Using the Deluge as a Linear-Arranger Style Sequencer

This is extremely rare in grooveboxes. Instead nearly all grooveboxes, from the simplest drum machines clear to high-end stations, usually just have some variation on song mode, a simplistic contraption dating from the early 1980s for drum machines with very little memory. In classic song mode, you might define one or more clips (often called patterns), and then arrange for (say) patterns A and B to play simultaneously for 4 iterations, then patterns C, D, and E to play simultaneously for 3 iterations. It is the hard delineation between A/B and C/D/E and the arrangment after the fact that are the hallmarks of song mode.

I am aware of three hardware grooveboxes or sequencers currently being sold which supposedly have a true arranger. These are the Deluge, the Akai Force, and the Maschine+. The latter two are large, non-portable beasts really meant for clip launching. There also exists Yamaha's historic QY series, which can do old-style linear arrangment with long tracks and punch-in/punch-out capability. Song modes can also be extended to long tracks, such as on the Oxi One, 1010 BlackBox, Squarp Pyramid and Hapax, and so on, but you can't punch in or out, or lay out overlapping clips: these are not arrangers. (And the "Arranger" on Elektron devices is just song mode).

The Deluge uniquely is a portable machine which touts a clip-style arranger. That's great! However the Deluge's arranger clearly was not meant to be used for classic arranger tasks. Instead the Deluge's intended arranger workflow appears to be for you to first create clips out of context in the Deluge's so-called Song Mode (a clip launching storage, not to be confused with the classic groovebox "song mode"), and then lay out the clips one by one in the arranger. I think this is because the Deluge is an old-style groovebox at heart but lacks a classic song mode structure, and the arranger is first and foremost meant to serve as a replacement for classic song mode. For this workflow the Deluge's arranger works fine. But if you want to use an arranger like you would in a DAW—recording clips on the fly and in place while other clips are playing—this is rather difficult to do. Many classic arranger tasks are quite inconvenient, or require workarounds due to missing functionality; and a few are impossible.

This is really unfortunate. The Arranger ought to be the Deluge's golden goose: but it has been neglected. Below, I walk through all the major steps I think are involved in using the Deluge as a classic linear arranger, show problems due to missing functionality or other issues, and provide some possible workarounds as best as I can. This was originally built as a log for myself, so I'll update it on the fly. All of the problems identified below could be easily fixed, and doing so would dramatically improve the machine, but Synthstrom (and their forums) don't like me very much for unhelpfully pointing out interface errors on the device in the past, so I'm not hopeful.

First some Context

In the standard Deluge workflow, clips coming from the Song Mode storage to be placed in the Arranger Mode tracks are colored according to their "Section", which is Deluge-speak for clips grouped together to make them easy to launch together in Song Mode. This is quite unfortunate, as it seriously hinders coloring in the Arranger. Indeed because colors are used for this minor function rather than assigned on a per-instrument basis, you can't visually tell which track in the Arranger corresponds to which instrument!

But you can also create clips which are not found in the Song Mode storage: these are White Clips, and their color is, well, white. White clips are created when you clone an existing colored clip to modify it; or when you record a clip fresh in the Arranger. In the classic arranger mode you'd record new clips, and you'd duplicate them, so this means we'll mostly be dealing with white clips: but it'd sure be nice if we could color them. This is possible but in a quite roundabout fashion.

Here we go.

Set up a Count-In and Click Track to Record Along With

• Omission    The Deluge has a count-in but not a click track (!), which is a very strange omission.
• Omission    The Deluge has no way to set up a clip to loop indefinitely in the arranger, or to play a clip in Song mode in the background while playing from the Arranger. So you have to manually make your click track really, really long.   Proposed Fix  When holding down a clip, the user should be able to change its length in terms of how often it loops, shown on-screen. These values should be INFINITY, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ... Notice that INFINITY is first, but the default is 1. The clip would extend no longer than the current maximum song length, rounded down to the nearest clip loop length. If INFINITY is chosen, the clip would play until the end of the song (it wouldn't extend the song forever)
• Omission    You can't zoom out further than twice the longest current track length; this is very limiting.

1. To turn on count-in, SHIFT-Select, then "RECO", then "Count", then "On".
2. Go to SONG mode, and you might as well use on the first clip. Build a click track in this clip. I suggest you use KIT and make a light tick sound once every quarter note.
3. Go to ARRANGER MODE.
4. Click on the first pad of the first track (with the green mute button). This will create a one-bar (two pad) click track.
5. You will need to stretch the click track to the entire length of the song. To do this, repeatedly:
   1. Zoom as far out as you can: Press and turn ↔ ⟲ You can only zoom to twice the longest current track length.
   2. While holding the head pad in the click track, press the pad at the far right to make the clip as long as possible.
   3. Go to [A] ad nauseum.

Set up an Empty Track to Record In

• Note    You cannot create a track with the same instrument as an existing track.

