FXpansion Guru Virtual Drum Machine

I have been producing music in my home studio since about 1991. I have purchased a load of various MIDI gear and software over the years to achieve my objective with music (still undefined, but evolving nonetheless). I have used many hardware and software drum machines (my first software drum machine was Hammerhead; my first hardware drum machine was a Yamaha RY30). I typically compose on my Yamaha Motif (it's quick), and track with Cubase 4. Recently I bought ANOTHER MPC (2500) because I like what Akai has added. I picked up Guru on a whim. I liked the idea of instant kit building, filters, efx, etc. I also own FL Studio and have used it since version 1.

The interface is solid. I think it is easy to look at and professional in appearance overall. I think some of the graphics are blunt (but then again we ARE talking about version 1 here). For those who are wondering if Guru is intuitive or not, I would say it really depends on your level of experience. When companies design products like these, they have to make some decisions about the level of expertise it will take to operate the application. In THIS case, I think that FXpansion aims for the advanced user. This is not Garage Band. This is not an MPC, either. Both of the aforementioned platforms are dead simple to use.

Guru requires the user have some prior knowledge and experience in the areas of pattern-based sequencing (which is quite different from traditional sequencing, but has gained a lot of popularity in the past five years), as well as sequencing software applications in general. If software-based music producers were rated on a scale of say, 1 to 10 (ten being a true master like BT or Moby), I would consider myself about an 8. When *I* opened Guru (the standalone application) for the first time--with the intention of laying down some BASIC beats to see how the program worked, I did not immediately understand it... in fact, my first thought was "where IS everything?"

After I clicked a few buttons and poked around for about 5 minutes, I was even more confused. I tried to drag some loops onto Guru's pads and nothing happened. I didn't get it. That was my first stab. After 20 min I was done with it for the time being. Kind of frustrated that I would have to read the manual. 15 years of experience and need to read a manual to figure out how to make a simple 1/8th note loop? Intuitive? NO. Cryptic? YES.

The next night I skimmed through the manual very quickly and made a few mental notes. I finally figured out how to assign the drum sounds to pads and assign the pads to my MIDI keyboard (MAudio Axiom 49) with the MIDI LEARN function--which I might add is VERY COOL and I thank FXpansion for adding it. I used step edit mode to draw in notes. I figured out step edit mode worked almost precisely like Fruity Loops, but was far less attractive and far less intuitive (but let's face it, Fruity Loops doesn't take home the 'intuitive' gold medal, either). I immediately missed pan and gain pots on each channel like Fruity Loops offers. I found out I had to select a different tab to change the channel's gain and pan. Very inconvienient.

Overall, when you get the HANG OF IT (advanced users will figure it out in about in an hour or two where it will take intermediate level people more like several days (if not weeks) and complete beginners likely a year or more to be able to produce ORIGINAL tracks. On the other hand, if the beginner were to figure out how to use the blunt preset loops, he or she could definitely get a loop going, but good luck slicing it, assigning its hits to pads, sequencing the pad samples in a compelling way, working with the different patterns to create a lengthy arrangement, and then applying compression and so forth to make it sound smooth.

Final verdict on usability and intuitiveness: I predict Guru will be a steep curve for the beginner, a challenge for the intermediate user, and quite an amazing tool for the advanced user.

There are two aspects to sound in this context: how the presets that ship with Guru sound; and how the Guru application sounds OVERALL (yes, software applications have a sonic signature as studies have proven). There are four categories of presets: loops, hits, and kits. Loops are pre fab 4 or 8 measure drum tracks. By and large, I find they are useless in their orginal format. Most preset beats here are played out and lifeless IMO. I'd never use them nor do I know too many people who would. I wouldn't even slice them and use their hits because quite frankly, the individual hits used in them just aren't that inspiring to my ears. Not so with the kits and hits.

