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What is your Deluge story?

3

I'd love to read how the deluge crossed your path what it does for you now. I like stories! :smiley:
Don't be intimidated by my long post: a short written answer is better than a long story that never gets posted. :wink:

I'll start.
Growing up, I never had the money to spend on good software, also my focus was on analog instruments, so if I had some cash, I used it to buy a decent guitar for example. That meant, that I used free software for a very long time, not getting very far because it was a terrible pain. I started with audacity, then lmms then the trial version of renoise (eventually I bought the full version of renoise, which is my DAW of choice to this day).
Except for the rare case when I finished a track, I was immensely frustrated about my nonexistend progress. I had so many ideas in my head but whenever I sat down at my laptop to get them out, I failed every time. Browsing samples, getting the drum pattern right, always checking against the original idea in my head, the track-to-be started morphing into whatever I had in my DAW at that point until I couldn't recognize it anymore and it was gone. It felt horrible. Because of this approach and the inevitable fails I started hating making music with my computer alltogether. At the same time, the urge to create kept growing and got painful, since it had no outlet.

In the meantime I got kids and the time to sit down with a laptop during the day in peace was long gone. I had the idea to get a first piece of hardware gear to make music with. I hoped that it would shake up my workflow and thus make a way around my fear of music software. And also I could take it with me around the house to make music while watching the kids, making little fractures of time productive that otherwise weren't.
And so my virtual quest for the right piece of gear started. (Luckily I spent enormous times researching before I purchased something, otherwise I'd be financially ruined by now.) I thought about the Korg Volcas, AKAI MPCs, Novation Circuit, Ableton with Push, Polyend Tracker, OP-1, OP-Z, Deluge... everytime I thought I had made my mind up, I noticed something I would miss and I'd start my journey in circles around these pieces of gear again.

Eventually I was gifted a Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator PO-33 for my birthday. It's so painfully limited and at the same time so capable, it sparked something in me. Whithin the first three weeks I finished eight tracks with it (which is more than I had done in the previous years). I think it was because of the limits that kickstarted my creativity and the fact that there's room for only one project at a time. So by the time I "got stuck" with a track, I was already at a point where it was too good to just be deleted. So to take on the next project that was already lined up in my head, I had to power through and finish this one. And boy was that helpful! I started to learn how to arrange and finish music, a stage I reached so rarely, that I had no routine doing it before.

Slowly the limits of the PO-33 started bothering me, I wanted to expand. Now my search for the ultimate groovebox started again, but this time I knew what I needed: absolutely no touchscreen, no (or just a very limited) display (which shot down a lot of candidates), battery powered, capable of sampling (internal mic is a huge plus), ability to use it in the darkness. I felt like the deluge ticked the boxes the best so I convinced my wife with the high resell value ("we won't lose anything if it's not the thing I was looking for. And if it is I gain so much.") I ordered it and lived through the most impatient week of my whole life.

When it arrived I started clicking with it immediately. To me it's primarily like a PO-33 on steroids. I had already watched every video about it I could find and so I finished my first track within hours and still while being in the discovery phase. It feels liberating not to be reliant on a computer or a display, to be completely mobile and to have everything I need in this small box. No internet needed, no additional gear like a powerbank, a midi keyboard etc. I am still amazed how many ways there are in the deluge to start a project: an inspiring synth preset, a sample, a recording, a kit, the looper and many many more. I haven't run out of ideas yet. And most importantly I haven't developed a toxic relationship to making music on it like I have with the computer.

I recently realized, that the big SD card makes it possible again to start projects and not finish them. So currently I am on a finishing spree and though it sounds forced and uninspiring is actually minblowingly satisfying! It's like bringing in the harvest. :smiley: It helps me to actually develop a workflow for finishing things and I'm seeing great success so far.

The deluge is by a long shot the best purchase I made in years. It follows me around the house and even if I only have 10 minutes to spare, I can put them to use because the deluge is there, it's quick and it's ready to go at all times.

