XLN Audio - XO - Improvement, Pros, Cons

[wesleymayhem]

Why cant XO drums get a sequencer update?

With probability!

[Morty-C-137]

Why cant XO drums get a sequencer update?

I am hoping for that too. Different time signatures would be a good place to start.

I am of course lucky to have Logic’s very excellent step sequencer, but there I miss the swing per track that XO has. And the accent shaping below the sequencer in XO is priceless.

Basically if Logic would add swing per lane and time nudging per lane I probably wouldn’t look at XO’s sequencer ever again.. (but the accent shaping though.. )

[oobesan]

1. At least 12 lanes (16 ideal), and use their AI to, or let the user, change the name
2. At least 8 custom patterns, switching available as DAW automation
3. Completely customizable pattern chaining of the (at least) 8 patterns
4. Step number adjustable per lane between 1 and 16
5. Nudge per step
6. Pitch per step
7. Sample reverse per step
8. Step ties
9. Modulation, per lane separate sources for sequencer and audio parameters
10. Ability for fine adjustment of parameter values (e.g. double click and manual enter)
11. Drag and drop samples onto sound pad
12. 3-band EQ per lane instead of the tone control tilt EQ

[Morty-C-137]

Some good suggestions in there for the sequencer for sure. 3 band eq per lane would be totally unnecessary clutter to me as tone control (which I thinks is a tilt eq) together with high- and lowpass filters do the trick already. Besides.. since it’s samples, sound selection should be key so that you pick sounds that go well together without to much trickery.

Just my opinion obviously.

[oobesan]

Some good suggestions in there for the sequencer for sure. 3 band eq per lane would be totally unnecessary clutter to me as tone control (which I thinks is a tilt eq) together with high- and lowpass filters do the trick already. Besides.. since it’s samples, sound selection should be key so that you pick sounds that go well together without to much trickery.

Just my opinion obviously.

It's all about UI implementation. For example, the AHD envelope is clean as it is and doesn't not clutter the UI, and the edit features are hidden until you hover over it. You could do the same with a 3-band EQ. But you point about sound selection is certainly true.

[Morty-C-137]

Some good suggestions in there for the sequencer for sure. 3 band eq per lane would be totally unnecessary clutter to me as tone control (which I thinks is a tilt eq) together with high- and lowpass filters do the trick already. Besides.. since it’s samples, sound selection should be key so that you pick sounds that go well together without to much trickery.

Just my opinion obviously.

It's all about UI implementation. For example, the AHD envelope is clean as it is and doesn't not clutter the UI, and the edit features are hidden until you hover over it. You could do the same with a 3-band EQ. But you point about sound selection is certainly true.

Yes, I suppose you are right about proper GUI implementation. Doesn’t necessarily have to clutter.

[Ou_Tis]

Some good suggestions in there for the sequencer for sure. 3 band eq per lane would be totally unnecessary clutter to me as tone control (which I thinks is a tilt eq) together with high- and lowpass filters do the trick already. Besides.. since it’s samples, sound selection should be key so that you pick sounds that go well together without to much trickery.

Just my opinion obviously.

If you don't want "clutter" then let us have a way to open a menu or change a setting to show these extra options. Tilt EQ + high and lowpass filters are really not adequate for my purposes. Even with a vast library of sounds, you'll get better results by EQing them before they go into XO's built-in FX. Of course the simplest workaround is to use sends instead, but then you can't use XO's bus processing. One solution would be to include XO's bus processing FX as a separate FX plugin.

[JJRICH]

Does anyone know how or if it's possible to lock the samples and still switch presets?
The whole point for me using this thing is to randomize stuff and get results that you normalyl wouldn't. Not being able to basically randomize kits without losing the ones you like is such a workflow killer.

Atlas does this but I don't find the sorting that good as with xo

[noiseboyuk]

Does anyone know how or if it's possible to lock the samples and still switch presets?

Not as far as I know, which is annoying.

There is a way to go through the presets without loading their associated samples - go to the preset browser, open the search & filter box and put in a search term (eg 808). Then when you scroll through the presets, it auto loads a random kit using the selected search criteria. I love this undocumented feature which appeared at some point in an update, but it's obviously not the same as locking the samples when switching presets.

