A dedicated thread for the Torso S-4. Share your patches, post tips & tricks, ask questions.
You got hardware or other issues to complain about?—this is not the right thread.
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Yess. Long overdue
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@ligature Thanks for creating this thread.
This is TorsoS4 ( ambiance/Atmos/ bass ) and Tonverk ( drums and melody ). Intro and ending is S4 alone.
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Long overdue? There has been this, which is over 3700 posts deep…
we know, but this thread is actually for ‘users’…tips, workflow questions, showing tracks or just snippets of sound… Just talking about how we ‘use’ it.
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Beatstretch for posterity.
On DISC device, modulate parameters Length negatively and Tempo positively while keeping Density low and Length size relatively low and you have a stretched sample.
Also, if you pitch RING all the way down, choke Decay (about 40% in this case), Tilt all the way down, Detune to the max and use Waves a bit shy of max (I used 80%), you get a kind of flanger/APF/spectral effect.
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Yay! Users thread.
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Great thread, will follow since i am interested in what this machine can do, from all you creative people, since YouTube ain’t cutting it.
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I copied some time ago from Discord (sorry don’t remember from who…) how to modulate a modulator. I ping it here as a way for everyone to have access to and try this wonderful sound design technique . Modulation mayhem!
Head to the MOD 1 page so you see the default random waveform.
Hold the mod and track buttons and keep them held down (if you let them go, head back to the MOD 1 page and start over).
You’ll see the standard mod mapping graphics appear on the MOD 1 parameters, e.g. a blue line in the middle of the RATE parameter.
In the top left is a blue box reading MAPPING: RANDOM. Note that the triangle button is also blue (your fingers might be in the way).
The triangle is lit because we’re currently on the MOD 1 page, and MOD 1’s colour is blue, So if we used the knobs to increase the mod amounts now, we’d be mapping MOD 1 with its own signal.
Instead of that, with mod and track still held down, tap the hexagon button. Now the mod markers turn green and the top left text reads MAPPING: WAVE. The hexagon button is now lit green too, because the hex button selects MOD 3, whose colour is green.
But! We’re still seeing the MOD 1 random waveform on the screen. This tells us that we’re applying a modulation TO MOD 1, FROM MOD 3.
Now turn the third knob to increase the modulation for PHASE. You should see the random waveform start to move left and right - we’ve applied the MOD 3 wave LFO to MOD 1’s PHASE parameter.
And that’s basically it - select the modulator you want to modulate, select the modulation source, and apply the modulation. The trickiest part is keeping the buttons held down.
Final test: try editing MOD 3’s RATE with the MOD 4 wave. Once it’s done, take a look at MOD 1 and you’ll see the left-right movement from MOD 3 is now getting faster and slower as MOD 3 is modulated by MOD 4. All that remains is to modulate some aspect of MOD 4 with MOD 1 and you’ve got a wild loop of cross-mod going on.
Hopefully that all makes sense. Let’s do a TL;DR:
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Go to the MOD 1 page
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Hold mod and track down until step 5
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Tap the hexagon
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Turn knob 3
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Let go of the buttons
With a little practice the process will be easy. try it now! 
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hi, new owner of S4 here. just want to share my findings on using S4 as USB audio. i didn’t see this mentioned in discord/this forum, so forgive me if this info is redundant.
i have a motu ultra lite mk5, tried to connect it to S4 directly using usb-c, but it doesn’t work.
then i found sort of workaround, by using DAW (ableton Live) as a bridge. i’m using macos sequoia.
i just realized that turns out in ableton i can choose different audio interface between audio input and output device, no need to create aggregate device. so what i did, i plug both my S4 and ultra-lite to my laptop using usb-c, then:
- for multi-track recording from S4 to ableton, set
audio input device: S4
audio output device: ultra-lite
then i create audio tracks in ableton,
- track 1 set input to ext. in 3/4 - to receive audio from S4-Track 1.
- track 2 set input to ext. in 5/6 - to receive audio from S4-Track 2.
- and so on…
- then just record your performance in S4 to ableton
this way, i can also route my S4 track to ultra-lite output, for example set ableton track 1 to ext. out 3/4,
then take that signal from ultra-lite’s output to be processed further with external outboard gear.
- for sending audio from live instrument via ultra-lite to S4, set
audio input device: ultra-lite
audio output device: S4
create an audio track in ableton,
- set the track input to ext. in 1/2,
- set monitoring to IN,
- set the output to ext. out 1/2 to send the audio to S4-Track 1.
- plug your instrument/synth/mic to input 1/2 ultra-lite.
- bypass the DISC/Material device in S4, then you are set to processed/sculpting your live input in S4.
at first i set my buffer size in ableton to 128 samples, and i got a lot of audio dropout/glitch from the S4. then i set the buffer to 256 samples, everything become smooth and stable.
i did a live jam multi-track recording, and here’s the video
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From earlier post in the other thread:
Scene dependent track panning (substitute for modulating the panning in project wide) .
Use a random/wave mod, set spread to 90 degrees phase shift and assign to disc or tape sample level amount bi directional a few percent. This way the modulation depth will spread between left and right and because you are modulating the left/right level with opposite values there is panning.
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Hi! Is there a way to save the contents of the Tape machine as a sample?
Oddly enough there isn’t a save option like on Disc. Only ctrl+play.
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That is kind of vierd. Thanks!
(From my post at another forum):
Highly configurable flanging, using Space / Vast / Delay.
For pedestrian-to-bizarre ultra-short time-based effects.
Set Delay (level) up. Healthy amount of Feedback, under 100% (!!). Time to Free running. Crank it up to 375 Hz. Just under 3 mS, and slowly adjust it CCW.
Sky’s the limit on which Modulator to use. The ‘normal’ route would use Wave / Free Rate. Map it to Time, a few % points (+/-). All kinds of ways to customize the shape, depth, ‘throb’ or split it into a second LFO, out of phase (thru 0 & multi-sweeps).
With all these Modulators available. I’m onto fine-tuning methods to create Shepard-Risset / barberpole FX.
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Crazy good jam with crazy good video. What a ride. Thanks for sharing. Subbed, to your crazy great channel. 
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wow, thank you for your kind words 
Can someone who’s on the discord drop a link? The link on their site seems to be down.
E: NVM a different link worked.
Not mine, but just to show that even with some bugs (yet) S4 can do some live action - no problem . Each musician uses one.
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Anyone using the Monolit from Light Reft with the S4? If so, how do you like it?