1. Press AUDITION in the first empty (unlit) track.
2. While holding down AUDITION, you can select the track type (synth/kit/midi/cv) and by turning SELECT you can set the synth or kit number, or the midi channel or cv out.

Set up a White Clip to Record

• Omission    Unlike Song mode, a clip in the Arranger will not auto-extend while recording. You have to set the length of the clip beforehand, and so are forced to make the clip very, very long (yuck!).   Proposed Fix  Synthstrom should allow at least the rightmost clip in an arranger track to auto-extend as long as needed during recording. It'd also be nice if non-rightmost clips auto extended at least up to but not beyond the next clip.

1. Press a pad where you want the clip to begin.
2. Holding down the pad head, press where you want the pad to end. Most likely you don't know how far you want it to be: you need to make it very long, long enough to accommodate the recording. You can trim it later. See Changing Length of a Clip below.
3. Make certain the clip is a white clip. To do this, press the pad head and turn SELECT until the clip turns white (if it isn't already).

Changing Length of a Clip

• Omission    There is no way to automatically trim a clip, nor to trim it to the nearest bar.
• Inconsistency    In some situations, changing the length of a clip in Clip mode will automatically change it in Arranger mode: but in other situations it will not, and you'll have to manually adjust it in the Arranger as well. It seems that this happens if you extend the length of a clip in Clip mode and bump up against the next clip in the arranger: thereafter the clip is specially tagged internally and no longer automatically extends with any Clip mode length change.

1. Press a non-pad-head in the clip to enter Clip mode.
2. You may wish to zoom out first to speed things up. Press and turn ↔ ⟲
3. Press SHIFT and turn ↔ ⟳ to increase the clip length or ⟲ to reduce it.
4. Press SONG once to re-enter arranger mode.
5. You may also need to extend the length of the clip in arranger mode (see Inconsistency above). To do this, hold down the head, and then press a pad for the end of the clip.

Recording a Clip in the Arranger via a MIDI Keyboard

• Design Flaw    MIDI arming in the Deluge is very, very problematic: it is fatiguing and highly error prone. To arm a track or clip you must first disarm any existing tracks/clips or you risk recording into them as well. Then you must arm the desired (non-drum) track or clip by pressing Learn, Audition, and a key on the keyboard. This must be done every. Single. Time. To arm a drum track, you must arm each drum separately via their audition pads. No really! There's no mechanism for arming all the pads at once for a keyboard. One ugly workaround some people have proposed is to pre-arm separate tracks with different MIDI channels, and save this as a template. Then when recording, change the MIDI channel in your controller. This supposes that your controller can change channels, or can change them easily (mine cannot change at all): and at any rate, it only works in Song mode, but not in the Arranger, where you need to arm individual White Clips.   Proposed Fix  The Deluge desperately needs a better MIDI arming procedure. I suggest first having a default MIDI Controller channel defined in the global parameters. Second, arming a track or clip should automatically disarm other tracks and clips. Arming should simply be pressing Learn+Audition, no controller key. To arm drum clips, arming via the Audition pad in Song mode or Arranger mode should automatically map keys to drums starting at some default key specified in global preferences: or if the user wishes, he can save an drum arming arrangement to global preferences. If Synthstrom wishes to use its existing laborious arming mechanism, notionally to allow multiple controllers to control the device simultaneously, this should be an option and not the default or only procedure.
• Oddity    If you arm a white clip from within its Clip Mode, you can exit to the Arranger and record into the clip. If you arm an arranger track, you can't record into the clip in the Arranger: you have to go into its Clip mode to record successfully. This is very inconsistent: in Arranger Mode it appears in both situations that the track has been armed.
• Bug   If you play a note a little early, the Deluge's quantization will round it to the nearest note, except in one situation: if your early note is slightly before the beginning of the song. Then it's ignored entirely, even if you're counting in. It's amazingly hard to play chords etc. right at the beginning of the song and have all the notes be recognized.
• Note    Re-recording will simply add additional MIDI data to a clip: it won't delete the original data.

1. In the Arranger, press Learn to discover which tracks are armed (the Audition pads blink white).
2. Disarm any armed tracks: hold Learn, and press an Audition pad to disarm a single track.
3. Press a non-head pad on the clip to enter its Clip mode.
4. Arm the clip (or each separate drum) by pressing Learn+Audition and pressing a Controller Key.
5. Either:
   1. Exit to the Arranger
   2. Scroll horizontally ↔  to where you want to start playing
   3. Press the Record button to turn it on
   4. Press the play button to start playing
   5. Play notes into the clip when its time has come up.
   6. Press the Play button to stop playing
   7. Press the Record button to turn it off
6. Or:
   • Press the Record button to turn it on
   • Press the play button to start playing
   • Play notes into the clip immediately.
   • Press the Play button to stop playing
   • Press the Record button to turn it off
   • Exit to the Arranger

Recording a Clip in the Arranger via Audition Pads or Deluge Keyboard

• Omission    There is no way to play the on-screen keyboard from the Arranger (and thus record there). It has to be played from Clip mode.
• Bug   If you play a note a little early, the Deluge's quantization will round it to the nearest note, except in one situation: if you your early note is slightly before the beginning of the song. Then it's ignored entirely, even if you're counting in. It's amazingly hard to play chords etc. right at the beginning of the song and have all the notes be recognized.
• Note    Re-recording will simply add additional MIDI data to a clip: it won't delete the original data.

