Your thoughts on Geist 2

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mxbf wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 5:33 am
FapFilter wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:35 amas i've not seen competing products trouncing it yet
lets be honest... nothing comes close. taking all drum synths and drum samplers together...:

-Xils Stix is nice but it doesn't sound too great and it lacks as many features. it's runner up. I mean... frankly Ultrabeat actually is basically the same thing, just uglier. So... how does Stix significantly improve upon Ultrabeat? (for logic users)
-Tremor is better than Stix ultimately but I also kind of think the sound range is limited and kind of tinny. I think it's better than Stix but they're both good. The thing is, Tremor gives more modulation options. Tremor is pretty damn good but if you use it alone, you'll be let down imo.
-Ultrabeat is good but when it comes down to it, the factory sounds are just downright f**king worthless if youre a serious producer.
-Ableton DrumRacks are pretty good. The factory sounds are not good. Using the piano roll as a sequencer is not good. Modulating things using the envelopes is not good. Editing velocity is not good. No probability. Drum chopping is not good. Sequencing variations is not good. It's good but I just find that getting great results out of it is just too much work for me, better to get something that is fun and sounds good from the start.
-Drumvolution/Revolution from WavesAlchemy: I personally feel these are probably runner up. I just grabbed Revolution on the sale at PluginBoutique. I look forward to trying it. I have found that with drums, sampling is adequate. It just sounds better. I like tremor and I like Stix but on their own they lack the oomph that you really need in my opinion.
-Drumspillage: nah.
-Reaktor/Drumlab: Massive/Polyplex... these are nice sound toys. But using them in a full production is not fun, I haven't figured out how to route sounds in an effective way. Controlling them is too confusing. I could try to figure it out, and I have before, but I don't recall ever being able to figure it out. They sound excellent but actually using them from a production standpoint is difficult.
Compared to Ultrabeat, Stix offers ZDF analog modelled filters, morphing analog oscillators, more advanced FM @ audio rate possibilities, but also AM/RM/CrossSynthesis etc, complex LFOs, R-Clap envelopes, PolyStep modulators, Sequencer Micro Position, per step divisi, custom number of steps per beat to name a few. Let's be clear : Ultrabeat offers things StiX can't do as well. Also, overall, the workflow and GUI/UI are well ... very different. Then, StiX is PC and Mac (makes no diff for mac only users but ..)

Regarding strictly samples, StiX can use them, import them etc. With the forthcoming extensions, tons of unique & exclusive samples, drumpads and drumkits material will be available. Oomph will certainly be there, but not only. Until this, you can simply (mass)import your own samples and process them the way you like (hundreds of parameters), or use the factory library samples, wich include a good variety of 15 'legendary drum machines' for example, and other more adventurous ones as well. StiX is still very young, v1.5 was released a few months ago, and it will continue to evolve and offers more and more over time.

In short, Ultrabeat and StiX are quite different, and more than better/more/less I prefer to see them as : They could compliment each other rather well imho. Same with other DM mentioned.
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@mxbf- I'd throw a few more in the mix:
UVI beatbox anthology 2 - I tend to favor that over WA's *volution products for the same sort of duty
sonic charge microtonic - an oldie but a goodie
rob papen punch

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I'll keep playing with Stix. When I first tried it from the CM version, I was initially blown away. Then going back to it again I guess I felt the sound of it reminded me a lot of Ultrabeat. Just that kind of tinny quality that you get sometimes is off putting to me. But it's really fun and easy to use, it's like what Ultrabeat would be like if it was really good.

Don't get me wrong, I used Ultrabeat for years. It was my go-to and when I lost the sequencer moving to Ableton I was disgusted. Midi-drag, easily doing synthesis, etc... that's the best way to program drums, for me. I guess StiX has those things.

I'm going to buy StiX the moment it goes on sale, I just can't justify it at the moment. Imagine a new version of one of these drum synths that uses the latest synthesis technology and has all the features of something like Geist... that would be a must buy.

I'll look into the Beat-Box software mentioned above too.

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Imagine a new version of one of these drum synths that uses the latest synthesis technology and has all the features of something like Geist... that would be a must buy.
or could actually easily be less convenient to use than sampling, or using samples of a dedicated (drum) synth in a dedicated sampler. It's not that Geist has too few areas/buttons/tabs/knobs/sliders, etc. on screen even in it's current form.

Having said that, i think Maschine has received drum synth functionality in one of it's more recent updates?
The GAS is always greener on the other side!

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As computers get more powerful, modular environments like cherry audio's voltage modular will become more of an option for creating very powerful drum-synth setups.

