FXpansion Guru Loop Splicing Software
No longer available at zZounds
Intelligent Loop Slicer. Hands On Feel. Advanced Step Sequencer.
Overview
Your beatbox dream come true. Advanced step sequencing, groove manipulation, sample editing, and beat slicing -- an inspirational, all-in-one workstation. Based on an enlightened approach to drum loop creation, Guru makes building that perfect beat faster and easier than ever.
Guru's architecture is perfect for anything from straight-up breaks and stomping floor-fillers to complex polyrhythmic, multi-layered grooves. The powerful built-in FX and graphical parameter automation allow you to mutate your beats into new, unheard forms, or create subtle variations. Mash up your sounds with pitch modulation, repeat triggers, start-point and timing manipulation, resonant filters and much more. Everything from precision funk to disturbing sonic mangling and glitch beatscapes is at your fingertips.
Breathe new life into your loops with Guru's unique intelligent loop slicer, which categorizes slices as kick, snare, hihat or percussion hits, letting you use any audio material effortlessly and in the context of your pattern, or extract individual hits and the timing feel from loops. The extensive editing and processing tools then allow you to tweak samples and slice points, or layer more sounds.
Guru gives you back the hands-on feel which you crave... Record performances with the mouse or a MIDI controller, fire off sequences with a MIDI key, layer multiple engines, drop parts in and out and switch grooves on the fly. Guru is a complete sample workstation environment, ideally suited for… read more live use or for intuitive composition in the studio.
Features:
Advanced Step Sequencer - 128 steps, 16 channels, 24 memories per engine, full graphical automation, MIDI remote control, independent tempo multipliers, real-time and step recording with undo
Automated sample slicing, classification and pad mapping (kick, snare, hat, percussion) with manual slice-tuning capability
Can load audio loops (WAV/AIFF/REX), MIDI loops, single-hits, complete kits, pattern banks..
8 Engines, each comprising:
- 16 MIDI-triggered Sample Pads
- Powerful step-sequencer with up to 128 steps
- 24 MIDI-triggered Patterns
- Three Aux effects units
- Master effects unit
Intuitive mixer view offering a convenient overview of all 8 engines
Flexible groove/shuffle control for patterns - take the groove of one MIDI file and apply it in real-time to another
Comprehensive Pad Editor offering individual control of the following for each pad:
- Gain, pan, coarse/fine tune
- Resonant filter blend between LP/BP/HP
- 3 Aux sends and an Insert effect slot
- Start/end point adjust
- Amp/FX envelope
- 8 velocity cross-fade layers
- Cut groups (choke groups)
Includes library of over 2GB of professional sample content, featuring material by Yellow Tools, Wizoo, Gearshift and others.
Eight stereo outputs, flexible routing.
Built in midi mapping allows you to quickly setup GURU to work with your hardware groove box / drum triggers."
Stand-alone application, ReWire device, and VST, DXi, AudioUnit, RTAS plug-in formats, available for Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X.
* (Such as Akai MPC/MPD series, Alternate Mode DrumKat, Korg MicroKontrol, M-Audio Trigger Finger etc.) read less
Guru's architecture is perfect for anything from straight-up breaks and stomping floor-fillers to complex polyrhythmic, multi-layered grooves. The powerful built-in FX and graphical parameter automation allow you to mutate your beats into new, unheard forms, or create subtle variations. Mash up your sounds with pitch modulation, repeat triggers, start-point and timing manipulation, resonant filters and much more. Everything from precision funk to disturbing sonic mangling and glitch beatscapes is at your fingertips.
Breathe new life into your loops with Guru's unique intelligent loop slicer, which categorizes slices as kick, snare, hihat or percussion hits, letting you use any audio material effortlessly and in the context of your pattern, or extract individual hits and the timing feel from loops. The extensive editing and processing tools then allow you to tweak samples and slice points, or layer more sounds.
Guru gives you back the hands-on feel which you crave... Record performances with the mouse or a MIDI controller, fire off sequences with a MIDI key, layer multiple engines, drop parts in and out and switch grooves on the fly. Guru is a complete sample workstation environment, ideally suited for… read more live use or for intuitive composition in the studio.
Features:
Advanced Step Sequencer - 128 steps, 16 channels, 24 memories per engine, full graphical automation, MIDI remote control, independent tempo multipliers, real-time and step recording with undo
Automated sample slicing, classification and pad mapping (kick, snare, hat, percussion) with manual slice-tuning capability
Can load audio loops (WAV/AIFF/REX), MIDI loops, single-hits, complete kits, pattern banks..
8 Engines, each comprising:
- 16 MIDI-triggered Sample Pads
- Powerful step-sequencer with up to 128 steps
- 24 MIDI-triggered Patterns
- Three Aux effects units
- Master effects unit
Intuitive mixer view offering a convenient overview of all 8 engines
Flexible groove/shuffle control for patterns - take the groove of one MIDI file and apply it in real-time to another
Comprehensive Pad Editor offering individual control of the following for each pad:
- Gain, pan, coarse/fine tune
- Resonant filter blend between LP/BP/HP
- 3 Aux sends and an Insert effect slot
- Start/end point adjust
- Amp/FX envelope
- 8 velocity cross-fade layers
- Cut groups (choke groups)
Includes library of over 2GB of professional sample content, featuring material by Yellow Tools, Wizoo, Gearshift and others.
