Deluge's Killer Features
DVB
USAPosts: 48
I'm a bit critical of the Deluge on this board (less so on others like Gearslutz, BTW) ... that's how I roll. Compliments are nice but criticism help you improve (I don't take compliments well, if you can't guess).
But let's be clear ... the Deluge is a KILLER DEVICE! Rohan, Ian & crew have made a great machine & my comments are in hopes of it becoming even greater. For me, these are Deluge's killer features, the ones that make it unique & seen off the likes of Octatrack, MPC Live.
ALL THOSE BUTTONS!!!! Sequencing on this baby is a dream. The interface & workflow on this side is awesome, best of any machine I've used. Rohan's work with scales makes it so so easy to write music, which is the end goal. Many times, I'll just randomly mash buttons & more than once, created some very beautiful music ... stuff I couldn't have written consciously. You can write real music fast & without having to become some sort of speedy Cenk power-user (or do they just speed up those Elektron demos?). Arranger mode makes it even faster to put complete songs together & to write the bridges, transitions that ties everything together. Even with a new Squarp Pyramid in tow, my plan is to make them work together.
PORTABILITY!!!!! Last year during a camping trip, I brought a Roland Boutique JU-06, a Microkorg, a Sony PCM-100 & a Tascam DR-70d & made some rather bleh improvised music with no possibility to really compose or change anything. This year, with only a Deluge at a place with no shower, much less electricity, I created/completed 3 pieces just waiting to be tracked.
VERSATILITY!!!! I complain sometimes about Deluge's jack-of-all-trades approach but it really is a case of your biggest strength also being a weakness. I love the fact that I have 2 synths (VA & FM), a sampler, a drum machine all in the same box. The surprising thing is how good these things can sound. I've had patches made on the Deluge that bandmates chose over Rev2 or VSynth versions & I've become obsesses with FM due to Deluge's engine. The Octatrack is better at sample mangling but not by much ... however the Deluge sounds way cleaner with the ability to go gritty (whereas the Octa is stuck in gritty) & beats the Octa in areas outside of mangling/scenes.
There are some machines that do some or much of what it does ... Octatrack, Circuit, OP-1, MPC Live ... but the combination of all these things makes it indispensable for me (believe me, I try to make every piece of gear dispensable, such is my gearlust).
Well done guys!
Comments
I like this post. I have nothing to add except the Deluge is brilliant, music just leaps out of it. It’s a best buy for me, I’m happy I came across it browsing Superbooth videos. Ian demonstrating the arranger view absolutely knocked me out.
Could you please talk more about how it compares to the Octatrack in your experience?
Since both machines can do a whole helluva lot, that's a rather open-ended question. I liked the Octatrack alot but decided I didn't want to invest 2 months to learn it deeply, especially as I'm learning & integrating too many other instruments as it is. The vaunted learning curve is steep & real (other Elektron boxes not as much) ... it took 1 hour (& a day to wait for the CF card) to make a sound come out of the Octa & half the night to get MIDI out to work (only found the answer in a YT video, not the manual). By contrast, I was up and running in 10 min on the Deluge.
I also was surprised by how much better the Deluge sounded than the Octa. I've never been overly impressed by the Del sound, probably because there's no compressor pushing the sound into my face but it sounds pretty good actually if you sample a compressed sound into it. The Del is really clean, more than you'd expect from a box that does so much at that price point. The Octa added a layer of grit onto everything -- you can always take a clean signal & dirty it up but not vice versa.
Sampling on the Octa was more enjoyable, as would be expected since they built it as a sampler. Dedicated interface to sampling, multiple inputs/outs, etc. Both machines have a bit of menu diving but having a proper screen helps here! Mangling seemed more open on the Octa as well & the neighbor machines & scene xfader took it to another level of possibility. But I haven't spent that much time doing any real sample processing on the Deluge & was going to wait until new update to dig in again.
Even after I got the hang of the Octa, the Deluge is always going to have some workflow advantages built-in ... those buttons makes it so easy to sequence int or ext gear. Most everything else will require external keyboard live playing or lots of step button mashing to accomplish what would take seconds on the Deluge. I really liked the MIDI LFOs on the Octa sequencer though, even if it was a little limited. The danger with nearly all Elektron boxes is that getting railroaded into some Euro 4-on-the-floor electro music or just out-of-control p-locked weirdness. But I may buy another one down the line if my gear budget ever stabilizes.
@DVB Thanks for the detailed reply! Very helpful!