Your thoughts on Geist 2

[bite_me]

Absolutely awful, click-heavy, over-engineered, bloated piece of shite. Definitely the worst plugin I've ever bought. I demoed it and liked the range of functionality and thought that with enough study the clouds would part and the flow would come. Nope. Using it in reality on tracks is just tedious and painful, and an absolute buzzkill. The GUI and workflow is laughably hopeless, prime features are buried deep in menus and you'll be left going from place to place in the GUI for basic functions. The gold-standard in how to cram a plugin with features and specs with no regard to usability. Avoid it.

There is truth in here
It´s indeed very clicky and overengineered but I like it nevertheless.
Creating patterns is the main strength and adding modulations too.
Adding efx and reach for the sends is a nightmare. Feels cluttered with that submenues.

[Robmobius]

I like it a lot... Easy to use once you get used to it.

[Stefken]

Well, I decided against buying Geist 2 as the workflow isn't very fast and the modulations are not my interest.
(The UI didn't even present completely on my screen and that's a pretty rare thing).

Thanks for the comments.

[emef]

Geist 2 is great, love it
but i'd really love portamento for mono synth patterns and would have much preferred an automation system where every knob move in a pattern is recorded inside the plugin itself
make it more like a Korg Electribe Sampler

[Winstontaneous]

I have Geist 2 and like it, but they didn't retain the focused simplicity of Geist 1 and I can't figure out how to actually sample from other tracks (what's on my screen doesn't have the same options as all the tutorials I've seen). Also mapping to my controllers isn't as straightforward as Geist 1, which was very Akai MPC-ish.

Also I hate "scalable" interfaces that reorder the locations of sections/components (rather than scaling the size of a persistent layout), especially on something with a hardware-ish paradigm. I find it unsettling as I lose stable spatial reference points, like an endless-scroll JavaScript webapp. FX and modulation are great and it really is a mini-DAW.

[codec_spurt]

I bought Geist 2 today from JRR Shop. Cost me £30 for the upgrade from Geist 1.

Said it was a straight download via email for the reg code, but then it said it was manual after buying it. Ah well. Bit annoying but no big deal.

I opened up Geist 2 for the first time and was really impressed. You only get a half hour and can't save, so the stuff I came up with I had to take screenshots so I can reconstruct it later. Pain. Should do what Image-Line do and allow people to save - it gives an incentive for people to buy the software later.

Geist 2 crashed once in about 2 hours of playing about. Geist 1 never crashes.

Ended up downloading an Expander I bought ages ago and forgot about, so did a new track in Geist 1. I think 1 and 2 are very different instruments, I'm hoping they can both be installed on the same machine. I was changing user accounts so not sure.

Geist 1 really is a masterpiece. It's the jewel in the crown of all my drum software. I spent an extra half hour today learning how to use it better and it payed dividends. Nice little hip-hop track at the end of it.

I also downloaded DCAM Dynamics suite which I forgot about. Absolutely stunning. Only had time to check out one - the Bus Comp - second preset - dialed in. Superb. I got the Glue (in Ableton) and it is out of this world good, but this thing has the mojo going on too.

After playing with Geist 1 I can see why many prefer it. Geist 2 is daunting and a little unwieldy, but I can see why it had to happen. Geist 1 is too small, and can't be easily resized for todays screens what with vector taking over. I don't like the new FLStudio and prefer the last v11, but progress doesn't wait.

I actually ended up missing Geist 2 and its new size after using Geist 1. Shame they couldn't integrate a perfect balance of both, but that's not realistic. I'll find a use for both.

On a side note, I realised I had all of the free Expanders for Geist that you get when you get Geist 2, bar one. No big deal. I've drowning in software and samples.

But that is a pretty cool thing if you do buy Geist - you get 2 free Expanders free, albeit from a limited list. Maybe I'm wrong about that, hard to tell without actually getting my serial through.

I'm glad to see FXpansion finding their feet again. They are in my desert island set of VSTs. I could make a whole album with Geist 1 but Geist 2 looks like it is half way to a fully fledged DAW again. Seen a lot of frustration on the FXpansion forum, but it hasn't affected me as I've been taking time out. I've got some exciting free stuff I want to do. There isn't any other VST manufacturer I want to work with more.

Anyway, looking forward to getting my serial from whoever in my mail box soon.

By the way, the Download Manager was a joy to use - I had to re-authorise every single one of my plugs using a new user account. I thought it would be a nightmare, but it was painless. Nothing like working with NI at all.

I may end up using Geist 1 more than 2, but I'm glad I got it for such a great price. I'm looking forward to putting it on my new i5 4.5GHz that I'm over-clocking. Who knows, maybe it will even run Crisis. Perhaps if I'm lucky it will run Tremor.

