Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[Compyfox]

Hi!


As drummer without a drumset I finally wanted to check out Jamstix now that it's on holiday offer. But before buying it "blind" and realising that it doesn't work for me, I grabbed the 54MB demo (including the audio engine). And this is where it went downhill.

As info:
I don't want to use Jamstix as "freejam" plugin, but for easier programming of my drums. So my main interest is the arrangement window. I'm using Cubase SX3.1 (latest update), Windows 2000 SP4, an Intel 2,4GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, DirectX9b.


But on to the problem...


After downloading, I installed the demo properly. It's where it belongs in the VSTplugins folder, no changes, nothing. After firing up, SX3 recognises it without problems too.

So I start a new project, fire up Jamstix as VSTi, route inspector's MIDI channel to Jamstix, then I hit play and... nothing happens.

I go to the arrangement tab, click a bit around on Basedrum and Snare to get a "small groove", press play again... nothing happens.

Okay I though... maybe it's the engine itself, go to the mapping, dig out the BD, cick on audit and... nothing happens. Snare... nothing... toms... nothing.

So I restarted SX3 and loaded Jamstix again as VSTi, route the MIDI channel properly, go to "freejam" mode, press play, and... nothing happens.


"Okay" I thought "let's try Cubase VST5.2 PB1 - maybe it works in there!". So I digged out my old sequencer, fire it up and... it won't even load anymore.



I'm really frustrated right now. I thought this plugin is dead easy to use. It loads, but I get no sound, no reaction, no movement of the beats (as in the video 1-2-3-4 lights up acording to the beat), no synchronisation (I pressed stop/play on jamstix, even in my sequencer), not even a MIDI spike. Nothing. The manual and the tutorial videos aren't really helping. And if the demo doesn't even work it's useless to buy the instrument if I can't even be sure whether or not it works and I can't get a refund.

So what am I doing wrong here?

[Ralph [RZ]]

Hmm, this is odd stuff. Let's try to sort it step by step.

- Open SX3
- load Jamstix to VST rack
- Click 'Free Jam' in jam tab
- Press Play in SX3

After a few beats, Jamstix should start playing a groove. If it doesn't, please check:

a) that the bar, beat display in jamstix is advancing along with SX
b) that the little green LED in the right-bottom corner of Jamstix is lighting up rhythmically

Thanks for your patience! I'm sure we can get this sorted.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[Compyfox]

Strange, after a reboot of my system, reinstalling of the demo and just loading Jamstix as forst instrument (without MIDI channel), everything works. I just hope that's not the same for the regular version.

I only have to get a bit into the manual with the "arrangement" mode so that I program an arrangement with Jamstix, then after rendering or "exporting a MIDI" (and using this) that I'll only use Jamstix as drummodule only (not playpattern or freejam).

All in all this is a really great tool, sounds really alive. Only that I'm a bit irritated from the ghost strokes of the snare and the propability of the accents. Can be a bug from the demo (dropouts) too, but sometimes if I go over 10% for the accents, they go haywire. And I'd also like to have a different "ghost stroke" sound rather than the "rattling train". heh.

Ah yeah, I wanted to mention something about the crash and the ability to "actually control it", but then again, that was already included in a newer version of Jamstix. Very nice (no random crashes anymore, but if I want to give some power, I can go haywire!).



I'll keep an eye on this... uhm... bug. But I will sell my soul to the "devil" for sure.
Thanks for the help. (off behaviour of the VSTi indeed...)

[Ralph [RZ]]

[Compyfox]

Promised!

One thing is for sure, it'll speed up my workflow drastically, unless I have a digital drumset.