I've used recycle for years, but things like kontakt have beatslicing from wav's also
 
I do have geist also, but haven't used it loads.. I would have loved props to make recycle also do batch / editing ..but no, the new version I found worse!!
 
for quick audio chopping to find loop points, I also use wavsaur (which is free) and has things to make it really easy to find bar loop points.
 

dubdisciple
best of luck!  I'm probably going to get geist while sale is on.  It's great having so many tools to choose from

I picked up Geist. Another of those things I swore I would buy if on sale. I just wanted a decent drum sequencer and this has always seemed like the one to have. I tried the demo ages ago and loved it, although apparently it doesn't handle things like 3/4 very well but I'm not going to let that bother me. It seemed like a deal breaker at the time but now...meh. The effects on it are great, especially the filters. 
 
I've also got the latest Battery about to arrive with my Komplete 9 update...I do love Battery but always thought they should have integrated a pattern sequencer with it too. Still, Battery is my go-to for using Jamstix to drive an electronic drum kit. 

sharke
although apparently it doesn't handle things like 3/4 very well

Yikes! 3/4 is pretty bog standard, I guess 11/8 will really confuse it.

I heard back from Peter at Linplug and he says they don't have a copy of X3 to trial their plugins yet - he says RMV runs great in X2. 
My problem report with Cakewalk is CWBRN-22050 - Cake shows as "submitted to development".
 

I held off like you suggested ,,,I have enough toys for the moment ,but i will likely still get it in the next week or so,and hope for the best

I ended up with Geist and have been slowly going through the manual over the past couple of days. It's a very very excellent drum machine indeed. 

sharke, let me know if you can how it handles odd time.  I do a lot in 6/8 and 3/4 , thanks

I

kaylen
sharke, let me know if you can how it handles odd time.  I do a lot in 6/8 and 3/4 , thanks

I'm sure sharke will confirm, but the way it handles odd time is...it doesn't.  You can do some math andpattern length tricks to fake it for some time signatures, but it's kind of messy.  If you are going to do that much work, it kind of elimantes the advantages of working with a tool like Geist.  With that said, what gesi tdoes well, it does exceptionally well.  No doubt it is aimed at the dance and hip hop crowd and it is very very rare that either of those stray outside of 4/4. I have heard a few hip-hop songs in 2/4 but still sounds like 4/4.  Even the few 3/4 ones I have heard in these genres are usually achieved usually 3/4 measures timestretched over 4/4. 

kaylen
sharke, let me know if you can how it handles odd time.  I do a lot in 6/8 and 3/4 , thanks

I haven't really explored it yet to know this for sure, but I think it's doable. You can set the number of steps per pattern, and the value of a step. So I presume if you wanted to work in 3/4 then you could set it for 12 steps instead of the usual 16. What I suspect it won't do, however (and I don't have it in front of me right now to check) is show the correct beat divisions if you're working with an odd time. But that's largely cosmetic. I think I remember reading this as a complaint on the Geist forums ages ago.  
 
I don't yet know how working with odd times would work with its song arranger - perhaps you'll run into a limitation there, but what I do know is that you can trigger your patterns via MIDI, so there's no need to use the arranger...you can just arrange your patterns in Sonar. In fact that's what I suspect I'll end up doing. 
 
All in all though, I'm incredibly impressed by Geist. It's an extremely well designed program and a joy to use. The multi-tool is fantastic - you can for example drag across a track to insert a line of consecutive snare hits, then drag upwards or downwards while pressing ALT and it will fade the velocities in or out across the whole line you just drew. Or you can keep the left button held down and click the right button repeatedly to cycle through a series of common patterns. I'm just super impressed at least once on every page of the manual - the thought that's gone into it is amazing. 
 
And the manual is great! One of the best I've read. It's to the point, unambiguous, clear and understandable. Such a joy to read after reading a not so good manual like Jamstix 
 
Speaking of Jamstix, I reckon these two will pair exceptionally well. I'm also confident about mixing my drums within Geist instead of having to multi-out. The mixer is fantastic and the effects are top notch. There's still room for improvement however - would be nice to be able to insert 3rd party effects in there for instance. I have no doubt that it'll only get better in future updates though. 

Brando
I heard back from Peter at Linplug and he says they don't have a copy of X3 to trial their plugins yet - he says RMV runs great in X2. My problem report with Cakewalk is CWBRN-22050 - Cake shows as "submitted to development". 

interested to hear how this goes good luck!