Is the deluge everything I will ever need and the incarnate messiah in a box? No. (But almost. Maybe by version 4.0 or 5.0 :wink:) But like a climbing support for a plant it is a vital tool that enables me to grow in a way I couldn't before and it has undone some of the sore knots in my head. Finally I see progress and finally I am optimistic about my personal musical future. :smile:

Comments

  • 1
    PercivalePercivale SingaporeBeta Tester Posts: 32

    I was intrigued by what it was very early on but waited till a few years to take the plunge. What helped my decision was the enthusiasm of Ian who toured the "world" to showcase what it can do and the software genius Rohan making it so. In the end - good buy! :smiley:

  • 2
    Affectionate_Bee_781Affectionate_Bee_781 United StatesBeta Tester Posts: 112

    Thanks for sharing y'all :) Here's mine:

    Musician of a decade and a half, mostly guitar and bass although dabbles in drums and keys as well. About five years ago, ended up with family's standup piano. Played it a lot and loved it. Eventually, I wanted something with more expression than my ability provided me on piano. Looked into some different options and decided I was looking for a synthesizer.

    I got a Korg R3! Tried to make some loops with my Boss DD7 but was limited by length and sync. My friend recommended a Digitakt ~ my first introduction to groove boxes. Limitations nagged at me and a few months later ended up with an Octatrack. Even then, different limitations bugged me. Most importantly, the limit of 64 steps and that the MIDI sequencer would not allow for overlapping notes. I realized I wanted a linear sequencer and quickly found the Deluge as a top contender.

    I'll mention that I have pretty limited experience and interest with a DAW. My intentions for music have almost always been just to play and jam, not to create a finished product (although I did that a few times with a band). My recent interest in electronic instruments was partly stemmed from the isolation of the pandemic.

    So I end up with a Deluge! I was making songs within the first week, looping long improvs that I would play, and enjoying the portability. It brought massive capability on one hand, and pure joy/fun on the other. I feel confident using it as a sequencer for any music I want to make and also as a meditative device that I can travel with me.

    I'm going on 6 months with the Deluge. It's the only piece of equipment that I don't want to part with. I recently got the foot pedal and have enjoying the looping workflow.

    @Heptagen I also love the process of finishing up old songs on the Deluge! I've sat on the couch many times, spending time fleshing out the idea for a new song and then spending similar amount of time working on polishing already existing songs.

  • 3
    MikeKayMikeKay Sydney, West IslandPosts: 14

    Many, many years ago (late 1980s/early 1990s) I was in a series of bands. I started with drums, though after a little while I decided I didn't like hauling the most equipment around and being the first-to-start-setting-up-and-last-to-finish-packing-down at gigs.

    I moved to guitar then. Much lighter to carry, but got to be heavier on the wallet. I partially blame the credit card companies who made a bad investment in me, thinking that I was a good risk as an under-employed 18-year-old. Eventually, I sold off all but two guitars with no real regrets, aside from the 1969 forest green Fender Mustang that I bought for $80, a year or so before Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit video was released, featuring Mr Cobain playing the same model - though left-handed.

    (It was a terrible guitar. Terrible. But by the mid-1990s, I had people offering me ludicrous sums for it. I eventually sold it to a guitar shop, who I hear on-sold it to a somewhat-famous musician in Boston for around 40 times what I paid for it. But I digress.)

    I sort of faded away from performing live music by the late 1990s, but still had my old TASCAM 4-track cassette recorder and was writing and recording the occasional weird songs. These are all still packed away somewhere, though the TASCAM is long gone.

    Anyway, a series of life changes and a series of moves happened, and playing music at all pretty much vanished. It got to a point where I might take one of the remaining guitars to play once a year or so.

    Fast-forward to the most recent move, from Wellington Aotearoa New Zealand to Sydney, Australia for work. 'Moving to a city where I don't know anyone? Not a problem, I'll just go out to a lot of places and make new friends. 2020's going to be a great year!'

