Feature:
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).
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 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.
Desirability:
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).
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.
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.
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.
Overall:
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...
4 of 4 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?
Thanks for your opinion!