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colorado_57
Junior Jammer
Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 16
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 Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 9:38 pm Post subject: New user fundamentally confused-have mercy! |
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Hi all,
I just bought JS, have been playing with it and read the manual. I like it but I think there are some fundamental concepts I'm not getting.
1a. Is this true? If I do a jam (no input) and then play it again, it plays the exact same drum pattern as long as I don't touch any controls.
1b. If I want to then get JS to give me a new pattern, I hit recompose.
1c. Alternately, I could change values in the brain and that would automatically force a recompose.
1d. So how does reset differ from recompose?
2. I can mark a song as frozen, composed or locked. What is the difference? Why choose one over the other?
3. Let's say I want to have a verse be quieter and use a hihat. I want the chorus to be louder and switch to a crash. I assume I want to send JS two different power levels, one for verse, one for chorus and then use powerhand to switch hihat and crash. But how do I actually set the two power levels? What is the easiest way to make that happen? Do I use a MIDI signal? If so how? Or is there a totally diferent easier way to do this?
4. Redirection and Powerhand seem to be very similar. When would I use one rather than the other? Powerhand seems to be triggered by "power." But what triggers redirection?
5. Using either:
a. accents or
b. a combo of groove weights, feel and reduction
seem to be very similar. What's the difference? When do you use which?
Thanks in advance. |
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sammy24
Jamologist
Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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hey there, ok here goes:
| Quote: | | 1a. Is this true? If I do a jam (no input) and then play it again, it plays the exact same drum pattern as long as I don't touch any controls. |
Yes, it will play back the same way every time, if you do not change any controls.
| Quote: | | 1b. If I want to then get JS to give me a new pattern, I hit recompose |
If u recompose the whole part, it will then recompose the core bars of the part, which may change the pattern. Keep in mind, however, that the composition process is based on the controls u set, as well as the basic style you're using (or imported rhythm or midi file). So just hitting recompose without changing any controls will probably not make too drastic a change. It is probably more common to 1. change parameters/controls for the part, and jamstix will then automatically recompose it with the new parameters in mind. 2. recompose just the fills or accents in a part or even a specific bar. (becuase this will certainly change, even without changing any parameters.) But there are various ways of working. Try them out and see what you come up with.
| Quote: | | 2. I can mark a song as frozen, composed or locked. What is the difference? Why choose one over the other? |
Freezing will freeze the entire song only (not specific bars or parts) and will additionally unload the internal drum samples to ease the burden on your RAM. Locking bars merely stops the "brain" from recomposing the bar or part or song. Now, marking as composed, i believe, would be used for example if you would manually delete some notes from a bar. If you do not mark it as composed, i think, the brain will still compose notes for it, based on the core bars. But if you mark as composed, it will leave whatever you deleted the way it is, unless you change paramaters or hit recompose. If you lock instead, then recompose won't even work, nor will changing any controls. I will check this out further if i get a chance, just to make sure im giving u accurate info.
| Quote: | | 3. Let's say I want to have a verse be quieter and use a hihat. I want the chorus to be louder and switch to a crash. I assume I want to send JS two different power levels, one for verse, one for chorus and then use powerhand to switch hihat and crash. But how do I actually set the two power levels? What is the easiest way to make that happen? Do I use a MIDI signal? If so how? Or is there a totally diferent easier way to do this? |
One way to do this is to use midi automation, meaning set the "power" knob to a midi controller, and then add this data to your track (or to a different track with the same midi channel) in your sequencer, and just adjust the power knob as the song goes along.
Alternatively, you could set each section as a different part, and in the verse section, set the powerhand to change only at the highest "power level". This will ensure it remains playing the hihat, as long as th power knob is not set fully to the right. Then in your chorus section's part, set the powerhand level much much lower. This will ensure that you only get crash, or ride, or whatever you have set up as your power hand.
| Quote: | | 4. Redirection and Powerhand seem to be very similar. When would I use one rather than the other? Powerhand seems to be triggered by "power." But what triggers redirection? |
To explain redirection, here's an example: Jamstix is playing a part based on an imported groove, that has eighth note hihats. This is how the groove is set. So you can simply redirect these notes to other hits, so that the hihat notes will be played on the snare instead. U are simply replacing the notes for one hit-type with another. It is not at all based on power. You can even make all hits redirected to "light cymbals", or other such applications. Powerhand is a little similar, but it's much more specific. drummers often raise the level/tension with a small change to semi-open hats, open hats, ride or even crash cymbals. This is purely to add power/dimension at appropriate times. And the choice to use which type is based sompletely on the power level. redirection can be used in a much more creative and original manner, to play kick notes on Tom 3,or something. U can replace all the notes, or just a certain percentage.
| Quote: | 5. Using either:
a. accents or
b. a combo of groove weights, feel and reduction
seem to be very similar. What's the difference? When do you use which? |
Not sure if i understand your q. Accents are added hits, that a drummer throws in every so often to add a little "spice" and variety to the underlying groove. Groove weights, on the other hand, affect the actual composition process by basically giving a rhythmic layout of where the hits should take place within a bar. Like if you want normally unaccented beats to be accented or something.
Hope this helps. Welcome, btw, once you get the hang of it you'll wonder, just like the rest of us, how people who don't use jamstix compose their rhythm tracks. (I mean, i know how, but Jamstix gives superior results with minimal effort.)
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colorado_57
Junior Jammer
Joined: 20 Aug 2008
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:06 pm Post subject: |
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Hey sammy24,
thanks for all the useful information, it helps a lot. |
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sammy24
Jamologist
Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 138
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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| You're welcome. |
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