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Hey Greg! I definitely dig the pipe for throat singing. I pulled the contact mics and connected an SM58 dynamic , it's way better for clarity. This week I have to do some Lyra+reverb oriented content for another soma oriented artist looking for a reverb unit to pair with theirs. I will work on some more pipe oriented stuff, but my schedule is about to get busy with a tour and beta testing a couple of upcoming instruments over the next few months.

I will have to look that one up and give it a listen!

The azzam bells instrument? It's awesome haha. I have been eyeballing it for a couple of years now, and I'm excited to have it in hand

@@AbyssalPantheon yesss!! omg

Ooooh, a caveman track would be badass to work on haha I have to do some dedicated lyra+reverb demo work this week for another artist who is curious about the merc7 and Sloer units I have. I'll have to work on developing some noise clusters for a primitive track haha

Oh yeah, this is hands down one of my favorite controllers, and I just use it for note input, haha. I've used a bunch of different MPE controllers, and this one, I am just happy with. The price is also really really good imo. I'm stoked to see the apps get updated, and I'm hoping to hear more about the iOS app. The development is a bit slower, but the exquis just has a lot going for it, and I'm cool with waiting for more features haha

It had a lot of promise. It was just overpromised, haha. Keep an eye on it over the next 6 months or so, and it might be worth a second look. I'll pass on it just due to having gear that fills the role and is more tailored to the granular side of utility. The S-4 didn't have much granular control for a "granular sampler," but that's okay because I will be using an upcoming instrument for my granular stuff instead.

Never better, my man! The Azzam Bells instrument is for Horror and Sci-Fi sound design. I've been dying to get darker with it haha. I had to edit the video the way I did to hide my corner of shame (where I have stuff stacked on the wall), bit I liked how creepy it came off lol I'm gonna be working on a couple of lyra-8 + reverb pedal videos as an artist in the SOMA server was inquiring about a decent pedal. I have a merc7 and walrus Slöer I am gonna work with. Also, I do like fursaxa haha. I listen to a lot of folk/world music, she seems right up my alley for sure!

🍌

Ayyy, thanks, Roger! Outside of the color grading, this is my typical workflow, haha. I found several sounds I am pretty happy about, especially that Lyra-8 high pitch trilling sound. I'm saving those settings somewhere so I can use that again. I have a violin bow to use on that Azzam Bells instrument. I have been 100% unsuccessful in using it, so I have some practicing to do before I can coax the remaining sounds out of this instrument. I'm gonna snag some different styled friction mallets as well. The ones I have are great, but they are limited to about 2-3 sounds essentially. One makes whale sounds, and the other makes dark rumbling bass textures. I'm hoo8ng different mallets produce different results. The Enner and Azzam units are great sonic partners, at least. I love the depth of sound that these Electroacoustic instruments offer compared to a straight synth. The hollow bodies give everything a sense of space

Don't worry too much. By the time they get batch 3 out, I bet midi will have been implemented. That was theor number 1 priority after getting the OS stable.

I've been on the cutting edge of instrumentation for a few years and beta test unreleased instruments from time to time (have 2 in process now), but I've never seen something get released in this state, and I've been through some terrible launches as a consumer. This was just straight up false advertising lol.

Crazy right? I also thought for sure they'd have launched with the features shown on the S-4 landing page. Their only product has been a sequencer and that doesn't pair with the S-4 yet lol. Hopefully it grows on you! It's not a bad machine, it just sounds the same-ish for a lot of pieces. I'm sure it will be great next year. As it stands, they definitely aren't shipping what's been advertised on their website. Fingers crossed this launch doesn't sink torso so they can actually develop it into their vision.

