Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[digitalnoiser_01]

First of all I would like thanks Ralph for the excellent work for Jamstix 3. It is a great piece of software, I've tried it on an old PC laptop that I have and I found it amazing...but...
I know this a thing that is been discussed million times...
But I've found topics that are from 3 years ago saying that a Mac OSX version is in "progress".
I think that now things are really changed from then and I know for sure that a great part of the market is switched to Mac computers and OSX.
I've tried to use Jamstix on my mac using the guide on the forum but I was not able to do anything, even get Reaper works under Crossover or Wine...
And just to send midi data out of the software...
I buyed the upgrade only in the hope that "my money" (I know it's a little percentage but if you think that I'm not able to use it....) will help Rayzoon to grow up and finally release a version for OSX.
Please Ralph, let us know if you have planned to release it in the current year, if you have a percentage of "progress status" and other things related to the topic.
Good Luck!!

[Ralph [RZ]]

Jamstix OSX is our priority for the rest of 2010. I can't be more specific than that, wish I could but I just can't.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[digitalnoiser_01]

Thanks for your quick reply Ralph, keep the good work for the "rest" of us

[vaikl]

I'm just playing on my iMac with Jamstix3 in Live8 on a Parallels Virtual XP Machine and triggering BFD2 in Live8 on OSX!

Routing MIDI data over the integrated ethernet port from Paralles using ipMIDI from Nerds ( http://nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html ) into OSX works absolutely fantastic. It's like christmas!!

Ok, it's not the cheap alternative, but 80 Euro for Parallels Desktop and another 70 Euro for ipMIDI helps me over the waiting for the OSX version of JS. And these are very sophisticated tools for many other purposes too!

[vaikl]

I forgot: MIDI sync works in both directions (in Live), so you can control JS on the Windows VM and drum engines in OSX on whatever platform you like. Needs a bit fine adjusting, but seems stable enough.

[digitalnoiser_01]

Hi Vaikl, can you please tell me what I need to do that?
First of all, how many GB I need on my drive to install XP?
Can I install it on another partition or I have to install it on my main drive?
On the XP side do I have to install all the drivers of the devices that I have?
Do you have pictues of your IpMidi setup?
Sorry for that, but I'm quite new to this "virtualization" process...
Basically, I need the same thing as you, All I need is "midi" from Jamstix to drive Superior Drummer 2 on Logic.
Thanks!

[Ralph [RZ]]

Vaikl, if you write up a quick guide to your setup, I'll mark it as a sticky so others can find it easily.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[vaikl]

Ok, i'll try to keep it simple. If any questions occur, i'll answer them if possible.

My setup is a 27" iMac i5 quad with 8GB RAM, 1TB disk and OSX 10.6.3.

1.) You need Parallels Desktop for Mac Version 5 and above, available here: http://www.parallels.com/, and a clean Windows installation disk. With Parallels you can setup and run different OS like Windows 7, XP, several Linuxes all in parallel as Virtual Machines, but for my test i use Windows XP Pro SP3.

I cannot describe the Parallels setup and configuration in detail here, but it's worth to spend some time on the good manuals and the initial setup is guided and simple. After the program is installed and ready you are able to install XP just the way you would on a normal PC. After that you have to install an OS-specific pack of tools which is also provided by Parallels Desktop. All necessary items to let XP run under OSX are configured automatically. There's no need for additional drivers for external hardware because all audio is handled via OSX. I recommend ASIO4ALL as the audio driver on the VM.

You are also able to copy and install an existing Windows PC system partition one to one via a LAN connection. It's like re-installing from a C: partition backup. You'll need a little app running on that windows machine; it's free available from Parallels. There are many, many more features in Parallels Desktop to play with;-)

After installation of Windows is done you can finetune the VM. I've set up mine with 2GB RAM and have no problems with running bigger apps on both OSX and XP in parallel, even a Ubuntu Linux VM with 2GB RAM can run beside the others.
You can also share your Mac folders and all the "My documents" folders on the Windows VM, but that seems to lead in a problem with Jamstix as described in the other thread. Ralph is working on that, but you can disable sharing and work with a normal "My documents" folder in XP.

The VM is provided with a virtual ethernet port to communicate with OSX and getting LAN or internet access. It is connected with an IP address via DHCP. This is the important link for using ipMIDI, the next step.


