Synthstrom Audible has released an update for its Deluge sampling workstation that adds SD sample streaming, resampling, live audio processing and more.
Here’s what’s new in Deluge version 1.2.0:
- SD streaming. All samples are now streamed from the SD card, instead of being completely loaded into RAM first. You don’t have to do anything differently – you’ll now just never run out of RAM or have to wait for whole samples to load. Polyphony and other features are unaffected.
- Resampling. Now you can record the output of the Deluge right back onto the SD card. Options are provided for recording exactly for the duration of a loop, and for beginning recording exactly as a sound (e.g. an existing sample) begins.
- Live audio input. Use the input as an “oscillator” source, and treat it like a synth in every other way. Live pitch shifting responds to the notes played on the instrument.
- Monosynth and legato modes.
- Random arpeggiator mode. In addition to the existing “Up”, “Down” and “Both” modes.
Here is a video overview by loopop:
The software is a free download for all existing users from Synthstrom site.
Users can make suggestions for future firmware updates at the Deluge forum.
Pricing and Availability
The Deluge is available to order for US $899. It’s currently back-ordered, but Synthstrom expects to have stock available again in December. See the Synthstrom site for details.
Too much synth not enough knobs.
Im guessing the synth parameters are controlled through pad layouts.
Yeah, the grid is used as shortcuts – by pressing shift and a pad you can quickly edit whatever setting you want. If you ordered a version with shortcuts printed (there was also an overlay option), it’s really quick to see what you’d like to edit.
does it have sample slicing yet?
maybe this helps:
https://synthstrom.com/app/uploads/2017/09/UnderstandingTheDeluge_v3.pdf
what brought me to the deluge was not its trying to help me do things i am not good at, like launching clips with a grid because i don’t have turntables and hundreds of records.
the deluge is for the brave. (or those like me that need courage to do their thing).
it takes modern elements of workflow like lots of buttons in large grids, hands on control and interactive colors and adapts it to a rather conservative approach to songwriting.
it is best when you know exactly what you want to write. it also supports you in trying out any audio mangling ideas you might come up with.
it has synth, midi and cv capabilities, in parallel, per track. what for? i am a live musician. i want to play electronic music, with electronic instruments, no real sounds allowed. or sliced, if. but i’d do the pre-processing with dedicated software, working slicing and dicing when its time for slicing and dicing. i can understand you wanting that on your deluge. i would support it.
BUT
there are two camps expecting things from the deluge: future users (why isn’t it like …. ) and current users (it would be even better if). naturally, the forces are conservatory, even within the deluge user group.
still, i would love for the deluge to stay its own unicorn, offering me a chance to work with modern tools and traditional goals. i practice my own melodies for hours. sampling and presets are not the priority, though they help and though they have become enablers of a whole style of music, music making and hardware. for me, the deluge takes off from what the original mpc had to offer for the time and what it enabled for bedroom production. but it takes today as a starting point.
if you had all kinds of buttons and encoders, and want no display to distract you, what could you do BESIDES launching clips and automating filter cutoff knob movements?
thanks, synthstrom team, for giving a convincing answer. please stick to the new path. its evolution in progress and it needn’t be completetly and comprehensively backwards compatible down to each process like sample slicing. (sorry, this is actually not about sample slicing which is a fitting request. but it distracts involuntarily and dilutes, as the deluges qualities lie elsewhere imho. it would further the display discussion, what for? i hate displays and if the deluge had a better one it were less attractive to me.)
the deluge has limited controls for complex data views aside from notes and music events. it is meant to play, not try slightly. you dont flip through presets hitting a few keys. you dial in a sound that approaches your idea in seconds, then you try that idea on the gridpad, then you take it from there.
to me most modern music production workflows force me to go through templates and settings, booting, syncing etc. before i can make 1 sound. deluge is writing lines with the left hand and trying variations with the right. then, hit play and tweak. record parameter locks. transfer to daw, whatever.
yeah it looks and sounds like ableton but it isn’t. because ableton lives in the box and you need periphery. deluge is not a periphery and it is not a box. it is a studio in a box. with its own peculiar setup. it can do clip launching, melody writing, sampling, mixing and recording and don’t forget powerful sounddesign, especially fm.
but mostly its a direct interface between the music in my head and this music becoming concrete sound events quickly, with any further use and sharing still possible platform independent. as midi or cv events or wav files.
to me, the deluge supports things like writing a song a day (it will be three or five, believe me), recording the stereo output while jamming, taking the idea or broad structure of songs and work out their details without ever losing earsight of the big picture. and traditional ableton live sets standalone, of course. it is attractive for musicians and producers for the same reason: its clear focus on making finished music. i love it, yeah. will end up with a deluge tattoo.
I sincerely hope that the Deluge developer’s only idea of sampling and slicing isn’t derived from the mpc and a bunch of records as wonderful as that might be sampling and slicing encompass alot more than that.
Not only is sampling a modern state, but we are still on the verge of new things… have you ever used the steam engine in the Omnisphere application by spectrasonics?…
the deluge can use samples as oscillators , combined with slicing layering and resampling the possibilities are endless….. and yes, one can also sample a record.
Sampling and slicing is a standard like basic midi, there is nothing primitive about it.
The Deluge Dev is a pretty smart guy to be able to design such an instrument so he should know these things about sampling and slicing already and make haste in implementing these features.
i thought you meant more granular stuff. slicing to the microsecond, in microsecond snippets. admit i don’t sample much, admit it’s a must sometimes.
as for chooping beats it could do that from the ery beginning. load a sample. define its start and end points, in milliseconds.
voila. its just not automated, but assuming you want to pick good parts. trim field samples. you seem to mean automating the slicing. for some reason i keep thinking of the deluge as a second studio in the box. all file management and backup being the computers job anyway, it might as well feed deluge. it happily accepts samples and until now trims parts as standard. deluge does not like waste… i take this as a nudge to let the slicing be done off-machine and reserve processing code and power for the internal sound processing. which you can then finish with omnisphere.
but until now, theres no cut, copy and paste functions at all. little copy and multiply, enough to build tracks in smaller steps.
so yes, the edit department can always be improved. still, deluge is about playing, i feel.
The new 1.3 firmware includes a slicer, among other things 🙂
This thing is still taking shape, a unique work in progress!
no display = no fun imo.
That was my biggest concern before getting one. It’s so intuitive that you don’t miss a proper display after a day. Yeah, it would be convenient to see sample wave a’la Push or navigate menus more efficiently with a display – but it’s great fun without.
Quite the marvel, this Deluge.
Yeah, finally! Resampling the output. Now its fully self contained. When i ordered it, that wasn’t missing as i expexted it to be something of a powerful sketchpad. But nooo, the synth and fx engine is so good, it’s simply enough for a demo or even a show.
Giving new meaning to “Box” 😉
Can you slice or trim samples on the deluge?
You can trim them, though don’t cut away the waste. But you can trim the start and end points to a very fine level.
The new 1.3 firmware released yesterday includes a slicer, among other things 🙂
Also, resampling could take care of cutting away stuff if needed
how would you all describe the sound quality, there I usually lots of discussion regarding the sound of instruments like this but I never see anyone talking about it in Deluge threads?
Sound quality and choice of parts is great. 44.1kHz 24 bit