The Torso S-4 isn't ready for most.
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- čas přidán 17. 06. 2024
- edit: I sold the S-4. firmware V1.0.4 fixed the save corruption issues, but all other issues about the device remain the same. I am no longer following the S-4 development, and have no more opinions on the matter. Thanks!
Original:
I haven't seen any mentions of the negatives about the S-4.
In the interest of transparency, I wanted to show a bit of the issues being faced by the batch one recipients. - Hudba
Thank you, I wish ppl were more honest about the rushed devices and the bs you have to deal with instead of the “gotta get it hypes”. ❤
yeah... it's a bummer. I already sold it yesterday. They released a new firmware this morning that may have fixed the save/load issue. I don't trust Torso after the way they handled this launch and instrument, nor am I willing to wait a year for it to "maybe" mature into my workflow needs.
Fingers crossed that they get it stable and in a good position for those who decided to tough it out.
@@AbyssalPantheon I don’t blame you. I was torn on the first Uno Synth Pro when it first came out. Had a very annoying buzz coming through all the sounds. Company said if I read the manual, I would of seen that buzzing was normal. They never understood that it was more than that. I can work through slight noise or feedback as long as patches cover them but coming thought everything I created was so frustrating. I even waited few patches later as the company stated and nothing. I ended up giving away all my purchases and close my account with them. Threw away the synth cause I didn’t want that to be someone else’s problem and wrote the company a nice letter, they didn’t give a crap. Its very sad that these companies get away with so much.
Thanks for talking about this! Having the same experience. This doesn’t feel like a finished product. Wanted to use it in a live setting, but it’s definitely not ready for that.
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.
I do agree with you that it should have been kept under development (not even advertised for pre order) for a lot longer. Coming soon is wild. I am going to wait out and see just because I have other stuff to focus on, but that doesnt mean if the current trend continues right up till fall/autumn and I am still looking at bugs and "coming soon" messages that its going to be sold and invested the dough in other areas. Currently I could do what it does in ableton or equally as you say a vast array of pedals.
However, what im really here to say is woahhh that pipe is so wild ahaha. Please make some content showing various abysall explorations with that because it looks super interesting. 👊
Yeah...it is a shame they went that path. Sounds like v1.0.4 at least has addressed the save/load issue for most. It'll be some time before it's anywhere close to what they were initially planning.
This felt like a Hail Mary toss in hopes to stabilize financials.
Honestly, I can do 90% of what the S-4 does with 3 pedals and a granular VST/hardware. The only thing that I'm missing is the compressor and drive, but I have that capability with outboard gear.
I will 100% be doing some pipe videos! I have been testing different gear combos with it, and found some nice spots. I am waiting for my Azzam Bells instrument to arrive and I'll be working on horror pieces using the pipe as an FX unit for it. It's going to be a good time when it arrives haha
Wow thanks for making us aware of these issues.
No problem.
It will get more stable and featured over the coming year, but that's not what I was expecting for a $900 price tag. There are plenty of apologists for Torso regarding this device, and I'm happy for them and their positive experiences and patience to be a beta tester.
That being said, the S-4 has great bones, and I'm sure it'll be a very unique and powerful device one day.
Appreciate the honesty here. I have one on preorder that is supposed to ship on Wednesday but I think I’ll hold off. Sorry to hear that you had a shitty experience but thank you for the heads up.
This why I don’t get new products out of the first run. There’s usually always a software glitch with it. I will wait a year or so until it’s been out for a while to see how it works and software updates.
I'd say that's a smart approach for this device. I've had a lot of new gear over the last few years, including the polyend tracker and NDLR at launch, but this one felt much less finished than those.
I'm sure it'll be great next year!
I agree the other platforms need to talk about the issues they may be having with these type of products.
Yeah...It's really frustrating to feel like there is collusion between reviewers and manufacturers when attempting to make a wise purchasing decision.
No MIDI sync out of the box in 2024 is a complete killer for me. That was my entire reason for wanting one. Thanks for the heads up.
It'll come soon, most likely.
Absolutely insane to create a multitrack looper with no syncing capability. The midi/sync was supposed to be addressed in the June update, but they had to delay it again because they needed to fix the crashing+save issue first.
It's really mind boggling that they let this make it to people in this state.
