After some months of wondering what the S-4 is… it seems like it is carving a new path.
An FX mod-manglooper?
From 7:30 onwards here I’m hearing '68 - '71 Floyd in a box.
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I like the modulation a lot, but can’t gel with the destruct fx yet
it does seem to be ploughing it’s own new course
not a Digitakt, not an OP-1 , not a BlackBox
Maybe closest to a microcosmy OT derivative
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I’ve been playing with this thing today… it’s so awesome. Really enjoying loading up multiple iterations of the same sound file and adjusting their endpoints slightly so I get long phasing a-la “It’s Gonna Rain.”
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Yea can someone who has one test this out. I’m really hoping for 5+ min samples on each track.
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Does it have battery powered optional?
No, unfortunately.
So if approximately 98.4 MB of RAM is required for 6 minutes of 24-bit 48 kHz stereo audio, then that is the size of the Sample Buffer … big question is this available separately for each of the 4 tracks, or do they share the 98.4 MB …
On the OT I regularly stream 30+ minute recordings from the CF card, scanning through them and picking out bits for resampling. Seems like a slight shame that I wouldn’t be able to do the same with the S-4. I guess it has a more specific intended use case but still it seems odd.
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Perhaps they could introduce a stream-from-4GB sample pool Static Machine equivalent on the S-4 … currently it does look like the S-4 is a Flex Machine equivalent only.
though there might be a lot more RAM ?
I believe that’s the RAM.
I don’t remember the exact length, but I was able to run a bounce of a track I had, recorded at 48 kHz and around 4-6 minutes long, and had that sound on 3 different tracks. I was able to scan through them and do all kinds of looping modulation and stuff without issue.
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… first test flight with the S4
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I might be wrong, but I swear I read somewhere that you can stream samples off of an external drive, perhaps even a thumb drive?
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Early impressions-
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Build quality is top notch. Clacky buttons, solid encoders, feels like top quality.
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UX/UI is great. VERY easy to use. The screen is great. Samples load almost instantly. I looked at the manual once to figure out how to load samples. I am not sure if a sampler could be easier to use than the S-4.
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I was able to get an 8 bar loop going pretty easily. Granular pad, amen break, bass loop. Sounded very cool. However, where you go from there using this device alone? I have no idea. Seems like the features to go beyond a single loop are TBD.
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Having a little poly sampler around is nice, especially with your Elektrons.
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The granular page is unsurprisingly where the magic happens. The rate control which allows you to select the timing divisions (including dotted and triplets) gives you some incredible stuff when used on harmonically rich content. The rest of the FX are good but as others said, we need more algos. I don’t really love the drive. The delay and reverb are nice though.
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The resonator is cool but I usually find that resonators make everything sound the same unless you’re very judicious with them. Just a touch can go a long way.
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The modulators end up giving this box the feel of using a modular synth with, say, a Mutable Beads. Lots of little micro adjustments and experimenting. Very meditative.
For me, as of now, this is going to be best as a sample mangler to provide sample food for other boxes or daw. That could change over time.
The S-4 100% needs a sample slicing device and some form of sample editing (like the ability to cut and paste audio like you can on an OP-1). Those would really help the device be more than a loop generator.
Overall, very happy with it and looking forward to the maturation of the device over time.
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An arranger mode for modulation sequences/mutes/FX etc would be a nice way to expand if the core model is as a loop mangler
eg apply mod seq 1 for x bars with track 2 muted, apply mod seq 2 for y bars with track 1 muted (change sample on track 3) etc
… or perhaps the midi implementation is so complete, arrangement could be sequenced externally instead
For me, it’s the exact opposite. I’m not completely convinced by Mosaik, but I think they’ve really succeeded with Deform. I can think of suggestions for improving all the other engines, but not Deform.
I always bliss out turning a pad into dotted rhythmic chord stabs. Maybe I’m easy to please in that area, but I’m finding Mosiac really great and transformative. I said waaay above in this thread how great it would be to have Albeton’s warp modes in a hardware device and this is getting pretty close.
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Has anyone who ordered from perfect circuit got a shipped notification 