[QIMONO]

is there a full changelog somewhere? the one one website is from v1.7. i need to make some comparisons

[m-ac]

Does anyone know how or if it's possible to lock the samples and still switch presets?
The whole point for me using this thing is to randomize stuff and get results that you normalyl wouldn't. Not being able to basically randomize kits without losing the ones you like is such a workflow killer.

Atlas does this but I don't find the sorting that good as with xo

Yep, still not possible. I emailed them last year to confirm as it seems ridiculous to me that you can't, but you can't.

When they told me it wasn't possible, I emailed them back saying I should have the ability to lock my samples and switch through the pattern presets from their expansions, just as I can with pretty every other drum sequencer I own. I mean, thats drum sequencer 101 to me, surely? Why have each expansion pack locked to using its own samples every time you want to use one of its midi patterns? Crazy. this is what they emailed back;

"Thanks for getting back to me. I understand your disappointment. Being able to switch to more patterns would definitely be great. I'm sure you already do this but what I usually do is open the Beat Combiner and select patterns for the different lanes there as starting points before my manual edits. But yes, there's of course a bit of a limit there as well since some of them are extracted from the preset you're currently on.

I've forwarded your message to the product team.

Don't hesitate to contact us again if you have any other questions or feedback."

I'd suggest emailing them to let them know this SHOULD be a feature. If we don't all make a noise about it, why would they bother adding more work for themselves? And for anyone thinking of purchasing any of their expansion packs, please be aware of this limitation before purchasing.

[JiggSaw]

Does anyone know how or if it's possible to lock the samples and still switch presets?
The whole point for me using this thing is to randomize stuff and get results that you normalyl wouldn't. Not being able to basically randomize kits without losing the ones you like is such a workflow killer.

Atlas does this but I don't find the sorting that good as with xo

Yep, still not possible. I emailed them last year to confirm as it seems ridiculous to me that you can't, but you can't.

When they told me it wasn't possible, I emailed them back saying I should have the ability to lock my samples and switch through the pattern presets from their expansions, just as I can with pretty every other drum sequencer I own. I mean, thats drum sequencer 101 to me, surely? Why have each expansion pack locked to using its own samples every time you want to use one of its midi patterns? Crazy. this is what they emailed back;

"Thanks for getting back to me. I understand your disappointment. Being able to switch to more patterns would definitely be great. I'm sure you already do this but what I usually do is open the Beat Combiner and select patterns for the different lanes there as starting points before my manual edits. But yes, there's of course a bit of a limit there as well since some of them are extracted from the preset you're currently on.

I've forwarded your message to the product team.

Don't hesitate to contact us again if you have any other questions or feedback."

I'd suggest emailing them to let them know this SHOULD be a feature. If we don't all make a noise about it, why would they bother adding more work for themselves? And for anyone thinking of purchasing any of their expansion packs, please be aware of this limitation before purchasing.

I absolutely agree. The reason it won't work well is because their presets don't follow a standard. Some presets might have Toms rimshots in the 2nd slot, some might have open hihats on 5th slot, sometimes kicks on the 3rd, etc.

Some of their recent expansions are a little better at following a standard but the factory presets are all over the place.

My workaround to all of this has been letting Playbeat drive the patterns. I'll only save/favorite kits in TRIAZ that is close to GM spec. If I really like the kit but it doesn't fit the GM spec, I'll just rearrange to make it fit. Then I'm able to lock kits or whatever in TRIAZ while Playbeat drives the patterns. But yes, it's ridiculous that we have to do things like this. They should just refresh all their presets to follow a certain spec and just tag them as V2.

[m-ac]

I absolutely agree. The reason it won't work well is because their presets don't follow a standard. Some presets might have Toms rimshots in the 2nd slot, some might have open hihats on 5th slot, sometimes kicks on the 3rd, etc.

That's exactly what I want! For example, let me browse some of the hip-hop midi patterns with my loaded drum and bass samples...happy accidents and all that. Anyway, I won't be purchasing any more expansions for XO unless that restrictions removed.