Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[weaverid]

How do these 2 modes interrelate? I fiddled with free jam for awhile and then switched over to manual jam - playing with various rhythms Then I noticed that I could never get the snare to play on beat 2. I tried everything imaginable and loaded dozens of rhythms and tried to select every beat for the snare on beat 2 - but it wouldn't play. Then I wandered over into the free jam mode and noticed the "half-time" box selected. Basically, I unselected the half-time ... and to my amazement, when I went back to manual jam, the snare was playing on beat 2. When I tried to repeat the experience, I couldn't duplicate the feat. This was the 2nd time I stumbled on this feature. By the way I never selected "half-time" to get myself in this condition to begin with. How it became selected is a mystery to me.

My big question is : Is there supposed to be a connection between the settings in free-jam and manual jam? I would have thought that when in manual mode ... it would ignore settings in the free-jam mode.

This is confusing me because I can't figure out the relationship between the settings in the manual jam window, the settings in the free-jam style window and the settings on the control panel and the settings in the randomizer window. It seems like there are various places to apply variances and limits.

Thanks.
IW

[GregHolmes]

The main thing is this:

Switching to Free Jam clears the arrangement.

There probably should be a warning pop-up about this, because if you already have a manual arrangement, it will be blown away...

So, if the "Half Time" switch on the Free Jam page is turned on, then JS will generate half-time rhythms. Then, if you switch to manual mode, you can change them. But, if you switch back to Free JAM (for example, to turn off the Half Time switch), the rhythms and arrangement will be cleared, and JS will generate normal rhythms.

Note that if you first go into Key Word Jam and select a style, then switch into Free Jam, JS will play the selected rhythms at first, at least until it overwrites them with it's own rhythms generated in Free Jam.
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[weaverid]

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for explaining the linkage to the arrangement. I obviously have to experiment with it some more. Why isn't there 3 arrangements?? One for each mode. As in my earlier message - I guess I'll stick to manual jam.

Please walk me through this slowly - as in your last paragraph: You select a style in keyword jam and then go to Free Jam. I thought free jam was limited to basic styles like "straight" or the other option from the pull down window. I obviously don't understand the variability you can apply to free jam. I keep thinking the 3 jams are independent from each other.

IW

[Ralph [RZ]]

Hi weaverid,
You said that the half-time box in the free jam settings kept you from using the snare 2-beat in manual jam. That's really not possible because the only code in Jamstix that uses the half-time setting is the free jam code. Since you couldn't duplicate it let's call it a fluke for now.

Just think of each mode (free, key word, manual) taking over the arranger. So switching between them "messes" up whatever you have in the arranger at that time. You can always use 'Load/Save Bank' in your host to save various copies of the arrangement.

Now, the "basic styles like straight from the pulldown" is just one aspect of the free jam. All controls in the style and control panels of the jam tab will affect the free jam.

So think of it like this:

Manual Jam-> You select the rhythms from the library and arrange them yourself in the arranger. All the shown controls in the jam control panel (Version 1.1) affect the manual jam.

Free Jam->Jamstix has control over the arrangement and the rhythms. All controls in the jam control and style panel affect the rhythms generated.

Key Word Jam->Same as Free Jam but the rhythms are selected from the library and not generated.

Hope this helps. Everyone else jump in as I may not explain this best.
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Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[weaverid]

Thanks for all the help.

I think I discovered the root to my stupid questions. I thought that by clicking on "Rhythm" - I was automatically entering "MANUAL JAM". I thought that the “rhythm” page was exclusive to the manual jam mode. This is not the case. Only after watching the tutorial video several times is it starting to dawn on me what is going on. The basic hierarchy of selecting the mode begins in the Jam window. What threw me off is that you select the basic free jam mode on the Jam page … and then you STAY on that page to tinker with the style you want. This is different than manual jam. For manual jam you pick the mode on the jam page ... and off you go to the rhythm page to work the rhythm that you want. What is confusing is that you have to come back to the Jam page to play with the basic “controls” for the manual jam.

So … when selecting manual jam mode … I assume that the “Style” parameters do NOT affect the Manual Jam … but the “Control” parameters do affect the Manual Jam??

Whew!

Am I getting there? I am probably the last person to figure this out. Sorry.

IW

[Ralph [RZ]]

First off, you're right in that the rhythm tab is not specific to the manual jam at all.

[Guitarfish]

Hi Zauni

Love the product! I'm definately still learning how to get the best out it, and 'just play with it' is generally working for me, but with the odd 'challenge' along the way.

In particular I've been slow to really get to grips with the the relationship between the 3 modes. I've just found this thread which has confirmed and clarified some things that I'd pretty much worked out by trial and error, but didn't get from the manual despite several attempts. I may be alone in this, but there are a couple of tweaks that would have helped me and might be useful for others....

Chapter 3: comes way too early for me - I'd just installed and activated, and was suddenly confronted with external engines (which I don't have) and MIDI mapping (which was a very alien concept to a guitar playing dinosaur!) before I'd even plugged in and had a Free Jam with the internal sounds- Scary . I love the expansion potential this functionality gives me, but as a new user, don't want to know about it until I've got past the basics, so I'd rather see it towards the back.

Chapter 5: I suspect the numbering may have gone astray here - should this be a continuation of chapter 4? As it stands (Title 'Key Word Jam') it feels 'out of step' to me, coming before Chapter 7 which covers all three modes. And I think section 5.1 'Interacting...' applies to all modes not just Key Words.

Chapter 7: could give an overview of the 3 modes and their interaction before it went into the detail of each mode e.g.
-

[Ralph [RZ]]

Much appreciate your input, Guitarfish! We'll definitely have a look at that.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com