Korg Gadget. Best IAP?

[greedy.mf]

Hello, KVR crowd.

I love Korg Gadget and even bought nanoKey Studio for it. Endless fun.
Korg apps and IAP are on sale (50% and 30% off) so I decided to add something to my Gadget basket. I could afford up to two. Better if one.

So the question is: what is the best bang for the buck?
I'm a tweaker by nature so more options and settings, the better. For that matter I gravitate toward Montpelier (disguised Mono/Poly). Maybe Lexington/ODYSSEi.

Also several additional questions:
- How useful is user sample import (Vancouver, Bilbao, Abu Dhabi)?
All of them are quite simple in terms of sample control. No filter, cut down envelopes,(AR?), no time stretching. In my primary DAW I use samples, of course, and I got used to a certain degree of flexibility. However I use mostly drum, not melodic sounds.
Wouldn't it be better to leave it off with build-in sounds just to avoid excessive complexity, since it's a mobile DAW and kind of sketchpad anyway.
- Does some one uses Gadget for Mac and actually finish iPad projects there or in Ableton? How useful is that?
I love this feature, however I'm not ready to part with $150 if it's clunky.
- Is Gadget for Mac plugin collection are of use in another DAW apart from project export? When I've tried Gadget for Mac LE with some of the basic Gadget (Moogy, Prophety and some more), they had good sound, but somewhat basic, not like the best of what I have.

[mindnoise]

Gadget is in NO WAY only a sketchpad, you can finsh your songs very well with it, without the need of ANYTHING else. Unless you work with audio tracks like Singing or recorded solos - that is still abyssmal in Gadget, no matter on iPad or elsewhere.

Mono/Poly and ODYSSEi are full blown synths unlike the other Gadgets, they also eat a lot more CPU than these - cannot go wrong with either. They are also exactly the same thing as the plugs from the Korg Legacy Collection, btw.

Vancouver, Bilbao, Abu Dhabi each have a very specific task.

- Vancouver: one sample playable via MIDI/Keyboard
- Bilbao: MPC-Sampler fixed samples per pad and thus allows melodic multi-sampled instruments - sort of.
If that is you way maybe Beatmaker 3 is also an option for you.
- Abu Dhabi: Sample Slicer / looper 1 sample with various effects per slice
- Stockholm: can ONLY load REX files. So if you don`t have ReCycle from Propellerhead you cannot use you own samples.

Using samples in Gadget mostly relies on iCloud these days. If you install/ use pre-12.7 iTunes you can also use iTunes file sharing, that is if you don`t use iTunes for anything else. Alternatively, you can use iMazing instead of iTunes for local file sharing.

I also have Gadget for Mac and I can say they did the best to adapt it to Mouse and keyboard with kb-shortcuts etc. But I would not say it's makes finishing a song easier besides the sample import.
The really nice thing is, you can use ALL Gadgets incl. Lexington, Milpitas and Montpellier and most Organs and Epianos from Module (not the Grandpiano, and some others) as VST/AU Plugin in ANY DAW. That alone makes the purchase of Gadget for Mac worthwhile.
But it does not help you in any way to get your songs finished any better than on the iPad.

[EnochLight]

Gadget is in NO WAY only a sketchpad, you can finsh your songs very well with it, without the need of ANYTHING else. Unless you work with audio tracks like Singing or recorded solos - that is still abyssmal in Gadget, no matter on iPad or elsewhere.

Mono/Poly and ODYSSEi are full blown synths unlike the other Gadgets, they also eat a lot more CPU than these - cannot go wrong with either. They are also exactly the same thing as the plugs from the Korg Legacy Collection, btw.

Vancouver, Bilbao, Abu Dhabi each have a very specific task.

- Vancouver: one sample playable via MIDI/Keyboard
- Bilbao: MPC-Sampler fixed samples per pad and thus allows melodic multi-sampled instruments - sort of.
If that is you way maybe Beatmaker 3 is also an option for you.
- Abu Dhabi: Sample Slicer / looper 1 sample with various effects per slice
- Stockholm: can ONLY load REX files. So if you don`t have ReCycle from Propellerhead you cannot use you own samples.

Using samples in Gadget mostly relies on iCloud these days. If you install/ use pre-12.7 iTunes you can also use iTunes file sharing, that is if you don`t use iTunes for anything else. Alternatively, you can use iMazing instead of iTunes for local file sharing.

I also have Gadget for Mac and I can say they did the best to adapt it to Mouse and keyboard with kb-shortcuts etc. But I would not say it's makes finishing a song easier besides the sample import.
The really nice thing is, you can use ALL Gadgets incl. Lexington, Milpitas and Montpellier and most Organs and Epianos from Module (not the Grandpiano, and some others) as VST/AU Plugin in ANY DAW. That alone makes the purchase of Gadget for Mac worthwhile.
But it does not help you in any way to get your songs finished any better than on the iPad.

