Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[Manic_Fare]

Hey all, Lars here from NZ.

You guys all seem really passionate about this app and that is fantastic.
I have looked at the videos and they seem really awesome...
I'm just concerned that there is no real noise about this app on the internet.

Likes of EZ etc, you can pretty much youtube or search a review and get a good amount of varied opinions... Not so much with this app.

But, that doesn't mean that it isn't a great piece of sw.. I digress.

I know I could try the demo, and I may just do that, but without it being the complete package, I won't get the most out and may not sway me.

I own EZ but the thing that puts me off it, is that I want a natural sounding track from start to finish, my manual drum creations sound fake and don't get me started on my own fill creations.

Should I start with the basic and then get the packs separately?
Also is there a breakdown of what drummers are in which packs?
Be cool to know exactly what I am getting.

Convince me!

[Manic_Fare]

Found the link to drummers and pack info ta.

[Azimuth]

Hi Lars,
I believe that the lack of "noise" regarding Jamstix is directly proportional to advertising budget. Look at how much Toontrack spends for ads vs. Rayzoon. There is quite an enthusiastic user base for Jamstix but they tend to gather here in the Rayzoon forum I've found because that's where the latest info and update notifications appear.

Now as far as convincing you whether Jamstix is for you or not.....
1) There is a learning curve. It is not difficult IMO, but be aware it exists. The difficulty mainly relates to how intricate your compositions are. If you record AC / DC type stuff, drop it on a track, tell it your song structure and hit Compose, Done. If you are composing tracks like Gentle Giant type stuff, you're in for a slog. It can be done but there will be a lot of hand editing involved. However, I'll bet that the results would be FAR better than if you tried to do it totally by hand

2) I have SD2 and driving it with Jamstix brain has created far, FAR more realistic drum parts than I EVER managed to do freehand. It has actually taken some of my tracks in a totally different direction than originally intended by throwing in twists and turns I hadn't imagined myself. That to me is the true testament to the power of Jamstix.

3) You would be hard pressed to find a software company that is as supportive, fair and concerned about customer input, feedback and satisfaction. Ralph actively solicits bug reports and feedback with every new beta release. When they're reported, he works very diligently to resolve the issues. I can't ask for more than that personally.

That's my .02.

[Manic_Fare]

Yeah that makes sense.

Yeah most of my stuff is fairly simple, not quite AC/DC in simplicity but I guess what I am after is something that I don't have to painstakingly move every drum part by hand to get a good sound. I find with EZ etc it's just not intuitive and comes off as fake. Probably mostly because I'm not actually a drummer.

It's mainly the fills people to be honest... They kill me.

With mapping out the V,P,C etc, are you able to dictate how long the pre ch is and I assume that the timing is done in bars?

I loved that part where you move a piece away and it switches to something else, that alone almost makes me want to purchase it.

Again, it looks like a great piece of software.
Seems to have a few converted users?

[Azimuth]

Hi Lars,

If you're just doing basic rock/metal tunes there's really nothing to it. As long as you can tell Jamstix the order of the song parts, time signature and try out various drummers until you find the one that'll work for your song, this software never fails to amaze.

You can tell Jamstix how many bars each song section is and also what time signature.

I know exactly what you mean regarding fills. That, by far, is the single biggest give away when it comes to programmed parts. Luckily for us it also happens to be one area where Jamstix absolutely shines. Like I said before, this software has generated parts and fills I never saw coming. Once you get a grasp on how the brain controls create and interact, (it can be somewhat unpredictable sometimes) you should be able to dial in whatever your songs call for.

I'm not trying to play salesman here but there is nothing at Jamstix' price point that even comes close to Jamstix' capabilities that I know of. The demo is un-crippled other than audio noise periodically and midi data is only output as Note 36 I believe. The kit selection is also limited compared to the retail version. I would suggest you download the demo and play with it.

[jas_lan]

[Kevin_W]

If you're happy with the sounds from EZD, but need an easier way to actually compose the parts, Jamstix is for you. And you could probably get by with the standard package, since you won't need the additional kits in the other versions. However, I would strongly recommend the 3P version which includes percussion instruments and styles if you think you might ever want to include such sounds in your work.

Unfortunately the demo doesn't let you experiment with sending the midi to other VSTi's to see how cool it is, nor does it display the percussion. Use the demo to make sure you can wrap your head around how the brain works. It is very different from EZD or any other drum software. It's not for everyone, but those of us who fought through the learning curve are just in awe of the power of it (I should probably just speak for myself, I suppose).

Btw, I think you will find some pretty good discussions of pros/cons over at KVR, and I know for sure there are lots of posts on the Reaper forums about it.

[keys_reaper]

Lars, do try the demo, you will be amazed at how JS provides 'real drummer' fills. You wont regret it

[bosone]

Just buy it.
once you will try and understand jamstix you will never be able to live without it!

really!
_________________
listen to my music at
http://www.alchemystudio.it

[bean_boy]

It's the best piece of music software I ever bought.

I was like you and couldn't put a decent drum track together with midi presets and Addictive Drums. Eventually moved to Jamstix and hit the learning wall.

When I pushed through that stage - which didn't take long - my drum tracks sounded amazing. I now use JS to drive Steve Slate drums - and it's incredible.

Oh - and the online support from Ralph? Well that's just awesome too.

[Manic_Fare]

Going to buy the XL pack and get to it, I don't want to start another track until I get a decent drum sound so I should bite the bullet.

I played with the demo, but was struggling a lot.
I'm pretty stubborn so will just bury myself in it, just wish there were more videos online about using it, I'm more of a visual/practical learner as opposed to reading PDFs

[Azimuth]

Honestly, you will not regret it. You will have questions, that's a given with any new undertaking. Just ask them, there are people here willing to help. I can also tell you from personal experience that once you get to where you can get Jamstix headed in the direction you want, you won't be able to work without it.
Regarding more videos, Ralph said a while back that he needed to do more videos. However, I'm sure with the 64 bit roll out and the ongoing efforts with the OSX version there just hasn't been time for it.

[Kevin_W]

[bean_boy]

We all know that the JS team is flat out on development work and the promised training videos aren't a priority. I did suggest that Ralph just run a few one hour webinars that we could all jump on and ask questions - if they were recorded and posted on the site, they could address 80-90% of the usual questions.

If that isn't possible, I'd like to see the JS community try and create more of our own training videos for this.

I would volunteer but I'd just embarrass myself with my luddite work-flow and lack of insight!

[Manic_Fare]

Cheers Kev!

I'll have a look at it.

Yeah it's like anything I guess, took me a few weeks to get my head around Pro tools 10, but I love it, and this will probably be the same.
Also more tracks I do the better and more confident I will get.
I'll post up my first effort when done