jamstix vs. other "virtual drummers" - Page 2

Sheppola · 12-23-2010, 06:13 AM

I didn't bother with the Sub hosting as I had already messed with firing other drum samples using Reaper.

A couple of weeks ago I was just messing around and loaded Addictive Drums demo on a track next to Jamstix and then routed what I wanted from JS3 and AD and came up with this,

http://www.box.net/shared/c45pbfh6hm

and here's the track template.

http://www.box.net/shared/gc1qkkyloz

Just make sure you have JS installed and Addictive drums demo and it should work.

I used Antress Modern Deathcore Distortion compressor on the AD track.

http://antress.er-webs.com/

Wolffman · 12-24-2010, 01:25 AM

Great sound Sheppola !!

Cheers

carbon · 12-27-2010, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheppola

There's lots of ways of doing things like that e.g

If you say want an 8 bar section you can make it a 4 time 2 bar section repeated very easy in it's song editor and then tick it's transition fills and then every four bars something different will be played.
You can also move the,"Power" controls any time you like whilst something is playing and that will vary things as will the feel controls.It is really so absolutely revolutionary that it's like chalk-and-cheese with the normal way one would construct midi drum files.

I got the Jamstix

And...
1) Imported a MIDI groove.
2) Set a loop in REAPER with a MIDI note at the beginning
3) Used the "Recomposition trigger" feature in Jamstix to create a new variation at the beginning of each loop.

There might be another way, but it works.

Also...
I'm using Superior Drummer Metal Foundry in the chain after Jamstix.
Found a nice "trick" - using the "Standard Classic" kit in Jamsix in parallel, but only the ambience part of it with "Amb to last" in the mixer and only the last fader up.

jazzmandan · 12-27-2010, 07:31 AM

Great thread guys - your all pushing me over the edge with one last xmas present to myself.

carbon · 01-02-2011, 01:58 PM

I made a simple test to educate myself about the differences of the drummers in Jamstix.
Maybe it's useful to somebody else too.

https://stash.reaper.fm/oldsb/453479/...2011-01-02.mp3

I used the "Import" style, imported a MIDI loop from Superior Drummer NY Avatar, composed a verse and changed the drummers.

The first 4 bars are the original 2 bar loop played two times.
Then the drummers play 4 bars each.

00:00 Original
00:07 Aaron
00:15 Animal
00:22 Brush Player
00:29 Carmine
00:37 Carter
00:44 Chad
00:52 Charlie
00:59 James Stix
01:06 John
01:14 Machine
01:21 Mark
01:28 Phil
01:36 Roger
01:43 Silent
01:50 Steve
01:58 Stewart
02:05 Tony

Overall I preferred the drummers that changed the original the least

That might be different if the starting point of the groove was crappier.

trialstech · 01-14-2011, 06:44 PM

Well, I picked up JamStix while it was on sale in Dec as well. Maybe starting to get the hang of it-- just will take some time. Loaded in midi tracks to parts and programmed drummer, etc. After a while, the drummer takes a nap

Hits the snare every once in a while, kind of stops doing stuff. I'm sure it must be my lack of knowledge about how to use the tool properly, so not worried about it right now. It does seem to do some neat things.

A thing I noticed which may be true with any VSTi, is that I have installed both 64 and 32 bit versions of Reaper, and had to make sure I loaded the proper DLL in the VST path for the version being run. Somehow during install I had things bridged I think when they shouldn't have been. Had some sudden crashes. I think I have sorted that out.

Hope it gets better... Pretty much just need some time to experiment.

Sheppola · 01-14-2011, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trialstech

Well, I picked up JamStix while it was on sale in Dec as well. Maybe starting to get the hang of it-- just will take some time. Loaded in midi tracks to parts and programmed drummer, etc. After a while, the drummer takes a nap

Hits the snare every once in a while, kind of stops doing stuff. I'm sure it must be my lack of knowledge about how to use the tool properly, so not worried about it right now. It does seem to do some neat things.

A thing I noticed which may be true with any VSTi, is that I have installed both 64 and 32 bit versions of Reaper, and had to make sure I loaded the proper DLL in the VST path for the version being run. Somehow during install I had things bridged I think when they shouldn't have been. Had some sudden crashes. I think I have sorted that out.

Hope it gets better... Pretty much just need some time to experiment.

There's a good forum to join,

http://rayzoon2.com/forum/

and you don't actually need to load any midi files in JS if you don't want to.I've not used a midi drum file for a couple of years

Lokasenna · 01-14-2011, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trialstech

Loaded in midi tracks to parts and programmed drummer, etc. After a while, the drummer takes a nap

Hits the snare every once in a while, kind of stops doing stuff.

