Synthstrom Audible Deluge [inc. Open Source development]

I don’t think there is. AFAIK, You can Shift+scroll, but this only works for songs with numeric names and multiple versions. Eg. if you have 0a,0b,0c,1 , then shift+scroll will go from 0a to 1.

Ahhh I think you’re right. I saw the suggestion here:

But it doesn’t seem to work?? Hrmmm…

Yeah, as I’m going through and making my own presets I’m starting to realize the value in prefixing them with whatever they do. I do have a pretty large sample library, so I might feel the pain there more than others. I’m definitely considering just putting together a “greatest hits” list just for the Deluge, though. But I guess my thought is - why? Deluge clearly wants to be used as a sample-heavy device, and the current setup for browsing a sample library makes it pretty hard to either A) browse; or B) search samples. Browsing samples is definitely better than the flat/folderless synth preset issue.

As far as synth presets go, I got all the “Boards of Deluge” ones right out of the gate since the general consensus seemed to be that they are a great demonstration of what the synth engine can actually do, so I’m sitting on a pretty huge collection of presets. Again, I’m considering whittling them down to the “greatest hits”, but my question is why?

None of it’s a dealbreaker, it’s just a noticeable quality of life difference from other grooveboxes I’ve used. For a device that otherwise offers an insanely low-friction experience in getting the shape of a song out of your head and into the device, it seems like a big oversight.

But at the end of the day, I’m still incredibly happy with the Deluge. It’s well on its way to being my favorite digital instrument in the house, if not already.

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As you know, I’m still relatively new on the device but TBH I wouldn’t consider it a dealbreaker. It’s annoying, but not debilitating.

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I’m in the same boat. I think the “why” for me is that, in order for a collection of presets to be maximally useful for me, I need to know what is in there. Another motivation for me is to learn the synth engine better; having a few bread+butter presets I can modify to my tastes lends itself to an interesting workflow.

I’ve been struggling with what to do with the multi-sampled presets. They can take the Deluge to some really cool places, but the time it takes to scroll through them is frustrating. I want to setup my presets so I almost never scroll, instead using the “load” function.

Lastly, I just tried out single-cycle waveforms in the Dellie last night for the first time and it takes them really well. Excited to explore more with it :slight_smile:

there are a few things like this where there’s a feature request open for a few years but no progress. One I came across recently was the lack of arpeggiator latch/hold Arpeggiator Latch / Note Hold — Synthstrom Audible But don’t get me wrong the Deluge is absolutely awesome and the centerpiece of my setup right now.

In terms of multisamples, browsing to a dir and using the multiple load definitely works but it’s a bit clunky. What I’ve been doing is generating multisample synth presets from the samples from mars collection. The presets make it easy to switch between them so you don’t have to go through the load process.

Obviously this is where the sorting/organizing of synth presets comes in. A single sample from marks pack can result in 40ish synth presets. That’s about the number I’m willing to deal with/scroll through.

My workaround at the moment is the flashair card… It makes it easy to delete all the synth presets and copy over whichever collection I want. May cause trouble in the long run as a song could be saved with a preset which isn’t loaded on the device anymore. Would just have to copy them back over.

In fact, the Dellie saves a copy of the synth presets in each song :slight_smile: as long as you don’t delete the samples being used (or move them) then your songs will remain intact

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I verified this and you are correct. This is a powerful feature I wasn’t aware of. Even if you were to move the samples, the songs are just XML files. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but you can just edit the XML and search/replace with the new path to the samples. The use of XML for kits, synths, and songs really makes a lot of things possible for the end user to manipulate.

Why Toshiba sold their consumer flashair card business to Kioxia and then Kioxia decided to never make them again I will never know. But this flashair card is just too good. It’s changed the way I evaluate all other gear by making me ask “Will it give me wireless access to the underlying filesystem while it’s running”

@rabban Yes I love that all the synths and songs are XML files. Really leaves a lot of options open for the everyday hacker (assuming you can convert hex, lol I haven’t figured this one yet but I know others have and I can use their work).

Lots of fun resources here, utilizing the storage structure: http://forums.synthstrom.com/discussion/1260/third-party-software-for-the-deluge/p1

No doubts here! Compared to the Elektron samplers I’ve owned, some of the sampler features (easy resampling, polyphonic slice playback, no RAM limit, etc.) really lend themselves to experimenting :slight_smile:

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New patch (bug fixes) firmware!

