Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[w00t]

hi all Im getting my way around JS2, but would like some tips from some more experienced users about some stuff im trying to accomplish.


i have a song im working on, which as of now is just acGuitar chords and Jamstix "steve" drummer doing some 16th rock parts. now i used his basic jamming with no input to be my "metronome" so to speak, and used that as a groove to create the rhythm chords.


so now the chords are layed down, and now i want to get the drum parts right and add the rest of my instrumentation after that. my plan is to audio record multitracked 8 outs of jamstix into either REAPER or ext2, and play with variations for a while. then after i get enough good parts, i will chop and edit and pick which pieces best fit the puzzle. but the one problem i have is getting the drummer to keep doing "breaks". i would like to record some regular passages, and then have the drummer keep playing "breaks" with slight variation till i have a good amount (lets say for example 8-16 break bars) and then if possible some minimal beats for intro outro and transitions... whats the best way to get the drummer to keep playing different break bars over and over so i can record the audio and edit them and place in different parts later? i hope this makes sense



thanks for any insight.

[ProfRhino]

Why don't you record JS2's MIDI out instead of audio ?
Then you can edit the MIDI parts, much simpler and more powerful than editing 8 tracks of audio, since more often than not the perfect fill just has one or two notes more or less than what you already have, easily edited in your host's drum editor.
I take it you're using a simple, non-structured jam like the quickstarts ?
If you need more fills, just set part length to "1" and check repetition fills, voila - fills all over.
Or play around with Animal - he's the fill extremist !
For more sparse parts, before fiddling with the brain settings (which are very powerful and detailed) simply check out what the big power knob does - maybe that's already all the variation you need.
That way you should have more than enough material to assemble your drumtrack.
Hope that helps,
Rhino

Of course that's only one of many ways of working, I was keeping as close as possible to your original idea.

[w00t]

[ProfRhino]

Cool, have fun !
Another tip, probably too obvious, but still the way to go imho if you start out like you described.
When assembling your final drumtrack using JS' parts don't be afraid of looping in your host.
I tend to slowly work through the complete song beginning to end, starting with looping the intro, then the 1st verse and so on, replacing the "metronome drums" with better fitting bars where applicable.
Quite often I even loop single bars until I'm happy.
In case I don't find the perfect bar in my collection it's relatively easy to edit an existing bar to taste. One note here, delete another, it takes a bit of time to get used to that method, but what have you got to lose ?
And don't forget about changing velocities if needed.
Or simply record another MIDI track full of JS ideas, changing the brain settings a bit or even trying a different drummer if you need more material.
Cheers,
Rhino

[w00t]

[Musikman4Christ]

[Doc]

[Musikman4Christ]

Thanks Rhino,

Thants exactly how I want to work. I love the fact that Live lets me work on the song in sections just like JS does. Thats why I feel JS and LIve go hand in hand. Thank you Ralph for designing JS this way, it really is awsome to be able to concentrate on only say the first verse, then the Chorus, and so on and so forth.

I am still trying to figure out why JS sounds really weird, specially the Snares, when I record JS midi output into Live then when I put JS as a drum module to playback the midi recorded in Live, the Snare sounds really digital, its kind of weird, but I wonder if it happens to just me.

Either way, Im going to continue to work like this, then when my whole song is ready or pretty much completed Im going to move on to the arrangement view in Live and let JS play all the way through.
_________________
Musikman
"I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope." When you wholeheartedly seek me, I will let you find me, declares the Lord."Jeremiah 29:11

[ProfRhino]