    Cue pandemic.

    Yes, my timing's awful.

    After about a month of everything being locked down, I started playing guitar again, my soft, un-calloused fingertips complaining the whole way. A few weeks after that, I invested in a DAW, midi controller, and a used laptop to start messing around with this newfangled 'electronic music'. (I'm so set in my 1990s-recording-studio-and-TASCAM thinking that non-linear music creation and editing still seems so strange to me, but I try to learn.)

    At some point late in the year, I fell down the YouTube rabbit hole - as you do. I was investigating possibly getting a drum machine, and stumbled across a video about the Deluge. I vaguely remember thinking that it made some cool sounds, but I could not figure out how all the flashy-light-button-pressing-knob-turning worked. It seemed like it would have a massive learning curve.

    Then, early in 2021 after separated from my home and adopted family for a year, a YouTube video title caught my homesick eye:

    'Weird Sample Pack Recorded in a Backyard in Wellington'

    I'd seen this guy Cuckoo's work before, but had no idea he'd been to Wellington. Watching the video, that's when I learnt that the Deluge was made two suburbs over from where I lived. I had no idea. It only took me moving 2,000 km away to find out.

    I made the decision then and there to purchase one; and with its arrival in mid-February I've used it almost every day. The first 'song' I made - before even charging it - is still there, as well as other trial-and-error and happy-mistake songs. That's how I learn, and whilst there's still more to understand, the massive learning curve I feared was non-existent.

    The Deluge community has played a large part in that, something I hope to be a part of and extend. I attended an Ableton Live user group here in Sydney last month, and one of the organisers mentioned she'd been having trouble creating on a computer after spending all day in front of a computer for work. I suggested the Deluge as an option, then had an in-depth conversation about it with the organiser and another attendee. I'll be bringing it along to the next user group meeting.

    Since there's finally a travel bubble (no quarantine) between Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, I'll be flying back to Wellington for a visit this week. My Deluge is coming along with me, and I hope to pop into the Synthstrom office to say thanks in person for a wonderful instrument.

    Hashtag super long post

  • 2
    jsilencejsilence GermanyBeta Tester Posts: 27
    edited May 2021

    Just ordered the Deluge a couple of days ago. Looking forward to the delivery.

    I am not much of a musician, rather an engineer and computer guy fond of electronic music. I started out a couple of years ago with the goal of just making noises for fun and though I would like to "make music" sans a computer screen. I wanted to keep it flexible and simple and planned to just have a bunch of small programmable machines which I'd plug together into a set. So over the time I accumulated a bunch of small scale gear, Standuino Arduino based synths, a Novadrone, a Microgranny, a Soundbite micro Looper, an Axoloti and more recently some Pocket Operators, a Pisound, a Bastl Kastl, a Gecho Loopsynth, a Koma Elektronik Field Kit and a Korg mini Kaoss Pad 2.

    I tried to bunch it together with a Koma Elektronik RH301 and a Zoom H6 recorder.
    Just fiddling around and making noise with the individual synths is and was a lot of fun, but I never really got around combining them into a sensible set. A sequencer was missing and also plugging everything together was a hassle. Too many cables and different plugs and jacks and not enough inputs on the Zoom H6 interface despite the EXH-6 additional jack module.

    I purchased a Novation Circuit on Ebay and instantly had a lot of fun. Bought a 1010music Blackbox as a companion and thought that would be the brain of my setup. Still I had too little inputs to mix together the sound sources. So I thought about building a midi controlled mixer myself that could also become part of the creative workflow with midi synced LFOs. My thoughts on this are summarised here: https://qua.name/jsilence/midi-controlled-portable-mixer

    I like the idea of generative music and watched Omri Cohens series on VCVRack with pleasure. But this brought me back to the Computer I am trying to escape from, and actually buying a Eurorack system ist just beyond my budget. I purchased the Keystep 37 and enjoy the arpeggiator, chord and strum features. Together with a Midihub that allows for random notes and ghost notes, so I was getting closer to my goals.

