Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[Jalan]

Hi, all. I've discovered that, when recording a song, I have a pretty good idea of the main groove(s) I want for my songs, so letting Jamstix run wild is rarely a good option for me. The kick/snare are often closely tied to my guitar parts, so I want certain hits to be there pretty consistently

However, I know JS2 can still help by taking my main groove and adding minor embellishment -- hihat flourishes, an occasional, well-placed kick or snare, etc. I'm just not sure what is the best way to do this?

I've watched the two videos -- MIDI Import and Your Own Base Groove -- and can't really determine which is the better option for what I want (they seem similar). Plus, I'm not sure there isn't still another, better way to do this...

Any suggestions on the best way to get minor variations on a pre-programmed groove?

[gmon72]

I like using the classic kick/snare control to set the kick snare pattern I want, then set the brain to not process kicks and snares and let jamtsix do the rest.

[Jalan]

I'll have to give that a try -- I haven't really dug into the JS editor much yet.

I don't necessarily want to keep JS from adding *any* snares or kicks, just to keep it from getting too far away from the original groove, so I might just scale those options way back as opposed to deleting them entirely.

[CudBucket]

I'm in the same boat as you. I normally have a guitar riff that I want tied fairly closely to my kick and snare. I didn't even know JS2 could do what was described above. I'll have to give it a look.

Dave

[Jalan]

I've messed with this a little bit and it seems to work, but it's tough to get the right balance for it. I had to go back to hand programming to get what I really wanted for this current song.

I think the biggest thing is to not have a particularly busy pattern to begin with -- otherwise, there's no room for the brain to add anything without mucking up the rhythm.

I may need to try the "Jam with Audio" feature, which I have yet to get into.

[dysfunction]

'Jam with audio' only uses bases power level on the volume of incoming audio, it can't actually figure out the rhythm in the audio track and groove based on that. I believe 'Jam with MIDI' does pick up the rhythm in a midi track and apply accents based on that, but IIRC it still doesn't set the groove on that. The way to go is add the 'classic' kick & snare grid. If you wanted JS to still add kick and snare hits here and there, you could use a drummer with accents that will do that sort of thing (for instance John, who has a triplet kick accent true to the real Bonzo), or add the pattern grid to a style without disabling the kick and snare generators native to that style, and simply setting their complexity low.

Of course Ralph will probably have more advice for you. I'm not affiliated with Rayzoon- just a happy customer.

[Ralph [RZ]]

I agree with Dysfunction and other posters. I would use the classic style and program the desired kick and snare as well as hihat mode. You can use the probability sliders for the kick and/or snare to add some flavor to the groove and/or use the accents from the chosen drummer model.

Another way is to pick a style you like and then add the classic controls via the ADD menu in the brain menu and disable or reduce kick/snare/hats from the style. This gives you a combo of your groove and the style.

A third way is to hand-code the groove in the bar editor in preview mode and then use 'Turn Groove Into A Style'. This is best if you have a difficult groove that cannot be done with the classic kick/snare grid.
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Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com