KVR Audio

slackhead · Post by **slackhead** » Tue Apr 26, 2022 11:51 am

yellowmix wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:43 pm I'm on Windows so Geist 2 will keep working for a long time.

Assuming the authorisation keeps working. This is my biggest concern - I still use Geist 1 and 2 and it would be very annoying if these stopped.

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Tue Apr 26, 2022 4:22 pm

slackhead wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 11:51 am
yellowmix wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:43 pm I'm on Windows so Geist 2 will keep working for a long time.
Assuming the authorisation keeps working. This is my biggest concern - I still use Geist 1 and 2 and it would be very annoying if these stopped.

That's the crap thing about CR. Even if the plugin still works on your OS, you're just one OS re-install or new PC away from the plugin no longer working once the auth servers go down.

It's a shame no one picked Geist up. It's practically a full blown DAW if you're into a particular workflow. A true beast. Thanks Roli for f'ing that up.

greententacle · Post by **greententacle** » Tue Apr 26, 2022 4:36 pm

for that alone, i would never ever buy something from Roli. beside their crappy "keyboard"

martinjuenke · Post by **martinjuenke** » Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:11 pm

Roli is a case study in completely f*cked up business destroying valuable assets for the sake of an egocentric CEO. Shame on you, you greedy b*st*rds!

jan-sandahl · Post by **jan-sandahl** » Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:17 pm

I know nothing about anything personal, but their own efforts have been unprofitable. They are (were?) about to change radically. Unlikely they will do anything with Geist. Hopefully someone will pick it up.

I lost Camel Audio's Alchemy a few years back. But at least it lives. One feels robbed having invested in a software that seemed to have a future.

yellowmix · Post by **yellowmix** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 1:48 am

Camel Audio was nice enough to give plenty of notice, and baked the authorization into installers for each user. I'm still using Alchemy (Windows) though it's getting less use due to newer synths. If there's a new synth that does everything it does, there would still be plenty of presets in there I keep going back for. Doubtful we'd see a similar situation with Roli, as a bankruptcy or merger would likely place Geist very low on the priority list. In fact, I'm doubtful about Equator and the other synths in such an event. Equator would need to go on an incredible discount for me to pull the trigger at this point.

As for a Geist 2 replacement, it'd have to be piecemeal for now. Battery has a lot of drum shaping options (good but not as good as DCAM), and you'd need to send pads to DAW tracks for further processing. TAL Drum has a quick workflow but obviously doesn't come anywhere close to Geist 2. Neither do Drum Synth 500, Nerve (perhaps the upcoming Nerve 2), Spark. Maybe Atlas. Modulation would come from the DAW. The sequencing though, is something else. In fact, I'm using Geist's sequencer to drive other drum racks/machines.

I'm not sure which developer would be best to take it especially since the original developer is gone, unlike BFD where the dev team transferred to InMusic. Fxpansion was really unique in many ways. Maybe some miracle can bring it back to the original developer, assuming he's interested in reviving it.

A lot of plugins are really boutique, in the sense of solo dev (and a biz partner). Besides the bus factor there's the buyout possibility. Big companies can fail too. No guarantees. Enjoy things while they last. Or buy plugins with local license files and learn how to spin up a virtual machine and you can have them forever.

jan-sandahl · Post by **jan-sandahl** » Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:57 am

I can't help but to think that Fxpansion people must feel very proud of their products and accomplishments. Let's hope for the miracle. And that the reason for the website still looking as they are operating is because of this.

dermichl · Post by **dermichl** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 7:57 pm

Is Geist 2 still a reasonable choice?

NikkiA · Post by **NikkiA** » Sat Sep 09, 2023 8:15 pm

Not really, you can't buy it new, and the existance of license transfers and auth servers for it is at the whim of whoever manages the old fxpansion domain and sites.

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Sun Sep 10, 2023 12:31 am

Someone really should clone the workflow and features and make a proper replacement. There's definitely room in the market.

What's next closest other than Maschine?

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Sun Sep 10, 2023 1:26 am

Funkybot's Evil Twin wrote: Sun Sep 10, 2023 12:31 am Someone really should clone the workflow and features and make a proper replacement. There's definitely room in the market.

What's next closest other than Maschine?

MPC 2.

There are some workflow things that are better in Geist, but if you get the hardware it's great.

cptgone · Post by **cptgone** » Sun Sep 10, 2023 6:11 pm

jan-sandahl wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:57 am I can't help but to think that Fxpansion people must feel very proud of their products and accomplishments.

I love FXpansion's products.

Especially their drum products, as they were so very far ahead of the competition: DR008, Geist, Tremor (I never tried BFD, and missed out on Guru and Geist1 while taking a break from music production).

DR008 was superceded by FXpansion's new offerings, but I still have fond memories.
So powerful, versatile and user friendly... a real classic.

I haven't found suitable alternatives to Tremor yet (sugarbytes' Drumcomputer is nice, but I find it hard to dial in good sounds; that may be down to my lacking skills, and the fact I only have a few months each year to make music and get to know my gear).
I still use it (sometimes, just as a sequencer).

I gave up on Geist 2 when it was discontinued, but I plan to install it on my next PC and get re-acquainted.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Sun Sep 10, 2023 6:24 pm

Great Drum machine, but you're wasting your time with a dead product.

plexuss · Post by **plexuss** » Sun Sep 10, 2023 6:30 pm

Robmobius wrote: Sun Sep 10, 2023 6:24 pm Great Drum machine, but you're wasting your time with a dead product.

I just fired up Geist 2 and its working fine. It's not dead yet, Jim. But, I understand what you mean. However if you have Geist 2 and its working it is a powerful, fun and creative product!

nusound mind · Post by **nusound mind** » Sun Sep 10, 2023 11:15 pm

Geist 2 crashes for me; Windows 10, Studio One 6. Geist 1 does too, less often but enough that it makes it not worth using. With the options out there now anything that crashes my sesh I simply write off ever using. S1-5 it didn't crash so it is a loss b/c I made some decent beats on Geist 1 and was just getting the hang of it.

tbh the Geist's are fiddly to use & in terms of workflow prob. there are better options out there. Ofc. I'm sure if you learned it enough that'd be less of an issue. Even at the noob caveman level I used it at I got a glimpse of what it's capable of. The Geist's, esp. Geist 1 along w/ Ohmicide are the top 2 plugins I have I wish didn't crash.

Funnily enough SynthSquad used to crash on me in S1-4 but no longer does in the new S1.

Your thoughts on Geist 2