Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[keys_reaper]

Hello,
I am looking to buy the Studio pack for use with REAPER and have a couple of questions please:

1. Can I substitute percussion sounds for drums sounds in jamcussion? - e.g. what I would like to do is simulate 2 drummers playing together (think early Genesis etc.) - or to increase the number of drum sounds in the kit (think Carl Palmer or Mike Portnoy)
2. I'd REALLY like to have the drummer play 'unison' with me playing keyboards - so was hoping I could use the 'staccato' midi jam feature for this. i.e. I play a run of staccato notes on the keyboard and I want the drummer to play a series of drum hits in sync with my notes - then if i play more legato, maybe held chords, the drummer will play his variation of the groove loaded - is that what the feature will do?

Many thanks
keys.

[Ralph [RZ]]

You can load Jamcussion sounds into the drum kit section but not Jamstix sounds into Jamcussion. The JC AI is completely different. However, you can run two instances of Jamstix and use two drummers that way.

The MIDI jam will let you do staccatos as you described but it will not change the groove on legato playing. However, if you play softer the drummer will alter the groove, such as snare substitution, crosssticking and groove simplification, depending on style.

Check out the demo and ask me/us any questions you get from that.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[keys_reaper]

Thanks for your reply Ralph - and on a Saturday too! That speaks volumes! I certainly will try this in the demo then. I didn't expect the demo to have jamcussion that's why I didn't try it.
Thanks again.

[Ralph [RZ]]

The demo does not have Jamcussion. I suggested the demo because you can play with the MIDI jam feature and also try a two instance/two drummer setup.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[keys_reaper]

Thanks again Ralph.
I have installed the 3.5 demo and with midi jam enabled and the drummer DOES change power with the input velocity correctly, but I just cannot get the 'instant hits' (my unison requirement above) to work. i.e the groove keeps playing the usual hits even if i play notes on the keyboard. I've tried a few internal styles and a few drummers.

This is the same if i play during the 1st composing lap or after its composed.

Do i need to select a particular groove or drummer for this feature to work?

[Ralph [RZ]]

Make sure the selected style has a 'HITS' accent element and you must hit 5 or 6 notes staccato on the MIDI keyboard.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[keys_reaper]

Ralph thanks for trying to help me. I have tried the following, but I am still not getting any Instant hits recorded or played.

This is what I have done...

I have JS 3.5 demo loaded into Reaper V4.32pre5 with 'Freestyle' and James Stix loaded for a default part1 of 4 bars 30 reps. no RF's.

If I set JS to 'drum module mode' and hit the midi keyboard, midi in led is on in sync with my keys and I can play the JS sounds ok.

So next I set JS to Midi Jam mode.
Using the Accent tab, I set the Hits amount to max, the 'Overall' slider to max, priority to max, enabled on and frequency to 'every bar'. (I also disabled the other accents - snare ghosts, throwins and cymbals in the brain for clarity)

When composing the part, but just pressing play from bar 1 in reaper, looking at the accent page, a Kick and Crash 2 appear on beat 1 of all bars after bar 1. They are both marked with a red cross. This happens without me touching the keyboard and no midi-in.

Next I recompose the whole part from bar 1 again, this time I am hitting 6 notes as a chord in staccato on the midi keyboard, the Midi in led lights up in sync with my hits, but there are no hits recorded or sounded in the accent bar editor other than the beat 1 kick and crash2 as before.

If you can offer any further suggestions I will certainly try them.

Now it is possible that I am expecting JS to do a little too much here (although I'm not getting anything at the moment!) so I dont want to waste a load of your time if the end result is not really what i am after anyway.
I suppose the end result I am looking for is something like 'Animal' going full pelt at times but in sync with my playing. I'm into Prog rock/fusion and want to get that tight lock between my leads and the drummer.

The workflow I am hoping to achieve in JS with this feature is this:

1. Create a part (probably in an odd time signature, hand edited kick and snare pattern, then turn groove to style and save)
2. Use Midi jam with 'Instant Hits' to add extra drum and cymbal hits in real-time by playing stuff on my midi keyboard. i was hoping for playing drum & keys in unison lead line runs, but now see that would need to be 5 or 6 notes in a chord for 'Hits' to work...

So maybe this is not the best way to use JS for this type of composition?

Is there a better way to do this with JS - maybe have JS play the general groove then have another instance of JS in midi module mode for the unison parts.... but I was hoping to avoid the hand-translation of keyboard notes to drum hits in a midi editor!

Any pointers much appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul.

[Ralph [RZ]]

Hi Paul,
The MIDI jam hits feature, even when it works, will not do what you need. Can you send me an example MIDI file of what you are playing with a few bars of basic playing and then a few bars of playing with unison lines you'd like to have accented?
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[keys_reaper]

Hi Ralph, Ok understood. I thought that might be the case.
I'll get an example over to you - hopefully tonight when I'm back in.

From what I've seen so far, JS looks to be the right tool for me anyway - it can generate complex patterns based on my simple input ('animal' creates stuff I cant get anywhere near playing! - thats what I'm hoping for in Metalpak and Mike).
Paul.

[keys_reaper]

Have PM'd the files.

[keys_reaper]

Now a proud owner of Studio Pack!

[You_Zoon]

Zooner or later... Ray is gonna get you.

[keys_reaper]

Hahaha!