Egoist vs OT

JohnWynberg · 2014-11-21T22:52:10.000Z

Today I was considering purchasing a copy of Sugar Bytes’ Egoist, but the more I read, the more I thought I can do that with the OctaTrack, so not sure it is worth also having the app. Of course, if you don’t have an OT, the app is a lot cheaper, and some people might find the interface more explicit and immediate, but in general, I find iPad apps difficult to concentrate (and have even less patience with VST’s). However, I’m still considering Egoist, thinking it can make me rethink and improve some of my OT workflow. Any thoughts, comparisons between Egoist and OT?

alex3368 · 2014-11-21T23:23:03.000Z

same problem here dude,
I can’t decide if I’m fine with the Buchla 200 or I’d better give a try this new Reason 8 thing, they say it rocks

navarre · 2014-11-22T00:52:42.000Z

""alex3368"":

same problem here dude,
I can’t decide if I’m fine with the Buchla 200 or I’d better give a try this new Reason 8 thing, they say it rocks

I’ve the same problem here boys, considering a H8000FW some Waves suite ?
@JohnWynberg
Sugar Bytes plugin are greats. Not a word against. But OT seems another world. Just get mine tonight. The only thing i just feel : a f*cking imaginative bitch. It’s the ear that touch these mechanical switches. It’s sooo quick, and sooo good, despite the learning curve : once you get it, it’s paradise. You won’t get it with any plugins. And i loved a lot of them - Geist the first, considering groove boxes, i first used it on an Open Labs DBeat !!! and the MPC Renaissance. For the Renaissance, i instantly knew how to use it. But i had much more pleasure with the analog rytm, so sexy and fast, and i expect the same with octatrack or A4 and MD ! I still use the Elektron with Live 9 and push, i precise : i prepare the samples for the OT… Once you’ve touched Elektron gears, it’s a spell. A decisive experience.

Accent · 2014-11-22T00:54:26.000Z

I was going to resist, but in my drunken state last night I broke down and got it.

It isn’t going to replace your OT, but it’s a lot of fun. I spent about an hour and a half with it today and would say it’s worth buying. I actually wish the OT had the randomization features from Egoist, as they’re really cool for getting ideas going. I haven’t tried pairing it with the OT yet, but I’ll give that a go over the weekend.

subq · 2014-11-22T02:12:58.000Z

I had an itchy click finger for this one too but resisted.

I have a ton of iPad apps and they simply don’t get used all that much.

JohnWynberg · 2014-11-22T09:51:44.000Z

""Accent"":

I was going to resist, but in my drunken state last night I broke down and got it.

It isn’t going to replace your OT, but it’s a lot of fun. I spent about an hour and a half with it today and would say it’s worth buying. I actually wish the OT had the randomization features from Egoist, as they’re really cool for getting ideas going. I haven’t tried pairing it with the OT yet, but I’ll give that a go over the weekend.

Interesting. I might reconsider Egoist for the randomisation feature. I’m curious if it can also aport something to the overall workflow. What do you think? Though I’m also afraid it might be too formulaic, like a big template that I don’t really need with the OT. Nevertheless, sometimes it helps to learn a few formulas that ‘work’, in order to forget them.
Like @subq, I also got lots of apps and vst’s, so the only thing that stopped me from trying Egoist (apologies for the misname initially) is the thought it might just end up being one more among the hundred amazing apps I got there and I hardly use.
@alex3368, I would go for the Buchla, if I could afford one. I tried Reason a few years ago, can’t remember if it was 7 or 6, and it was beyond me. I was so uninterested. I prefer Live and Logic. I know a lot could have changed between versions, but after years of accumulating software, I have come to realise I’m more of a hardware guy, sort of. But don’t want this thread to become a general software vs hardware topic, discussed so many times.
Just curious if Egoist has something OT users can learn from.

robotunes · 2014-11-22T20:21:27.000Z

been using egoist since it came out last summer as a vst.

egoist does SOME of what OT does but is much faster. i quickly create tracks and tons of variations in egoist then import the stems – sliced-up sample, bassline and drum loop – into OT’s sample list so i can get busy.

before egoist, i would use OT to create stems from scratch and then get busy. egoist speeds up that process, so for me there’s no overlap.

