hexagon5un

I have always admired the "only buy the Deluge if it currently does what you want" ethos. That's emotionally and ethically honest; it's not selling the D to be any more or less than it is. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they are doing more active development on it than any other synth/gear that I've got.

I have learned a lot from the forum. At the same time, I've always wondered what was going on in the FB side, and regretted that I couldn't do Beta b/c of the FB requirement. I'll be taking a photo with my D and sending it in shortly. Hooray!

While I've sometimes picked up cool tricks from the "feature request" zone, it's low signal/noise ratio relative to the tips/tricks/samples that I've gotten from other parts of the forum, and I won't miss it. If it helps the Deluge team focus on getting their stuff done, then I'm all for it. I doubt that they'll all of a sudden stop listening to their user base.

If the change helps us users re-focus our energy on doing the most with what we've got, then it's a win for us too.

This morning, I taught my son what chords are using the Deluge. It was so easy to just say "pick three notes that aren't all next to each other" and have him repeat that experiment, listening to how they sound together and apart as they rolled around the sequence. "Try leaving one gap, try leaving two." I have music theory up the wazoo, but distilling this down to exactly what a 6 yr old needed was just perfect. And we could do it on the sofa, in real time.

Just started playing around with FM on the Deluge. Here's a Solid Bass to start out.

https://gist.github.com/2102bbefc28b4c9057585efba07040a8

And here it in in context: ripping off Orbital's "Halcyon and On" bassline, which was recorded with Solid Bass on a DX100, FWIW.

https://gist.github.com/5fabad4d2fd9684c0ddfea2ab772375f

I actually looped a section from the song in an Audio track, and A/B'ed these until it sounded about right. They may have used distortion / compression on their track? Or maybe it's just old tape. It sounds a tad more saturated.

It's a super simple patch. It's basically OSC1 <- MOD1 <- MOD2+feedback. OSC1 is on ENV1, and the modulators are on ENV2: they make the growl.

The default knobs have the MOD1 and MOD2 levels on the parameter knobs where cutoff and resonance normally are, and you should definitely have a play around with them to tweak the sound to taste. The "cutoff" is OSC1, which sets the basic level of modulation, and "resonance" is OSC2 with feedback, which makes it more or less "metally". They're both super sensitive and the "right" values are pretty close to one LED on for each, so it's a little bit touchy.

I'll post up some more FM sounds as I make them. My main synth is an SY99, so the Deluge feels like a strange/limited FM synth to me, but there are a lot of classic sounds that should be able to fit into this little box. Being able to bang out both a patch and a drum beat and the rest in one night from the couch, without touching a computer, is priceless.

The Deluge includes straightforward implementations of: subtractive, wavetable, FM, and sample-based sound sources. And you can mix and match. The modulation matrix is wide and super easy to program. Two oscillators, two LFOs, and superb parameter automation. The synth engine is a workhorse rather than a show pony, but you should absolutely be able to get the sounds out of the Deluge synth that you want -- it's just a little bit on you to figure out how to do it.

It's hard to tell what you're after, though, with "deep" and "full". Can you provide an example of a sound that you'd like to make? Maybe some folks will be able to point you in the right direction?

The Microfreak is certainly not "deep" or "full", but if you're liking the Microfreak sound, then wavefolding is for you! (In the community firmware.) You could also mimic that effect with properly chosen wavetables, going from clean to wacked-out. (Also, are you sure about the Microfreak being open-source? I couldn't find any source code. Links?)

Or maybe what you're looking for is FX, like @oneANT suggests?

Or maybe what's lacking is dynamics in your playing? Have you fully taken advantage of the gold knobs? Esp custom mappings? Are you recording parameter automations? Sometimes what people think of as "dull sounds" is really just "boring playing". (No offense! The Deluge doesn't have many live expression capabilities other than the gold knobs, and maybe your next job is to master them.)

There's a lot to the sound of a synth, so let us know what you're looking for. Be specific. If you're just starting out in synth sound design, there's no better way than to find a sound you like and try to copy it.

Just chiming in with everyone else here, but this is nothing short of absolutely incredible.

Synthstrom folks: this must have been a huge leap of faith to have taken. You have demonstrated an amazing amount of respect for the Deluge community. For this, you deserve insane love and admiration from us all!

Community folks: the work you've all done so far proves Synthstrom's faith right. I've only tested out a few of the features so far, but they're game-changing. Modulate kit samples' parameters with velocity and play on the new drum grid... mind blown. Grid view. Master compressor. Explicit automation lanes. Free chopping. Any one of these features alone!

This turns the Deluge into the best machine out there, but gear is just gear. What really matters is that you are all the best people making the Deluge and contributing to it.

Mad love and respect!

Agreed! Have used some of the sounds in little experiments/pieces, and they sound really great. Well voiced and well sampled.

Having lots of fun with the Fairlight samples, and the Crumar patch too. Thanks again!

I like MaxOS's solution of having a "trash" patch where you save things that you want to lose and re-load from the defaults. Want to lose a patch? Save it as "trash". Very clean. Just remember to never use "trash" in a song!

The way the Deluge works (local copy of every patch/kit saved with the song) is very powerful, b/c it lets you tweak the 808 kit so that it sounds different in every song, without having to fill up your hard drive with "808_SongNameA", "808_SongNameB" etc. And as you say, you can audition other sounds and come back without losing your tweaks.

I just now tried a naive edit-the-song-XML approach to delete the instrument entirely, but then the Deluge reports that the song is corrupt, b/c it has a track that uses a sound that it doesn't have data for. Oh well. It would be possible to do this right, but it's more hassle than it's worth. The "trash" solution is probably the easiest/cleanest.

@cassbob2 said:

@Marchander said:
These sound great. Thank you!

Is it necessary to constantly bump old topics? It's very annoying when looking for new content.

Bah! I missed this one when it first came out, and I'm stoked to see it now. Thanks for bumping it.