Rayzoon Technologies LLC

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Hi folks.Just bought Jamstix, have read the manual and been experimenting - seems pretty powerful and unique, although of course there's lots to understand! I'm trying to figure it out myself but wondering if I could ask a few things ?

I'm trying to start with my own beat, so I first record that by myself in my DAW with my MIDI keyboard- so then it's there as a MIDI track.

Then I use the MIDI jam and MIDI learn mode to introduce this into Jamstix.

Seems to work OK.

Only problem is that the very first beat, the bass drum and hi-hat, goes missing from the first bar. Hmmn not sure why.

Second problem is that I thought I'd try to extract the style of the bit that I played to use as a style in the whole song. I get a dialogue box to save it but I'm not sure where it's saving the extracted style to , or then how to access it ?
Thanks very much for any help folks.

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

I recommend you do it a bit differently:

Instead of using MIDI learn, save your self-made groove to a MIDI file in the DAW and then use the 'Import' style (from the '@Special Styles' folder) and select the saved groove there. You can now add other brain elements to compose alongside your imported groove, if you want.

When you're happy with it and want to use it in the song builder, use Brain menu->Save Style Preset and give it a short but descriptive name. Now go to the song builder, select 'Import' style again and then select your saved preset in the presets list.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Okay thanks for the feedback, good to know. Will try that

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

BTW I've tried the various options for 'GM', GM2 mapping etc so it doesn't seem to be that

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

Please email me the MIDI file and I'll look into it.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Okay , many thanks, I've emailed you.

As i say other MIDI files read okay on Import.
The file imported into Jamstix doesn't trigger anything, it's blank.

I was able to import the Reason MIDI into Cakewalk Sonar and it played okay.

Edit: Actually I just had a thought, I then exported the file out of cakewalk and was able to open this one in jamstix.

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Basically I'm just looking at ways to really fine edit or personalise a pattern and then have that inform the whole song.

Another way of doing it might be to take a bar of an already-generated rhythm and fine edit that inside the jamstix Bar menu. I guess you could fine-tune a bar (eg get all the kcks and snares in the exact position you want 'em) , and then use the SAVE BAR option ...and then turn that into a jamstix groove so it informs the whole song ? If that makes sense

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

Based on your earlier post edit, it sounds like you don't need any further assistance on the MIDI file. Let me know if you still do.

I do agree on editing your basic groove in the Jamstix bar editor because it streamlines the process and requires no import. Just use the preview button and build your groove in the bar editor until you're happy. At that point, you can save it and use it with the 'Import' style to build a preset for use with the song builder.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Thank you. It would be still nice to know if I could use an exported file straight from Reason rather than having to import and re-export it from another program, just wondering if there was anything I could do to aid the process from the Reason end.

(I tried getting back into using Cakewalk but I've been using Reason for so long I can't remember where everything is! 2 very different GUI's))

Everyone has their own way of working i guess, mine has always been to come up with a rhythm guitar piece first and then to play a finger-drummed MIDI drum part along with that manually, so that it really matched the rhythm and also sounds 'live' (hopefully). Although I'm not a drummer so....I was hoping to kind of adapt my process to fit into the Jamstix way of working if I could I guess. I'm still getting my head around all the features and elements

jas_lan · Rayzoon Beta Team Joined: 16 Mar 2011 Posts: 676

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Thanks jas_lan .cant see options for MIDI export, will keep looking

hotmitts_1 · Jammer Joined: 09 Dec 2019 Posts: 25

Well just in case anyone else ever needs to know, there seems to be 'MIDI 0' and 'MIDI 1' type MIDI files, and I converted the former to the latter using this
http://www.midconverter.com/midi-converter/download/
and that worked and was the quickest way (it also batch converts)

chris · Jammer Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 24

Quick question -- when I try and create a groove this way, should the midi import be exactly 1 bar long? I'm getting strange results but the loops I have are typically more than a single bar in length.

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

MIDI imports can be more than one bar but make sure there are no silent bars at the beginning. The importer will use as many bars from the import as can be fit into the part length with a max of 64 bars. So if you use a 4-bar MIDI file and the part has at least 4 bars before repeating, you should see all 4 bars imported.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com