2.) Get ipMIDI from here: http://nerds.de/en/ipmidi.html. You can try it for 60 minutes runtime on every reboot 30 days long. Later you only pay for the Windows app; the app needed on the OSX side is a free download!

ipMIDI does exactly what it is named for: It prepares Windows to provide up to 20 ethernet "channels" (they are ports) to send and receive MIDI data over them via IP. There's nothing big to configure - install it, then a little task bar icon is displayed and by clicking right on it you can select which number of channels you want to use (after a reboot) and, if necessary, you can "mute" single or all channels. That's all (the "loop" feature is described in the ipMIDI manual, but doesn't interest here). See

On the Mac side ipMIDI installs itself as a object in the MIDI configuration pane available in the Audio/MIDI configuration app. There you can select the number of channels as described above for Windows. Ready you go to setup Live!


3.) Run Live (i have 8.1.3) on OSX and open the preferences window. In the MIDI Sync tab you'll see one or more new MIDI ports, depending on how much channels you have ipMIDI configured to use (see above). They are labeled "ipMIDI (Port x)" where x is a number between 1 and 20. You now have to activate the Track switch of the input ports you want to use. To test the JS3/BFD-setup i use the first input, "ipMIDI (Port 1)".

If you want to synchronize Live on Windows with Live on OSX you also must switch the Sync option of one of the ipMIDI ports on, so that the MIDI sync signals can be routed between the two Live instances. To get to fast results i have activated both, an input and an output ipMIDI port with Track and Sync both activated. That's not ideal, you could test some combinations for yourself.

Last step in OSX: Load a drum engine in a Live MIDI track (i use BFD2 in this example). Select "ipMIDI (port1)" under the "MIDI from" popup as input. Leave the rest as you like. Over to XP now.


4.) Start your Windows VM and load Live. Go to the preferences window and do exactly the same things you've done in the OSX instance of Live (making the track and sync switches for input and output ipMIDI (for this example) active). Note that these MIDI ports here are labeled "x Ethernet MIDI" where x is also numbered from 1 to 20!

Load Jamstix3 in a MIDI track, go to its Mixer view and make the "MIDI only" switch active. Now you will hear no sound of JS in the Windows instance of Live, but he MIDI notes will be sent.

Make a new MIDI track and select the Jamstix3 track as the "MIDI from" input. Don't forget to set the popup below to "jamstix3", not "Pre-FX" or "Post-FX"! Go to the "MIDI To" popup window and select "1 Ethernet MIDI". Now you send the MIDI notes from JS3 via ipMIDIs ethernet channel 1 to the OSX pendant of ipMIDI which will route it into Live on ipMIDI (port1)!

Make sure that JS3 is playing something with MIDI (you have the little green MIDI indicator down in the Mixer view) and that your drum engine is loaded with a kit and samples. Hit the play button in the Windows instance of Live and hear your drums in OSX!


5.) If you want to synchronize both instances of Live and you had setup the ipMIDI ports as described above with the sync switch activated, all you have to do in Live is to select the "EXT" button (external sync) in the upper left corner in the instance of Live that you want to be the sync slave. I have tested it and it works in both ways - Windows Live as master/OSX Live as slave and vice versa.


Some points at the end:
- I haven't tested the setup with other DAW software yet. But if they support MIDI-input and MIDI sync over ethernet they should work in general.
- The necessary note mapping steps for JS3 kits and your drum engine kits are described in the JS manual.
- Maybe in sync'ed mode you'll see some small "jitter" in the Beat display on the OSX instance of Live. I was running a complex Prog Metal Jam Session in the Windows JS3 together with some instruments sequenced by the OSX Live instance and didn't hear at any time non-synced events.
- You can put your Virtual Machines on other partitions or external hard drives (i don't recommend network drives) if they are fast - really fast - enough. The faster the better, as always;-)

ipMIDI Setup window on XP:

Live preferences ipMIDI on OSX:

Live track setup BFD2:

Live preferences ipMIDI on XP:

Live JS3 track setup on XP:

[digitalnoiser_01]

Amazing job Vaikl, thanks for sharing!!!

[vaikl]

Thx digitalnoiser, but please take a look at the thread that Ralph made sticky: http://rayzoon2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4972

I've made an important addendum on networking and syncing.

[Dewdman42]

Just want to report that Jamstix3_demo is working on OSX using CrossoverGames 9.1. Seems to almost be working fine. The only thing I found so far that is not quite working is that when you try to open the wizard and choose a player, the BlockMouseMove=1 setting does not seem to be preventing the window from being moved around with the move, which makes it impossible to choose a player.

Otherwise, seems to work.

Any status update on an actual OSX version?

[Dewdman42]

Just want to report that Jamstix3_demo is working on OSX 10.6.4 using CrossoverGames 9.1. Seems to almost be working fine. The only thing I found so far that is not quite working is that when you try to open the wizard and choose a player, the BlockMouseMove=1 setting does not seem to be preventing the window from being moved around with the move, which makes it impossible to choose a player.

Otherwise, seems to work.

Any status update on an actual OSX version?