Yeah. If it was a $200 device then fine, I’ll be a beta tester but this thing isn’t exactly cheap enough to overlook the omissions. Sucks. Thanks again man.
@AJ-zm6bv I feel the same haha
this was one of my most anticipated gear releases ever and i havent heard one good demo from it yet. the resonator sounds cool, but so does the comb filter on the dt2
granular is just the typical plugin granular cloudy blurry mode that every euro module and the gr-1/lemondrop/any norns script does
SO, i am glad you actually showcased some of the more choppy/sharp-windowed granular stuff. pretty nice. yeah its irritating to be a beta tester after purchasing a brand new thing but elektron also did it. seems to be the way it goes nowadays
I think the S-4 will eventually offer a lot of complexity. I have a feeling that once midi clock and transport get implemented, and the main buttons finally get functionality, you will hear a lot more variety in the demos.
Personally, I do soundscape/drone work with SOMA instruments, but use granular heavily when I am doing microphone based electroacoustic work. Granular is something I rely on for my art, personally. The S-4 just doesn't have the controls I was expecting when I read "granular sampler."
In terms of electron, I ditched their stuff a while back and reconfigured my entire rig. Elektron stuff is incredibly powerful. More importantly, they have the capital to invest in development, which I do not know if Torso has similar resources.
Regardless of the size of the company, a launch like this will always be met with opposition on my end, as a consumer.
I am a beta tester/sound designer for a different Granular instrument that launches next year, and it is a much better fit for my personal needs. This launch won't be rushed, and I do not believe the Company releasing it would allow it to get into peoples hands in a quarter baked state.
1.0.4 is working really well. Understand the frustrations but I guess were all ginea pigs with first batch units. Mines been solid. Love it. Truely do.
I have heard that v1.0.4 seems to have improved the save/load issue, and I am glad to hear that.
Awesome that you are enjoying yours!
appreciate the blunt insight. i don’t have the s-4 but i’ve been keeping an eye on it and a lot of accounts seem to suggest it’s not fully realized yet and i think i’d rather wait until the product is at least mostly finished before buying
I think that's a smart plan if you want to have a good first impression with the device or company (if you haven't dealt with them before).
I'd say this will probably be a unit to look at 4-6 months down the road to see where it's at in features. I know they want to add a lot more devices in the signal paths down the road. It'll be interesting to see how fast development progresses with 2-3 devs.
They have been pushing out hot fixes at least, trying to get it stabilized.
well that explains why the June shipment was "delayed". hope they fix it.
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
I guess the Torso is missing arms, legs, and a head! I'll wait for the firmware updates before I plan on a purchase. Thanks for sharing.
Glad I could help you inform your decision!
That’s the trouble; it’s unsellable.
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.
Thanks for posting. Gonna hold off on the S-4 for now.
No problem!
It's crazy to me that no one is willing to share their experiences with it.
It works extremely well for a limited user pool at the moment, and I'm sure it'll be a much better place in a few months time. $900 is just a crazy price for what they delivered.
This is one of the products I had no hype for and did look a bit over promising. Thank you for being honest.
Definitely pretty rough at launch, but I'm sure they'll get to their vision for it one day
Thanks for the heads up! I was just about to pull the trigger on the S4.
I'm glad I could help you make an informed decisions. Check back in on the S-4 in 4-6 months time, and it may be in a better spot for your needs.
Thanks for sharing this. I preordered some time ago and have been pretty uneasy as I monitor Torso's Discord channel. They killed it with the T1 so I want to give them some grace here. But the granular limitation makes me think you could achieve the same thing with an Octatrack. I feel like this is something to revisit in a year.
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!
Definitely on my wishlist. Incredible
For some, this S-4 is indeed ready for!
If you check some of the earlier videos I posted before this one,
I have a few workflow and demo videos of it in the first firmware revision. My unit was relatively stable compared to most, and when it worked, it worked awesome.
The S-4 will mature and continue to evolve into a more stable and complex machine, but in its current form, it's not worth what they are charging. If you are comfortable spending the money on a "maybe that feature will make it" device, by all means, go for it haha.
I suggest waiting 4-6 months to let some features and stability trickle into it first :)
@@AbyssalPantheonthank you! Yeah, it could perhaps be the best granular processor in the market, but am going to take your word and wait for sure. 👍
@HousePlant_Ambient No matter what direction this S-4 goes, it won't return to my setup again. It is the least featured granular processor I have used.
