I've heard of Jamstix, and I think there's a demo you can download. It seems to do what I want... which is basically add it to my project then not have to worry about making drum tracks (which I am really poor at doing anyway).

Are there any other good ones worth looking at?

Are there any that can play live - ie be used on stage?

I'm really looking to do blues/rock styles, but I also acoustic new age type stuff would be good too. This is for my own use rather than professional, but I still want it to sound good.

Steinberg Groove Agent might be worth a look.

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/vst/groove_agent/groove_agent.html

But it seems to be currently unavailable as it's "between versions".

There is also Melda MDrummer but I haven't used it so cant vouch for it's suitability. Melda have some good plugins though, so I wouldn't expect it to be overly terrible.

I'm looking for something like this for the Mac but there really isn't anything similar to Jamstix I've noticed. Whatever it does, it appears to be the only one that does it like that.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Yes, I'm getting the impression that Jamstix is a bit unique. Most of the others seem to be pattern based editing, whereas Jamstix has that improvisational element to it which I think would be a big help to me.

Quote Magic Matt:

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Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Yes, I'm getting the impression that Jamstix is a bit unique. Most of the others seem to be pattern based editing, whereas Jamstix has that improvisational element to it which I think would be a big help to me.

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I use JS3.0. I rarely cotton on to these things intuitively, have to study them hard to make them work. With that said, I think it is incredibly easy to get an at least decent, and usually good-sounding drummer on your track with minimal to no effort using it. On the other hand, I think it is much harder to tweak it into a great-sounding drummer, mainly because EVERYTHING is programmable and I haven't gotten an intuitive sense yet how to prioritize my "tweaking algorithm".

I do recommend a download trial, and looking at the ** Jamstix Forums ** .

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Alexis -Cubase 6.5.0/SX3.1.1.944, XP SP2, 4GB RAM (1GB not accessible, but used just to balance the computer so it doesn't tip over); Delta 66 in Omni i/O Studio; Motif8; UAD-1

^^

Sorry, too late to edit, so having to put in a new post:

1) The Blues/Rock styles are the easiest to use, IMO. They've got Charlie Watts who's pretty good right out of the box, all the way up to Keith Moon, ditto, except I have to calm him down as he is usually amped on meth, from the sound of it. But what's new.

2) JS3 has a "Live Loops" function geared towards live work. I've never used it, but perhaps you can get some feedback on the forums.

3) Instead of having said JS3 is pretty easy to generate good sounding drummers "... with minimal to no effort", I should have said, "... with very little effort". Sorry for the hyperbole!

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Alexis -Cubase 6.5.0/SX3.1.1.944, XP SP2, 4GB RAM (1GB not accessible, but used just to balance the computer so it doesn't tip over); Delta 66 in Omni i/O Studio; Motif8; UAD-1

This Jamstix sounds interesting. I put together backing tracks for people & the most time consuming thing is the drum tracks....as i am not a drummer.

Would this software be suitable for this kind of thing,,,,putting backing tracks together. Any advantage to programming drum tracks from scratch? (the way i do it at present)

Quote chris...:

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Steinberg Groove Agent might be worth a look.

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/vst/groove_agent/groove...

But it seems to be currently unavailable as it's "between versions".

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I reviewed both Groove Agent 2 and 3 for SOS if you're interested in reading about them:

www.soundonsound.com/sos/may05/articles/steinbergergroove.htm

www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan08/articles/steinberggrooveagent3.htm

I used them both quite a lot, but as I said in those reviews "many musicians who bought previous versions of Groove Agent experienced difficulties in using it with hosts other than Cubase", so it it sounds interesting I'd check up on how that aspect has developed since.


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Quote mick.n:

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Would this software be suitable for this kind of thing,,,,putting backing tracks together. Any advantage to programming drum tracks from scratch? (the way i do it at present)

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Yes, speed (if you DON'T start from scratch). The biggest argument for doing your own from scratch is variation and style... but since both are my main weaknesses, in my case these are more reasons not to!

Put it this way: one of the things I want to do is make backing tracks I can jam along to. I've just downloaded the demo of Jamstix and not only have I managed to lay down a bass part with a drum track in under 10 minutes, but it was about 10 seconds to automate the dynamics thing and get it to "ramp up" the drumming when I wanted the track to get more excited, then "calm down" again a bit later.

It normally takes me 10 minutes just to get the basic bass, snare, hi-hat loop sounding ok. LOL!

Very impressed so far, and this is just the demo!

Edited by Magic Matt (16/02/13 03:04 PM)

Quote Martin Walker:

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I used them both quite a lot, but as I said in those reviews "many musicians who bought previous versions of Groove Agent experienced difficulties in using it with hosts other than Cubase", so it it sounds interesting I'd check up on how that aspect has developed since.

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Thanks! At the moment I'm a "non fixed entity". I have Sonar 8* on my workstation and Reaper demo on my mobile setup. I'd rather not buy yet another DAW system, and will probably buy Reaper simply because it seems pretty lightweight for recording compared to Sonar (plus it's cheaper, which is always helpful!) and it's working to do what I need. I don't think the current Cubase is even an option because the price is horrific.

If it works well in Reaper, which is most likely where I'll use it, then it may be a contender, however I have Session Drummer 2 and just find it a bit awkward and with no variation or life to it. I don't think it's the samples, it's just totally reliant on me to come up with the loops, and I'm very poor at it, and have no real interest in it.

Edited by Magic Matt (16/02/13 02:59 PM)

Quote Magic Matt:

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Quote mick.n:

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Would this software be suitable for this kind of thing,,,,putting backing tracks together. Any advantage to programming drum tracks from scratch? (the way i do it at present)

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Yes, speed (if you DON'T start from scratch). The biggest argument for doing your own from scratch is variation and style... but since both are my main weaknesses, in my case these are more reasons not to!

Put it this way: one of the things I want to do is make backing tracks I can jam along to. I've just downloaded the demo of Jamstix and not only have I managed to lay down a bass part with a drum track in under 10 minutes, but it was about 10 seconds to automate the dynamics thing and get it to "ramp up" the drumming when I wanted the track to get more excited, then "calm down" again a bit later.

It normally takes me 10 minutes just to get the basic bass, snare, hi-hat loop sounding ok. LOL!

Very impressed so far, and this is just the demo!

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Many thanks Matt. Will give the demo a try. If it makes the job easier i will gladly give the credit card a bashing.