Brando
...Jamstix is awesome.

+1  A wonderful piece of software with a gazzillion parameters to twiddle. Results are excellent. You may need time to explore its possibilities.

More glowing recomendations of Jamstix, so I am wondering, how well does it handle odd time signatures like 5/4 or 7/8 or even odder stuff like 11/8?

Funny, saturday I was looking at Jamstix again, considering to give it another go. I own version 1 and 2 but somehow stopped using it at a certain moment... Might have been when I got EZDrummer. Jamstix was nice and all but a bit hard to control. Version 3 seemed to improve on that and 3.5 even more, with the easier to use song structure setup and various other additions, but somehow I couldn't get myself to upgrade. Maybe also because the GUI is so awful... But lately I've been longing for some more diverse and realistic drum tracks. I can get a long way with EZD and then editing the MIDI but it's still a lot of work and things still don't sound as 'random realistic' as I'd like to. So that's why I thought about Jamstix again. The upgrade is very cheap so I might as well get it right away. Well, as soon as I have Sonar X2 working on my PC...
 
It sure is a one of a kind plugin! 

Glyn Barnes
More glowing recomendations of Jamstix, so I am wondering, how well does it handle odd time signatures like 5/4 or 7/8 or even odder stuff like 11/8?

I have never played with the "non-normal" time sigs..... but that would certainly be a question to ask in the JS forums....

Glyn Barnes
More glowing recomendations of Jamstix, so I am wondering, how well does it handle odd time signatures like 5/4 or 7/8 or even odder stuff like 11/8?

 
From the manual:
 
Jamstix is one of the few virtual drummers capable of composing in odd or unusual time
signatures! Here are all supported signatures:
x/4 with x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7
x/8 with x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
 
BTW You can get the manual here: jamstix3_manual.pdf

hellogoodbye
 
From the manual:
 
Jamstix is one of the few virtual drummers capable of composing in odd or unusual time
signatures! Here are all supported signatures:
x/4 with x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7
x/8 with x=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14
 
BTW You can get the manual here: jamstix3_manual.pdf

Thanks, I downloaded the manual, it looks like you can handle time signature changes too. Intresting.

I was just looking at some vids on youtube.  Pretty cool but I think I'd rather keep writing my own parts in PRV (I used to play drums so it's a little easier for me to put together drum parts than non drummers).
 
I am curious though...
 
How does it output to the host? Like a multi timbral synth? Stereo track? Audio tracks for each kit piece? MIDI track? I'm just confused because the patterns are generated right in the program instead of coming from the host, into the synth and back out again and I didn't see an out put mixer like in BFD for routing.
 
Oh... and can you load samples from third party companies or are you stuck with what is included? Do they offer expansion packs?
 
Lots of questions I know but I am indeed curious. It's the type of thing I might recommend to friends wanting to make music but can't write drum parts.

It sends out MIDI. You can let that MIDI trigger sounds from Jamstix itself (they also have expansion packs) but also sounds from EZDrummer or whatever drum plugin you have. Or both. Or a few at once.
 
The nice thing (at least that was how I used it) is that you can tell the drummer what pattern to play (load one or create one) and then you can let him have a go at it himself. You can tell him when to do a fill, when to go all out or when to go a bit more silent, and the drummer will do all that, in his own style (you have a list of drummers you can put behind the kit and they all have there own way of doing things). All of this is humanized and there even is limb control, so you won't hear more then 4 hits at once (2 feet, 2 arms) and you even can have the program take into account the time it takes to move the hand from the hihat to the ride cymbal! (You can also place each piece in the kit manually making it harder or easier for the drummer to hit a certain drum or cymbal.)
 
All in all this results in pretty realistic drumtracks which are a lot better then what you get out of the box with for instance EZDrummer. It's just such a shame the interface is a bit er... ugly and not up to date.

Huh... if I'm following you it basically just replaces the PRV, Step Sequencer or a piece of hardware as the MIDI performance source so I could point it towards BFD, right? Now that IS pretty cool.
 
hmm... but does that mean that whatever Jamstix plays would show up as a MIDI clip that can be altered in the PRV? That would be even cooler. Thanks for the info.

You can record the midi out of Jamstix and get a single midi track with all your favorite midi notes in PRV.
 
NOTE - in order to point this midi source at a drum synth (BFD etc.) you need to use vsti enable midi out.  I you have another vsti using enable midi out in the same project, be prepared for a major Sonar bug.
 
Also, jamstix includes midi out mapping for ezdrummer, BFD, battery, and lots more.
 
jeff