I realize this post is sort of old, but felt like resurrecting it due to a need for some clarification:

• Gadget is not abysmal for vocals/singing or live instrument recording IMHO - you can do it in either a linear/traditional-DAW sense or not. It's just that all audio recordings are grouped into clips and attached to their specific clip lengths. Sure, there's no pitch correction (via Melodyne or otherwise), tempo based time-stretching, and only basic waveform editing, but it's certainly usable in the field.
• User samples are NOT just loaded via iCloud/iMazing/iTunes File sharing. You can use DropBox as well.
• Stockholm can load any rex file you have - you don't need ReCycle at all (unless you want to rex your own samples). There's a ton of 3rd party rex libraries available - they've been sold for 2 decades. And of course, if you have a copy of Reason or Reason Lite (which comes free with most Korg controllers these days), you can create your own rex loops from your own samples and import those into Gadget's Stockholm.

[mindnoise]

I realize this post is sort of old, but felt like resurrecting it due to a need for some clarification:

• Gadget is not abysmal for vocals/singing or live instrument recording IMHO - you can do it in either a linear/traditional-DAW sense or not. It's just that all audio recordings are grouped into clips and attached to their specific clip lengths. Sure, there's no pitch correction (via Melodyne or otherwise), tempo based time-stretching, and only basic waveform editing, but it's certainly usable in the field.
• User samples are NOT just loaded via iCloud/iMazing/iTunes File sharing. You can use DropBox as well.
• Stockholm can load any rex file you have - you don't need ReCycle at all (unless you want to rex your own samples). There's a ton of 3rd party rex libraries available - they've been sold for 2 decades. And of course, if you have a copy of Reason or Reason Lite (which comes free with most Korg controllers these days), you can create your own rex loops from your own samples and import those into Gadget's Stockholm.

Audio: Well, not having Regions und not being able to edit Audiofiles, move recordings freely within a clip at least, which would be totally doable and the things you described makes the audio part totally unusable for me. Zürich is a half-thought-through skeleton Gadget, at best.

Stockholm: You are 'correcting`a point by repeating all I've already said. You can only use someone elses REX-files unless you have ReCycle (or another software that can bake them)

But sure, YMMV

[EnochLight]

No correcting at all. Just clarified. But yeah, recording audio/vocals is clearly a YMMV thing.

[topaz]

Does Abu Dhabi let you import loops, slice them and export the midi pattern to gadget, is there a limit to slices ie 1 bar, 2 bar etc. ?

[mindnoise]

Does Abu Dhabi let you import loops, slice them and export the midi pattern to gadget, is there a limit to slices ie 1 bar, 2 bar etc. ?

You can import you own samples an slice them into 16 parts. These parts are then triggerd by the MIDI-notes in the sequenzer, as well as automate the 9 parameters per Slice plus the FX and ARP.

Since you can only have 1 sample / 16 slices per track, having too long samples doesn't make much sense but there is no relevant limit in sample-length IIRC.

[topaz]

Cheers, does it create the midi pattern ?

Does Abu Dhabi let you import loops, slice them and export the midi pattern to gadget, is there a limit to slices ie 1 bar, 2 bar etc. ?

You can import you own samples an slice them into 16 parts. These parts are then triggerd by the MIDI-notes in the sequenzer, as well as automate the 9 parameters per Slice plus the FX and ARP.

Since you can only have 1 sample / 16 slices per track, having too long samples doesn't make much sense but there is no relevant limit in sample-length IIRC.

[mindnoise]

Cheers, does it create the midi pattern ?

No.It does not 'create' anything. The slices are fixed on certain MIDI notes, that's it.

[topaz]

Ok, thanks.

That’s only ok for equal splits, no good for transient slicing

Cheers, does it create the midi pattern ?

No.It does not 'create' anything. The slices are fixed on certain MIDI notes, that's it.

[mindnoise]

Ok, thanks.

That’s only ok for equal splits, no good for transient slicing

I don't see what one has to do with with the other.

You can move the slice-markers freely, they even snap to the most obvious transient automatically - within it's limits.

[topaz]

Because lining up the midi notes is hard to retain the feel/groove of the transient slice marks. Ok with equal slices Mpc style.

Ok, thanks.

That’s only ok for equal splits, no good for transient slicing

I don't see what one has to do with with the other.

You can move the slice-markers freely, they even snap to the most obvious transient automatically - within it's limits.

[mindnoise]

Because lining up the midi notes is hard to retain the feel/groove of the transient slice marks. Ok with equal slices Mpc style.

Ok, now I see what you are up to. No, this is not a FXp Geist 2 for iOS

[topaz]

Or a beat maker 3 sampler

Because lining up the midi notes is hard to retain the feel/groove of the transient slice marks. Ok with equal slices Mpc style.

Ok, now I see what you are up to. No, this is not a FXp Geist 2 for iOS

[mindnoise]

Or a beat maker 3 sampler

There is a reason why this is called 'gadget'