Just like the old days...

[telecharge]

Thanks for the comments.

+1, and thank you and shonky for asking. I've been tempted by Geist 2 for a while, but I'll think I'll wait to see what ROLI is going to do with it.

[Dasheesh]

Shonky gets it.

[codec_spurt]

I was quite surprised how well my Expander for Geist 1 loaded in v2. Absolutely perfect. Shouldn't be surprised really. FXpansion have it all set out in their API. It's just that it looks so different. I was expecting glitches, but no, spot on.

I think FXpansion have a long way to go. They have obviously taken a bit of a left turn with being bought out by ROLI.

This is a venture that may or may not work.

I like the look of the ROLI controllers.

As long as the software loads up all my paid for Expanders I don't care.

Bit of a bummer the demo crashing on my today, but there you go, I'll send a report out.

FXpansion were always on the cutting edge. Pushing the boundaries of CPU speed and compatibility. I did all this testing today by the way on an old AMD Triple-Core 1.8GHz. 5 year old machine. Pleasantly surprised. This shit will fly on my new rig.

Having said that, I've been building a new quantum computer in my basement. It's quite fast actually. It still won't run more than two instances of Tremor though.

...

I dug through all my software today. Nope, nothing out there that competes with what FXpansion do. I was worried they might be hobbled or just plain buggered up, but no, they are still in the game, on the bleeding edge, where they belong, where they thrive.

This is just a game to me. I got all my softs, and I got my rigs set up enough to do what I want. I like having stuff backed up as much as I like venturing out and pushing the envelope. But today was exciting. I could have picked a hundred different pieces of software. But I chose the right one. I got some music done. Haven't done that in a while.

And it was fun!

Tomorrow the nightmare begins, I reinstall the Native Instruments Service Center to try and reg this god damned Battery 4 that I've not been able to get going for years. (Got a spare Battery 3 license btw, if you like, hit me up). Battery 4 doesn't have a sequencer built in.

FXpansion, back in the game.

Get on the train.

It's going to be a hell of a year.

[V0RT3X]

I’d buy into Geist if you find it clunky to work with the included drum sampler in your DAW. Some might think it’s over engineered, but I think it works fine. You can get a lot done in a short amount of time just in Geist once you are used to the workflow and the included FX are quite good quality.

I’d recommend demoing it in your DAW and see if it makes things easier or not.

[shonky]

I’d buy into Geist if you find it clunky to work with the included drum sampler in your DAW. Some might think it’s over engineered, but I think it works fine. You can get a lot done in a short amount of time just in Geist once you are used to the workflow and the included FX are quite good quality.

I’d recommend demoing it in your DAW and see if it makes things easier or not.

Decided to bite the bullet and buy, bit late to test out fully but managed to come up with a beat with modulation trails in a few minutes with minimum head scratching. Did notice that the default volume for hits appears to be zero but I'm hoping this can be changed in preferences. Seems odd to draw in a note, see it greyed out and then wonder how you're supposed to get sound out of it, Ableton's is generally about 3/4 on. Think I'll check the manual tomorrow, hopefully what isn't intuitive will become apparent.

[V0RT3X]

I’d buy into Geist if you find it clunky to work with the included drum sampler in your DAW. Some might think it’s over engineered, but I think it works fine. You can get a lot done in a short amount of time just in Geist once you are used to the workflow and the included FX are quite good quality.

I’d recommend demoing it in your DAW and see if it makes things easier or not.

Decided to bite the bullet and buy, bit late to test out fully but managed to come up with a beat with modulation trails in a few minutes with minimum head scratching. Did notice that the default volume for hits appears to be zero but I'm hoping this can be changed in preferences. Seems odd to draw in a note, see it greyed out and then wonder how you're supposed to get sound out of it, Ableton's is generally about 3/4 on. Think I'll check the manual tomorrow, hopefully what isn't intuitive will become apparent.

Glad you joined the rest of us Geist users! I just bought the upgrade as well, but I’ve demoed it enough to know I’ll be using this lots in Ableton live 9.

I would definitely spend some times going over the manual if you aren’t used to the workflow.

https://fxpansion.com/support/manuals/

Lots of questions get answered in there.

[samsam]

I guess some might find it overly complex but if you've got experience making music with deep plugins you may well love it like I do.

And it actually samples, bonus!

[wagtunes]

Question. If you're comfortable using stuff like Falcon and HALion 6, how hard is Geist to get the hang of? I'm kind of on the fence given some of the comments about usability.

[spirit]

The problem for me isn't that Geist2 is too complex. I like complex. The problem is that it's poorly designed, tedious and infuriating. I resent wasting my time struggling with someone elses D-grade design choices.