Jamstix 4 (PC) - 11/30/17

Thanks for this heads up Matron. I really was excited about Jamstix. But when it would not work on Win10 I just got discouraged and thought the Ralph had given up on his very promising program.

I am so glad he is going forward on this. Heading over there now. Thanks again.

I came 'this close' to getting Mdrummer large during the recent 50% off sale. I am so glad I held off on that now.

Glad to see they will fix up the updating.  This was the worst program for leaving random .dll all around the PC.
 
I stopped using it when it seemed hit or miss whether jamstix would ever open properly in a project.  I will give it another try.
 
Jeff

I just confirmed with Ralph (on the forum) that the js3 studio upgrade will be $49 for js4 studio.
 
The only thing I do not own from Rayzoon is those mini packs.
 
Maybe I'll finally take the time to learn Jamstix. I have two weeks off starting Dec 23.

Grem
Teaser Video
 
https://youtu.be/xHCxL_rwE_I

That 3D image was kind of fun. Prolly a CPU hog though.

I have been using the beta in Windows 10.  JS 4 is very cool.  There is definitely a learning curve, but if you spend an hour or two, what you can do is pretty crazy.  Plus you can use MIDI output maps or custom kits to easily drive other VSTis. 

Have it but never really used due to lack of support on using it.  Probably pass on a $49 upgrade.

Yeah, "anyone who purchased or upgraded on or after 8/1/2014 gets the free upgrade"
 
Be good if it was a little easier to get your head around, hopefully v4 takes steps in that direction. But for free doesn't matter if it goes the same way as v3 and doesn't get used, but would be good to get somewhat proficient with it. Don't care much for the sound of the kits (have all the expansions), but wouldn't mind driving BFD3 with what it creates.

That is old.  But then I use the Wizoo Platinum drums, which I got in LM-4 format, from time to time.

Chandler
 I like the program, but it was a bit difficult to use. I hope this makes it a bit easier, because when its working it’s amazing.

Perfectly put.  My feelings exactly.
And I hope one of the new "drummers" played with guys named "John, Paul, and George".

pwalpwal
i'll be paying for the upgrade, i think i've had it so long, i also use it to drive other stuff (who remembers ns_kit7?)

Yes, I remember that one, there was another one I liked that came with Hydrogen, (was a Linux thing way back then, on Windows now as well I believe) Analogue 'Something' or 'Something' Analogue kit, can't recall now, but it worked extremely well for what it was. Thanks for the trip down memory lane 

Probably not.  Like I said above, the only info about new drummers that I have seen is the "Dylan, Chris, and Gavin" listed above.  I have no idea who these are supposed to be modeled after.  After googling through lists of famous drummers I might guess that Gavin is the drummer from Porcupine tree, but the other two still aren't clear.

Jamstix is one of those things where you have to read the manual, be thoroughly confused, play around with it a bit, go back to the manual, experience a couple of "aha!" moments, play with it again, and then go back to the manual with a new found confidence that you know what in the hell it's talking about. As soon as the Jamstix workflow clicks, the only remaining problem is in trying to understand the esoteric drumming terminology that's used in The Brain. But that's largely a matter of experimentation and tweaking things semi-randomly until you get the results you want. 
 
I love Jamstix and unlike most users I think, I use it for electronic styles of music. It's the best way I've found of humanizing what would otherwise be static, quantized MIDI. You can give it a MIDI file and say here, have one of your drummers play with that basic pattern. The results are often amazing. 
 
I never used the included drum kits. I've always used it as a MIDI generator - I connect the MIDI output to things like Battery, Geist, Addictive Drums and whatever drum VST's I have. You just have to make sure your buffer is not too high (for me, 512 or lower) because Sonar seems to have trouble with MIDI output timing past a certain buffer size. I've even connected it to synths, and tuned the MIDI note of each drum to a note in a scale. You can get some amazingly unique synth parts like that, even bass lines if you tweak it right. 
 
I really hope Jamstix 4 is all it's cracked up to be. I had the experience of waiting a similar length of time for Geist 2 and it turned out to be a complete turkey for me. I'm a little worried about that whole 3D drum kit though. It seems a little unnecessary and waste of processing power (also a waste of development time that could have been spent refining the other parts of the program). But we will see. 

bapu
IIRC 3D can be turned off (revert to flat image similar to JS3).

That's good to know. The 3D kind of has that early 90's "Amiga" feel to it!

sharke
I really hope Jamstix 4 is all it's cracked up to be. I had the experience of waiting a similar length of time for Geist 2 and it turned out to be a complete turkey for me. I'm a little worried about that whole 3D drum kit though. It seems a little unnecessary and waste of processing power (also a waste of development time that could have been spent refining the other parts of the program). But we will see. 

I was a little miffed myself to see that in the first previews, which came out ages ago.  Even though it is supposed to be able to be disabled, it does seem like the effort could have been better spent in so many ways.
 
I do hope it turns out to be a solid update.
 
 

gmon72
It's kinda neat to watch the drums being played and helps with selecting drums to edit, etc.

Watching them being played is somewhat of a gimmick though, and the old overhead 2D view of the drums I found was quite adequate for selecting kit pieces.