    But still plugging together a setup often ended in ground loop frustration. The powerbanks I started using to separate my machines eletrically were just more gadgets on the table.

    Recently I watched the fabulous Reggie Watts again and remembered I had the Soundbite looper laying around. Tried to set up a looper station for fun just to discover that the Soundbite does not allow the input signal to pass through so monitoring the sound was not easily possible. Also other problems. So my creative impulse was again thwarted by cables, too much stuff and too little time. I need something more instant.

    The Deluge had popped up in my Youtube synth bubble before, but it fell off my radar because it looked really intimidating. Only when I say YT videos praising the Looper feature I got interested and watched some reviews. Was intrigued when reviewers said that while the control surface of the Deluge looks wild, it is actually quite intuitive to use. I realized that the most fun I had was using the Pocket Operators and more so the Novation Circuit. The Circuit is really really easy and fun to use. But even the simpleton I am quickly ran into its limitations. Too few voices/tracks. So with the Circuit, the Blackbox and the Keystep it was unclear for me, which piece is the center of my setup. Thought about replacing the Circuit V1 with the new Circuit tracks.

    In the meantime I had purchased a DIY Norns which is also really fun and a good component for generative music. Now already interested in the Deluge I read that it is also a drop in replacement for the expensive Monome grids controller. This tipped the decision between Circuit tracks and Deluge in favor of the latter.

    So 10 days ago I pushed myself though to the decision to sell most of the small components on Ebay and use the freed funds to buy a Deluge. It is a major investment, but I am very optimistic that it will solve my cabling, ground loop and undefined setup problem.

    edit: typos

    Post edited by jsilence on
  • 1
    Mr_Clark1000Mr_Clark1000 UKPosts: 1

    Hi, New here, just managed to snag a deluge and got it yesterday - only played around a bit with it but so far, seems to be, by far, the most intuitive, easy to use and simple way to put beats together, almost in a way where whatever you imagine in your brain can be directly transposed into reality - very weird, as my experience so far has always been one of wrestling with whatever instrument it was I was using to make it do what I wanted - the Deluge is something special in that it doesn't fight you in any way, very strange!

    This is something simple I put together in about 20 minutes and first few hours of having it:
    https://youtu.be/O9iA789ijfo

    My story up until this point was, played a little guitar terribly in my teens, bought a Uke a few years ago just to mess around with, then last year decided to buy a little Korg Volca Bass just to make noises - it snowballed from there....

    Next was a Novation Circuit, then Korg Monologue, then a. Microfreak, then Korg Minilogue, all the while I was getting frustrated with not being able to do all the sounds I wanted, just one particular sound at one particular time, the use of iPad apps, mixers and such made it difficult to just make some sounds whenever I had some very small time (two young kids, full time job etc.)

    So next came something awesome, that was the OP-Z, I had that coupled with a Dreadbox Typhon - that combo sounded insane, was great, but still not ideal as the OP-Z was somewhat limited and the coupling with the Typhon meat it wasn't very portable. I picked up a Digitone too, which I absolutely loved.

    Next I thought, sod it, sell those and get an OP-1, which I did... But I truly regretted getting rid of the OP-Z as it was truly portable and so much fun to use.

    So, I tried to just get along with just the OP-1, which is good for just a little bit of noodling, but trying to put together whole tracks was / is time consuming. The Deluge popped up in my YouTube sessions and eventually I caved in, on the premise that I would either keep the OP-1 or the Deluge, not both.

    So here I am with the Deluge, loving it, finding that it does everything so well, apart from one thing which I am sad about, and that's the ability to use it outside in sunshine, it's a bitt difficult, Muscle memory might help here but I have a feeling it's not going to be ideal.

    So, looking to keep the deluge and get another OP-Z for outside noodling.

    This whole thing turned out to be super expensive, but I guess it would have been money I would have spent on going out on the razz, but not last year!

