Is this the right time to buy a Deluge?
Hello,
After watching a bunch of videos on the Deluge, I think it looks and sounds fantastic. I'm amazed at the capabilities of this device, and patch packs like "Boards of Deluge" have completely convinced me of the power of its synth engine. Also, it's incredible to see how much time and energy is invested into the Deluge by its developers.
However, I'm wondering: is this the right time to buy a Deluge?
In terms of cost, right now obviously is the right time, since the price will increase in a few months.
But since the Deluge came out almost 4 years ago, I'm wondering whether a new model is on its way. There are several (hardware) features I would love to see on a version 2:
1. Additional audio outputs, for FX send-return or cueing.
2. Improved display.
3. Improved internals (e.g. CPU, RAM). I've read somewhere on this forum that it's not that hard to reach the limits of the processing power.
In terms of #2, I'm curious to hear your opinions. I understand the grid can also function as a display, for example when editing a waveform, but isn't the current display very limiting?
I realize I'm asking this question in a biased place, but I hope you can give me some advice.
Thanks!
Abel
abeldebeermusic.com
Best Answer
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volsteh CroatiaPosts: 426
I highly doubt about a v2 soon. My impression is that they have years of improvements planned and no interest for a v2 unit. Processing power has already been optimized once, think for 60%. I hope there's room for further improvements on that. Hitting the cpu limits its easy because you don't have limits to anything, try limit yourself to
4-6 tracks for example and you are left with plenty of processing power. Try not to use a different delay or a reverb on every single kit sample... In rare cases I hit processing limits, a song cleanup is needed, eg. set synths to mono if poly not needed, cleanup unused samples from clips, optimize effects and delays (change to the not analog one) etc. Also resample is one button away giving you much more options to optimize a song. And about the display, I love it, it makes the deluge forcing you to use your ears and feeling, I just have trouble reading out some letters but will eventually get used to.
Answers
Well, a better display would be nice, but i'm not really missing it. Actually working w/ the deluge is quite fast if you know some of the commands.
And yes, a fx send-returrn for things like a compressor would be nice because there's no compressor inside, but you can't have everything....
Totally agree with @volsteh, I also doubt a V2 soon. IIRC I've read somewhere that they focus on optimizing the firmware instead of the hardware, since the hardware is designed to be as open as possible for further updates and new functions.
Personally I did not ran into any CPU issues yet (or at least I did not notice them), even with complex songs.
In most cases I don't miss a bigger display, working with the pad shortcuts does the job for me. Sometimes longer file names are hard to read while browsing through different sounds, but this is not really an issue for me.
@volsteh @djAzid @N3ro Thanks for your opinions! I'm almost ready to pull the plug on the Deluge - if I can make up my mind whether to buy that or Ableton...
abeldebeermusic.com
Do it, I got mine two weeks ago and I had some of your concerns - but then I bought it anyway after a couple of bottles of red and by the time I remembered it was too late.
Pull that trigger, you won't regret it.
Buy it, it´s amazing! I doubt that a V2 is coming soon but if......then you have a collectors item in your hands!
Do it!!!
I did it. I am excited.