1. In the Arranger, press Learn to discover which tracks are armed (the Audition pads blink white).
2. Disarm any armed tracks: hold Learn, and press an Audition pad to disarm a single track.
3. Press a non-head pad on the clip to enter its Clip mode.
4. Arm the clip (or each separate drum) by pressing Learn+Audition and pressing a Controller Key.
5. Press the Record button to turn it on
6. Press the play button to start playing
7. Play notes immediately via the audition Pads or the Deluge Keyboard.
8. Press the Play button to stop playing
9. Press the Record button to turn it off
10. Exit to the Arranger

Deleting a Clip

1. Tap the head of the clip in Arranger mode.

Deleting a Track

• Note    You cannot delete tracks dedicated to instruments in Song Mode (such as the one you're likely using for your click track). You can only delete additional tracks you have created.
• Note    If you delete a track, you can claim its instrument in another track.

1. Hold the AUDITION pad and press SAVE/DELETE

Adding or Removing Time at the Beginning of an Arrangement

• Note   If you shift clips to before the start of the arrangment, they will be deleted.

1. Press and hold the SHIFT, and turn ↔ to add or remove time.

Moving a Clip Elsewhere in Time (Horizontally)

• Bug   You can only move a clip to the right. No, really.

1. Press and hold the head pad of the clip in Arranger mode.
2. Turn ↔ to change the clip position.

Moving a Clip to another Track

• Misfeature   If in Song mode you have copied a clip to a second track, you can change the instruments for both the child and the parent to other values (different from another) and back to the same value. But if you create a new clip, you cannot set it to the same instrument as another. Furthermore, if you have laid down different clips in the same Arranger track, you cannot change the instrument value of one of them in Song mode without changing the other to the same: they are tied together.

1. The UI functionality appears to be there (you can turn ↕ to move a clip around) but you cannot change the track of a clip -- in other words, you cannot change its instrument to that of another track. You also cannot have two tracks with the same instrument.

Changing the Track Position

• Misfeature   One of the major problems with the Arranger is that you cannot tell which track is assigned to which instrument. This is because the Deluge doesn't use colors to distinguish instruments, but (IMHO foolishly) assigns them to Sections (clip launching groups) in the Song mode. As a result in the arranger, there are no colors at all to distinguish the tracks. At best you can press Audition and examine what shows up on the screen.   Proposed Fix  Synthstrom should use colors to distinguish instruments as well as (or instead of) launch groups. To do this, the Deluge needs a way to display the instrument for each clip in the Song mode. This is straightforward: just color the primary pads in the track with the instrument color, and color the audition pads with the launch group color. At present the colors used seem to suggest which note is being played, which is little more than decorative as the user can't map colors to notes in his head. The brightness of the colors might be used to still reflect the volume of the notes. Alternatively the Mute column could display the colors, and BRIGHT versus DIM could be used to indicate mute states. In Arranger Mode, the Audition pad colors would then reflect the instrument, and the individual clip colors would reflect the launching group of the clip, which could also serve as a unique color for the clip if launching isn't used.
• Limitation   You can only have 12 colors for launch groups. This notionally was because Synthstrom thought that more than 12 colors would be too hard to distiguish. Unfortunately this decision, if extended to instruments, would imply that you couldn't have more than 12 tracks in the Arranger even though you might have 16 MIDI channels plus a few drum and synth tracks. It'd be a lot better if this limit was around 20.
• Bug   The color for muting in the Arranger is yellow. But in Song Mode it is red.

1. Hold the Audition pad and turn ↕

Duplicating a Clip

• Omission   You cannot directly duplicate a white clip, even if it is based on a colored clip instance.
• Oddity   You cannot add a White Clip to Song Mode if it is empty.
• Bug   If you make a clip White by turning SELECT, you can undo the operation. If you do it by holding SHIFT, you cannot undo the operation.

1. You will have to add the White Clip to the Song Mode (converting it to a colored clip). Then you can duplicate the colored clip to another white clip. Press the head of the clip, and press Song. This will enter Song Mode and add the clip.
2. Return to Arranger mode. The clip is now colored.
3. Add a new clip on the same track. It will be a read-only copy of whichever clip on the track you had most recently entered in Clip Mode.
4. Press and hold the head of the new clip, and turn SELECT to make it a white clip. Alternatively, hold SHIFT and press the head of the clip. The clip is now a White Clip, a writeable copy.

Setting a Clip's Color