@@AbyssalPantheon there's another mad thing man... I've just learned they do not deduce VAT for non-EU buyers. how is that even possible, the fact is that they do not pay VAT for non-EU exports. robbery

​@yurijogurtsov8710 I have no idea. I'm an American, so we don't pay VAT here, but I did have some import fees due to the price of the instrument. That pretty much wiped out the "discount" for preordering

@@AbyssalPantheon that price they quote is VAT-included. which means, when a non-EU customer buys the S4, they pay the tax they should not be charged for!! because the COMPANY, Torso, is not charged by the gov't in this case. you see? + buddy, please don't miss the big comment I left for you, when we discussed the granular synthesis and you mentioned some 'new devices coming', etc ;) take care

@yurijogurtsov8710 I'm gonna have to scroll through. This video has a lot of comments 😂 and I had a couple of interactions were I listed other granular synths I definitely wasn't aware of the hidden tax they included, but the money was spent already haha Either way, I recouped the loss in short order at least

yeah...my first synth was the Polyend/Dreadbox medusa, and followed close behind with the tracker lmao. It was a rough go. I miss that medusa though :/

I have looked at both! The GR-Mega looks awesome, but takes up a lot of desk space haha. I am actually involved with an upcoming Spatial Audio granular synth called the 'Groc" by Oddment Audio. I highly recommend checking it out. It launches next year, but I may have on in hand next month to create factory content and help with testing. It's much more of a true sound exploring device, which is a much better fit for my needs. I won't be able to talk much about it due to some NDA stuff, but I am super hyped on it and can't wait to see it in person haha The tempera has had my eye for a while, but I am committed to the Groc as I left my fingerprints on that one haha

@@AbyssalPantheon Just had a look (Superbooth demo) having different band pass values per grain looks very cool!

@williambowden4192 I am super excited for it!

No problem! I'm glad this video at least gives some food for thought. From the last time I was on the discord (shortly after this video, and then left) the goal was to have the advertised features ready to go by the end of the year. Midi was the priority for development. Outside of that, I am not following any of the development from torso, and sold my S-4 about an hour after posting this video lol

are you aware of the Groc from Oddment Audio? it's a much closer to being the S4 alternative than the GRM

@yurijogurtsov8710 yeah, I'm a sound designer for that instrument and should be beta testing it as soon as the first 25 units are assembled.

@@AbyssalPantheon I know man, I was replying to the other person, who was the OP here

I know precisely the ones you mean haha These zophobas seem to creep people out. I personally love these little armored caterpillars. Did you know that this species of larvae are one of the only ones on this planet that can eat and thrive off of styrofoam for food? They may very well be a planet saving insect :)

Hey, Marcus! It is good to hear from you, my friend! I am sorry to hear about your health struggle, and I am happy to hear that you are recovering well :) I am looking forward to watching more your upcoming work :)

@@AbyssalPantheon 🙏🙏💖💖

Thanks for watching, Somnambule!

Thanks MP! or should I now refer to you as 3S-BSM? (sounds like a droid from Star Wars haha) Towards the end, it'd have better to transition into a new piece in full, but I haven't bothered composing any actual songs lmao. I probably should continue to extend my recording break, but I have that Azzam bells stuff arriving tomorrow and I'll be experimenting away again lol

Call me whatever. I don't care, although you are missing the "A" for Amalgamate haha. I look forward to hearing what you do with the Azzam bells. I should get my 2nd Pulsar today. That should be fun🍌

Thanks for watching, Greg! Tomorrow something special is supposed to arrive, and I will definitely be pairing it with the Lyra, pipe, and cosmos to start :) It might be a bit before I have anything ready on that front, I will have to teach myself a few new skills before I can get to work haha

You can't go wrong with a Pulsar! I'm SOMA oriented with my gear for sure haha. The pulsar turret edition has a dope sale right now for 1200 bucks, which isn't too.much more expensive than the S-4. If you can swing it, snag it. The p23 is really deep, and it's great!