  • 1
    BadgerBadger Thailand/SwedenPosts: 1

    Have been lurking around here for a while, asked a few questions on facebook, checked and checked again and now I just ordered a Deluge. I could not resist. Why? Because I own a Radikal Spectralis 2, which I absolutely love, but it is teadious to program the sequencer matrix and I use pen and paper to draw exactly what the Deluge allready has on it´s face...the button matrix! I am not gonna give up my Spectralis 2, but I think I gonna love the Deluge. If my Spectralis 2 would have been as buttonbastic as the Deluge I would never have craved for the latter. Unfortunatly there is not gonna be a Spectralis 3 but if soo, it would have certainly been same matrix like the Deluge, but with an analog synt and some more pots for filter action, I think.
    Anyway i´m looking forward to recieve the Deluge in my second country Thailand where I spend part of the year. The rest of the studio is in Sweden and I miss it when not home, so the size of the little Deluge is also perfect. It´s gonna be my pocket studio mate for sure.
    Thanks for accepting me in the forum!

  • 0
    HarperHarper EnglandPosts: 7

    I first started playing keyboard around 50 years ago (on dual manual organs mostly). I'm a harpist primarily now, but I enjoy making music on computer also.

    Made the jump from Windows to Linux, and though I swapped my Cubase for Bitwig Studio, it wasn't the same.

    I had played with Garage Band on iOS, and Korg Gadget a bit, but I wanted to get away from my desk. What with working from home full time now, if I continue to do music at my desk I'll never leave this little space.

    So I was wondering whether to get the OP-1 or Deluge. Now, I do play keyboard as well, I have several, but I again wanted to take myself away from that to a pad based system. So here I am.

    I just ordered a Deluge a few days ago, but notice that it's in a big RED "ON HOLD" status with DHL now, which makes me a bit scared. It's quite a bit of money to be going half way around the world from NZ to UK!

    Hopefully the big scary RED status goes away on the shipment :(

  • 0
    HeptagenHeptagen Posts: 277

    @Harper I know how you feel, I tracked the shipping of my deluge to the tiniest details I could find :D
    If it helps you, my deluge was on hold for a while too. You can read about the shipping of my deluge and the reason why it took longer than planned:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/DelugeUsers/comments/k1db9r/the_shipping_of_my_deluge/

  • 0
    HarperHarper EnglandPosts: 7

    @Heptagen said:
    @Harper I know how you feel, I tracked the shipping of my deluge to the tiniest details I could find :D
    If it helps you, my deluge was on hold for a while too. You can read about the shipping of my deluge and the reason why it took longer than planned:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/DelugeUsers/comments/k1db9r/the_shipping_of_my_deluge/

    Well this doesn't fill me with joy :(

    Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you got your deluge. I just hate dealing with international shipping.

    I had forgotten about SD cards, must order a decent size one.

  • 4
    richardjneorichardjneo MelbournePosts: 7
    edited August 2021

    My Deluge Story:

    I was a semi-professional local Melbourne DJ on and off for ~20 years, picked up "amateur" producing (two tracks on a free local CD compilation around 2001/2 but no paid/solo releases) around 1999. Mainly just doing it for the love of music and machines. Around 6 years ago my life went off the rails and all my gear went in storage at that time until about a year ago. When I got it all out, I had trouble picking up where I left off so I went looking for new/different ways to make music. Don't like using a computer to sequence, had a Sequential P3 from way back. In the meantime I learned to play a bit of keys and lots more music theory so I wanted more polyphony in my sequencer. Sold Sequentix P3, got a MPC1000 which I've used before around 10 years back, but this time it felt a bit clunky. Swapped that for a MPC One which is you know way more current, more features but oh man, that touch screen! Felt like all the good bits of a DAW but doing it on an iPhone. And I'm not much of a finger drummer anyway. So what was next?