egoist is basically a p-lock machine, so it can help you visualize what OT does. that can improve your approach to OT. after egoist i started p-locking parameters i hadn’t considered before, namely stuff on the AMP pages. egoist also got me using parts and sample locks all the time instead of just some of the time.

one big advantage for the OT is that it can turn any sound into a 1-osc pad. egoist can’t do pads. you can fake them with effects and a smartly sliced sample, but some tracks feel either beautifully sparse or like they’re missing something. OT’s 8 tracks give you more versatile arrangements than egoist’s 3, so you can be minimal or dense or anything in between.

even though i have the vst, i’ll be getting the app because my ipad and iphone feed my OT and microsampler. now i can feed my apps to egoist before shredding them in OT, without booting up the computer. yay.

will keep using the vst because the computer feeds my vsynth.

when it came out, i wondered why it wasn’t an app. it felt like it was designed with the ipad in mind. maybe it didn’t meet sugarbytes’ sales projections as mac/pc software so they ported it to the ipad sooner than expected.

my OT is glad they did.

Accent · 2014-11-23T05:08:11.000Z

Doug from The Sound Test Room posted an in-depth video of Egoist for iOS earlier:
http://www.thesoundtestroom.com/egoist-epic-guide/

I’ve gotta say that this is probably one of the most fun apps I’ve used. Totally worthwhile impulse buy. I haven’t tried hooking it up to my OT yet, but if I can figure out a way to send it tempo/transport (and maybe midi CC) without note data so I can use the internal sequencer, this might become an essential app for me…and if nothing else, it’s probably the most fun I’ve had sitting on the couch and jamming in quite some time. It’s no match for the OT, but it gets points for simplicity and fun. I’m finding it much easier to bang out patterns and combine them into workable tracks than the OT for sure, just because of the interface. I had more or less abandoned the computer as a creative tool by the time this was released as a VSTi, but going from my previous experiences, I think the Sugar Bytes apps on iOS are far more useful and interactive than their computer counterparts, especially for Elektronauts. Worth the $20 for sure.

JohnWynberg · 2014-11-23T09:59:06.000Z

""robotunes"":

been using egoist since it came out last summer as a vst.

egoist does SOME of what OT does but is much faster. i quickly create tracks and tons of variations in egoist then import the stems – sliced-up sample, bassline and drum loop – into OT’s sample list so i can get busy.

before egoist, i would use OT to create stems from scratch and then get busy. egoist speeds up that process, so for me there’s no overlap.

egoist is basically a p-lock machine, so it can help you visualize what OT does. that can improve your approach to OT. after egoist i started p-locking parameters i hadn’t considered before, namely stuff on the AMP pages. egoist also got me using parts and sample locks all the time instead of just some of the time.

one big advantage for the OT is that it can turn any sound into a 1-osc pad. egoist can’t do pads. you can fake them with effects and a smartly sliced sample, but some tracks feel either beautifully sparse or like they’re missing something. OT’s 8 tracks give you more versatile arrangements than egoist’s 3, so you can be minimal or dense or anything in between.

even though i have the vst, i’ll be getting the app because my ipad and iphone feed my OT and microsampler. now i can feed my apps to egoist before shredding them in OT, without booting up the computer. yay.

will keep using the vst because the computer feeds my vsynth.

when it came out, i wondered why it wasn’t an app. it felt like it was designed with the ipad in mind. maybe it didn’t meet sugarbytes’ sales projections as mac/pc software so they ported it to the ipad sooner than expected.

my OT is glad they did.

Thanks! That’s exactly what I wanted to know. I’ll be getting Egoist soon, before the introductory sale runs out.

Accent · 2014-11-29T04:00:47.000Z

A little trick that I figured out yesterday using Egoist with the OT, by way of MidiBridge:

With MidiBridge, you can block Egoist from receiving notes from an external source, thus allowing you to program things in Egoist and use it in conjunction with the OT without dedicating a channel to it. Of course, you could do that if you like, either for programming sequences or CC control, but at least for myself I think it’s more useful to treat Egoist as a standalone groovebox and sync it to the OT.

This also works for other sequencing apps-I started getting way more from Thesys this way, using it as an alternative type of sequencer synced to the OT. In general, I see this as a way to maybe add some different flavors of sequencing without needing to dedicate channels from the OT. I suppose it’s more of a tip for MidiBridge than anything, but if you don’t already have that app, it’s worth the money.