Drumjam, Is it me?

gkillmaster

I spent many hours last night trying to understand Drumjam. I think I'm finally starting to get it. But I don't remember ever having such a hard time with an interface. Don't get me wrong, I think the functionality is superb and innovative, but I really struggled with understanding how to use it. I'm not sure why exactly. (Thumbjam was easy for me by comparison) I do think Drumjam's interface is one of the least intuitive (and ugly (sorry to say)) ones I've seen. I think that may be part of the confusion for me. Just the way things are laid out. I would be curious if anyone else felt this way... SO, I have a few remaining questions:

1) Is it possible to program your own "patterns"? Or can you only use the pre-programmed ones you can load from the factory library? (I do realize the vast number of possibilities just with the library patterns!)

If not, it would be great to be able to actually see the pre-programmed loop patterns as midi...

2) Also, if seems if I load a patch with the "LOOP" exclusion, it doesn't work as I expect. I would think the patterns would be more or less the same but they don't seem to be.

3) I'm not 100% clear on how the pre-defined loops are assigned to the parts. Say you have the tambourine and there are 20 variations for that part, are those exclusive to that instrument and the patterns 1-20 are unique to each instrument or do the instruments share some patterns?

I did keep the User Guide handy while I was working through this and I watched every tutorial but still seemed to have missed the answers to these questions...

many thanks,

Greg K.

Martygras

Yeah, I agree. The UI is a bit wonky, but they had to take a completely new approach to get what they wanted.

1 Yes and no. You can program your own kits which are made up of pre defined rhythms. Just swap out instruments in the grid which acts similar to the smart drums in Garageband.

2 They are referring to the pre-made loops. The bottom of the UI is all for the "live play along" part. You can tell it to record only the loops as you record or only the live play part.

3 Check the user patterns tab to see the pattern kits you've created. Each instrument has 20 variations. This also depends on whether you started with a 4, 5, 6 beat pattern too, etc.

Why is my text big? IDK. Must have fat-fingered something.

sonosaurus

@gkillmaster said:

1) Is it possible to program your own "patterns"? Or can you only use the pre-programmed ones you can load from the factory library? (I do realize the vast number of possibilities just with the library patterns!)

There is no grid/matrix sequencer in DrumJam. Also those loops in the upper section are not actually sequenced patterns, they are recorded audio loops from Pete Lockett playing actual percussion instruments (for the most part). He actually recorded each variation in 3 different tempos, which the audio engine chooses and time stretches appropriately for the chosen app tempo.

If not, it would be great to be able to actually see the pre-programmed loop patterns as midi...

Perhaps in a future version we might analyze those live performance loops to get MIDI events from them for use in a different way, but that's not the current design.

2) Also, if seems if I load a patch with the "LOOP" exclusion, it doesn't work as I expect. I would think the patterns would be more or less the same but they don't seem to be.

Hmm, some more details here would be good. If you do not have the LOOP button selected it should not load/change the loop portion when you load a user preset. The Factory presets are only loop combinations and so that exclusion is ignored when loading them.

3) I'm not 100% clear on how the pre-defined loops are assigned to the parts. Say you have the tambourine and there are 20 variations for that part, are those exclusive to that instrument and the patterns 1-20 are unique to each instrument or do the instruments share some patterns?

Each loop instrument has a given number of variations, independent of any other. The numbers are only relevant in the context of that instrument. It's possible that some similarities may exist between the numbers of different instruments, but it is likely coincidental.

Some planned features that might help you:

• being able to load and playback your recorded (or imported) loops
• creating your own drum kits for use in the pad area (from built-in or imported samples)

Will

I can see how if you go into Drumjam thinking you could program your own beats down to the hit on a grid how it might be confusing. I think the UX is great. Couldn't be simpler to drag elements to the playing surface, move them around, add randomization...

Without the ability to manipulate MIDI, one possibly interesting manipulation would be the ability to set the loop start and length times on the recorded loops. The Bedlam feature sorta hints at that.

And hey, you already have audio to MIDI code written for ThumbJam! Maybe DrumJam2 will have the ability to super impose the dynamics of one rhythm onto the sound of another? Never sound as good as the originals but even without multisampled instruments it would sound interesting at least, great at best.

Hell, speaking of app diversification, it would be awesome to use Pete's rhythms as signal gates. AB filter app where you could pick those rhythms and it would gate the signal going through it. Adjustments for dynamic range and off to the races. Go crazy: multiband. Vertical position could set which part of the spectrum is gated.

sonosaurus

@syrupcore, whoa dude, that audio gating idea sounds like a whole other app, not specific to any audio sources at all... assuming there is a good way to get side chaining working in IAA or AB.

Will

@sonosaurus Indeed. That's what I meant by "speaking of app diversification"; using your existing assets to make other stuff.

I wasn't thinking about side chaining. I was thinking a straight up single path filter app where the input signal's level is adjusted in real time based on the dynamic curve of the selected Pete loop. Like a trance gate... but way more interesting. The multiband stuff is just flat out mid-day crazy.

Will

@Martygras Looks like you used the number symbol/hash to set your numbers up. In Markdown, that starts a header tag (big type!). If you just set the numbers up like "1.[space]" it'll format correctly. If you make sure there is an empty line before the first one, it'll format like an indented numbered list.

sonosaurus

@syrupcore said:

@sonosaurus Indeed. That's what I meant by "speaking of app diversification"; using your existing assets to make other stuff.

I wasn't thinking about side chaining. I was thinking a straight up single path filter app where the input signal's level is adjusted in real time based on the dynamic curve of the selected Pete loop. Like a trance gate... but way more interesting. The multiband stuff is just flat out mid-day crazy.

I understand, but I immediately jumped to the "it shouldn't matter what either source was" conclusion, which would need multiple input streams to work. But I get your drift

Will

I am an admirer of your way of thinking! Output apps can handle multiple streams...

Though, I'm not sure I'd come up with as many interesting gate rhythms as are already existing within DrumJam if I spent a lifetime trying. Of course, I could use Drumjam as a key in the multiple streams version.

Martygras

@syrupcore said:

@Martygras Looks like you used the number symbol/hash to set your numbers up. In Markdown, that starts a header tag (big type!). If you just set the numbers up like "1.[space]" it'll format correctly. If you make sure there is an empty line before the first one, it'll format like an indented numbered list.

Ha. I'm such a fidiot. Sometimes.

Martygras

@syrupcore said:

I am an admirer of your way of thinking! Output apps can handle multiple streams...

I agree. The interface made sense right away for some reason. The features are just advanced enough to be useful and easily understood.

gkillmaster

thanks all! looking forward to future updates. I really appreciate the responses...