Thanks for the tip!
I’ve been playing dawless for a couple of years now and I love the immediacy of it, but it’s really hard to go from jams to finished songs with Elektron’s workflow (at least with the gear I have).
The Deluge seems like the perfect solution for getting all of the useful DAW features for full song arrangements, without having to use a computer.
It really is. There are some things you may miss but multi outs, screen, etc where never issues to me.
Like I say, it was just too much like a DAW for a person like me who is very much an ITB guy at heart with 1 or 2 bits of hardware to the side.
I’ve had my Deluge for a month. My main reason for steering clear of DAWs during the composition phase is to get away from the computer screen as I work with computers in my day job. Some may feel the Deluge resembles a DAW, but I think it is much less of a DAW than the current MPC line is. I much prefer the tactile feel of the Deluge over touch screens of MPC / iPad etc.
I’ve had every single item of the current Elektron lineup (only the ARmkII remains). The Elektron workflow does a lot of thing very well that is difficult to do on the Deluge. But what I love about the Deluge is its ability to be my preferred portable groovebox (I love making music in the couch, not on a desk), while still taking the role of centerpiece / MIDI-conductor once its back on the desk.
It’s about more than being battery powered. I had a USB powerbank for my DT/DN, but hit a roadblock whenever I sat with the DN and suddenly wanted to use a sample, or with the DT and suddenly wanted to design a synth pad. Going back to the desk and the rest of the equipment to complete my idea was a drag. Not to mention the need for more tracks, longer tracks etc. There were of course workarounds on the DT/DN with this, but it didn’t feel smooth. Also, I get the feeling that the Elektron sequencer was designed for monophonic work, and polyphony was shoehorned in at a later stage. The Deluge handles note placement, length, overlap and visibility for polyphonic work much better IMO.
I can flesh out an entire track on the Deluge with synths and timestretched samples, sitting in the couch and being void of touchscreens. And then I can put in on the desk, plug in a MIDI cable and quickly swap the internal Deluge tracks from the built in synths to a MIDI-track sequencing my other hardware synths as I see fit, for recording and mixing.
The Elektron boxes are great at making cool stuff based around one single type of sound engine at once. A song made entirely of samples? Cool, the OT and DT does that. Wanna make everything out of synths? A4 or DN for you, my friend. Want to mix samles and synth engines? Get back to the desk!
EDIT: Forgot to mention one thing. I also find it more jam friendly at times. I often jam with a friend, and one rule is we never stop the sequencers. Changing pattern length on an Elektron without throwing everything out of whack is difficult, but on the Deluge it is a breeze. While I don’t play live (yet), I think I would be much more comfortable with the Deluge and its way of piecing together complete songs and transitioning between them, than using the song mode on an A4 for example.
How easy is that ? Is it just a case of assigning a midi channel to the internal synth track you already have ?
If there was still any doubt in my mind about getting one, this just sealed the deal! 
Thank you for sharing, your circumstances are exactly the same as mine. More often than not I prefer making music on the couch instead of the desk, and none of the boxes I own right now are capable of building a track on its own (at least not a complex one). The possibility of hooking up the Deluge to my other synths later on and switching the internal tracks to midi tracks is just the icing on the cake.
For all the (IMHO) UI niggles and some half-baked features, the Deluge certainly is the most flexible, portable and most capable music-making device I’ve ever owned. For that it deserves a ton of praise.
Super easy. Select the specific synth track, push the MIDI-button, and scroll the “Select”-wheel to select the MIDI-channel you want. That’s it.
This converts the track from a synth track to a MIDI-track, so you will no longer hear that track from the Deluge’s audio output.
I think, with that and the audio looping, I’m sold
It was around £110 when I imported mine recently to the UK. If you mail Ian / sales support at synthstrom they can give a decent estimate of what fees you can expect to pay if they’ve shipped to those countries previously. Loving my deluge… The arranger mode is great for breaking out of the loop.
I think you would like the Deluge very much. It isn’t all things to all people but a very fine device. In my opinion, the product had reach maturity and this is a great time to dive into it =)
Join the Discord group @ Discord
Might as well share a couple of things about the Deluge which might be helpful in the beginning.
1. Shortcuts
The newest version have the “sound-design-shortcuts” printed on the panel along all the 128 pads. In the beginning you will spend a little time squinting at the panel, looking for the right button. But once you get the structure of it and spend some time with it, you’ll be just fine. Took me 4-5 hours tops.
