groovemonger wrote:The MPD32, because it's pretty generous with sliders and knobs, fully mapped to Geist, is surprisingly mouse-free. It's not like just having a few cheap MPC-like pads on the side. I've noticed how a lot of Maschine users actually don't use it completely 'mouse free' anyway but move back and forth between the controller and the computer screen. There's also an official Geist mapping for the Maschine, even though Geist and the Maschine s/w cover the same bases - so there are at least some Maschine users that prefer to use Geist.
Maschine, obviously isn't intended to be 100% mouse free, but it is damn near close. People still do like having the mouse for more efficiency in many tasks. But with Geist, just how "mouse-free" is it exactly?
Can you load sounds and completely chop/edit a sample from the MPD?
Can you load and completely tweak a plugin from the MPD?
Can you set-up auxiliary sends from the MPD?
Can you load/save a project from the MPD?
Can you even make a new track or sequence from the MPD?
That's just a few things. On Maschine you can completely make and mix/master your entire beat without touching the mouse, and then go and do all your editing with the mouse. This is exactly what's needed in an MPC.
groovemonger wrote:As I said, Maschine just looked 'too much stuff' for what I really wanted - which is everything I could do on an MPC in quick to use streamlined software. Plus I was already a happy Guru user and don't really like having to learn new tools just to do what I could do before anyway. Some people are happy just to chop and sample in the Logic arrange window and use ESX24 - nothing wrong with that but for me that's just too fiddly and nothing like the fun of working MPC-style. Geist is pretty MPC-like.
The best thing about Maschine, or anything really, is that you have choice. If you don't think you need a certain function or feature, just simply don't use it. I haven't used Geist/MPD combo, but I can't imagine it being more MPC-like than Maschine is.
groovemonger wrote:Even really cool Maschine features like plugin integration aren't that much of an advantage of Geist considering you can set up as many auxiliary busses as to you like Logic and send whatever you want from your Geist project through them.
The good thing about plugin integration is if you have an idea of an effect for an instrument or if you wan to add a plugin instrument itself, you can apply it right away instead of waiting to get into your DAW. This is especially helpful if you also do vocals, because the effects will be recorded into the audio when you track to Logic, leaving all the plugin processing power open to your vocal tracks.
groovemonger wrote:I'm sure the Ren will be cool if the s/w has a good feel about it and isn't buggy. But it's pricey - so it has to put a lot of distance between itself and the already good alternatives that don't cost that much.
The Ren is actually really close in price to other comparable equipment/software. You figure you buy a controller with hyper control to give you a similar level of control over your software as the Ren has, and you're at least at $500-600. Add on whatever software you want on top of that (Reason/Record, Logic, Pro Tools, Geist, etc) that's another $300-600. So you're still within the $1000-1300 range, and you still won't have as tight of control/integration as the Ren! And there ain't too many interfaces out there with 4 midi outs. So the only thing that really beat's/matches the Ren, is Maschine, and that's only if you already have an interface. Then on the other hand, you still have the Studio model that completely competes with Maschine.
But I thought the same way before I actually really started looking into Maschine and seeing what it was really about. An MPD doesn't come close!