 | | New in GURU 1.6 | | | | New in GURU 1.5 |
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GURU version 1.5 is a major upgrade, incorporating close to 100 new features and enhancements. Best of all, it’s free of charge to all registered owners of GURU! Download GURU v1.5 now from your FXpansion Account.
New Audio Content
3 Gigabytes of new audio content covering hip hop, grime, rock, house, trance, experimental, breaks and more, from producers such as Goldbaby, Groove Criminals, Deadmau5, Bearded Lazies, Drummerheads and DJ Subject.
Compatibility
100% compatible with the latest hardware & software platforms including Dual, Quad and 8-Core systems, Intel-based Macs, Windows Vista, Pro Tools 7.x, Digital Performer 5.x (including DAE mode).
Audio Export
You can now render pads, tracks, engines or the full mix directly within GURU, and instantly export it via drag + drop to your host or OS, or give the rendered loop a second pass through GURU for further mangling. The audio exporter automatically tops and tails loops during rendering so they’re ready to use straightaway in Live, Acid or other loop environment.
Randomizer
A new creative inspiration factory, the randomize slider can operate on any of GURU’s main screens – sequence, graphs, pad edit, effects, mixer – and allows you to apply a controllable amount of randomization to either the current pad or various combinations. Click on the randomize slider to generate a new set of ‘seed’ values, then drag to the left or right to apply them progressively to your patch. Hold down ALT or SHIFT while dragging the randomize slider to apply the process over a wider area – if you don’t like what you hear, just hit the Undo button to the right.
Sample editing – reverse, new layer modes, predelay
Samples can now be played backwards, and layers can be stacked in Random and Round Robin modes as well as the more conventional All Layers and Velocity Split. We’ve also added a Pre Delay per layer (in both milliseconds and musical units) allowing you to shift individual parts by a few ticks to get your groove ‘in the pocket’, or to create single-pad flams and ruffs out of individual samples.
Slicer
We’ve given GURU’s slicer a major overhaul – it is now much more accurate, and has a ‘Sensitivity’ control allowing you to adjust how it responds to possible hit points in your loops. In addition, its slicing and score extraction process is now velocity-aware - slices and scores are now generated in such a way that hit volumes are consistent when using the sounds from one loop with the score from another, or the score from a loop with a kit, or the slices from a loop with a pattern.
The Slicer can now be toggled between SINGLE mode, in which one slice is loaded per pad, and FULL mode, where up to 8 slices are loaded per pad, using the Layers. This allows Guru to fit long loops (up to 128 slices) in a single engine; it also supports a Linear Scoring mode where instead of smart-slicing by drum type, the slices are simply mapped to pads 1..16 in the order they occur in the loop file, much like a conventional slicer.
Browser
The Browser is now significantly faster and can be driven entirely from the keyboard. We’ve made loads of little workflow enhancements like the PlusFX and PlusMIX controls, so you can now selectively preserve or overload your pad tweaks and mixer effects when loading loops or kits. Double clicking a browser tab now opens that tab as a folder in Finder/Explorer, and dragging an OS folder to the browser sets the current tab to that location.
In the Pads browser, we’ve also added a volume control for auto-preview, and support for multiple selection so you can drag multiple samples to the pads or layers in one go.
Keyboard Support
GURU can now be driven largely without resorting to the mouse – the pads, patterns, browser, engines and transport all respond to the keyboard. Additionally, you can now mute, solo and un-mute individual engines at the touch of a button.
Sequencer – improved sync, note duration / gate
The sequencer now locks to the host tighter than ever, and responds instantaneously to pattern change / gate messages allowing you to recombine and retrigger patterns at warp speed – perfect for drum and bass. GURU now supports note-duration across-the-board, allowing you to cut samples off before the full length plays.
There are new sequencer graphs for automating the Sample Reverse feature, and better support across-the-board for triplets, polyrhythms, and non-4/4 meters. Each pattern can be set to a different resolution - 8th, 16th, 32nd or 64th notes, as well as triplets.
MIDI implementation
GURU’s MIDI implementation has been greatly extended. As well as supporting realtime MIDI out (VST hosts only), GURU can now sync to MMC and MTC, and additional MIDI channels and controller messages have been added to give you full remote control over engine, pad and pattern selection, transport controls, and engine mute/unmute, as well as the effects section and the entire mixer.
Miscellaneous
The audio engine is now drop-out-free, no more gaps or silences when previewing; we’ve added value readout tool tips across-the-board and improved the sample file management system a great deal. You can now hide the default “Kick”, “Snare” etc. name assignments for the Pads; the name of the currently loaded song and kit or loop are displayed in the transport window. Finally, we’ve added a context menu to the Engine selectors allowing you to copy, paste, clear etc. entire Engines with just a couple of clicks – great for creating variations on a kit, for instance.
