I sooooo want Deluge to Work(flow).

Hikari_Sound

New user of Deluge. I'm about 3 months in. This box is a dream.

Long time user of electronic music devices, sequencers, MIDI, DAW. (Ensoniq Mirage/MMT8 to Electribes to Ableton to MPC to Deluge). I won't read my resume. But mainly, no stranger to the importance of dedicating time, understanding the quirks and "logic" of a machine, and building muscle memory. I am happy to invest. I read manuals. I do homework (feel free to give it to me here).

I so want this thing to work owing to its fantastic capabilities all around and, quite important to me as I travel: portability.

Philosophy. Improv, jamming, working up ideas, then fleshing things later out is important. Start simple, both in terms of voices and composition, then build up.

Context: I am on Chopin 1.2.1 and have Grid Mode as my default workspace. I want to create some very basic instruments (Synth, Kit) just to jam and work up clips as well as versions of song. The composition is important here. Sounds and sound design comes later. Ergo, once I get the core ideas down, I will go back and build up my instruments. From Skinny Puppy to Sade, Kraftwerk to Kansas, this is how a majority of songwriting happens. Start on a piano, acoustic guitar, or three piece drum kit and sketch your ideas. Later, put together an orchestra to pull it off if you want. Flow state, don't worry about the details or fidelity of either instrumentation nor chronological sequence of "sections" (Clips, in Deluge Grid Mode/Ableton Session view).

Problem 1. It seems that if I have various (versions) of Songs, using above process, and now I want to go back and embellish the Kit or Synth presets, those subsequent changes to presets aren't then reflected in the Songs I created when I first used (the simple versions of) them. The Songs contain the "old" versions of the Kits, despite me changing the Kits and using the same Kit name. I realize this should happen if I use the "Collect All/Save" function. But for now, I want to keep the instruments fast and loose, write some songs, then go back and put my sounds all in place. What gives? I cannot get my head around. How to change my Drum Kit and then have that change occur in all the Songs that used it? I can't think of a single system I've ever worked with where this isn't the flow. But I can't get Deluge to do it.

Problem 2. I have a bunch of clips in a column (again, Grid Mode, so all based on one instrument which is great). Now, I want to start moving/grouping and/or inserting blank rows (a new Clip between two existing Clips in the Column) as I work up sections. I can't seem to find any way to simply move a Clip up and down a column, preferably more than one at a time, and/or create space (via rows) as I "chunk" stuff together. Drag and drop Clips in Session View is obviously the domain of a DAW, but pressing and holding pads containing Clips, then using the up/down and side/side knobs should do it, right? I can't figure this out.

I am totally missing something here. I've read manuals. I have looked at the usual awesome contributors on YT (Ron C, RSKT, Bay Mud).

Help. Thank you.

ひかり