What do you find most useful in Jamstix for grooves?

21_tones · Post by **21_tones** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 11:54 am

I've had Jamstix for about a year now and think it is absolutely fantastic for creating realistic/human sounding drum parts. I've gone back through all my old songs and either replaced the sterile midi patterns or enhanced them with Jamstix. However, I'm sure I'm not using Jamstix to anything like its full potential.

I tend to write "pop" songs or classic rock style songs and use the 8th note rock style virtually all the time. For ballads I would use a half-time setting.

I know I could use drummers with more interesting hi-hat and cymbal styles like Stewart.

I know I could create my own grooves e.g. using tom patterns and get Jamstix to humanize them but I was wondering how people have used Jamstix to create interesting patterns/grooves for them rather than having to think of the groove/pattern from scratch.

I've used the tom groove function. I've used redirection e.g. of hi-hats to other parts of the kit. I've added various bits of percussion. When I say groove I don't mean interesting sounding fills but something that would play through a verse in a song.

Maybe my song style and structure is too limited. Certainly I'm not getting as much out of Jamstix as I could.

How do people use Jamstix to take them beyond the "obvious"

Sammon · Post by **Sammon** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:18 am

I've used the 'marching beat' feature of the free drummer Mark. That's quite cool. There's also an 'add a tom groove' feature that's good for variation. Both these result in a different sound within the same structure; good for choruses, middle 8s, bridges etc.

You should really audition more drummers, they provide some subtle variations.

21_tones · Post by **21_tones** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:05 am

Sammon
Thanks for your response.

The other thing I'm messing around with at the moment is using the Animal drummer, set to the simplest settings, to simulate a Keith Moon style during verses, not just for manic fills! The trick here is trying to get some feel for where the beat is from the drums. But some Who songs were like that where Moonie and Entwistle seemed to be playing free form and Townshend was keeping the beat on rhythm guitar!

Any other suggestions really appreciated.

Thanks

Ultra_Willy · Post by **Ultra_Willy** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:10 am

I like Animal a lot, but I don't think I could use him for a whole song. Lars/modern/dial-a-metal gets a workout for my harder rock things.

But a nice solid, no frills drummer could be handy, because while I think it's great having all these talented drummers at our disposal, sometimes you just need a straight drummer.

I tend to use James, Roger or Charlie for that purpose.

Who's the guy from ACDC?

chesterdesmond · Post by **chesterdesmond** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:36 pm

Phil Rudd...
also the bass player uses his free hand to drum sometimes.