FULL LIST OF NEW FEATURES:
(click to expand)
EXPORT 
- Improved drag & drop MIDI export (all Graphs are now exported to MIDI), exported MIDI clips will trigger Guru exactly like the sequencer does, including all the Graphs
- Export pad audio files via drag and drop (drag from a pad to your host, to Finder / Explorer, or to another plug-in).
- Full audio export - export pads, tracks, engines, or the entire mix, as ready-cropped loops that you can drag and drop straight to your host
BROWSING
- You can now double click on a folder in the left hand pane of the browser to open it, rather than having to go to the other pane. This makes navigating up and down the file system much quicker
- Single clicking a folder in the left hand (LH) column simply selects it for display in the RH column, and keeps the LH column at the same level in the file system. This makes it much quicker for hopping between a few different folders of drums at the same level. Single click a folder in the RH column, or double click it in the LH column, to make that folder the new display-level in the file system
- Much improved performance in the Loops browser
- Volume control for auto-preview
- Favourites is back. Click the '*' in the browser to go to the favourites page for the current tab. In normal (non-favourites) mode, shift+click a folder in the left-hand pane to add it to the favourites list; in favourites mode, shift+clicking a listed folder will remove it from the favourites list
- When replacing a sliced loop's audio with a Kit, and playing the Kit with the resulting Score, the volumes of the hits are much more in line with the original loop, resulting in a much smoother sounding Score translation
- Browsing individual loop slices in Auto mode now sends them to the current layer, not the whole pad
- Browser now supports page-up/page down when clicking on the scroll bars
- New option: "Hide embedded sample folders in the browser", will hide the "Mykit.kit.samples" folders in the file pane of the browser
- PlusFX and PlusMIX controls in browser, so you can now selectively preserve or overload your pad tweaks and mixer effects when loading loops or kits
- Pads browser now shows HIT files, and you can also Save a HIT in to the browser. A HIT contains all the settings for a pad -- up to 8 layers, pad edit effects, etc
- Multiple selection in the Pads browser when it's in Drag mode, so you can now drag 8 files to the pad editor or the pads themselves at once. Dragging to the pad editor will create layers; dragging to the pads will replace multiple pads
- SHIFT+Clicking a browser tab will now sync it with the current tab
- Dragging a Finder/Explorer folder to the browser will set the current browser pane to that location
- Double clicking a browser tab will launch Finder/Explorer at that location
- PlusFX toggle in browser now works for kit and loop elements, and for the FX Graphs in the patterns. (So you can preserve the current graph tweaks when loading a new pattern)
SLICING
- Completely overhauled slicing algorithm, with slicing sensitivity and accuracy control. NB:- The higher you set the Acc (accuracy) slider, the longer slicing will take..!
- REX slicing quality is improved.
- Loop Slicer can now be toggled between SINGLE mode, in which one slice is loaded per pad, and FULL mode, where up to 8 slices are loaded per pad, using the Layers. This allows Guru to fit long loops (up to 128 slices) in a single engine.
- Velocity aware slicing and normalization -- slices and scores are now generated in such a way that hit volumes are consistent when using the sounds from one loop with the score from another, or the score from a loop with a kit, or the slices from a loop with a pattern.
- Linear Scoring mode - instead of smart-slicing by drum type, linear score maps the slices from pads 0.16 in the order they occur in the loop file.
- Improved loop slicing, score extraction and loop playback.
- You can now access additional slices (beyond the first 16) in the loops slice browser
- Replaced /16 and 16ths modes with a single "CHOP" mode controlled by the sensitivity slider, allowing you to set a chop length from 1/4 note down to 1/64th note. Hold SHIFT to set the sensitivity control to non-power-of-2 values in this mode (by default it snaps 1/4, 8, 16, 32, 64).
MIDI IMPLEMENTATION
- VST MIDI Output
- Full MMC (MIDI Machine Control) support
- Standalone now supports MTC (MIDI Time Code) Sync
- More comprehensive MIDI implementation with extensive remote control support
- Full support for note-offs and duration
- New Option: listen for note-offs or not.
- Standalone now permits selection of specific MIDI devices
- Mixer and aux effects are now CC controllable (CC24-31 on ch. 1)
- Channel 9 is now mapped to 'All Engines', any events you send on ch. 9 will apply to all
- Channel 10 is now a 'drum map', mapping all 128 pads out across the MIDI keyboard
- Channel 11 always plays the currently selected engine
- Channel 12 offers a whole set of remote commands such as "Select Pad", "Select Engine", "Mute Engine" etc.
WORKFLOW
- Overall consistency of graphical controls has been much improved -- text boxes, menus and buttons behave in a consistent way.
- Much improved sample file management.
