I totally agree with the posts above on GA as having lost it´s way. And sadly so too as GA 2 and 3 were quite usable even if the samples and sound quality could have been better. It seems sad that Steinberg, who in Cubase has such a good and creative friendly concept that really makes it easy to go with the creative flow in your music making, seems stuck on the teenage techno thing. They have it in their hands to do something really good, but no! There appears to be something wrong in the leadership of Steinberg, sadly.
I just want to say, when talking about competitors as EZ drummer and such. EZ is all rightish, but those of you who have the chance. Try Digidesign /Avid´s “Strike2” and you´ll find you´re suddenly in a totally different league. The sound samples makes you wake up and wonder what you´ve been doing all the time. Makes you think you´ve never heard a professional drum sampler/plugin before. Of course it is limited to work in the protools environment! It´s just miles of difference in terms of sound quality. That is what one would wish GA4 to be in the VST environment but sadly no!
(As a footnote I´d like to add too that my experiences of testing the plain audio signal of ProTools, Logic and Cubase, nothing beats ProTools in terms of naturalness, headroom, breathing and cleanness) Logic and Cubase are far behind, still after all these years! Doesn´t differ much, but it differs. And it might just be that difference that makes all the difference to your tracks! OR not, the Cubase sound also works in many contexts, but it´s different)
I often defend Steinberg for it´s user friendliness in relation to the other DAW´s, but I cannot do that for the GA4 plug. I think it time Steinberg takes a real think through on what they are doing. It makes you just so sad to see it fall of the ladder…
When will Steinberg see the diamond they hold in their hand…?