    I looked at all the current hardware sequencers. The first time I saw the Deluge I was put off by this giant array of buttons. But then I started watching the videos and thought yeah this is clever, and step sequencing is more my style. A few weeks ago I put feelers out in a local group to take the plunge, no one was selling but one guy offered to lend me his to try it out. Sweet. Then bam, we're locked down! No go. I tried again this week and found one selling, told the guy I was replacing my MPC One with it and the guy was like 'you want to trade?' (I gave him some money to even it out) so I was like HELLS YEAH!

    So I've had it not two whole days and I gotta say, I've not felt this excited or fully engaged with a piece of gear since I got my Mk.1 MachineDrum SPS-1 like 12 years ago. It actually takes me back to the Fruity Loops (that's FL Studio for the kids) days when I first started experimenting with production like 20+ years ago! I've played more in the past two days than I did in the last 2 months with the MPC! It's so cool! A little arcane but I'm used to quirky machines (did I mention MachineDrum haha) and once you get a few concepts, it's actually quite intuitive from there on. And I've only just scratched the surface! I got the trusty (and hefty! 300 pages 😅) manual by my side. It did come with one of those hyper colour overlays which was really helpful as a cheat sheet to get started but ultimately hurt my eyes. And this is just playing with samples and built in synths. I'm looking forward to plugging in my hardware boxes and driving it all from this little (it's so little!) beauty and still yet to dig into arranger mode or (much) automation yet.

    WOW it is so interesting and cool! Pushing me to experiment and come up with ideas I never would have thought of. I feel like Miles Dyson getting excited over the Terminator chip haha.

    Been reading the forums and between the extensive video content, the manual and this place (search function is my friend), I feel like the learning curve is steep (literally just learning a lot in a short time) but not hard. Looking forward to tomorrow! I think I'm in love <3

    Post edited by richardjneo on
  • 3
    BugahBugah Posts: 29

    I'm a dude, late 20s. One time when I was younger, I saw an older friend of mine was using some strange software called GarageBand and it could make a whole song in one program by combining different loops together. I was delighted to learn that my parent's Mac also had GarageBand installed on it by default, so I started messing around dragging different loops together in the arranger to make beats and songs. Parents saw how into that and Guitar Hero I was so they bought me a guitar for a christmas and got lessons. Got some pedals and played 80s metal covers with some friends in high school. I went to college and met a guy who had a cracked version of Ableton on a USB stick. From there I taught myself how to make beats in Ableton and played guitar for fun for awhile.

    I always liked loops. Whenever I played guitar I would hear the corresponding "parts" in my head of the rest of the track. I'd imagine the drums and bass melodies that'd go along with whatever noodling I'd be doing on guitar. I got a Boomerang Looper pedal that I played for many years and learned all about "live looping" and other artists doing that stuff. It allowed me to create and manipulate a whole song with a bass, melody, and percussion "tracks" all live and improvised. I practiced a ton and wrote different "sets" that I'd build and improvise around, but there was never enough control nor enough color in the sound for just one looper. I'd eventually buy more pedals to make different colors in the loop soup. I got VERY into guitar pedals, constantly looking up how all of them work, what the latest and greatest were. I started trading guitar pedals online which was a ton of fun with all the other gear nerds out there. I would tinker with Ableton at this time and tinker with guitar pedal looping separately. There's a lot of magic in sitting down with a blank looper and a guitar, stumbling upon some sort of melody, looping it, and then manipulating loop parameters until it becomes this totally unexpected soundscape, then continuing to overwrite and overdub and iterate and stew the broth. Often I'd just sit back and listen to the "patch" I'd create with the loopers then turn everything off and that'd be that. Great ephemeral magic in those moments. I especially loved how it'd lend itself to accidental discovery. I'd switch on a pedal, turn a knob, then see what would happen.