- New Option: Dont show pad names for pads (pads have only numbers, not names) - hides the default "Kick", "Snare" etc. pad labelling
- New Option: Selected Pad tracks MIDI input
- New Option: Fast switch to pattern view (Guru will switch to pattern view from whichever view you're in when you hit a pattern button)
- New Option: Save songs/kits as settings only (doesn't create copies of the wave data)
- New key modifiers for pattern mute/solo/lock controls
- Engine selectors now have context menus allowing you to copy, paste, clear etc. engines
- New "Chromatic Clone" and "Random Clone" options on Pattern context menu, allowing you to clone patterns up and down the keys.
- New "Chromatic Clone" and "Random Clone" options on Pad context menu, allowing you to clone pads up and down the keys.
- Hold down SHIFT when dragging a Pad to move the associated Pattern lane as well
- Option to save+recall all the other Options as part of each song/instance, instead of globally
- Drag and drop of MIDI files from Finder / Explorer is now supported
- Guru now imports MIDI using enhanced resolution when using an engine with tempo multipliers set. This allows you to import triplet MIDI patterns correctly, for example.
- Pads with samples loaded are now slightly more illuminated vs pads without samples loaded
- You can now drag and drop multiple WAV/AIFF files at once from Finder/Explorer to Guru's pads
- Effects and AuxEffects are now saved and loaded properly when saving/loading new KITs
- Song name and kit name are displayed - in the Engine Info panel right above the transport
- Tool tips for value readouts (and an option to switch them on/off)
- Audio export of Pads, Tracks, Groups (all tracks of the current type e.g. kick, hh), Engines or the whole mix ("ALL" mode)
- Massively improved QWERTY keyboard support, allowing you to drive most GURU functionality without ever touching the mouse
- A new option has been added to "Auto Fade Samples when Loading", which reduces polyphony & CPU wastage due to badly trimmed samples. You can set the threshold to anything from -48 to -120dB.
- A new option "QWERTY Keyboard Velocity" has been added, to set the velocity level of pad triggers from the QWERTY keyboard
- Randomize Slider (black slider above and to the right of engine selector), allowing you to creatively randomize the parameters on any of GURU's main screens
SEQUENCER, PATTERNS, SEQUENCE EDITOR
- 'Paint volume' mode is active by default now, hold down SHIFT while dragging to paint gaps.
- Reworked the graph editor so there are no more hierarchical tabs, can access all graph parameters for all pads from a single page now.
- When in select mode, and you click on a track lane, the pattern editor toggles selection on all notes in the track lane.
- When in select mode, and you right click to delete a note, all selected notes are now deleted.
- Copy and paste pattern remembers the trigger mode.
- Gate, Shot and Trig modes should now trigger MUCH more precisely - no more sloppiness or dropped notes - this means you can do some very cool things with rapid-succession triggering of patterns (retriggering or switching patterns every 16th...).
- Host sync is much more accurate.
- Metronome intelligently supports non-4/4 measure structures -- w using a 12-step or 24-step pattern, metronome now clicks on every 3rd note instead of every 4th, as tripletted 4/4 is more useful than 16th-note 3/4. To get 8th-notes in tripleted-3/4, set the shift graph to 100% for the second triplet note or to -100% for the third triplet note. We suggest using engines 2 thru 8 (as they have tempo multipliers) with the multiplier set to 3/4.
- Measure divide lines adapt intelligently to resolution and pattern length
- Lots of dropped-note and double-trigger conditions corrected
- When drawing graphs, ALT+SHIFT now links all tracks in the current pattern.
- Engine tempo multipliers now go to 16 instead of 8, and can be remote controlled from MIDI CCs (cc24 and cc25 on ch. 2-Cool.
- Per-pattern resolution/multiplier controls (Triplets, 8th and 32nd-notes...!), you can have different resolution patterns in the same engine.
- ALT+clicking on pattern keys now changes pattern across all engines at once
- New Graphs for Reverse, Duration, Force Layer. Duration is now recorded to the sequencer.
- Option:- Pattern Editor Follows Playback Cursor -- the pages will flip over as the playback head tracks them
- Option:- Pattern Editor Follows Currently Playing Pattern - when enabled, the currently edited pattern will change as a new pattern is triggered. When disabled, the currently edited pattern stays the same until you explicitly push a pattern key button on the GUI
- Pattern key buttons can now send note offs and can be used to (re)trigger patterns in GATE, TRIG or SHOT mode.
- New option: "Pattern keys send gate/trig" - when enabled, the onscreen pattern keys will retrigger and cut off gate/shot/trig patterns the same way a MIDI note would. When disabled, the onscreen pattern keys just select the pattern, and don't affect playback in any way.