I’ve had my Deluge freeze up occasionally, hoping this fixes it (although talking back and forth with support, I think it’s something to do with my SD card :confused: ). Regardless, support from this company is top notch :ok_hand:t3:

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It’d be amazing if it could adopt a couple of the Yamaha tenori-on sequencer modes. I can’t imagine it would be too hard, considering what else it could do. Some of the tenori modes were really unique and I haven’t seen them elsewhere!

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how close can it emulate a tenori or monome currently?

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Not close. Most of monome’s sequencers are quite odd. If you like them, the Deluge can’t touch most of them.

I can’t imagine doing the tenori stuff would be too difficult? Then again I can’t imagine any of what goes into this magical box.

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I’ve never tried the Tenori so I can’t speak for that. And I don’t think the implementation of a few of the typical monome sequencers would be all that challenging, compared to all the other magic Rohan Hill conjures up.

But as far as the monome sequencers go - and I’m refering specficially now to Kria, Earthsea and Meadowphysics - I’d say it’s debatable what they add to the long term creative output for a musician. We all respond differentely to tools, but generally, making a simple task more complicated for the purpose of finding new ways to explore music, doesn’t work in the long run. You’re swayed by the fact that it’s new and beautiful, but the next time you need to actually get to work, you’ll find yourself drawn to more straight forward methods, so that you can focus on writing and less on the interaction itself.

That’s not to say there isn’t a kind of serene and tranquil beauty in playing with monome sequencers, like experimentation and really going to new places. But most musicians I know at one point want to write something coherent, even if it came from a strange place, and that’s where monome stuff usually stumbles.

However, it should be noted that monome and its primary devs don’t really put themselves out there as an actor who provides an environment for the musician who wants to write more coherent work. They’re upfront and honest about what they do. I think it’s more the fact that some of us looking at their stuff from the outside, go “Oh, that is absolutely beautiful. I want that for my (insert your version of a more traditional workflow here).” And you can get far, I did write a few complete pieces on the thing after all, but you’ll also be reminded in time about the convenience of a mature tool, developed for the purpose of finishing things, not just playing with them.

So that’s a rant that’s close to off topic. But I guess my point is this, then - the Deluge was clearly made to help you not only get music started, but to finish it as well. It’s an extremely coherent environment for song writing. I think that’s one of the reasons Rohan doesn’t implement more experimental modes on the sequencer. And I have a feeling he won’t go open source. A man who basically writes the entire platform on his own, with perhaps the occassional mate to help him with a branch or two, probably don’t want people messing around with his architecture.

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Agreed - I think a lot of people assume that open-sourcing software makes life as a developer easier. In reality, it creates a ton of work. For most small OSS projects there are very few people who contribute back to the project, and those that do contribute back often require a ton of review to ensure that the code they’re contributing meets internal standards, doesn’t break existing functionality, etc. Mostly it just creates a ton of chatter in a Github issue queue where people complain and raise feature requests, which judging on the current state of the Synthstrom forums I suspect he has enough of for the rest of his life :smiley: A lot of formerly happy developers quit software after the thankless job of maintaining an OSS library sucks the life out of them.

Not to mention that for a company that produces hardware that runs the software being open-sourced, it creates a huge quality control/warranty/support problem. It doesn’t take long before users running a forked variant of the official software start coming back to the hardware manufacturer with complaints or warranty requests when things don’t work correctly.

I love OSS (and am typing this to you from an open source operating system), but I’m always very realistic about the problems that come with releasing source. It isn’t a panacea to slow feature development.

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I agree with every goddam single word of your writing here, mate. People go, “Just make it open source, we’ll take it from there.” Just like that dude who found Pandora’s Box and figured, What’s the worst thing that could happen, and opened the damn thing :slight_smile:

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Yeah @porkloin some things are great open source, firmware for specialised hardware on expensive commercial products though, not so much.

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I got a little distracted on the open source part, but was reminded of what I originally wanted to say after watching this 3.2 sneak-peek video again. I kinda feel some of the sequencing coming soon constitutes more “experimental” modes!

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Also, if anyone is using the “Boards of Deluge” preset packs, keep in mind that a bunch of the presets in those sets are transposed to non-octave semitone values (-16.0 is the one I’ve seen a lot).

I love the sound of the presets, but kept feeling super confused when I couldn’t get scale-mode stuff to sound good over the top of them. It turns out having a random preset detuned by 4 semitones will do that to you.

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