not because of whatās in them but rather because of whatās not ā thereāve been soooo many teasers without anything proper that I somehow feel like saying āfine, if you want to fuck around that much, Iām not in a rush at all, I can wait.ā
Weird marketing strategy for sure.
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finding it funny that torso probably made the clickless T-1 just because loopop mentioned in his review that heād prefer the encoders to be clickless, and later most people found out that its a bad idea lmao
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Then donāt tease it. If its not done, donāt take pre-orders. What are you offering to people as a pre-order? What exactly has āsold outā at the moment.
At this point I have zero faith in this thing from the āmarketingā roll out. I would LOVE to eat my words on this.
I think the word āchainā means the 5 audio devices of the audio engine chained together in series. I only see the ability to edit these 5 aspects for each sound and to either loop the sound or play the sound polyphonically. I donāt see the ability to āchainā wav files anywhere.
I donāt think so either, I was just talking about audio engines, which describes the playback of the audio. If there are multiple audio engines that can be chained together then I see this being more than just a granular synth.
The 5 āmultiple audio enginesā are known though and they are: Material, Granular, Filter, Color, and Space. They are already chained together all the time.
āMaterialā determines if the sample is looped or can be played polyphonically. A new āmaterialā could be added that may possibly allow conventional cutting/pasting of audio clips to create linear compositions, but thereās no hint of this.
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This is the first demo of the s-4 I didnāt find offensive 
However, I donāt know what thereās to see or hear. I just went by the spec sheet that was posted a long time ago and recently ordered one via a retailer 
Of course thereās always the possibility of a yet unknown workflow-killer, for example.
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Ah, that makes sense. I think I just read into what what āchainingā meant and I filled in the blanks with my own ideas/wishes.
Ayeā¦ā¦agreedš