Deluge, a portable sequencer, synthesizer and sampler

[piltdownman]

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.

[liotier]

> 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.

[blehn]

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.

[pantulis]

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

[dijksterhuis]

> couldn't quite stomach the $1400

looks at my elektron gear sheepishly

[112233]

PSA: launchpad-pro has official SDK

[doctorpangloss]

> $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.

[frakt0x90]

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.

[piltdownman]

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.

[rosmax_1337]

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]

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.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

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.

[bravura]

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

[vvillena]

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.

[frankfrank13]

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

[duped]

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.

[piltdownman]

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.

[mplewis]

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

[blakblakarak]

The new Akai does.

[wahnfrieden]

I prefer the OXI One for sequencing

[joezydeco]

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

[camgunz]

Super cool, and GPLv3!

[zoklet-enjoyer]

Polyend Play and Play+ are cheaper with similar features

[11Spades]

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

[giancarlostoro]

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.