@@AbyssalPantheon oh yeah unfortunately I've had my eye set on the regular version and will be getting a regular mint one. I recently acquired a Lyra 4, so it's been a goal to get the pulsar 23 to close out my soma circle. Anyway, thanks again, feeling happy I canceled my preorder after they fucked around the first time. Too bad looser like that oora or ora what ever that weirdos name is, are out there shilling this product.

@LaChona420k I feel you on that, I also went with the turret edition in mint haha. You won't regret it. I'm still coming to terms with mine as I have several instruments that patch into it very nicely haha. I'm not sure if you're a part of the SOMA discord or not (its new), but I'm on there pretty regularly, and try to share sound experiments/tips with whatever I'm using. I'm saving up for the ornament-8 with the lyra-8 attachment so I can pair the lyra and pulsar together. I'm glad I was able to help you out on a decision, and I'm sure that eventually, the S-4 will be a great utility for a lot of people. I don't have much to say about Oora other than feeling a little irritation that he blatantly ripped off one of my creative pieces with the S-4 for some of his content. I'm not overly upset about it as my only goal has been to help musicians make their art better, but an acknowledgment would have been rather nice lol

@@AbyssalPantheon thanks and no I am not I'll make sure to join and share some creativity as well. Damn I am sorry to hear that, that guy unfortunately is skeevy. But to his defence he has a very odd background, and comes from an odd culture, he also doesn't work on his mental health issues. He most likely is just a product of his fucked up environment. But hey, that's the internet unfortunately you're gonna run into losers and shills with zero talent or anything to really offer that has any value. But that's why I'm happy to see you thriving, keep up the awesome work man!

@@LaChona420k for all the good things I could say about Pulsar, there's one caveat I have to bring up here: beware that you buy from the russian company, and the guy who never, ever, in the slightest, said anything about the war russia wages not only against Ukraine, but really against the civilised world now. instead of showing some support while being safe in the EU, he mocked and joked around. and I do follow them very closely, so I know what I'm talking about.

I'm a reverb hound haha, I love some depth to a sound. The Enner is awesome due to the contact mic, and the initial sound already has a bit of depth based on the proximity to the contact mic. I am very excited for the Azzam Bells stuff to ship out, as it's another contact mic based instrument.

No. I am not. I already sold the device the day I posted this video, which was weeks ago. I literally put it in the description of the video. It shouldn't be causing any confusion for anyone. Did v1.0.4 suddenly implement midi clock and transport? How about functionality to buttons on the face of the unit? Did it fix USB audio interface mode? Did it add real granular controls to the mosaic/granular engine? or how about the cross modulation system. Was that implemented yet? WIfi/ableton link? expandable I/O over USB? What about analog clock sync? No? Well, that's what's listed on the shops webpage for the S-4, but I certainly didn't have those features regardless of the updates. The only part of this video that is no longer accurate is that the saves aren't being corrupted on load anymore. Fingers crossed that they have the capital and support to actually develop the S-4 into the device they hyped up and are advertising. As it stands, what they advertise and what you get are very different devices.

@@AbyssalPantheon Thanks for your reply. When I wrote you there was no reference in the video's description about which firmware you were using (but I see you've edited meanwhile). No doubts they have been advertising something different then what they are selling at the moment, that's not good and we all hope they'll fix it soon. However you are showing a machine which is unusable due to continuous crashes and since your video was posted a few days ago I wondered about the firmware cause the latest one might have fixed some of these issues and made it still incomplete but usable on stage.

