Rayzoon Technologies LLC

GreyLion · Junior Jammer Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 17

Hi, Ralph,

I'm seriously interested in getting the latest version of ProTools LE. The demo runs fine on my AudioPhile 24/96, and the academic pricing makes it a great deal.

However -- JamStix is among the central items that I need for making music. I've become emotionally attached to it in the past few weeks, and can't see making drum tracks the old way anymore. Love all your drum sounds.. REALLLLLY love being able to let the jam run, export it to MIDI, then pick out the best parts, chop 'em out, and reimport and mutate them as saved JamStix patterns.

So, I hit the FXPansion site. As you know, they sell the VST-to-RTAS adapter which would wrap JamStix up to work in ProTools. And they're planning to release a version specifically tailored for ProTools 7. And they don't do demos, so I can't test for myself.

But there's a thread on their forum saying that JamStix doesn't work in PT, and that it's supposdly an issue that you and Digi are working on, one way or another.

Soooo ---- any news to report? If JamStix works in PT, I'll probably buy. If not, then I won't.

Take care,

GreyLion

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

We have users in the beta program for the VST/RTAS wrapper V2 that are reporting early signs of Jamstix working in PT7 with the new wrapper.

There are stability issues and long GUI load times (10 sec.) and I cannot tell you whether these will be fixed in the final V2 wrapper.

We are also trying to pursue a native Jamstix RTAS version but so far Digidesign doesn't consider us worthy enough to respond to any of our e-mails and developer requests Sad

_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

GreyLion · Junior Jammer Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 17

Hmph. World turned upside down a bit here -- There's lotsa sequencers out there, but only one JamStix. I don't buy PT until it works for me.

Personally, I hope their marketing people nudge them toward an attitude adjustment. You could at least understand them being snooty if they were still focussed on the million-dollar-pro-studio sales business. But M-Powered and PT LE are marketed to guys like me. And that means they're gonna need to make sure that standards-compliant VSTs work in their software, if they want to maximize market penetration in this segment. IMHO.

And they'd really benefit from working more aggressively with cutting-edge devs, like, uh, you. I seriously doubt that I'm the only one holding back on buying their software because it may not work with my chosen add-on tools.

I hope you'll keep us informed of how this goes. I'll still be hitting the FXpansion forum on occasion, cause I really would like to make the jump to PT. All Digi gotta do is meet me half-way....

Take care,

Rory

Dieszel · Jammer Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 47 Location: Kansas

GreyLion · Junior Jammer Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 17

Yeah Dieszel, I'm soooo not knowledgeable about the specifics of their organization, but I have the impression that they're struggling with figuring out how to prosper despite the less-and-less-expensive democratization of music-making that's happening with hardware and software over, especially, the past 4 years.

They've built this mystique as the uber-sequencer that the pros use, and I imagine they're terrified of losing it. I'm not slamming them; if your brand loses its value, you go out of business. Think of WordPerfect, NetScape, and AOL. It's a jungle out here.

But the proliferating mid- and low-priced project studios have got to be both biting into their traditional sales and presenting an attactive target, if they can figure out how to reach it without killing their high-end.

So, maybe, they resist including VST compatibility or freely encouraging devs to write for them. Gotta stay special and magical and above-it-all.

....All that said, I'm gonna be patient and keep an eye on it, and hope they get the wrapper working fine with JamStix or get a sudden bout of the smarts and talk politely with Ralph about how he can enhance their product's perceived value.

I personally would appreciate it if you're willing to check in here if/when you get a stable and happy experience with the 2.0 wrapper and LE 7. I really want to give them some money....

Take care,

GreyLion

Dieszel · Jammer Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 47 Location: Kansas

GreyLion, I'm sure that Ralph will be letting everyone know once Jamstix works great with version 2 of the VST-RTAS Adapter in ProTools 7. Out of respect to Ralph, I would let him spread the joy to everyone that uses Jamstix and let them know that it works with ProTools as well.

As for Digidesign, I don't think they're worried about losing anything. If you look at the plugins that are Native RTAS, they're reputable companies just as Rayzoon is. They may take a little longer in allowing this but they're smart and I do foresee this happening in the near future. How much in the near future? Now I'm hoping very near. Ralph has a product that speaks for itself, I'm sure Digi will see that. As for his support, you won't find this anywhere else besides Sweetwater or IK Multimedia.

Lets hope for the best and if you think about it, we've all been doing that and voila, Jamstix emerges so there you have it, the discovery channel... lol...
_________________
Pentium Dual Core 3.2GHz
ASUS P5WD2
4GB DDR2/533
Pro Tools LE V7.1
Sonar 5 PE
BFD
Reason 3.0.4
Absynth 3
Sonik Synth 2
IK Studio Bundle w/Amplitube 2
IK - Ampeg SVX
AVOX AT
Korg Legacy Collection - Digital Edition
Edirol PCR-M80

GreyLion · Junior Jammer Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 17

*sigh* Yeah, you're right, Dieszel. I just gotta wait. Hate that. I want the new toys. Now.

Okay, so Plan B, for obsessive types like me -- I've loaded the FLStudio5 demo. The M-Powered demo automatically recognizes it as a ReWire client. This weekend, I'm gonna see what happens when I load JamStix into FLStudio and try to get M-Powered to run it that way.

This is making my head hurt, since I barely understand using M-Powered, and have only played with the FLStudio demo for about an hour. No clue how to do this, really. I have a feeling that something will break, but that's half the fun of messing around with this stuff. Smile

Take care,

GreyLion

Dieszel · Jammer Joined: 05 Oct 2005 Posts: 47 Location: Kansas

Here's digi's response this time around. I submitted a feature request.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will pass this along to the appropriate
parties as a feature request , you should submit future feature requests
here:

http://www.digidesign.com/support/forms/feature/

Best regards,
Digidesign Technical Support
_________________
Pentium Dual Core 3.2GHz
ASUS P5WD2
4GB DDR2/533
Pro Tools LE V7.1
Sonar 5 PE
BFD
Reason 3.0.4
Absynth 3
Sonik Synth 2
IK Studio Bundle w/Amplitube 2
IK - Ampeg SVX
AVOX AT
Korg Legacy Collection - Digital Edition
Edirol PCR-M80