Very much in the honeymoon phase, so probably a good idea to update in a couple of months… but I got my Deluge from Synthstrom a few days ago, on the latest stable 3.1 firmware, and so far I’m enamoured.
Waiting for 4.0 with great interest, because 1) wavetables and 2) I have a Linnstrument on my desk as well.
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rallat
123
There is a way to request access to the private beta 4.0 in the Synthstrom forum! enjoy!
Thanks - yeah, I noticed that as well 
Just a bit wary of putting new things into the mix as I haven’t even learnt all the basics yet… but maybe it’s worth it just for trying how well MPE works at this point.
There’s a deluge discord chat also if that’s your style! We hang out, help people with quick questions, talk gear, share stuff, etc.
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Can anyone post the beta fw here? I’m interested but don’t feel like making another forum acct.
As far as I understood, it’s a private beta in the sense that aside registering to a forum, you need to request access to beta group as well… So probably the beta fw can’t be distributed outside the beta tester group (I guess?)
i requested around mid day today and just heard back. not bad.
I sent a request yesterday (local time) as well, yet to hear back but I suppose that’ll happen in a day or two
arman
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I’ve been using the deluge as my sole sampler/sequencer since buying it around when firmware 3.0 was released. It has recently dawned on me: I’m really happy with its built-in reverb! I’m not really in the know when it comes to effects, so here’s my question:
Have I just acclimated to the deluge’s reverb over the course of hundreds of hours or is it actually as good as I think?
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After about two weeks of pretty intensive learning and listening, the verb feels sort of like everything else in Deluge so far: I wouldn’t buy it because of any specific single thing it does - but somehow it does all those single things, including reverb, well enough that there’s no need to replace anything with a “better” external device to get things sounding good.
And that isn’t meant to be a backhanded compliment. Rather, I’m somewhat of a reverb freak and the one in Deluge is quite simple, but still manages to sound nice with right settings for everything I’ve thrown at it so far, so two thumbs up!
The best explanation I’ve been able to think of about what the whole device feels like to me so far, is that it’s really like a lower end early '90s MIDI studio - first brought into modern age specs regarding memory / storage type things, and then magically shrunk into a small tightly integrated battery-powered box that weighs next to nothing and is fast and intuitive to use. You get a
- subtractive synth engine that reminds me of mid-late '80s lower end DCO polys (think Juno / Siel DK / Poly-61 etc.) in how it sounds and feels like,
- 2-op FM engine that could be from one of those desktop Yamaha boxes that looked like hi-tech answering machines,
- sampler that kind of reminds me of something like S1000 or S2000 with some things taken out and then practically unlimited sample time + tempo-matched loops added,
- with the 4.0, a very nice no frills wavetable synthesis engine (I was lucky to end up getting the instrument at this point - the WT side really opens up the sound sculpting possibilities for me),
- simple effects engine that sounds nice in the context of electronic music, in the way of the multitude of cheap Alesis boxes that ended up in home studios of a lot of techno / electronica / IDM artists back then,
- a multi-track recorder + looper you can commit ideas to and add “real instrument” parts synced to everything else,
- a sequencer that (despite of completely different UX) is more reminiscent of a lightweight Atari app than a “x0x groovebox” style sequencer - with all the zooming and panning, higher resolution editing, automation recording, sequence direction+ individual row length + euclidean (in 4.0) sequence features…
Of course, the analogy doesn’t hold much water when you start thinking about it with a more analytical mindset, but it still feels to me like the thing on my lap is sort of shrunk equivalent of the smaller and cheaper complete synth music home studios some of the people I know had in the '90s. I guess the distinction is, that there are a lot of devices with a similar form factor and purpose, but they differ in the approach of where the possibilities and limitations lie, and this one feels kind of unique (in both good and bad) in this particular sense.
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Wanted to mention a fun use case:
You can use the Deluge as an FX processor. On a synth track you can specify the oscillator type as IN which means it’ll play back whatever the input audio is as a “synth” track, so you can then apply all the filters, saturation, FX, delay, and reverb to the input. You can also use the extensive modulation matrix (env1, env2, lfo1, lfo2, random, velocity, sidechain, etc…) and map that stuff to all the other sound parameters a normal synth would have. You can then sequence it and do per-step modulation setting which will pitch shift the input, chords, arp, probabilities, etc. You can use a midi sequence from the deluge midi out and control itself via midi in for more weird routings, like tying 10 sound parameters to the same midi CC channel. Since you can have any number of “synth” tracks, you can layer 5 lanes (or more) of parallel FX and have all of them point to the same input audio source if you wanted to. I’ve been having fun using it as a “guitar pedal”.
Since it has stereo input and output, you can use it as 2 lanes of mono (with X number of layers each) or as stereo. Or let’s say you had a mixer input, you could pan between L and R output from mixer and thus crossfade between two different FX processors on Deluge.
