Unwanted Fill bars

ritmo_del_corazon · Post by **ritmo_del_corazon** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 6:47 pm

Hi, quite new to Jamstix - after a couple of months playing with it - and loving it - finally trying to do some *real* work!

This is with JS3 beta, but I assume JS2 is the same. My problem is that I'm entered my own groove, but JS keeps deciding it's a Fill bar and effectively trashing my groove (albeit the fills are good, though!). This is happening on bar 1 of a 4 bar repeated pattern. I have "Repeat Fill" set, so would expect a fill on bar 4 not bar 1.

Hopefully this is something simple that I'm missing, as this seems to happen every time I really try and compose a drum part. I get a sequence of bars that I'm happy with the basic groove, then all of a sudden, crazy fills come in from nowhere and overwrite them.

How does JS decide when it's time to fill?

Loka_senna · Post by **Loka_senna** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:06 pm

If you accidentally leave it on the Fill tab and start entering notes, it'll automatically tag the bar as a fill - I do the same thing all the time. Sadly, I haven't found a way to un-tag it once I realize my mistake.

Post by **Ralph @ Rayzoon** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 9:50 am

You can remove a manual fill by using the trash can icon when the fill is shown in the bar editor.

ritmo_del_corazon · Post by **ritmo_del_corazon** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:59 pm

Thanks for that - sorted at last! I've got stuck with this several times.

Now I notice something different, but related in that I'm trying to understand how to get JS to leave alone some basic beats I've programmed, while wanting JS to do the fills, overall feel and hi-hats.

I have a simple cowbell, shaker intro, copied for 4 bars. If in JS I play each bar singly, it is fine, exactly as I entered. When I go to song mode, however, JS skips some of the cowbell and shaker beats. This is with both 'silent' Style and Drummer, so I would expect JS to leave alone what I have done. The skipped beats get overwritten with the red X, and I can't find how to coax JS into playing them. It is odd that in single bar loop mode, it is fine.

Incidently, I have a basic programmed kick/snare groove and when I do use a JS style for hi-hats and fills, JS does a brilliant job of bringing it to life! The swing and feel that it adds is amazing - way better than I could program. My only problem is (as a newbie) learning to get control JS to get it to do exactly what I need. Of course, I have the same problem with my real drummer only JS is less sulky

Post by **Ralph @ Rayzoon** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:06 pm

ritmo_del_corazon wrote:I have a simple cowbell, shaker intro, copied for 4 bars. If in JS I play each bar singly, it is fine, exactly as I entered. When I go to song mode, however, JS skips some of the cowbell and shaker beats. This is with both 'silent' Style and Drummer, so I would expect JS to leave alone what I have done. The skipped beats get overwritten with the red X, and I can't find how to coax JS into playing them. It is odd that in single bar loop mode, it is fine.

Move the mouse over a red X and you will see the reason for the skipping in the status line.

ritmo_del_corazon · Post by **ritmo_del_corazon** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:46 pm

Ralph [RZ] wrote:Move the mouse over a red X and you will see the reason for the skipping in the status line.

It's actually odder than I first described as there are 2 different types of skipped hit. There are those with a red X and the message is: "Transition time from shaker". This is in a shaker part and I assume JS is telling me it doesn't figure the part could be played. Which is odd as it manages to play the same phrase in other bars.

The other thing is that hits are getting missed without any red X through them. This seems random in that looping 4 bars, it's mostly fine, but every now and then misses a hit, with no indication why.

I thought that with silent/silent style and drummer, JS would play exactly what is manually entered. For what it's worth, I entered 1 bar, then copied and pasted it 3 times. The missed hits are never in the 1st bar...only in the copies

Could this by my audio setup? I'm using Reaper and an M-Audio delta sound card.

Post by **Ralph @ Rayzoon** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:26 am

Could you send me the REAPER file or a JS save song file for this situation?

ritmo_del_corazon · Post by **ritmo_del_corazon** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:49 pm

Hi Ralph - I think I may have found the cause, just after sending you the Reaper file!

I noticed the arm speed and delay settings in options, selected "set to default" and this seems to have sorted it out. Must have been adjusted to some high values before.

<EDIT> Actually, I just noticed that the cowbell hit I mention in the mail is still being skipped, but not every time. And this is with arm speed maximum and delay minimum.

ritmo_del_corazon · Post by **ritmo_del_corazon** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 5:11 pm

Ralph, I mailed the Reaper file to you a few days back.

Since then, tried some experiments with it. I noticed something really strange. Having saved the Jamstix song file, if I create a brand new song in Reaper and load the Jamstix song, it plays fine every time! However, if I load the same song into the *original* i was working on, then I get the missing sounds. Also, if I delete everything and reprogram from scratch in that original Reaper file, I get the missing sounds. It would appear to be something in that original Reaper song file, perhaps a Reaper rather than Jamstix quirk?

Well, everything seems working fine now, but I'm still intrigued as to what the problem was.....

dke_music · Post by **dke_music** » Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:34 pm

I've had this happen as well, mostly in the Groove section, seems to happen mostly after some editing/deleting/pasting stuff into the bars. I also get alot of the Transition time error (mostly on hi-hats) hit's that are silenced even though it worked fine when I first created the song and the parts are nothing out of the ordinary speed wise.

Should add though that I use Sonar 8.5.3.

Dan