Deluge, a portable sequencer, synthesizer and sampler

https://github.com/SynthstromAudible/DelugeFirmware

by eating555 • 2 years ago

70 44 2 years ago

11Spades• 2 years ago

Not to be confused with Deluge, the BitTorrent client :P

I honestly thought of that immediately. Deluge was one of the nicer clients I could ever find that was cross platform. As nice as uTorrent was, I preferred clients that were cross platform. qBitorrent became my favorite sometime later though.

unnouinceput• 2 years ago

Not to mention the bad reputation uTorrent gained with embedding ads and malware galore that followed.

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

I've wanted one of these since release but couldn't quite stomach the $1400 price of entry as the synthesizer part of it - while very full featured - isn't the real use case at a Prosumer-Level and is a needless addition for me.

Like most users who drop that kind of money on outboard, all I really wanted here was the 8x16 Sequencer/Sampler for controlling my CV and MIDI synths and drum machines, at maybe a $500-600 pricepoint.

There are plenty of far cheaper 'grooveboxes' for DAW-less fun like the cheaper Roland TR range for those who want instant gratification, and even premium offerings like Teenage Engineering have. Still, I'm very glad this exists.

pantulis2• 2 years ago

In terms of MIDI grooveboxes, I see Polyend Tracker and Square Hapax are interesting, but they are not cheap either.

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

Yeah that's the problem with all these boutique sequencer stuff - out of the DAW live performance is tricky unless you buy into the Elektron ecosystem which I don't as a mostly analog purist.

As a result I've cheaped out and when not using my beatstep to control the stuff via my DAW I have a Korg SQ64 but its a bit unintuitive flow-wise in terms of live jamming. I end up just using my TR-8S with the 2600 or 303 side-chained through it.

zoklet-enjoyer2• 2 years ago

I've had the Tracker for a while and it's really fun and easy to get a hang of. I haven't tried it as a MIDI sequencer and kind of forgot that that's even an option. It's a fun toy when I'm laying on the couch after work

1122332• 2 years ago

PSA: launchpad-pro has official SDK

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

I've been a Novation fan since the Nova (and even stuck with them through their dodgy 2000s VA phase with things like the X-Station) but the launchpad-pro is crucially missing CV outputs for controlling my semi-modular stuff.

Ableton Push 3 allows you to send four CV signals using the footswitch jacks, and for roughly the same price as the Deluge I'd probably go for that given its value proposition: a full i3-1115G4 processor w/ 8GB of RAM and over 2 hours battery life, plus native audio interface.

liotier2• 2 years ago

There are plenty of far cheaper 'grooveboxes' for DAW-less fun

On the price/features criteria, I believe the Akai MPC One remains supreme. Others are superior in some areas, but as a versatile "do-it-all box" it is astonishing value for 700€.

Yes, a DAW has the same ability for less money (not including the computer one may already possess), but the ergonomics are a major part of what makes those Linux boxes feel like a music instrument.

misterbishop2• 2 years ago

MPC One/Live/X is an incredible platform. I would like to build an open source alternative.

doctorpangloss• 2 years ago

$1400 price of entry as the synthesizer part of it

That's what's special about the "audio" category though. People's brains turn off. The price of an iPhone 14 Max!

But maybe it lets you tap into those latent feelings, "What would it have been like if I had gone to Eastman?"

premium offerings like Teenage Engineering have

They have like 4/30 non-audio products. Look at them, and feel the magic evaporate. I can only speak to their SFF PC case, it is notoriously bad. Of course their stuff is beautiful, but so are Braun watches, Hay furniture, etc. I am not sure what these product categories tap into emotionally that phones haven't figured out how to yet.

dijksterhuis• 2 years ago

couldn't quite stomach the $1400

looks at my elektron gear sheepishly

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

I've gone through stupid amounts of GAS in my time. With my current Behringer Pro-1/MS-20/Neutron Tower, their 303 and 2600 clones, a microbrute, a Triton 61 etc... I've more or less fleshed out my ideal hands-on rig. If I'm dropping 4 figures on something at this point it would have to be a Prophet-6 - and that's end-game territory.

Although saying that, I'd imagine I could get very easily into Eventide FX outboard if I let myself lol

blehn• 2 years ago

It's wild to me that there's still no dedicated hardware MIDI sequencer that's designed for making _songs_. Pretty much everything is designed for making lots of 16 step patterns. But then arranging those patterns is a mystery. I had the deluge and it's not great. The Roland TR-8S inexplicable has no song mode. The Squarp hapax seems close but has some serious flaws from what I've read. Ultimately using a DAW still wins.