The device has good bones, but there are other more powerful units that are better suited for my needs launching this year.
Hopefully, you will enjoy your S-4 if you get one down the road!
@@AbyssalPantheoninteresting. Do you mind sharing other granular processor? Module or non.
I am in the market for a granular processor for sure. I use Morphagene and clouds to create incredible textural landscape from just audio samples. I want to further expand that audio to an external device.
Yeah, the features this thing has was what intrigued me. So, just keeping an eye out, but am glad this video was brought to my attention though.
I hope you reached out to them and they can maybe send you another one. So far I haven't had any issues issues with mine.
I ended up selling mine shortly after this video. It was a lot of money for very little the utility I was expecting.
I ended up buying some electro-acoustic instrumentation and some accessories, and am waiting for the Oddment Audio Groc to enter production for my final granular device. I have all of the effects the S-4 offered in pedal form, so I am okay with letting the S-4 go and seeing how it matures later haha
@@AbyssalPantheon sorry you had a bad experience. Guess they had some quality control issues. My personal experience is it's quickly becoming my favorite piece of gear to make music on and I shared some examples on my channel. Should be interesting to see how S4 develops
@wholeheartedsongs I had plenty of good experiences with it. Mine was one of the stable units lol.
It's more that I felt misled about it, and I don't want to support these companies that release unfinished products and abuse good will. I game a lot, so getting hit with this behavior from both sides of my hobbies is very frustrating.
I know that the S-4 will be great, but first impressions matter, and the way that Torso handled this launch has damaged their reputation with me as a consumer.
That being said, I am happy that there are many people that love theirs. It has phenomenal bones at least, and I loved the UI+Screen for sure haha
Damn i was worried about this. Im with you, think imma finish my soma suite, only think missing is a pulsar 23. Ill focus on getting that.
I also kinda wanna try an mpc x top shelf unit and try the MPC workflow.
Thanks for this
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!
Your well within your rights to return it. Being honest, Give it time, the potential is there. I'm the latest June batch, no issues so far, other than missing features.
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!
Big thanx for your honest words…in this case the s4 is unusable for me…too many bugs😅! Greetings mate🖖👽
I'm glad that it has given you some insight on this instrument.
The bones are very lovely, but it is an improv effects box in its current software state.
I really didn't want to make a video about this, but it seems like no one is willing to show the truth of the situation.
I've listed my T-1 and S-4 for sale. There is a chance I may return to it, but it's highly unlikely.
The future for me is Groc and maybe a tempera ;)
@@AbyssalPantheon yeah, the tempera seems interesting too….
@Somnambule it's definitely caught my eye, but once I sell this S-4 and T-1, I will probably buy the ornament 8 and lyra attachment to finalize my SOMA rig, and snag an acoustic horror/Sci-fi sound designing instrument (Azzam Bells MPA 019+023 upgrade kit)
@@AbyssalPantheon The mpa023 with a daxophone…amazing
@@Somnambule I have been eyeballing for over a year, and I would really love to get one.
My S-4 just sold, so it's now in the realm of possibility.
Might be having some Azzam Bells x Pipe content at some point :)
That's very insightful. I'm also interested with the S-4, but it looks half baked. Maybe the Tempera is more achieved instrument? Anyway, many thanks for that reality check video!
I think the S-4 will be a very good and powerful instrument in the near future, it was just becoming a distraction and headache in my rig, so I offloaded it for the time being.
The other aspect, is that I was looking for a real granular unit, and that's what I thought I was buying from Torso. This isn't really a useful granular system for me, but it may be awesome for others. Right now, I am just waiting for the Oddment Audio Groc to release haha
Gutted for you, I really like the concept of this instrument and in time I would still like to have one. On the other hand I thought it a bit suspicious how little information Torso themselves released about their own product, they didn't seem keen to show off what should be a flagship product (we now know why). I have had a similar experience with Polyend, I have a tracker but 3 years in it still has bugs in the firmware and I feel a bit ripped off paying to be a beta tester so I can relate to your annoyance. Thanks for your honesty and for giving a balanced overview of where this instrument is at, I think I will wait awhile until it is done before investing. Hope it eventually lives up to its hype.
Oh man... I also was a PET user lmao. Even had 2 at one point!