@danielecamarda from my understanding, it hasn't been stable for live use based on the comments I've received on this video. This video is almost 2 weeks old at this point. I've addressed what v1.0.4 fixed in a few comments on this video. I went ahead and added more to the description, as you were the first person confused by the content of discussion, and it is better for me to edit it so it's clear for everyone. For live work, it was a gamble for me. Sometimes, it'd be working beautifully for an extended time, just to have it reboot and wipe all of the work. I can't give you an answer on how it is doing now, as I sold it off and bought a different electroacoustic instrument with upgrades, accessories, and had money left over. If you want to use it for live performance, I'd probably wait until midi and sync get implemented so it can at least be in time with everything else you are working with. If you are working with only the S-4, I can see it being pretty easy to use it standalone, and there is some limited midi implemented with Note and CC info. The polymode can play notes from a sequencer, but your effects won't be in time :/ it'll be more powerful once they implement cross modulation like mentioned on the website. It will largely depend on what your focus in audio is. If you dig making textural pieces or soundscapes like I do, it has a good set of bones to work in the box. If you are beat and rhythm heavy and use external equipment, this needs a lot more time and development. For the majority of the time, my unit would run for about 30-45 minutes and then reboot, but sometimes it wouldn't. If v1.0.4 solved the random reboots, then it might be ready for the stage. My best advice is to test out your set and see how the S-4 behaves in context to your performance. In my case, for the money spent, it was too unreliable and didn't have the features necessary to use it in a performance setting due to lack of development. I am specifically referring to Scene, Temp, and perform controls that have no functionality at this time. Regardless, the S-4 needs considerable development before it is in its advertised state, and this video was more about that than the freezing issue.

I sold it off to someone who was in a later batch who didn't want to wait about an hour after posting this video. I didn't want to deal with shipping it back internationally and paying restock fees and all that jazz. I'm glad you are enjoying yours!

In its current state, I wouldn't consider it to be a wise purchase. I do think it will be cool when they finish it. I sold mine off about an hour after posting this video and have moved forward with a different instrument altogether.

Fingers crossed that they pull a No Man's Sky comeback and not a Redfall defeat lmao I'm pretty much over it, I may not buy freshly released instruments unless it's electroacoustic in nature or if I'm involved with the project in a professional capacity. My idea of getting the S-4 early was to stay ahead of feature creep, but I wasn't expecting to have to wait for the base features to eventually come to it.

@@AbyssalPantheon we’re praying for the cyberpunk turnaround. It really is disappointing because of how cool of a concept the instrument is. I am enamoured with the potential of it but companies operating in bad faith like this really rub me the wrong way. Have you thought about the rossum panharmonium?

@byjhutton I played Cyberpunk 2077 at launch, but honestly, I still liked it. It's a much better game now, for sure, and it would be a decent redemption arc to shoot for haha I hadn't heard of the pandemonium before, as I have never dabbled into true modular. I heard it's a money pit, and I'm already sitting in a money pit with the "cheap" side of synths 🤣 It does look pretty awesome, though! I ended up using the money from selling the S-4 to purchase the Azzam Bells MPA 019, with the 023 upgrade kit (it's being modified to support a mixture of the 019 and 023 accessories), as well as friction mallets, a bow, percussive strikers, and shipping from italy, with some cash left over. I'm pretty focused on my sound design goals within the horror and sci-fi genres, and I wanted something more physical to interact with while being purpose built for my stylistic choices. The nice thing is that there is no future development needed to make it work 🤣

@@AbyssalPantheon lol yes firmwareless gear is all from here on out. For the sci-fi/horror sound design you could look at the make noise strega, that’s modular without being too modular and creates crazy sounding sound fx

@byjhutton I actually own 2 stregas and use them a lot. It's one of my main instruments, and I rock both as a stereo unit haha With my kilpatrick audio carbon, I am able to use them as a single stereo duophonic synth with one strega playing the high note, and the other on the low note. It's a lot of fun. I have some patch videos on my channel for the strega, if you happen to have one and want to try it out.

Yeah....I'm done with doing that. There are some companies producing new instruments that I am actually involved with as a tester/sound designer. So far, that hasn't cost me anything other than maybe some shipping fees lol. I recouped the money spent on the S-4, at least, and ordered a different instrument altogether.