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simmo75 wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:54 pm Did you go to FXPansions YouTube channel where there is a whole series of tutorials for Geist 2??
I know, it's all stuff for Geist 1, that has a different workflow, and just a bunch of "what's new" about Geist 2, but if you are new to the software there's no clear way to get started and go in-depth.
I just understood that in standalone and inside a DAW it works differently, so it just gets me confused all the times and after some months I simply gave up (I cannot read the manual all the times I open it and try to do something, since it's so unintuitive that you have to recall the "go there, then click here, but before you must make sure that, then open this, select there, so you can now do..." process).

I think they should HELP users to understand their products, Gest 2 has an intricated workflow, for real, nothing intuitive at all, it'd deserve a video to show how impossible it is to understand it.

I got iZotope's BreakTweaker and could use it from day one and still use it a lot without even reading the manual. Maybe I just made a wrong buy and this is the wrong synth for me.

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matteogk wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 2:54 pm it's all stuff for Geist 1
Gesit 2 Tutorials:

https://www.fxpansion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7581919



Plus, of course, the manual: :)

http://fxpansion1.com/manuals/pdf/Geist ... Manual.pdf
“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.” -Miles Davis

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scott_free wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:39 pm
matteogk wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 2:54 pm it's all stuff for Geist 1
Gesit 2 Tutorials:

https://www.fxpansion.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7581919



Plus, of course, the manual: :)

http://fxpansion1.com/manuals/pdf/Geist ... Manual.pdf
Yes, I have seen the 7 video about Geist 2, they are an add-on to the Geist 1 pre-existing tutorials.
Nothing useful to start from scratch and understand how to use the NEW interface and workflow both in standalone and in a DAW (which work differently ASAIK).

I used Geist 1 with ease and cannot understand how to get the best of Geist 2, because of the many hidden (not clear to me...) functions.
I know there are video tutorial to purchase, but I preferred to use other softwares instead of struggling with the overcomplicated new GUI of version 2.

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I remember Form years ago someone stating that they found having sequencers for drums within your DAW I.e sequencers within sequencers a bit tiresome. :cry:

I sold Geist and went back to the stock offerings in Ableton and Battery for. NI (Now rock solid with its NKS workflow and auditioning) :scared:

Yes there is a place for capturing a loop or a sequence, but frankly when it boils down to writing drums for a complete track the work flow with additional sequencing is just a pain. :cry:

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Proxima4 wrote: Wed May 01, 2019 4:44 pm Yes there is a place for capturing a loop or a sequence, but frankly when it boils down to writing drums for a complete track the work flow with additional sequencing is just a pain. :cry:
Agree 100%. Even if Geist 2 allows you to quickly come up with drum loops, with lots of modulation possibilities within the graph section in the pattern window, the value of actually doing so is dependent on how well you can transfer that loop (especially the modulation graphs) to your DAW. Unfortunately, the conversion of graphs to MIDI CCs is not reliable. And you have to keep track of what MIDI CCs correspond to which graph in Geist.

Everything that can be made in Geist 2 can be made more intuitively in Ableton. And together with the Push hardware, it's pure joy.

As you mention, Geist is just an unnecessary tool that brings unnecessary headache when producing a complete track, as you still need to bring the sketch made in Geist to the DAW for further editing (the arrangement view in Geist is mediocre at best). The conversion is neither good enough nor reliable.

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Ohlson_M wrote: Tue Jul 23, 2019 5:35 pm
As you mention, Geist is just an unnecessary tool that brings unnecessary headache when producing a complete track, as you still need to bring the sketch made in Geist to the DAW for further editing (the arrangement view in Geist is mediocre at best). The conversion is neither good enough nor reliable.

Oh I see, if it doesn't work for YOU personally, then clearly it will not work for anybody, anywhere.

Great logic.

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Geist and drum machines in general offer so much more than a DAW.

Whether a person chooses that work flow is another matter, but comments above making absolute statements about how Live is more intuitive - how subjective can a claim be? - are clearly nonsense.

I was angry FX dropped Etch and have been looking for a replacement for Geist 2. You know what? There isn't one.

FX, don't f**king abandon this one too.

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there's a new beta update out with some bug fixes https://twitter.com/fxpansion/status/11 ... 8848007169

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mikepemulis wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:21 am there's a new beta update out with some bug fixes https://twitter.com/fxpansion/status/11 ... 8848007169
Just remember FXpansion have dropped Win7 support.
my other modular synth is a bugbrand

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whyterabbyt wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:27 am
mikepemulis wrote: Mon Sep 23, 2019 9:21 am there's a new beta update out with some bug fixes https://twitter.com/fxpansion/status/11 ... 8848007169
Just remember FXpansion have dropped Win7 support.
except the new version of Geist is like Cypher - it’s not tested/supported on win7, but in fact works just fine (as opposed to the latest updates for BFD3 which will not run on win7 at all)

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