I consider myself to be an early adopter for a lot of instruments/effects, but after spending time with fully featured, stable, and fleshed out gear that has been on the market for several years, I am no longer willing to support rushed launches/incomplete products.
This sloppy unfinished release for the sake of capital is permeating every aspect of our culture these days, and both of my hobbies suffer from it. I'm done supporting half-assed cash grabs that sell its "eventuality" rather than its immediacy.
It'd be way different if they asked for beta testers for a discounted unit, rather than pay full price to beta test.
@@AbyssalPantheon can't agree more on 'releases for the sake of capital'. what Torso did with the S4 should be criticised for the sake of our industry. it was unthinkable some years ago for a small company with just a single product in their portfolio... not only they launched a crowdfunding masked as a pre-order (without even a demo available), not only they released a product with bugs and some functions not working at all (like, as many as four buttons simply 'coming soon'!), but they never communicated this straight, and even at Superbooth they presented the devices as if it was all ready for the prime time.
now, after seeing the pre-order like that, I naturally concluded they must have problems with cash flow. it was not difficult to find their basic accounting statements for the last 4 years, as the law orders them being public. one needs to be more professional and know more of the company's situation, but looking at their debt dynamics and other figures, it seems to be they're on the edge, and the S4 might become their make or break product - it ate up a lot of investments, and if it fails, they look doomed. hence all the desperation. but I might read too much into this combination, ofc...
I had an order for batch 2 with perfect circuit and had a bad feeling and canceled it. Used the money for a used M8.
As a tracker fan...I'm a little jealous, even if I don't make any music that needs programming or sequencing lol. The M8 looks so awesome compared to the OG polyene trackers I started with haha
Yeah, I just got mine 2 days ago, hitting those three buttons and seeing "coming soon" was not awesome. I have only plugged my op-1 into it, and realized it has usb audio with the midi usb was a nice one. I knew it going into it that it wouldnt be ready after seeing oora music review. I feel less slighted by torso than i would with a bigger company's product release like the Maschine+. I take these unfinished products on the chin versus the buggy Akai Force when it was released.
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.
Looks like we’re all just going to have to wait for the groc 😉
Hopefully soon! John posted a new video yesterday of the Groc and it's coming along nicely.
I sent out an MPE controller to Oddment Audio last week to help get MPE development rolling along. Groc will be in beta for a while and will have a decent number of people helping with beta testing long before it's ready to be released to the general public :)
this made me think of polyend, lol. but yeah man, thx for the review. I was eyeing this but a little unsure given the price tag. I would frustrated if I'd purchased this and realized no sync or midi, lol.
I've been an early adopter of gear for a few years now, I definitely was in the shit with the polyene situation as well lmao.
I think letting this S-4 cook for a while, and then revisiting it once it has the basic features needed to integrate into a larger instrument setup will be the best way to have a good experience with it.
Hopefully by that time, the feature set and internal device list has been more fleshed out.
Well. Dang i really want one. Hope its fixed by the time i can afford it.
In a few months time, I have a feeling the device will be in a much better place for most musicians/artists.You will have time to save up a little before it's ready :)
I‘m thinking the tasty chips G1 is a better choice…!?
This will largely depend on your use case. For me, I need a full granular engine with as little menu diving as possible while still presenting traditional granular synthesis and accepts live stereo input.
Right now, the GR-1 is available, but the workflow is a struggle (from everyone I have talked to).
Granular units to look into:
Oddment Audio Groc (2025 at the earliest)
BeetleCrab Tempera (available now, very cool)
Tastychips GR Mega (Expensive but powerful, workflow is not great)
1010 Lemondrop (cramped with bad UI)
have a look at Groc Granular by Oddment audio, very close to S4
@yurijogurtsov8710 I'm one of the sound designers doing factory content for groc :)
I am stoked that others are hearing about it!
@@AbyssalPantheon that's so cool mate! I'll give your channel a good listen. Groc looks great, it's hard for me to praise is more than I've been doing here and at the lines forum. it deserves to be heard, really. and to succeed eventually!
pity not too many people are aware of it (in contrast with the Torso's rushed product) - which is something the OA team should probably care a bit more about (I realise the team is small, but maybe some forum/social network activity is possible, and might result in better sales). on one hand, the S4, Tempera and GR-Mega sort of heated the market up.. but on the other, it's 3 competing products, one very similar and and the similar price point. sorry for the off-topic.