I was kind of surprised that named buttons didn't have a function in firmware V1. That wouldn't be a V1 if I numbered it based on the stability and feature set. When I first got mine, I at least caught and reported the USB audio issue immediately, and they were able to get that fixed up. Originally, less than half of the USB audio inputs could be used due to artifactiong and digital noise. Luckily, it was a software thing. The USB interface mode is less useful than I had hoped, as there was no way to assign inputs per track on the device. I believe they are working on a "takeover" mode. Truth be told, I just didn't want to wait for all of the "potential" to come to life. There is no guarantee that any of the features get developed, and Torso is a small company that just made a very bad, rushed, and deceptive launch on their first and only instrument while closing future preorders. It's not just Torso. This type of behavior comes from a lot of companies across many sectors. In this case, $900 bucks is just too much to gamble while hoping they have the capital and support to finish what they started. Fingers crossed they power through and get it communicating with other gear at a minimum lol

Yeah, good points. Crazy how folks can grow accustomed to things. Companies don’t do this because we rage and don’t buy their products. We all drank the kool aid. Same with buggy AAA titles on gaming consoles, or Adobe products, or even self checkout lanes:) unacceptable became good enough. It’s weird. But I hear you.

@@hasan7786 this. and now I see SonicState who I respect a lot gave Torso 'best of Superbooth' award and I wonder... is there anyone now in the synthfluencer business who actually play on the customers' side? and prices go higher and higher, which reminds me of audiophile market, like the same thing's been long happening with headphones/IEMs for instance, without any quality gains basically.

Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer. I already sold it and got my money back, at least. Ended up buying an electroacoustic instrument instead haha

No, I still haven't gotten notifications that you're commenting broham. I'm not sure what is going on. I can manually find it in youtube studio, but I have to search for it for some reason

I appreciate you listening to older pieces as well! I just love experimenting with gear, and now that I've done a full refresh with SOMA instruments as my core, I have been largely just making exploratory pieces and testing instrument combinations, haha. As I get more competent with each, I will hopefully be moving into a "less is more" approach for my soundscapes. So far the Enner is my most flexible instrument, and I consider it to be my "main" instrument from the SOMA lineup. The S-4 didn't stay here long, as it wasn't what I was expecting or looking for, but I'll have something much more powerful on the granular side of things here soon :)

I'm glad you enjoyed the sounds! I'm also happy to hear that you were able to identify my focus on Horror and sci-fi sound design. Sometimes, it's hit or miss, but this piece with the enner is actually practice for using the percussive tools and mallets in preparation for an Azzam Bells instrument that's arriving soon :)

Hey, Maurizio! If I had to choose just one soma synth to use, it would be the Enner. So far, it is the most flexible for creating textures and atmospheric pieces. Thanks for watching. This is just a quick snippet from a longer piece I published. I just like cutting out the useful sections to share in the SOMA discord for other users to use in their sound design process :) If I can't touch the world with music, maybe I can help another artist do it haha

You're welcome! I'm sorry to hear you are having a similar experience with your device. I also had pretty high hopes, but was not expecting what I received. Next year it may be worth looking at again.

Yeah...It's really frustrating to feel like there is collusion between reviewers and manufacturers when attempting to make a wise purchasing decision.

Thanks, Greg! The E wand makes perfect whale sounds. I am excited to get my Azzam Bells instrument in to work with!

I felt the same initially, and was going to stick with it. I just felt there was a massive amount of deception about the state of the S-4, and I didn't much care for some of the predatory FOMO tactics they employed to get preorders. I'll hard pass this company in the future. I sold off my octatrack mk2 to buy the S-4 because I believed in torso, and now I have to wait for a new instrument to come out before I can recover the utility I lost by buying the S-4 lmao. Lesson learned. I hope that you enjoy your S-4 though!

@@AbyssalPantheon I don't think I communicated that right. You *saved* me some grief here. I cancelled my preorder as it still had not shipped. I really appreciate it.

@unhaunts I'm glad I was able to help you out, mate!

