Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[dgh9634]

Right now I am happy with the internal sounds (I have drumpack 1 and brushes) but I wonder are there any other expanion kits that will work with Jamstix. I don't want to buy a whole new program (BFD etc) just to get the sounds.

[Ralph [RZ]]

There are three more expansion Paks available:

DrumPak #2: http://www.rayzoon.com/drumpak2.html
SnarePak: http://www.rayzoon.com/snarepak.html
ePak: http://www.rayzoon.com/epak.html
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[dgh9634]

[quote="Zauni"]There are three more expansion Paks available:

DrumPak #2: http://www.rayzoon.com/drumpak2.html
SnarePak: http://www.rayzoon.com/snarepak.html
ePak: http://www.rayzoon.com/epak.html[/quote]

Well, that I know. From your homepage:

"integrated VSTi sub-hosting allows usage of any VSTi drum synthesizer, such as BFD™ and DFHS™. Combine the sounds of your favorite drum plugin with the jam power and realism of Jamstix!"

I wondered if there were any sound expansions (other than your own) I can use without having to buy the whole program (other programs than jamstix). I mean I don't need the "drummer engine" in programs like BFD, DFHS, Groove Agent etc. I mean I have already jamstix (and RMIV). But more sounds/options are always nice.

Bo

[Ralph [RZ]]

One way is to use drum soundfonts of which there are many available for free or low cost and play them inside of JS via a soundfont player like sfz.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

[ProfRhino]

DrumPak #2 and SnarePak are hard to beat qualitywise, certainly not by free soundfonts, though Ralph is too polite to say so himself.
And beware, the free SFZ doesn't work with dual core PCs, only the commercial version has been updated.
Cheers, Rhino

[lucky]

Personally I think that the quality of the samples is less important than how they are being used. To illustrate this: You can give a good guitarist a crappy guitar and he still can squeeze out a cool solo or great riff, but the reverse is far less likely. Focusing more on simulation of a real drummer than on the kit itself I feel will give us more in return when jamming / creating songs, than having elaborate hyper-sampled 24 bits 96kHz digitalized drums. Of course we are now used to certain drum sounds in a particular music style, so there is a minimum quality the samples should reach for that style.

Having said this, the quality of all the Jamstix kits is actually quite good. Even the jazz kit including brushes or the ePak are inspiring enough to use as a basis for your song / jam. That doesn't mean there is no room for improvement, particular with cymbals, an instrument that is very hard to capture due to it's length and many subtleties, one can't have enough variations of. The same goes for the brushes.

One thing that will improve almost all Jamstix kits is to remove the reverb on the kick as it will make the low muddy. Furthermore, the hihats (especially the closed ones) tent to be too soft in general.

Hope this helps. Lucky

[ProfRhino]

Lucky,
you've raised some good points here.
About JS' own sounds, I never use them with a stereo out, always individual outs and then process them in SX just like any other drum library worth mentioning.
But, like you said, first I tend to play with the built-in sound shaping parameters, easily overlooked but very effective. The remaining processing is fairly straightforward, some EQ and compression and often the complete drums (without cymbals) bussed out to a separate group for NY compression. A bit of ambience, that's more or less it.
And those JS sounds are really flexible and can be tweaked to fit almost any style, completely unlike EZdrummer for example, which does sound great for certain rock stuff but is far from perfect for most other styles imho.
Of course, strictly personal opinion ...
Have a nice weekend,
Rhino

[lucky]

Yep, I also recommend using individual outputs for serious projects. During jam sessions I stick with the stereo out from JS, as it saves on CPU power and keeps it easier to manage. But for serious projects I suggest to go for at least 6 outputs if you have the power for it and use compression, reverbing and EQ-ing in your sequencer. In this way you use the same tools for your whole project and have a clear overview what you are doing to which instruments.

1 Kick
2 Snare
3 Hihats
4 Cymbals
5 Toms
6 All the rest

Start by making a nice mix between the various drum instruments. This depends of course on the type of music and instruments used. I usually keep a distinct snare to help identity the beat, but without overdoing it as it will take the swing out of it. Add enough hihats to fill up the beat, creating some filler noise, without attracting too much attention. Then adding enough kick to help the bass stick in the beat, but generally I leave more room for the bass than for the kick in the low end.

Then use separate (parametic if possible) EQing for each channel, especially the kick and snare can be tweaked a lot to fit better in the mix. I recommend using a low pass filter for the kick and a high pass filter for the snare. This will give you extra head room for the rest of the instruments. Simple EQ tips:
For more warmth add gain around 250 and 500 Hz but watch around 100 Hz,
For more room, remove some somewhere around 2 kHz,
For more definition / presence, add gain around 4 kHz and / or 8 kHz.
I recommend removing via a gentle slope anything below 30 Hz and above 16 kHz to gain extra head room and keep a distinct low.

Thirdly apply individual compression to channels that might need it: kick, hihats and cymbals are good starting points. Using compression will make the drums sound more as one instrument, instead of individual sounds coming crystal clear out of the speakers.

A trick that you could experiment with is using a high velocity variance for each instrument. This can be done using JS, or some midi function in your sequencer. Then add medium compression over that instrument to even the velocities again. You will now have a drum instrument that has subtle velocity variance but bigger variations in sound as some instruments are multi velocity!

Another trick is side chaining the bass with the kick. Every time the kick comes in, the side chain compression on the bass will lower the output on the bass making more room for the kick. I recommend something between -3 to -6 db. More groove, but you need to able to do side chaining in compression.

Fourthly add the same type of reverb to each channel with the exception of the kick. The amount of reverb can vary per channel, especially with the cymbals I find it is often better to not use too much reverb as they will wash out. In general I recommend being gentle with the amount of reverb, as it will give you head room for the other instruments and make the beat more punchier.

Lastly send all 6 drum channels to a group channel. This will enable you to easy level the drums with the rest of the mix. Furthermore, if you have a multi-band compressor, this is the place to use it, making each individual drum instrument part of one kick ass drum sound! Don't use reverb over the total drum mix, for the previous stated reasons.

This is of course just one of the ways to do it, and the suggestions vary per music style and song. Furthermore you need a powerful CPU and sound card to handle all this, and doing it like this will take extra time, which you might spend better on making music. But it is well worth it: together with the cool grooves and fillers JS creates, you will have one killer drum track!

Have fun, Lucky

[Musikman4Christ]