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

Yeah the TR-8S is very much geared as a live performance device to channel your inner-Jeff Mills (even though the 909/808 did have a song mode!). I will say you can get most of the way there with pattern chaining, and you implement a more fully featured ersatz song mode if you have something that will send it MIDI ProgramChange messages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P01V0I84P8k

camgunz• 2 years ago

Super cool, and GPLv3!

bravura• 2 years ago

I’ve always wondered why these DAWless grooveboxes, with the exception of teenage engineering, don’t come with a built in keyboard.

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

Workflow and accessibility. Not to be reductive about it, but they're basically a massively reduced barrier to entry for tasting what 'real' production is like for the less musically inclined consumer.

Grooveboxes are essentially clip-launchers; they were basically incepted as a sort of sample-less Akai MPC utilising a built-in ROMpler and some basic Synthesis, some FX, and 'contemporary' presets to lure in people fiddling around in music stores - e.g. the MC-303 or to take it to its absurd conclusion, the DJ-XII.

The interactivity thereafter is about launching clips on the fly and fiddling with the resonance and cut-off for a lead sequence, and riding that master FX ping-pong delay like your life depended on it. The Dunning-Kruger DAW if you will.

vvillena• 2 years ago

A 8x2 grid of buttons can be used as a one octave keyboard. Space and buttons are scarce resources in grooveboxes, and grids of buttons are more versatile. You can always connect an external keyboard too, which will be much higher-quality than anything a groovebox can provide.

duped• 2 years ago

You can't really beat inMusic on quality at the same price as their various brands' keyboards. A button grid though is useful and pretty easy to manufacture.

frankfrank13• 2 years ago

The deluge has a really clever keyboard mode that I find really musical to play with, especially coming as a guitar player as it stacks rows in intervals of a 4th

mplewis• 2 years ago

The keyboard takes away space you could be using for more buttons.

blakblakarak• 2 years ago

The new Akai does.

wahnfrieden• 2 years ago

I prefer the OXI One for sequencing

joezydeco• 2 years ago

Wow, an actual product with the RZ/A1L. Kudos for sticking it out with Renesas.

rosmax_13372• 2 years ago

The name Deluge is already in use.

https://deluge-torrent.org/

I don't think the people behind Deluge BitTorrent Client will sue or even particularly mind that someone else uses the name. But it's a confusing thing for different programs to be named the same thing. For the sake of the users, more than anything, a different name should be considered. If no alternate name is possible, consider using the development team in junction with the program name. I.e., similar to how the Adobe suite works. They don't usually call it just "Illustrator", but instead "Adobe Illustrator".

In this case, it could be called "Synthstrom Deluge" instead.

As a further comment, the problem of naming things in a global namespace is an unsolvable problem. All you can do is try to be polite and avoid causing problems to yourself and others as much as possible, but in the end, lots of people will inevitably be disappointed. It's a case of minimizing discomfort rather than reaching a solution where everyone is happy.

gmueckl• 2 years ago

Deluge is a powerful commercial hardware groovebox/synthesizer/sequencer. The manufacturer opened up the firmware after they sold the device for a while. So the name Deluge is an established product name in a completely different namespace. Even trademarks wouldn't help you protect against this kind name collision because they are only valid for their registered product categories.

PaulDavisThe1st2• 2 years ago

It's not a program, at least not in the usual sense of that term.

It's a piece of hardware. This is the firmware for that device.

rosmax_13372• 2 years ago

Once again I was bit by not reading the link thoroughly enough. I hope I'm not the only one that's happened to. ;)

Nonetheless, the problem of naming things actually stands. Trademark law aside, imagine if you tried to make a program like a torrent client called "Volvo". Names exist in a global namespace, and things will collide, and that's bad for everyone involved.

Had I made the original hardware product, I would have named it the "Synthstrom Deluge" to avoid this problem.

zoklet-enjoyer2• 2 years ago

Polyend Play and Play+ are cheaper with similar features

frakt0x90• 2 years ago

I am lucky to have a friend who's less stingy than me. He bought one and let me play with it for a week. I loved it. It's intuitive, fun, and very powerful. I usually work in a DAW and have an Arturia Microbrute, so I thought it would be annoying doing everything in hardware. It was actually really satisfying doing everything with physical buttons and knobs. I still don't want to drop the cash for it but I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with the Deluge.

piltdownman8• 2 years ago

Microbrute is a lot of fun for the money but I really want to chop the keyboard off mine and rack it above my Neutron as the keyboard barely qualifies as a keyboard and is more or less useless. Filter and OSC are just different enough to keep around, but the Matrixbrute etc... left me completely cold as the sound was just a bit sterile or something.

Deluge, a portable sequencer, synthesizer and sampler

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