- Pad overview level faders, locks, and mute/solo buttons (to left of sequencer) respond to "alt/shift"-linking key combinations:- ALT:- apply to all in current colour; SHIFT+ALT:- apply to all in engine; CTRL + (alt, shift+alt):- invert the existing values rather than setting them
- A new option "Retard sequencer (uTicks)" has been added, to retard (delay) the sequencer's timing if the host is being sloppy with its own event timing. The "uTicks" units are 1/4096 of a quarter note - a value of 100 on this setting *should* cure even the sloppiest hosts
- A new option "PPQ Offset" has been added, allowing you to adjust GURU's sync to compensate if the host is sending grossly wrong beat/bar positions. Logic 5.x PC users will find this useful.
- Option: Reset Gates at song start. If you're having problems with Guru not playing the first beat of a gated pattern at song start, try turning this OFF.
- Option: Clip MIDI files to bar when exporting. When enabled, if a pattern is one bar long but the duration of the last note takes its total export length over 1 bar, the MIDI file exporter will clip the pattern to the bar length by shortening the last note.
- Alt+clicking on pattern properties (trigger mode, steps, pages, resolution) changes those properties for all patterns in the engine at once
- ALT and ALT+SHIFT to change graph levels in all graphs (in current colour, in current engine) now works
PAD EDITING
- Can now move the start/end points in PAD EDIT simultaneously (click between the carats).
- Pad Edit wave start/end carats are less fiddly to use.
- In the Pad Editor, the ALT and SHIFT keymodifier commands command now works for dropdown menus and combo boxes as well as knobs. So you can ALT+click to assign all pads in an engine to an output, or all pads to a specific Cut By mode
- ALT applies any edit to all pads in the current row, SHIFT applies edits to all pads in the current column, ALT+SHIFT applies any edit to all pads in the engine.
- Pre Delay per layer, in both musical and millisecond units. A third knob lets you set the resolution of the musical units.
- Layer context menu with Cut/Copy/Paste Layer, and per-Layer Mute & Solo
- Sample Reverse. Click the new 'Reverse' button in the pad editor to play samples backwards.
- Guru's audio engine now supports Note Offs. A sample will gate when it receives a note off if the GATE switch is enabled for it in the Pad/Layer editor.
- New layer play modes:- Round Robin and Random (alongside the existing All Layers and Velocity Split modes) (this responds to the same ALT+SHIFT key modifiers as the rest of the Pad Edit controls... TIP: try chopping some longer loops with "Linear" and "Chop" modes selected, then switch all the Pads in to Random mode.
MISCELLANEOUS
- Support for the latest OS versions and plugin technologies:- Pro Tools 7.3, VST 2.4, Windows Vista, OS X 10.4.8, etc.
- Supports DAE mode in MOTU Digital Performer 5.x.
- Drop-out-free audio engine, no more gaps or pauses when previewing
- New Option: Mix Engines direct to sub-outs:- the main outputs of Engines 1-8 are sent directly (with their effects) to sub outputs 1-8. When this option is ON, the Master Effect is applied only to Engine 1.
- On Windows, the standalone version now supports WDM and MME devices directly as well as ASIO
- On OS X, the standalone version now lets you choose whichever CoreAudio device and buffer size you want to use
- Improved CPU performance.
- Improved GUI performance.
- Numerous bug fixes.
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| | | GURU 1.5 AUDIO DEMOS | | | | WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING |
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"I love bringing in GURU as an instrument in my sequencer. It's so easy to use and it has limitless capabilities. It's very quick to get great patterns going and you can get really in depth with the programming as well."
- Ken Jordan - The Crystal Method
"I have FXpansion GURU and it is the best thing to ever happen to me! Finally, no more FL Studio." -6am
"You guys really did it with this update, the randomizer is so sick, the qwerty is dope as hell too. This is the undisputed drummachine champion of the world." -triple p
"This thing is a beast! It does everything... Expensive but worth every penny if your into beat creation... I love the groove function... load in a break then chop it and turn into groove template... Bam! Jaming using the scenes is insanely fun too!" -huggie
"GURU is the best plugin in my collection right now." -skycutter76
"I like phatmatik, but GURU blows it away. watch the guru videos at fxpansion.com -- they are a bit long winded, but half way through you'll see just how powerful Guru is." -nonplus
"Better than anything else on the market."-bread
"My new favourite VST - I love this thing to death. GOD DAMN!"-jiggsaw
"I can honestly say that GURU has become a central part of my music-making process. In fact, it has replaced KONTAKT, BATTERY, many of my soft synths, REASON, my beloved AKAI MPC, and improved my workflow tremendously. Furthermore, it barely eats up any CPU!!!"-kay
"A great way to make beats. I've used it on countless remixes and some originals.
the possibilities within the program are incredible."- Claude VonStroke
“Guru’s vast sample library alone makes it an amazing addition to my studio.” - Christian Martin (dirtybird)
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