Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[non_drummer]

Hi. Prospective Jamstix buyer here with several questions. Trying to figure out if JS is the tool for me or if something else would be better.

My friend and I both play guitar & bass, and basically what we like to do is jam along with songs we like, and occasionally come up with original stuff. Right or wrong, the way we've always done it is to play along with a Guitar Pro file and mute the bass & guitars. The thing we don't like about doing it this way is the sound of the MIDI drums. Knowing that you can import MIDI drum information into Jamstix is what has led to my interest in it. That being said, I've read several posts on here from Ralph where he's said that the best way to do this it to import the drum parts in sections as opposed to the entire drum part.

How do you do that? Would you take your Guitar Pro file and delete all but the drum track, and then save different sections of the drum track into separate files (intro, verse, chorus), and then import them individually into JS?

Do the different "parts" have to correspond to intro, verse, chorus, etc., or can they just be considered "parts" or "sections"? The reason I ask is, what if we want to jam along to La Villa Strangiato by Rush? (I hope there are some Rush fans here). It's a 9 minute instrumental with a lot if different "parts," but I wouldn't know the best way to break it down into individual pieces that I could import into JS. Any advice here would be appreciated, as our favorites are usually longer songs (Hemispheres, anyone?)

What exactly is meant by Jamstix "driving" another drum program? JS comes with its own sampled content, right? So does "driving" mean that JS uses the other program's sounds to supplement its own? Sorry, but I'm just not clear on this.

What if you already have a lot of sampled content (.wav format)? Can you use these sounds with JS?

I've got other questions, but I'll wait until I get some answers to the ones I've already asked first. Thanks.

[planetnine_]

Some people spend hundreds (if not thousands) on drum libraries like Superior Drummer. Jamstix has its own sample sets (and very good they are too), but it also allows for Jamstix to "play" the (eg) Superior Drummer sounds instead.

Just another option, you choose.

I haven't tried to get it to jam along with specific songs, but if you import the sections, and then use those sections with a constructed song structure, you should be good to go.

You can set the song structure and length with the bars and repeats settings. If you're a rush fan, then you'll know which bits are the verses, the choruses, the bridges and the solos! You could (in theory) just import one long part, or even a part for each bar (daft extremes) -I'd at least do a part for each major song part, and probably even subdivide a little bit more.

Once your parts are imported, you could change or even lengthen the song by changing or repeating parts. Progressive Prog Rock!

I you have your own sampled stuff, you get JS to send MIDI to your sample player, eg Short Circuit can play wav files...



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[non_drummer]

[planetnine_]

That's it.

Use the release version rather than the beta version though.

You don't have to muck about with it though, Jamstix has its own souinds


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[Ralph [RZ]]

Does Guitar Pro output a MIDI file for drums that you want to use?
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[Keebo]

Guitar Pro 6 allows MIDI export for each individual track. I just tried it with the drum track and all worked well. Haven't imported into Jamstix yet but at least that part is possible.

Good luck.

[Ralph [RZ]]

non_drummer: based on Keebo's response I would recommend the following approach:

[SIMPLE]
- export drum track from GuitarPro to MIDI
- mute drums in GuitarPro
- load Jamstix and depress jam button so it goes to drum module mode
- load a desired kit in JS

JS will now play back the GP drum track with its own sounds.

[IN-DEPTH]
- export drum track from GuitarPro to MIDI
- break out the MIDI into parts (i.e. verse, chorus etc.)
- mute drums in GuitarPro
- load Jamstix and enter the song structure in the song wizard, select 'Import' for style.
- in each part in JS, select the proper MIDI file in the brain to use and adjust part length/reps as desired

This approach allows you to have JS "play" with the original drum data. For example, you can load a drummer and have him 'interpret' the material.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[non_drummer]

Thanks for the input, guys. Several more questions....

I don't have Guitar Pro 6, just GP 5. I don't see a way to export individual tracks, but I can just delete all but the drum track and then export it that way.

Would anyone be willing to take the MIDI drum file I'll create of Rush's 'La Villa Strangiato' and import it into Jamstix and verify that everything works as it should?

Ralph, I thought I read in another post where you said that there was a 16 bar limit when importing a MIDI drum part. That's why I mentioned in my first post where I thought you recommended importing a MIDI drum track as 'parts' as opposed to the whole song at once. Is that true? Is there any way to import the entire MIDI drum track from a song and then break it down into parts *within* Jamstix? It just seems like it would be a lot of work to take an existing MIDI file and break it up into a bunch of separate MIDI files to represent different parts of a song that would then have to be imported into Jamstix individually.

[Ralph [RZ]]

Send me the MIDI drum file and we'll check that out to give you better advice.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[non_drummer]

[planetnine_]

I'm no expert here, but I would expect it would be better to import MIDI in parts so that the drummer engine can interpret them as such, and you could influence chorus, bridge, verse, etc, parts differently to fine-tune the feel of the track.

Does that make sense?


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[Ralph [RZ]]

I've checked the MIDI file. There are two ways to do this:

A - SIMPLE
Just use Jamstix in drum module mode to play back the drum MIDI file. The AI won't be used but at least you can use Jamstix drum sounds.

B - COMPLEX
This would involve re-creating each part of the song from scratch or based on the MID file. You'd skip fills etc. and just focus on getting the basic groove of each part imported. After that, you'd let loose a drummer (i.e. Neil). The result will be a unique track, not a 1:1 copy of the original MID file but that's the point with JS anyway.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[non_drummer]

Ralph, thanks for messing around with the MIDI file. I have some questions about the 2 methods you mentioned.

With the simple method, are you saying the entire MIDI drum file can be imported in one big chunk? If so, is there a limit to the file size or number of bars/measures in the MIDI file?

I think I'd prefer the results of the complex method, but I don't want to get bogged down in hours of tedious work to get the result I want. Would it be possible to import the entire MIDI drum track from a song and then break it down into the individual parts *within* Jamstix? In the case of the MIDI file I sent you, the song is about 300 bars long. It seems like it would be a fairly quick job if you could import all 300 bars, and then within Jamstix be able to say bars 1-10 is the intro, 11-26 is this, 27-42 is that, etc., etc. Can that be done?

[Sheppol_A]

I think you will get more satisfaction using a Host recording software.You can download and use the full version for free for 30 days,

http://www.cockos.com/reaper/

HTH

[Ralph [RZ]]