Thanks mettelus.
 
I'd seen the FXpansion specials emails, but I thought they were all about BFD related items.  I had seen this thread, and then received sort of a final reminder yesterday and when I read the notification more closely I saw it had a brief mention about Geist.  When I went to the specials page way down at the bottom was a link to the Geist bit, and finally connected the dots with this Cinematic Percussion thread.
 
Yeah, it's great.  Totally went for it.  Thanks for the heads up.

I gave up on Geist as my eyes couldn't handle the dinky gui... hope they fix this someday!

I am not sure if they will update Geist, or that it is a high priority for them. I have found a few things that bother me with the GUI but they are not showstoppers (fortunately). The more I delve into it, the more I realize how truly complex and well thought out it is. Brief mentions in the user's guide turn out to be very dynamic components that require some time investment to fully understand. The most impressive thing to me is that Geist is version 1.0.0 (never been updated!!)... that is a huge testament to how well though out the program was.
 
I am definitely gravitating to the "engine mindset" when laying out drum sets now as Smokey mentioned. With 8 engines available, it makes chopping and swapping the easiest method by far (plus can use a couple engines for exotic sounds and swap pads as needed).
 
My nemesis tends to be "too many samples"... and is not only with Geist but everything I own! There is definitely a market for a Windows global browser that allows a user to rate samples (for any program).

I'm coming up to speed with Geist. Obviously a deep and powerful tool. Lots of things I like, including the UI.

You often can't compare things that are different - in the sense of saying which is better. Like apples and oranges. Yet both are fruit. And you might tend to liking one more than another, but still liking both for different reasons.

Such is the case with me between Stylus RMX and Geist. Different, both powerful, both excellent.

Presently I'm more of a Stylus RMX fan. It's awesome. But I recognize I can get great satisfaction from Geist and am experimenting and learning it.

But as far as contrasts, I get a heck of a lot out of Stylus RMX and never come up empty for creative ideas.

Geist is one of my most used VST's. I certainly use Battery a lot less since getting it, although Battery is fantastic also - just in different ways. You really are spoiled for choice with Geist when it comes to song and pattern arrangement though. I think I started off composing patterns in Geist and triggering those patterns via MIDI, now I'm really enjoying using the song arranger. It's great to be able to do everything inside the VST, although you really have to keep on top of the sync between Geist and Sonar. By which I mean, if you happen to insert measures into the Sonar project, Geist does not insert the measures at it's end, you have to insert them manually yourself (which is actually no big deal). 
 
But there are two other arrangement techniques Geist facilitates that I have yet to delve into - one is dragging patterns from Geist into a MIDI track in the host, the other is the "scenes" feature. I love the idea of dragging patterns into Sonar, but I'm not sure how it maps the pattern graphs to CC's. I'm sure it's all very well thought out and logical but I've just never attempted it in a project yet. Scenes are a very cool feature - you can save the whole state of Geist (i.e. which patterns are playing across all 8 engines) as multiple scenes and then trigger them via MIDI. I can see that being a boon for live performance, and indeed as part of a project, but I've never got around to incorporating it into my workflow yet. Perhaps in my next project. 
 
I just took advantage of the sale and bought Goldbaby Synthetic, Cinematic Percussion and BFD Remix. A bargain at $54 for all 3. Downloading them now so I haven't played with them, but they all sounded great in the demos. I'm a sucker for new kits and loops. Slicing up loops is my absolute favorite thing to do with Geist. I love how easy it is to edit samples and apply envelopes to them etc. The workflow is just so smooth and intuitive. Yes it has an itty bitty interface but I really don't mind that now. 

mettelus
The most impressive thing to me is that Geist is version 1.0.0 (never been updated!!)... that is a huge testament to how well though out the program was.

Have a look in your FXPansion account, it is currently at version "Geist - V.1.1.3.2" released on 2014-12-03.

Thank you for the heads up. I actually had v1.1.1.8 installed (my original download) and there is a "check for updates" option in it that seemed to do something, but then stopped. The v1.1.3.2 has these menu options changed so you basically need to visit the web site now to check.

I have found the easiest way to check for updates is to use their license manager (you may need to download the latest version which also lets you deactivate licenses), there is an option to check for updates. This will go through all your installed FXEpansion vsts and let you download any updates.

Personally I like the way TH2 and Mark Studio brings up a dialog when there's a new update available - you have to select "update" or "not at this time" to dismiss it. Might be annoying for some, but I appreciate the in-your-face reminders. 

I started a technique thread related to Geist in the Techniques section.
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...-m3165220.aspx#3165220