The Deluge is getting so much love and consistent updates from it’s creator Rohan, and Synthstrom is a wonderful company, it’s the only product they have and devote all their energy to.
It’s a special thing, not just a product 
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I’m almost ready to take the plunge, but I have a question for current owners. As the Deluge is made in NZ, hardware support could be cumbersome (in case of issues, shipping units back and forth). How solid is the hardware itself? Anyone have any issues with it (however small) so far?
I had one of the early ones and no problems so far. Solidly built and encoders feel good quality. Haven’t seen any problems from other owners either.
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Ive had an issue with it. The cv outputs werent stable. Rohan from Synthstrom helpt me intensivly first to try to fix it without sending it back, but after a couple of days Rohan was out of ideas and wanted to look at it himself. It was all well arranged. he made the postal arrangements and it was pickt up at my house right away. After 2 weeks or so I had it allready back in my home, all fixed. In the days that my Deluge was with Rohan he kept me informed all the time, asked more questions. I live in the Netherlands… now thats a distance! I can only say, synthstrom is very devoted to the Deluge and they want to make everybody a happy custumer, I am one!
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It will be necessary to have it returned to New Zealand…
But… Does it make a difference to for example Elektron Devices?
If it is Sweden or New Zealand… If you look at this from the angle of delivery times it makes no difference…
It will take a few days to return it and another few days to get it back… fixed…
This is no procedure to be afraid of…
If it is Elektron or Synthstrom… I like the direct contact to the manufacturer and I guess this won’t be the case if it is Roland or Korg… They are too big to keep a direct contact to the customer…
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Dude, if that’s your last concern, just go for it. You can count on Synthstrom to resolve any issue you might have. But the hardware’s rock solid. You’re more likely to run into sticky Elektron buttons than a faulty Synthstrom anything.
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Good points and very encouraging. Thanks folks!
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Anyone know shipping and duty costs for German orders?
take the listed price on the synthstrom website and add another 120 bucks for customs…
That is what I paid in complete…
It took about 5 days to get delivered and went very smooth.
You can follow the delivery process on a very detailed website… funny to see it traveling more than 18000 km…
Yep, that’s my experience, too, in price and time of delivery. And I live in Sweden. That’s almost as far away from kiwi-land you can get.
the new firmware 1.4 is officially out and yeah, deluge delivers…
Note probability / Iteration dependence
Copy / paste
Copying and pasting parameter automation.
Soloing tracks
Sending multiple MIDI tracks to same output MIDI channel
File browser scrolls long filenames left and right so you can read them, and now orders files alphabetically
“Undo” now works in song view for note recording and parameters / automation
Great… the deluge is constantly evolving…
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Odd as it may sound, as I sold my Deluge, Synthstrom’s my favourite developer of instruments out there right now. This release didn’t make them any less awesome.
@andreasroman Wow, you sold it? Was it for the reasons you mentioned before, or did something new pop up?
Any specific instrument you are going for now?
Yeah, but that was some time ago. I sold it in November, I believe.
The Deluge is a great instrument. I might return to it, at some point. But try as I did to like it, really like it, the workflow didn’t fit me. It’s not bad, by any means. It’s quite clever, actually. But it’s this whole entering and exiting different states, a lot of moving about, that just didn’t fit with me. I’ve realised I prefer a very flat user experience design, which is why I’m constantly drawn to simpler instruments, despite their lack of features.
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We both know you will return to Deluge one day!
Even I’m tempted by it… Though deepmind 12d’s for £675 is also a ridiculously tempting option. Must. Resist. GAS.
Not to make your life difficult here, my friend, but I’ve read your posts about lack of inspiration and missing that geist, right now. The Deluge is so different, it might just unleash that sleeping stuff of awesome you got inside you. The tool’s important for the creator, and once you find the right one, you realise how true this is.
Many years ago, I went through a similar tool spree for writing software as I’ve done with music gear, when my demands for software that helped me not only write, but also structure, increased.
I’m not great at abstract thinking and can’t plot stories or concept all in my head, hence the need for a tool that might help, since this is my craft and what I do for a living.
I went through the lot, didn’t really find anything that helped, and just went back to suffer through Pages on my Mac.
Then, Ulysses was released.
Haven’t looked back since. I got shit in there, novels, scripts, concepts, copy, I don’t know, from projects I’ve worked on for years, stuff that was released, stuff that’ll never be released, stuff that will come out next week, stuff that might get published after the summer, stuff that shouldn’t been published but got published anyway. That tool is so close to me now, I don’t even consider it an application or a piece of software, but a place, the place where I write and create.
So you can see why the Deluge would appeal to me, and it almost did, and to anyone who’s in a creative lock-down and thinking “Nah, it’s me, not the gear, it’s always the musician”, I say, sure - if you’ve gone through them all. But you haven’t, until you’ve tried the Deluge.
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I shouldn’t really spend any money right now but Deluge sure is tempting.
Has there been any improvements to the VA engine? I always thought that was a little weak in the early videos.
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Nope. The VA is what it is. Though I liked it. It has character, and reminded me a bit of the OP-1 and the Reface CS, though perhaps not as defined as those two.
The Deluge is a bit lacking in the downright audio quality department, in search of a better way to put it. It sounds good, but tweaking the filters and the EQ and compressor, still will remind you that they’re there for cosmetics and some trimming, not to get you to that top level, if that’s what you want. The fx algoritms are about average, with the exception of the delay which is above average.
For example, throw a bunch of samples into the Digitakt and work the filters and the effects, and you’ll make them sound a lot better than the Deluge ever could, with very little effort. I kept missing the quality output of the Digitakt, as I worked with the Deluge.
But it’s NOT bad. At all. And in many cases, the onboard stuff will take you far and even to the point where you wanna go.
But if 24-bit, laser hifi, 96megaplasmahertz and Super Audio Stereo Mega is your thing, and your ears are trained for it, then you might find the Deluge slightly lacking.
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I think that’s the crux of the matter for me actually. I’ve been spoiled by ITB soft synths and FX. From my experience, the audio quality is far exceeding anything I have owned or tested. Of course the joy of OTB stuff is tactile operation and, usually, stability but I do find myself disappointed at times with hardware. I think that’s why I ended up returning the A4 Mk2.
I’d counter that by acknowledging a point you made around “simpler” bits of gear. They might not have all of the bells and whistles but there is a joy in using these.
I think I’m just forever going to be one of those blokes cursed with a serious case of “the grass is always greener”. Like hunting the end of a rainbow!
I feel you. As much as i like working OTB, soft synth and soft FX are so good right now that workflow must be really good and the synth must have a special character otherwise i dont see the point anymore. Uhe repro 1, repro 5 , Synapse Audio the Legend, Soundtoys etc are just mind blowing and using Bitwig makes working with a DAW kinda fun , almost
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