I compose in a lot of styles. Right now, I'm creating some tunes that are very much in the singer-songwriter-70's-James Taylor style. I'm having trouble getting Jamstix to drum in that sparse, easy style. By that I mean very light hits, lots of sidesticks, no bombast in choruses, sparse fills. Any suggestions appreciated
Choose a "simpler" drummer (Charlie), adjust the "Simplifier" control to taste, adjust the Song Power level low enough and then adjust the "Auto Snare" control. I'd also lower the "RF", "TF" length and crank up the "Simple" control in the "Fill" window.
I'm working on a few songs with a similar feel right now. Sparse arrangements that highlight the acoustic guitar, electric bass, and vocals.
I'm getting good results with Jamstix. It works best in my experience when you keep things simple.
If you have a clear idea of the basic kick and snare pattern you want, then the quickest way to get there is to use some of the Standard Rock and Halftime styles in the "Toolbox" menu. Those allow you to specific where those notes will fall. You'll spend less time struggling with the flight-of-fancy in the more elaborate styles.
Charlie is a good choice. Steve is my main cat right now. He plays behind the beat and has some interesting habits on the hats; he likes to play an open hat note and then choke it. Sounds good in an sparse, open drum groove. He also has some useful accents.
You might choose some of the drum kits that fit a mellower style. I'm liking the maple kits at the moment. The mini kits also lend themselves to a stripped down style.
Experiment with the "pocket" feature. A behind-the-beat feel works well for mellow, acoustic rock. There are some issues with the pocket feature in my opinion (see my thread), but they can be worked around.
Experiment with the "shuffle" feature. Even if the overall feel of the song is straight time, there's often a little bit of magic in applying a slight shuffle to the 1/8 or 1/16 notes.
You will struggle with fills. What you are probably looking for is simple fills that move the song along without disrupting the feel. As the previous poster said, simplify and shorten the fills as much as possible. If you are recording the MIDI output into a DAW (which is the most efficient way to use Jamstix in my experience), you will probably find that you need to do some hand editing of the fills.