Sounds to me like you've got a blank part in your Jamstix "song", so the drummer is just sitting there and occasionally coming up with something in the Accent tab to play.

If you save the song and post it, I can have a look.

Ed Zeppeli · 01-14-2011, 07:06 PM

any suggestions as to a good dry kick sound in Jamstix EX? I'm finding any ones I come across too boomy.

Lokasenna · 01-14-2011, 07:18 PM

I assume you mean Jamstix XL, which I don't have, so I can't suggest any kicks from it, but there are two things to note - any kicks that have "CS" in the name are close miked, and won't come with any ambience, which is where a lot of the "oom" in your "boom" is coming from. The ones in the Metal Pak go from a boom to a typical speed-metal click when you switch to the CS version.

If you can find a kick that you like but is just too boomy, make sure the Ambience knob is turned all the way down, and try playing with the Damping knob to see if you can kill enough of the noise to make it usable. If that still doesn't do it, get a transient designer plugin like digitalfishphones Blockfish, throw it on your kick track (assuming you're using multiple outputs from Jamstix), and use it to kill the release on each kick hit.

Ed Zeppeli · 01-14-2011, 07:22 PM

Those are great suggestions. Thanks much, you've given me a few things to try out.

Cheers,

Warren

Sheppola · 01-14-2011, 07:30 PM

Also there's a lot of bottom end on a lot of the kicks that can be tamed depending on the style of music it's being used on.

Put this little ReaEQ chain on the Jamstix track or if you are multi out then the kick drum,

http://www.box.net/shared/dtxfknkz36

then move the left hand side High pass marker to the right until you hear/feel the kick get clearer but keep it's depth.You can of course add more points and mess with the EQ to get more punch if you want.

shemp · 01-14-2011, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheppola

Also there's a lot of bottom end on a lot of the kicks that can be tamed depending on the style of music it's being used on.

Put this little ReaEQ chain on the Jamstix track or if you are multi out then the kick drum,

http://www.box.net/shared/dtxfknkz36

then move the left hand side High pass marker to the right until you hear/feel the kick get clearer but keep it's depth.You can of course add more points and mess with the EQ to get more punch if you want.

damn you are up late!

Shep and Lokasenna got it all covered but if all else fails, you can send the kick drum midi that Jamstix generates to another sampler. The Addictive Drums Demo is free and has some good kick sounds.

Burillo · 01-14-2011, 09:07 PM

since i bought Jamstix i forgot how to edit drums by hand :-D haven't looked at similar software though, i heard mDrummer is somewhat similar but didn't try it

Sheppola · 01-15-2011, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burillo

since i bought Jamstix i forgot how to edit drums by hand :-D haven't looked at similar software though, i heard mDrummer is somewhat similar but didn't try it

Since using Jamstix I could never go back to the tedium of Hand midi note programming.Even if you do hand edit in JS it's fun and easy :O)

PerunZG · 01-15-2011, 02:50 AM

I own JS3 for some time now. It's really useful and works great, once you learn how to use it properly. Meaning - to go beyond generic styles/drummers, which btw do their job marvelously.

In fact, you can learn a lot about programming drums just by exploring JS's bar editor. There's nothing more fulfilling (to me) to progam the whole drum track myself, but it can become quite a task if you go for something complex.

It takes quite a while to get used to it (it's not the easiest software to use), but once there, there's little all those drummers cannot do.

Since I prefer progressive, Danny (Carey, from Tool) is my favourite.

Did I mention that you can subhost many different drum samplers/apps directly from JS? Superior, EZDrummmer, Addictive, etc.

Some of the drummers included: Aaron Scott, Animal from Muppets, Carmine Appice, Carter Beauford, Chad Smith, Charlie Watts, Danny Carey, Jason Gianni, John Bonham, Lars Ulrich, Mark Brzezicki, Mike Portnoy, Neil Peart, Noah Bernardo, Phil Collins, Roger Taylor, Steve Gadd, Stewart Copeland, Tony Thompson...

note:

Some of the mentioned drummers are available through expansion sets.

chukachuka · 03-31-2011, 03:09 AM

Also you could try Mandelbrot Drummer to make some interesting patterns

EddieRoss · 03-31-2011, 05:23 AM

On jamstix. To get all worked out for me I had to download a couple of times. First couple of times were not right somehow. Just wrote Ralph and he set It up so I could keep going at It. I was going to a new comp and wanted to get It all worked out before all that. It works great now. E.

Sheppola · 03-31-2011, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieRoss

On jamstix. To get all worked out for me I had to download a couple of times. First couple of times were not right somehow. Just wrote Ralph and he set It up so I could keep going at It. I was going to a new comp and wanted to get It all worked out before all that. It works great now. E.

Ralph's tireless support is worth every penny of the software just like Reaper