TORAIZ 1.3 : what i missing the most is ...

Thanks D.J. Creme

I made all my feedback regarding the TORAIZ on another Forum. It's gone back to the retailer for those reasons... But I'm not sure to come back to it again later... because it sound amazing. There's just FEW things which if it was sorted it will probably suit my workflow and needs better.

Overall Quality : Yeah it's very well built. The Workflow and Operating System is super nice, honestly a Kid could use it. Pads are very nice, Filter knob in the Pioneer Mixer style. Other knobs are ok but there's Notched !!! That's the first BAD THING because you will need to assign the Touch Fader controller each time you want smooth automation or p-lock. Touch Fader controller is nice but you will have to setup on a largest value (6 bipolar or 12 bipolar). The small feet below seems to make a little suction cup. If you shake it you hear things wandering inside (strange) maybe it's up to the unit I have tested. Touch screen + Scroll knob is very accurate, a pleasure to deal with that.

The SOUND : That's the most impressive quality point of the TORAIZ. I never heard something sounding nice as the TORAIZ it's definitively PRISTINE sounding. You have a lot of Gain, if your headphones is at max level on the TORAIZ : go check a Hearing Specialist  
You can go to +3db on the Master. LPF and HPF Filter from Dave Smith is incredible when you play LIVE of course you must don't abuse or overdo it, it's easy to fall in the DJ Downside effects but it's very effective, the Drive is gorgeous. Downside of all of that points is it can saturate very fast... so keep headroom on the 16 tracks.

Effects : 1 on Master, 1 Send, 1 FX1. Regarding reviews I see there's a lot more effects to come, +FX2 slot so don't worry about it. The compressor, ducker, filter, EQ is awesome you can really mixing with it, shame there's no spectrum. No ping pong delay. Reverb is ok but not the best I've heard. (some more reverb algorithm should be nice ! Reverb is really important.) Effects pair well with the Sound of the TORAIZ, the GEAR rocks seriously in that territory.

Sampling : Nothing to say, it's sampling quality I really like it. 32 secondes of sample limit but hey it's already 4 x 4 bars at 120BPM. The most disturbing with that limit is pop-up when you scroll your library because you will get a message if your sample if more longer than that. SO forget about long evolving texture, voice speech etc... Drums chain if longer... you will have to cut and prepare everything according to that limit. That is a bit annoying.

Memory and Live capabilities : I find it pleasant to work with, memory is fast, amount is ok (8gb)... and you can plug external SSD or USB Stick to search for and load in the context of a live/song. that's fine. Scene Manager is cool it's popup and touchable so in Live context it's nice ! 16 pads X 16 pattern X 16 song with no audio interruption, all is loaded in memory no LAG it's perfect. 8 STEREO outputs is just so NICE for mixing then. 

Studio Capabilities : Mounting the Toraiz or using external device working nicely. No over bridge or something similar of course. One of the advantage of the TORAIZ is a SUPER NICE RENDER functionality you can Render Tracks / Full Arrangement (song mode) by separate file, separate outputs... it's more or less FAST I think (like Ableton) and it's very accurate for then polishing your Song on a Daw after. They did great with that.

Workflow, Sample, Editing & Sound Shaping : That's the PART where they need to make it better. it's too simple !!! in a way it's fine when it's simple because the workflow is smooth and pleasant. But on the TORAIZ forget Copy, Paste, Cut, Trim, Fade, Silence, Delete, Volume changing on part of the sample etc... you can edit slices, Start point, End point, Loop point (that's cool option you can make pads, workaround for the 32secondes limit but not always easy to done it's depend of your sound design and how the tail of your sound is loop able or not...) ONLY AMP Envelope and AHR model : that ! I really dislike that ! you forced to use the LFO for every modulation and sometimes a USER envelope is needed (Filter Env, Pitch Env... and go on and go on) Only 1 envelope and only one LFO. No multiplier, so you can't go really crazy with it. But as a workaround you can assign the touch strip but meh, honestly that the BAD Side of the TORAIZ... I really hope they do better in that territory. Slice style sampler is ok, but sometimes I need program (the old school way) no Chords, no polyphony with pad... Timestrech is fine but only 1 model you can't choose Beat, Melodic etc... You can play chromatically but mmm +/- 3-4 semi-tones maximum after it sound crap to my hears. Better to make chain of the note you want to use in your melody and play the slices instead. (Then the AMP Envelope should be ok but I notice it's not every time accurate with the PAD triggering)

I aggressiv with you guys 100%!!!

For now i think i will keep my TORAIZ cause i think Pioneer will upgrade the called out missing features in 2017 the most (i really hope so!!!!)

TORAIZ is killer but like they said there is all that stuff missing @Pioneer!

And pls: I am a Live Act AND DJ but i want to be able to play a DJ Set with the Toraiz only (cause i like that format) and so its not nice to limit on 32 seconds and only WAV / AIFF.

mp3 support should finally be there too for that and no time limit.

i like to play long textures or even whole songs.

Polyphonie per Pad would be nice because when i play a sliced Loop i sometimes don't want cuts in the Playback.

The 4 Bars are also to less for me. I i made in the most Tracks lines that are 8 or 16 Bars. So we can't change the Hardware now so it would be great when a new Mode for Triggers can be implemented: Trigger OneShot!

Means an 8 or 16, 32, ... Bar Loop will be triggered the first time. Then its been retriggerd when the whole loop was running complete and after that it can be triggered again. This would be helpful with anything thats longer than 4 Bars (even when i want to play complete Tracks!)

And if i have noting overseen the Slices can't be rearranged right?!

It would be cool when i can reorder the Slices on the Pads as i want it. Not only stragiht from Pad 1 - 16 in one row!

Thats it so far :-)

Keep up the good work.