    I wanted a drum machine that I could easily play with live effects for looping strange sounds. I got an electribe 2 which was a ton of fun, but eventually it felt a bit cheap and limited compared to other things. I looked very hard at an octatrack but then found the deluge soon after. I was immediately drawn to the piano roll style sequencing since that's how I created all of my Ableton songs up to this point. I also loved how it seemed to do everything the electribe did but it didn't have the track or length limitations. It also seemed very easy to start from a blank patch and generate the bass, melody, drum tracks improvisationally like I was used to doing with my guitar and pedals. It also was line level output so I was still able to use my deluge with my pedals and loopers. The keyboard mode was also immediately useful to me because it's set up similar to a guitar fretboard so I knew how to play it unlike traditional keyboard layouts.

    Eventually I've found working in the deluge does everything I want it to do and lends itself to my different workflows. I can do my DAW style loop arrangement, I can do my improv blank canvas looping stuff from scratch, I can do extensive beat tweaking. Once I learned the shortcuts on the front panel, I found there really weren't any menus to sort through except for my sample library and the settings menu which was incredible to me. I love how I can poke a button and the note pops up as opposed to "scrolling over to the location then clicking" like a computer or tracker. I keep learning funny new ways to use it like feeding the midi OUT back into the IN for macro track control stuff. Or feeding the headphones output back into the audio input for strange feedback sound patches. Or using the stereo input as two separate mono inputs for different audio processing. Or creating multiple audio tracks that all listen to the same audio input but each have different processing to do different things in parallel. The common experience everyone has with this machine seems to be that no one knows how to use all the functions on it, everyone is at like 60% proficiency and we're all constantly referencing the manual and learning new tricks about how to route modulation parameters and sequence effects and so on. :)

    The more I learn about synthesis, modular gear, plug-ins, DAWs, the more I'm convinced that if you're not intentional enough with your work, then the interface tends to dramatically influence the kind of music that's generated. Pet theory of mine: it's very easy to patch a random sequence into a quantizer into Rings into Clouds and call it generative ambient, right? But it's very hard to use a modular synth set up to do large multi-track dubstep song production style things. It's notable when you see "Dubstep on the modular" or similarly "generative IDM in GarageBand" because while both can be done on either system, it's harder to do those genres on those respective systems. Similarly the guitar lends itself to open chords, and the piano is set up for C major. You could program Beethoven on the octatrack but instead we're all going to use that slider to duck reverb for scene transitions or something. The Deluge works well for me in this regard where the interface itself lends itself to making the kind of music I'd want to make, especially for quantized multi-track polyrhythmic stuff and quick sketching of musical ideas.

  • 2
    HeptagenHeptagen Posts: 277

    So many interesting and different stories - i love it! Thanks for sharing!
    And keep 'em coming! :)

  • 0
    telePettelePet Posts: 6
    edited August 2021

    @jsilence said:
    Now already interested in the Deluge I read that it is also a drop in replacement for the expensive Monome grids controller.

    Wow, did not realize Deluge could do this. Just learning about Norns Shield and finding it fascinating. How is the combo working out for you?

    Post edited by telePet on
  • 2
    lordofallbadgerslordofallbadgers Southwest UKPosts: 14

    Weeeellll.... I think I'll keep my story short. ish.
    I started in the 80s obsessed with synths but accidentally learnt some guitar. I then fumbled around for years until I bumped into my band just into my forties and started playing mandolin in a ridiculous attempt at a folk based band, still going strong, doing festivals etc. I then found tenor guitars. I loved shoegaze type stuff, so my electric tenor got that role.
    I then remembered how I missed synths. I'd fallen out of love due to a period of running dodgy software on my PC years before and overdosing in preset surfing purgatory. But then i about faced.
    I bought a bunch of synths, starting with a novation summit. As you do. I then added a digitone and an analog 4mk2. But something, despite their merits wasn't gelling with me. I realised the lesson I'd most learnt from folk instruments... less is more... there's a reason I don't get on with normal guitars - too much need to wander off the purpose of playing.
    Enter the deluge. It took what I love about the elektrons but brought the extra flexibility I felt they didn't provide on the sequencer (no doubt, it's early in my delugathon to find out what I don't get compared to the elektrons.
    It also fed my irrational prejudice of the big league in tech. Possibly fuelled by owning non-mass produced folk instruments in a way.
    I bought the synths i had second hand, simply because I know that it is a journey - but the deluge is the slam dunk. I still will keep the elektrons, but I am concerned now that the summit represents the more-is-too-much problem again. So that one's looking shaky...
    Good to be here, if any of the above makes sense to you lot...