@@AbyssalPantheon that's crazy to sell the Octa... for anything! 10 years from its release, with the dated FX and all its quirks, still the unrivalled live sampler

@yurijogurtsov8710 I never got along with the OT2, and the S-4 advertised the features I actually wanted in my rig without the brain drain. They just really under delivered. I sold off most of my instruments and concerted my instrumentation to SOMA. No menus or programming in my setup for the most part, and no more waiting for firmware updates because everything I own has been on the market for years. I am already involved with the instrument (granular, sampler, multitrack looper, etc...) as a sound designer that is replacing the S-4 in my setup. It should be released sometime next year, and I'm excited to beta test it sometime in the next month or two :)

Glad I could help you inform your decision!

It's too flexible and overwhelming all at once, I've been having fun picking 1-2 pieces and working in a more limited setting. Certain devices pair really well with each other. Lyra+pipe, Pulsar+ Lyra, Cosmos+Terra, Enner+Ether, and Enner+Cosmos have all been banger rule of 2 rigs

@@AbyssalPantheon yeah that seems like the best approach. We'll be watching 🍌

I do have a bow in hand, but unfortunately there are surfaces on the enner which you can bow. However, the spring can be detached from the posts, and theoretically you could install something that could be bowed across the 3 posts. They just have Phillips heads screws into post connected to the faceplate/contact mic. I've also seen a few Enner artists make modifications and attachments to theirs. I have the bow in preparation for the Azzam Bells instrument, and I have never used a bow in my life lmao

I'm sure they are nose to the grindstone trying to get the S-4 in a good spot. I'm no longer following any of it at this point and have been jamming without it. There are some utilities of it that I missed, but then remember I have my MOD Duo X, and it replaced it until the Groc comes out

Working as intended then ;)

@@AbyssalPantheon 😄

Glad you liked it! I highly recommend the friction mallets for the Enner!

I'm glad you enjoyed the piece! I'm telling the superworms you hate them, though lol jk

Thanks for lending me your ear, YeLLGo! I'm experimenting with some new instrument combos, particularly the Enner and Cosmos, at the moment. I have an Electroacoustic instrument on order in Italy that I think you are gonna dig when I get it in hand. Says late August for delivery :)

Thanks, YeLLGo! There is a lot to explore with this rig and I feel like I'm moving at a snails pace haha

I'm glad you thought it was cool. It was definitely an unexpected behavior, but I am so happy that I stumbled into it. I'm going to continue to experiment with how far I can take the EMF playing style with the Enner. I think I actually prefer the sound of the Ether's EMF over Enner's output itself, haha. There is a cutting edge, experimental EMF synthesizer that has been teased, and I am working on getting myself involved with the device development in some capacity. It would be a perfect fit for my rig, especially with all of my body patching synths and Electronics. Fingers crossed, I hear more about it soon. Worst case, I will buy 3 more SOMA ethers and use 4 of them with the Groc and Enner to create a technological performance with EMF mics/synths and granular. Then I can do a "wireless" performance with the enner and proximity. I've already begun the planning stage for the concept haha

You are correct in that, but I feel like that could be said about a lot of instruments vs. VST. I personally prefer yo be hands-on with physical instruments, so the S-4 was an attractive box for the effects block. It is just incredibly underfeatured for the time being. I bet it will be a very lovely tool for the hardware folks once it becomes stable and is more fleshed out in the capability department

@@AbyssalPantheon Very true, at the end of the day the CHARACTER of sound is almost always achievable in-the-box with a DAW / VST workflow. But when I think about something like the Elektron boxes I own, the P-Lock workflow quickly generates stuff very different than choices I would make in the box. I am probably judging the S-4 too harshly and too early, but Torso's own promotion of the device has only muddied the waters with a very limited explanation of features and workflow.

@totaled_camry you are not wrong there at all. This shouldn't have been released yet, it needs way more time to cook. The workflow is barebones because the features are bare bones, so it's incredibly limited at the moment and ends up feeling like a very poor experience outside of the constant software issues