Working with MIDI from a DAW?

mm_drums · Post by **mm_drums** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:30 am

Greetings,

I'm new here. Just found Jamstix and downloaded the demo, and I really like it, but there's something I'd really like to do with it that I'm not sure how/if it can do it.

My question is, is there a way to get Jamstix to jam along with MIDI from in my DAW? I figured out how to get it to play MIDI in the DAW, but it plays it exactly. Basically I want to just put it on a GM drum track and let it add the human feel and fills and variations that it can do within the VSTi. I know I can import and export MIDI, but that's a bit annoying, and ideally I'd love to get a slightly different performance each time it's played.

If there's any way to do this, I would be very pleased to know how!

Thanks,
MM

Azimuth (Archive) · Post by **Azimuth (Archive)** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:26 am

Hi mm,

Welcome to the forum. Check out this video, I think it will answer your question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcn2d4PPe4

Just ask if you have any questions. I think you'll find this is a really helpful forum with some really good people.

mm_drums · Post by **mm_drums** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:40 am

a_zimuth,

Thanks for the video, but I've already seen that, and that's not quite what I want Jamstix to do.

Basically, I have a lot of songs that I have already built drum parts for by hand. I was really hoping I could just place Jamstix on the track and get it to read the MIDI there and work its magic by adding subtleties that would make my already composed MIDI tracks feel a bit more realistic.

It seems the only way I can do this is by cutting up the tracks at each change, exporting to MIDI, then importing the MIDI files to Jamstix, applying the drum settings, then exporting back to my song, which frankly seems to be more trouble than simply adding in variations by hand. Or am I missing something?

Thanks,
MM

nzdutchie_237 · Post by **nzdutchie_237** » Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:19 pm

Another method would be to make an audio drum track from your midi track, then put the audioM8.dll on the audio track and then jamstix should listen to the audio and trigger hits through jamstix. You could then use the jamstix mixer to have whatever drum hits to come through, so its not too busy. Or add bongos congos or shakers from the jamcussion kits. Good luck

Azimuth (Archive) · Post by **Azimuth (Archive)** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 3:14 am

If you want your previously composed parts to stay virtually unchanged other than velocity and slight timing variations, using the Humanize function of your DAW would probably be the fastest/easiest route IMO.

mm_drums · Post by **mm_drums** » Fri Apr 28, 2017 9:51 am

Thanks for the replies.

Of course I know about the humanize function, which I use, but that won't add in, for example, ghost notes or small fills.

The audio idea might work, but would it be able to distinguish separate drum types?

Regardless, this seems like pretty cool software and I may end up buying it anyway, especially if the next version would have a feature like I requested.

Thanks again everyone.

nzdutchie_237 · Post by **nzdutchie_237** » Fri Apr 28, 2017 5:06 pm

M8audio is listening to an audio track, it can be drums, bass or anything. Not sure if its using transients in the audio to create a respond in jamstix. When I used jamcussion in the method I described I was able to quickly get different sounds and different styles accompanying what was already there . Did notice that there sounds coming through that I didn't like, so I just removed them from the kit. With jamstix I think the limit is our own creativity and not jamstix. Its a powerful program in the right hands.