BUT: There are a lot of additional “workflow-shortcuts” that don’t involve the pads but rather rely on seemingly arbitrary scroll-wheel-push-turn-hold combos. These shortcuts aren’t labeled, and I’m still not fluent with all of them. Thankfully, the most complex ones are the ones I rarely use, and I’ve never needed them during a hectic jam. Download the short community guide where all these shortcuts are listed, and expect do spend some time learning these fully. I still have to check the guide on occation for the right shortcut. There is no alternative way to do these task (no menu option).
2. Gain staging
The default volume level for samples and synths are very loud. So loud, that I often get nasty distortion if I don’t ajust levels. Make it a habit to turn down the levels immediately after importing a sample or initilazing a new synth track. I usually set OSC-levels at 35 and track level (labeled MASTER) at 35 as well. Maximum is 50, and that distorts waaay to easily. The master volume knob appears to be passive analog, so don’t be afraid to crank that to get enough output.
3. Multiple places to adjust parameters, and no menu for every one of them.
You have speedy access to some values, by using the golden knobs and the buttons between them. This is level, pan, cutoff, resonance, delay time, delay level, and a few others. If you are on a synth track for example, you can find these adjustments (and their values) in the menu as well, and also access them using the grid-shortcuts.
BUT: Using the “affect entire” button, you can also adjust these parameters for an entire kit, or an entire song. These adjustments are on top of the paramenters you have already set for the individual tracks, they are not a “control all” style thing as you may be used to from DT/DN. If you in a heated moment turn the level or cutoff all the way down with “affect entire” on a song (or an entire kit), you might get confused later on when you have no sound and franticly turn up all the individual track levels and still hear nothing. Also, these adjustments/values are nowhere to be found in the menu, so you have to enable “affect entire” again to get a visual representation of their currect setting (indicated by the level-LEDs next to the golden knobs). Once used to it, not a problem.
4. All sounds are synths.
Or, at least they seem to be. If you make a drum kit out of samples, it seems that every sample lives inside their own synth engine, and its oscillator type is just set to “sample” instead of “saw” or whatever. This is nice, because you can mess with envelope, filter, pitch etc. on the samples, and even introduce a regular oscillator on OSC2 along with the sample if you want. Or run two samples in the same synth engine (on OSC1 and OSC2).
Sorry for the lengthy post. 
Also, RMR performs nicely with it in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTSvsyYVGg4
I keep thinking of selling mine as I don’t use it enough, but then I remind myself of all the things I like about it. At present I’m waiting to see what the next update brings, the MPE stuff isn’t of any interest to me but there are going to be some other enhancements coming like individual drum lane step lengths which are.
I really don’t like the isomorphic key layout, I don’t like that notes off scale are still playable, seems daft to me given how small the pads are and the chance of hitting a bum note is possible, I hope that some improvments happen there, and some other “quality of life” workflow things.
Awesome, thanks for all the feedback, it’s definitely very useful!
I think the 1st thing I’ll get once I have it is this sound pack, it’s what first turned me on to the Deluge a few months ago:
If you do decide to sell it, let me know! 
I ended up getting all the BoD sound packs. They just sound great and spending some time dissecting a few of them has really helped me learn my way around the synth engine.
Shameless plug: my own preset pack consisting entirely of synthesised drums using the Deluge’s synth engine.
Ah, I’ve also been feeling some love for my Deluge recently.
I had picked up some other gear and the Dellie wasn’t being used in my setup as much. Hurt my foot a few days ago and using the Deluge as a couch companion has been phenomenal.
@Blasteroid all great points 
I’ll add to the gain-staging, discussion that I find it most effective to turn down the overall song volume (and turn up the master volume). This removes any internal clipping while still giving me the full range of volume over a synth/kit clip
The affect-entire paradigm is super powerful on this box. I love being able to destroy individual sounds of a kit and then mangle the whole kit. It makes for some really interesting results, without ever needing to resample.
+1 for the the BoD sound packs. At the very least, they give you a good insight into what the synth engine can do. I actually really like this box as a synth.
@darenager agreed that the scale set-up is a little lacking. At least it is very easy to go into your sequence and delete all the bum notes (just find the “wrong” row, remove the notes, then hit scale twice). I normally just re-record the part. Or, like RMR did in that video, you can always play in key notes on the right side (limited to one octave)
The deluge is really special
Few weeks ago i’ve just bought myself a reface CP and using it for midicontrol the deluge is just so cool, very easy to learn/unlearn midi control and playing synth engine with a dedicated keyboard makes it really shine.
@theartistisirrelevant depends on where you live, but few days ago, i’ve seen 2 deluge second hand on sales on audiofanzine.fr
Thanks for the tip, I’m in Portugal so maybe the seller won’t mind shipping here.
thanks