Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[saddle_d]

I don't Jam with Jamstix... I use it to lay drums down for songs that I record.

Currently I use it for songs that I have written with a full drum arrangement,

And second, a drum track that can be played back as an MP3 when my Wife and I play live.

However, it seems that the way I do it is so tedious that I avoid it...

I have to manually break the song down. Intro, Verse A, B, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Outro...

Seems to take forever. Then Transfer that breakdown of measures to the Song wizard, select a kit and a style, drummer, and that is just the start.

Then turn off fills, etc. till it's close. That's for live playing. I'm not as picky. For a recorded song, then it may include fine tuning. Then I'll usually record to dry tracks and treat them like raw drum tracks.

How do you do it? Is there an easier way? I avoid tracking new songs for us to play because of the time involved.

Love to hear how you use it. IF you use Jamstix for a real Demo, etc.

I'm using V3.5 on Reaper x64.

Thanks,
Saddle

[vanblah]

It is tedious. Usually, I just get a basic groove going for the entire length of a song. I don't worry about choruses, bridges etc. at first. Just a groove that doesn't change all that much.

Then I lay down a piano or guitar guide track.

Then I go back and set my layout for Jamstix. Intro, Verse, Chorus, etc.

Then I start arranging the song, adding instruments, dynamics, etc. It's at this stage where I start really paying attention to fills, hits, power levels, etc. in Jamstix.

The process is not terribly different than working with a real drummer. A real drummer will alter the drum parts as the song evolves. Just as the other instrument players will alter their parts. It's not something that happens in a day or two. I have to walk away from a song and come back with a fresh perspective several times. This is true whether I'm using Jamstix or working with my band. At least Jamstix doesn't leave empty beer bottles all over the place!

[saddle_d]

I was hoping for a wonderful new way of doing things... but I guess that's the way it is for everyone.

One thing I do that helps. If I have a click track and a vocal/guitar scratch track, then using Reaper, I put in markers and create regions. Then in the Region/Marker manager in reaper, it shows me all the regions and their lengths. I can transfer that to jamstix and have the right lengths for each section of my song. Helps. However seems that in most of MY songs, I've got a measure or two of 2/4 time and have to accommodate that. Time signature change in reaper then the same in Jamstix. Works well... I guess.

Thanks for your input, and I'll just keep trying.

Saddle