SOME of the individual hits are great--especially in the dance, hip hop domain-- such as the kicks and some snares. Jury is still out on the high hats and most snares though. I'm not hearing anything crisp and hot. SO many sounds seem to be processed (read: lifted from a record or CD track) and DULL. Even hitting them with high shelf EQ doesn't ressurect them. SQUASHED sounds are so common in drum sample libs now.. are people just recycling sounds? I long for ORIGINAL samples of drum sounds directly from 808 and 909 and 626 and 727 machines. I want the orginals, not the squashed junk.

[Aside: I hope some day a software company like FXPansion releases an entire PRISTINE set of unmolested drum machine sounds, taken directly from the machines themselves. Sounds like these (in nearly every folder I have auditioned) that are already squashed lose more quality every time you process them further in your mix. Not good. Shortsighted on FXP's part IMO)

About the kits. The drum kits are cool, but not superb. But once you figure out fx and delays and all the other goodies that lie under Guru's hood, you can really get some wild things happening. I tried to use the shuffle feature and its various presets (prefab "groove" templates to add some rhythmical variation to your beat) and was really disappointed to learn that they must be viewed one by one in a tiny window and accessed by moving your mouse up and down to scroll them-- as a trained monkey might (read: really BAD interface design here). The groove templates are not very intelligent. 90% of those I tried made my beat sounded disjointed in a non musical way. I finally disabled the feature.

I should mention the BROWSER. This is where you select loops, hits and kits and drag them over to the other area in Gure. The browser is a very VERY blunt unstrument with tiny cryptic icons that 40 year old eyes can BARELY read -- and when you hover your mouse over them, there is NOT a descriptive bubble that pops up and tells you what they are or do. This is interface design 101 and FXpansion should not have left tried and true intuitive aids like this out (and there are PLENTY in that Guru does not subscribe to ANY of the conventions Windows OR Mac programs use). Again, steep adjustment period, even for those who have used Kontakt, Halion, etc. I really wish FXPansion would have adhered to some interface standards we all are familar with. Innovation is one thing, but not at the expense of the end user.

I should also mention a few things about saving files. In standalone mode, you can NOT expot or save a WAV or MP3 or WMA file as you can in Fruity Loops and just about any other soft sequencer on the planet. You can only save a MIDI file or a GURU proprietary file. Talk about an ANTIQUATED approach to file saving! Horrible! Wav export needed ASAP! I also used Guru in Cubase as a plugin and it worked flawlessly with Cubase. Stayed in perfect sync and never hiccuped.

Overall I have created some cool beats, but I have only been using preset hits so they all sound grungy. I am going to have to load my own 808, etc libraries to get the crisp, hi def quality I want my drums to have (read: D'Angelo, Maxwell, etc). And I don't know if I have the time -- or inclination. I'd rather load them into my MPC and create beats there to be honest. Guru is cool, but it is NOT going to revolutionize the virtual drum machine world. I think Fruity Loops 9now FL Studio) is a FAR more advanced virtual drum machine with a far more intuitive interface.

The one thing that sets Guru apart from Fruity Loops are the drum pads (FL has no such representation of indiv hits on the screen, only the sequencer). Does Guru even need to show the pads? Why do they even exist? Why not just have the pad the channel itself with all the channel controls like Fruity Loops? Well, because FXP is trying to be innovative.. but again, unfortunately their focus has been on the unique (confusing, sometimes BAFFLING) interface instead of on the actual features. IMO< the company who truly breaks the door down is the one who puts the MPC in the computer. The MPC is best drum machine in the world for dance and hip hop and it has no rivals. Why re-invent it? Why not honor it with a 1:1 emulation in Windows? I think FXP went overboard and wasted millions trying to revolutionize virtual drum machines, and overall, I think version 1 has failed in that endeavor. I will be interested to see what version 2 brings. Until then, all you young folks looking to start making beats, just get an MPC and some expensive drum libraries for it and you have almost everything you need to make GREAT beats.