Eight stereo outputs, flexible routing.
Built in midi mapping allows you to quickly setup GURU to work with your hardware groove box / drum triggers."
Stand-alone application, ReWire device, and VST, DXi, AudioUnit, RTAS plug-in formats, available for Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X.
* (Such as Akai MPC/MPD series, Alternate Mode DrumKat, Korg MicroKontrol, M-Audio Trigger Finger etc.) read less
Specs
System Requirements
iLok compatible
800 MHz Pentium III or Athlon cpu (for Windows platform)
733 MHz G4 cpu (for Mac OS X platform)
384MB RAM (512MB recommended)
DVD-ROM, DVD-R or DVD-RW drive (for installation)
Windows 2000 or XP, or Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" or 10.4 "Tiger".
500MB free hard disk space
iLok compatible
800 MHz Pentium III or Athlon cpu (for Windows platform)
733 MHz G4 cpu (for Mac OS X platform)
384MB RAM (512MB recommended)
DVD-ROM, DVD-R or DVD-RW drive (for installation)
Windows 2000 or XP, or Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" or 10.4 "Tiger".
500MB free hard disk space
Reviews
Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 5 out of 5 stars.
(20 ratings)
Submitted April 14, 2006 by a customer from gmail.com
"Software Version of MPC - tight"
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
This review has been selected by our experts as particularly helpful.
This is the first review I've written because I had been looking for an MPC alternative. In my opinion, Guru is it. Load up your own hits (or use the included kits) and go to work. You can also chop up acapellas and phrases to create quick fill in's for your tracks. I really cannot think of a negative aspect to Guru - if I had to say something it's that the slicer is not perfect by any means (it's no Recycle). Instead the slicer takes 16 of the "best" individual hits and maps them on the pads. Even so, you can go into each pad and edit the start/end points to make sure it's on point. I'm out...
Sound
The included sound bank sounds good especially is you tweak the sounds, however, in my experience creating your own kits from your own loops with your own sounds (via the slicing option) is great.
Features
Can mangle individual hits or edit 16 pads at once - combine with trigger finger or similar pad controller and you have an MPC (but more flexible and quicker).
Ease of Use
Very easy to use and, depending on how much time you want to spend editing each pad's loaded sound, you can create a beat with the step-sequencer in 5 minutes or a more commercial beat in a couple of hours.
Quality
No crashes and works perfect with trigger finger and Ableton Live (I imagine that it works fine with all of major sequencers).
Value
In… read more my opinion, for the price, you have the ability to use Guru to replace and MPC (I know some will shiver at this idea)! However, it's true, try slicing on the fly and arranging drum patterns in minutes with an MPC - won't happen. I know MPC headz swear by the "groove" on the MPC. Guru has numerous groove settings that sound great and give you the feel you want.
Manufacturer Support
Fxpansion is a somewhat small company, but they are constantly on the musican's forums (e.g, KVR) with updates and they answer questions very quickly. The company is also receptive to new suggestions and ideas from users of the products. They stand behind their software.
The Wow Factor
It all depends on your own workflow. For me, I owned an MPC and wanted a quicker alternative to the whole drum programming side of beats (I do hip hop and R&B). I bought a tight drum pad controller and Guru and I was able to create hot beats in no time. I recommend you slicing your own loops and creating your kits since, in my opinion, the sounds that come with Guru are good but not suited for BOMB beats (you know what I mean).
Musical Background:
Hobbyist (hip hop)
Musical Style:
Hip Hop, R&B, etc. read less
Sound
The included sound bank sounds good especially is you tweak the sounds, however, in my experience creating your own kits from your own loops with your own sounds (via the slicing option) is great.
Features
Can mangle individual hits or edit 16 pads at once - combine with trigger finger or similar pad controller and you have an MPC (but more flexible and quicker).
Ease of Use
Very easy to use and, depending on how much time you want to spend editing each pad's loaded sound, you can create a beat with the step-sequencer in 5 minutes or a more commercial beat in a couple of hours.
Quality
No crashes and works perfect with trigger finger and Ableton Live (I imagine that it works fine with all of major sequencers).
Value
In… read more my opinion, for the price, you have the ability to use Guru to replace and MPC (I know some will shiver at this idea)! However, it's true, try slicing on the fly and arranging drum patterns in minutes with an MPC - won't happen. I know MPC headz swear by the "groove" on the MPC. Guru has numerous groove settings that sound great and give you the feel you want.
Manufacturer Support
Fxpansion is a somewhat small company, but they are constantly on the musican's forums (e.g, KVR) with updates and they answer questions very quickly. The company is also receptive to new suggestions and ideas from users of the products. They stand behind their software.
The Wow Factor
It all depends on your own workflow. For me, I owned an MPC and wanted a quicker alternative to the whole drum programming side of beats (I do hip hop and R&B). I bought a tight drum pad controller and Guru and I was able to create hot beats in no time. I recommend you slicing your own loops and creating your kits since, in my opinion, the sounds that come with Guru are good but not suited for BOMB beats (you know what I mean).
Musical Background:
Hobbyist (hip hop)
Musical Style:
Hip Hop, R&B, etc. read less
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