Rayzoon Technologies LLC

acasiello · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:03 am Post subject: Jamstix and ??

I am a very happy Jamstix user. I love what Jamstix does. I am not particularly happy with the selection of drum samples that comes with Jamstix, but of course that is not what Jamstix' specialty is. So, I'd like to purchase a VST drumkit of some kind to use with Jamstix.

I've spent two days surfing and gathering info, and I have flip-flopped from deciding on BFD to DFHS to Battery 2, to free VST sample players and some wav's I already have (from "Absolute Drum Samples") which I think are pretty good.

So far, to get a decent drum track, I use Cubase SX2 and Jamstix with it's own internal samples to create the drum track. Then I export the drums as a MIDI file to "Drumsite" and use the pro drum kit from Absolute Drum Samples to create a good track. I export that as a WAV file from Drumsite, and import back into Cubase. Sounds fine, but it's a pain. I understand I can use Jamstix with an external VSTi drumkit, and do this all in real time.

Seems like DFHS or BFD are the most popular, but probably way overkill for me. I do rock, blues and some metal. I don't need tons of different kits, just one kit that sounds like a good sonar set or something. Seems like if I went with DFHS, I would spend hours building the kit, and have to drag the samples into cache to get started, etc. All I want is a good sounding rock kit, something beyond what comes with Jamstix.

I have been looking at Linplug RMIV, which is available through Musician's Friend for $ 100. Comes with lots of kits, MIDI grooves, and should work fine with Jamstix. There are no drum mappings in Jamstix for this plug, however. I have seen posts here that say the process of mapping is "simple", but I'm no drummer, and don't understand much about this. I know there are several samples of the same drum for different velocity's etc ., and it seems like that would be confusing to setup.

Help, I just want decent drum samples. Do I go with BDF or DFHS, because they have mappings already, or go with Linplug RMIV, and work through the mappings, because it is less expensive, less overkill, less CPU and RAM overhead and potentially more of what I need (has grooves and synthetic drums etc...).

I know it's partially/largely a matter of taste, etc., but just thought I hang my hat here and see if I could get any decent advice.

Thanks in advance.

Andy
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Andy Casiello, SGP
Struggling Guitar Player

Ralph [RZ] · Site Admin Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 13332

acasiello · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:54 pm Post subject:

Ralph,

Thanks for the feedback. I have been playing with the NS Kit 7 free version, and SFZ as the sample player. I'm having trouble with that setup with regard to RAM issues. I only have 512 M right now, but I placed an order that will take it up to 1 G (my laptop PC's max).

I have a desktop PC that I may upgrade to get the CPU. RAM and drive space configuration that I'd need to not have to worry so much if things are going to work.

I'll probably go with DFHS. Thanks again for a great product, and great service! Can't wait for Jambace!

Andy
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Andy Casiello, SGP
Struggling Guitar Player

Ralph [RZ] · Site Admin Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 13332

Andy, you might also want to check out poprockbank.sf2 for use with sfz. You can download it from www.soundfonts.it in the Piano section.

It has a very nice drumset with small RAM footprint and it's free...

I always recommend considering a donation to that excellent site or checking out the awesome Rhodes VSTi they are selling.
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Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

acasiello · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:26 pm Post subject:

Ralph, I'll check it out, thanks for the tip!

Andy
_________________
Andy Casiello, SGP
Struggling Guitar Player

acasiello · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 12:38 pm Post subject:

Ralph [RZ] · Site Admin Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 13332