@@yurijogurtsov8710 I am stoked that you are excited about Groc! I haven't heard of the line forum before, and I'll have to look it up to see. I was really hoping for more coverage at super booth, but had a buddy that was presenting there and he checked in on them while he was there, and he loved it haha. There was at least a few mentions by bigger channels, and a smaller channel actually provided a bit of coverage.
From my understanding, granular synthesis isn't as fun for most synthesists. For some reason, I absolutely love working with EMF and granular.
More importantly to me, is that it's a bonafide Spatial Audio granular synth with binaural rendering, which is a perfect fit for my perception manipulation project I've been planning out over the last 4-6 months or so. I recently sent Oddment one of my spare MPE controllers so they can get MPE implemented as soon as it's convenient. It's going to be a true sound exploration tool :D
Groc (And hopefully the Demon Box from Eternal Research) is going to be the basis of my microphone/electroacoustic/EMF instrument oriented Abyssal Pantheon project.
If you're interested in experimental sound design and audio projects, there are several new devices on the horizon that I am getting amped on, specifically within the context of what I prefer to work with haha
I'm sure the S-4 will be awesome one day, it just ended up being underwhelming on performance and features for the price.
Did you tried to upgrade to 1.0.4?
I didn't, I had sold the S-4 an hour or two after publishing this video. Based on what I can see in the server, V1.0.4 seems to be performing somewhat okay. I ended up buying an electroacoustic horror/scifi sound designing instrument with some of the sale.
@@AbyssalPantheon Ah! No problem. Hope you'll extract all the good sounds for your project with it.
BTW, I wanted to thank you for bringing my attention on the Groc. This device looks very promising and it seems they had the brilliant idea to not release it before its completion. Plus the guys are really cool. Thanks again.
@NicleT you are quite welcome!
I'm very excited about Groc, but I am also involved in the project as a sound designer for it. Depending on how the NDA's line up, I may have some videos with groc before they hit production.
I'm not sure, though. It really depends on how the beta gets implemented and what all I will be allowed to show haha
Never seen that pipe go either. That's cool
The pipe is a crazy instrument haha. I am still learning about it, and exploring with it. There are a few Pipe artists that I enjoy watching.
I recently refreshed my entire rig into a SOMA instruments one, and I am still trying to get a handle on everything haha
Expensive sad gear 😢
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
Was just checking out Beetlecrab Tempera, looks more playable and imidiate..🤔
It definitely looks awesome as a granular device! Its workflow is a bit different, and seems to have some more limitations on sample length/bitrate.
One day I might snag one to mess with, but I used the funds from the S-4 to purchase an Azzam Bells cinematic horror/sci-fi acoustic sound design instrument with an upgrade pack and accessories. It'll be a much more useful instrument for the sound design I enjoy exploring and working with haha
Are you referring to the latest 1.0.4 firmware? Cause if not then this video is creating useless confusion. Please let us know
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.
super frustrating.....
Yeah...luckily, I just sold it off about 30 minutes ago, and it's headed out to its new home tomorrow morning!
It's really unacceptable for any company to put out an unfinished product in order to raise funding to finish it's development, especially without disclosing how half-baked it really is. You see it with unfinished video game releases all the time. it's really a shame, screwing over your customers is never the move.
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.
Releasing a device without MIDI sync in 2024 is ridiculous. Torso has good ideas but their execution needs serious work. Sold my T-1, will not be buying an S-4 unless I see some serious shifts in how they operate.
People need to stop endorsing companies releasing gear that’s in an early beta state. Are we really that desperate for new toys? Why? There’s a near infinite number of synths, samplers, etc. out there.
I 100% agree.
This feels like a hail-mary device to bolster some finances. However, this may do the more harm than good for them.
They've blocked all new preorders, so I'm hoping they aren't going to make hardware revisions or raise the price once it's stable.
There are other devices that are launching in 2025 with similar capabilities, and I'm wondering if they were just trying to be "first" rather than releasing a complete device...
Either way, this is all speculation on our end. No one knows their motivations, and I've already washed my hands of the situation and sold it off.
for all the people hyping this thing up, i have yet to hear something come out of it that couldn't be made on a more conventional sampler or... in a DAW with stock plugins
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
It's weird that we pay to beta test shit for people nowadays.
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.