  • 0
    FM138FM138 MNPosts: 4

    Got into synthesizers back in 2019 and the Deluge caught my attention quickly with its colorful aesthetic, but I really didn't even know what it was capable of and it wasn't a serious consideration at all since I was so new and so broke. Over the past few years I've learned that I'm really more interested in making music without using a computer and so boxes like the Deluge have become more and more appealing as time goes on.

    A few months back, I was looking for something portable since downtime at work can sometimes be pretty plentiful. The OP-Z seems perfect for what I want so I grab a used one off of Reverb. As I'm waiting for the OP-Z to arrive, I see a decent deal on a Deluge with a couple other extra goodies. I really wasn't even GAS'd up or anything at that point... I just couldn't pass it up. Copped without hesitation.

    It worked it well in the end because the OP-Z that was sold to me was junk and I sent it back for a refund immediately. The chassis is rather malleable for a piece of hardware that retails at $600 and it can bend quite easily over time. This apparently happens to a lot of OP-Zs and this particular OP-Z had a lovely but subtle banana shaped bend to it and horrible double triggering issues with the buttons, to the point where the device was basically unusable.

    Ehem anyways, yeah, the Deluge is amazing. Barely just scratched the service of it but it's like a dream box and it's exciting to know it's just going to get better as time goes on.

  • 1
    unfilterunfilter WisconsinPosts: 12

    have been interested in electronic music production ever since i got my first computer at 14. but as my computer use became more associated with school and then work, it became harder to muster the motivation to muck with a screen again. I tried several times with apps for my phone and tablet, and found the same problem - I just found myself uninspired beyond playing a simple beat.

    a few years ago, got a PO-33 on a whim (for all their quirks, TE deserves a fair amount of praise, imho, for the PO series. producing capable, tactile gear that have served as an entry level device for so many people at this point). Started watching DAWless (or minimal DAW) people on YT, and started to get an itch to go futher. So I bought a Keystep and OG Circuit and Zoom mixer. I found that jamming was therapeutic for me. And that once I latched onto an idea, I enjoyed the process of structuring a song.

    The next set of purchases was mostly based on musical history relative to my tastes. Equally a fan of Warp Records and 90s East Coast hip hop, I got an SP-404, largely for the effects, and MPC-1000. I also got a Circuit Monosynth when those were being phased out and going for cheap. I got into a nice workflow using the MPC to chop and edit loops, with the sequencing being done on the Circuit(s).

    When COVID hit, my music area became my office, and my motivation flagged. Coming in the same room I had been in for the preceding 8 hours to create was no longer appealing and I set it all down.

    Then a month or so ago, I made plans to clear out a closet in the library, remove the doors, install a waist high shelf, and make a music nook. Started firing up the gear again. And while my motivation was on high, so was the GAS.

    When I saw the deluge a few years ago, I didn't quite get it. The possibilities seemed overwhelming (to some degree, they still are :) ). But watching some videos gave me some confidence to give it a try. Hemmed and hawed for a couple of weeks and then decided to pull the trigger.

    I don't regret it in the slightest. Within 5 minutes, I was laying down basic tracks, and deciding that I should just sell the OG Circuit, as for the same use case, the Deluge is more capable and arguably just as intuitive. I imagine my music setup will morph over time, but at this point, I cannot imagine not having a 404 and MPC around to be part of it, should I choose. And I also can't imagine a better brain than a Deluge (relative to how my mind works).

    Have already said to wife that I plan to have the Deluge or any successor of it that may come down the line as part of my arsenal from now on :smile:

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