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tgk
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One of the things I really missed before getting a Deluge was the ability to make sampled instruments easily and compose without being tied to a wall outlet. I’ve been experimenting with recording drones to cassette tape and then recording them back into Deluge as a synth voice. I think I’m slowly getting the sound I want and the process just makes each custom synth that much more personal. I haven’t fallen in love with the subtractive or FM synth engines yet I must admit… I still rely on external synths or predefined patches…
Here’s todays experiment with a Moog Mother 32 drone recorded onto tape and into the Deluge, Novation Peak recorded straight in and made into a synth, and finally Novation Peak sequenced along. All of it is passed through Greyhole by @Justmat.
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That’s a really good idea - the wall outlet free portability means it’s even easier to leave home to record things (or borrow a friend’s reel to reel to run stuff through) and directly make sampled instruments out of them instead of a field recorder → editor → synth type workflow.
I have to admit that while I use some subtractive elements in patches as well, and the 2-op FM is mode fun, I’ve been mainly doing patches with the new 4.0 beta wavetable osc. Having something like a one-shot attack sample, and a scannable wavetable as the “tail”, is particularly fun right now - sort of simplified version of Roland’s LA synthesis I suppose.
You got me thinking about having a similar patch, but running the elements eg. through a tape deck or other processing first.
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Tides
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The power of the sampling in Deluge for the form factor still amazes me. I also love to track to tape and then play them back using the synth Osc! Such flexibility, I also like to make multiple synth voices this way on seperate tracks and then playing all the voices back using a keystep and the learn function, quite fun to build up that way too
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It’s probably a dangerous question for my wallet, and one down to personal taste as well, but does anyone have any favourite synths that they think complement Deluge especially well? The internal engine does a lot of things, especially with the wavetable addition in v4 betas, but I started thinking about what kind of synth would expand the palette to nice directions and have minimum hassle in setting up to work together.
After seeing @Tides’ Deluge + Peak combo in the music making machine picture thread and checking out some videos after that… on one hand the killer feature in Deluge is that I can use it for making complete things on battery without ever hooking it up to anything else - but on the other hand (hello, this is GAS speaking) it might be cool to have sort of a “dock” type setup where I could quickly hook up the Deluge to some external synth back at the studio room, and maybe spend some time sampling some multisamples or changing the internal synth tracks to MIDI tracks and recording alternate takes of some of the parts with another synth altogether. And then take it back to battery-powered couch use once again.
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Tides
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Sorry! haha
The Peak is a great addition to the Deluge, it is a lovely synth with a tonne of options for different genres!
Digitone might be a nice choice too, lots of options and it is stand alone with it’s own sequencer so you could easily make patches on your sofa too if required!
That being said the minimal mindset there is definitely no better sampler that is battery powered better than the Deluge (in my opinion) and you could really work on getting the sounds you need from that (I’m looking to pair down my setup atm) If your in the UK and in the market I may have a proposition for you!
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For some reason I haven’t been terribly enamoured of the “smaller” Elektron boxes - I did like the workflow of Analog Rytm and the older ones I’ve borrowed or owned in the past, but also used to own a Digitakt and never got anything sensible done with it because couldn’t really gel with it. Definitely need to check out Digitone more carefully though, as I was interested in that in the past and they aren’t the same device.
I guess for the last couple of years I’ve been looking for self-contained things with a good sequencer / event system and either a nice synthesis or a sampling engine, but now that Deluge has really filled that slot, potentially a synth with a relatively hands-on “knobby” editing interface with perhaps less focus on sequencing might be the ticket (realized that “just synths” are something I haven’t been interested for quite a while, as I’ve only had Linnstrument + computer as the MPE setup, Norns/Fates for processing various sources, and tried to find a good “sofa groovebox” for practically everything else).
Feature and form factor wise Peak seems like a good fit, I just need to listen some more demos and look at the UI and workflow more carefully… A friend of mine has one, but haven’t yet had a chance to go and try it out due to circumstances. It seems it does divide opinions pretty heavily which is usually sign of a good instrument, just need to figure out if it’d be for me or not.
Thanks for the comments & suggestions! (And thanks for the thought, but I’m in Finland / EU and I guess any proposition would become too expensive due to shipping and taxes…)
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Come and fetch my Peak for a week and see how you gel with it.
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Tides
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Yea I had a Digitakt then an Octatrack and although they were amazing devices I never really go on with them myself, the Deluge fitted almost every need I had and then some! Definitely try and get a hold of a peak to try out, worth checking out for sure. It is definitely accessible, there isn’t a huge deal of deep menu diving which is nice!
Ahh i’m UK based, good luck with your endeavour!
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Seen people pair it with peak, prophet 10, digitone, pulsar-23, and microfreak most often, along with various other things and as the main controller for a modular system with a midi to CV module. Seen analog heat show up several times as pairing, or sp404, or EHX platform as an end of chain stereo compressor thing.
Personally loved the deluge pulsar combo. Deluge takes cv clock, midi, and audio input, and can output midi sequences, midi control, CV and gate voices, and USB midi. Medium modular case compliments it well since it can use the CV and midi modulation outputs. End of chain “please fix the mix thanks” box is often considered after years of using it since it (currently) doesn’t have the ability to export stems.
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