Jamstix 4 Information

jas_lan · Post by **jas_lan** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 5:59 am

Because JS is using a "tabbed" GUI, the "real estate" is essentially free. I think the kit looks nice and, more importantly, it brings the product into the same field as other products with fancy graphics IN TERMS OF HOW IT LOOKS. Of course, JS far exceeds other products in how it functions, but some people care about how the product appears when they buy. I want JS to be in high demand and I am sure Ralph does too. So why not make it look nice if it attracts more customers? If you dont care for it, just keep the "song" tab on top. That is where the real magic happens anyway.

ckurz_7000 · Post by **ckurz_7000** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 6:48 am

Agreed. And if you read my previous post I essentially said that. All I care about is that I don't want any essential improvements sacrificed for a not essential one.

As an example I posted a rather long and indepth post in which I described and graphically sketched what I envisioned. I also sent that one example per email to Ralph because he asked me to. So far nobody has commented on that at all.

That very fact worries me.

Call me single minded, call me ungreatful or whatever. I have seen too many products go downhill simply because there was nobody around who paid attention to a sleek userinterface. A well written program scarcely needs a manual. Things are done the way people intuitively do them.

So far, JS3 is a powerful program whose bottleneck is the user interface. People who have been using it a lot (such as many posters on this forum) have no problem with that. But the biggest obstacle to becoming a really great program of widespread use is that JS3 has a very steep learning curve due to a less than intuitive user interface.

So, summing up, I believe that a good user interface does much more to generating revenue for Rayzoon Ltd. than any kind of picture of a drum kit.

-- Chris.

Post by **Ralph @ Rayzoon** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 9:06 am

Chris, I've just created a new thread ([url]http://rayzoon2.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7442[/url]) concerning your idea so we can keep this thread on general Jamstix 4 Info/Updates.

alexis · Post by **alexis** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 10:29 am

Ralph [RZ] wrote: Not sure you saw this pic but could you tell me what is the wrong with the left side of this image that you'd rather have the right side?
[img:1109c2ad9e]http://www.rayzoontech.com/stuff/js4js3kitcomp.jpg[/img:1109c2ad9e]

Hi Ralph, thanks for asking!

The one on the left looks, to me: too dark; too crudely drawn (the cymbals don't look as realistic/shimmery, the way the light hits them (virtually every cymbal seems to have its own unique light source) ... including that the one one on the far bottom right looks like a dented bowl for some reason to me); I don't like the red on the drum in the new version; and there seems to be a 3-D "exploded" and off-kilter aspect to the new version (for example, 3 of the toms are seen en-face, from directly above, but the 2nd tom from the right is seen from an angle that is slightly lower, so the drum body is now visible: and the snare is seen from yet a different perspective) that makes it less appealing.

Subjective, silly, trivial things of course, but overall these and possibly other things I'm not consciously aware of make me feel less "happy" when looking at the one on the left.

Thanks again!

alexis · Post by **alexis** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 10:59 am

ckurz_7000 wrote: ... I have seen too many products go downhill simply because there was nobody around who paid attention to a sleek userinterface. A well written program scarcely needs a manual. Things are done the way people intuitively do them.

So far, JS3 is a powerful program whose bottleneck is the user interface. People who have been using it a lot (such as many posters on this forum) have no problem with that. But the biggest obstacle to becoming a really great program of widespread use is that JS3 has a very steep learning curve due to a less than intuitive user interface.

So, summing up, I believe that a good user interface does much more to generating revenue for Rayzoon Ltd. than any kind of picture of a drum kit.

-- Chris.

I will add that though I have been a loyal user/reliable purchaser since version 1 or 2, lately I start groaning inside when I think of having to "do the drums". The interface is among the most painful of any I have worked with in any program I use (details in some of the posts I've made). After all this time I still am having to hand program *lots* because the brain's arrangements are just so dang busy and I can't figure out how to sedate them. And these mystery "invisible" drum hits I can't locate to delete are becoming more and more annoying. And I've realized lately when rendering to the DAW that I'm *not* losing my mind, JS will actually randomly drop beats that I have hand programmed in - not good!

I am sure I would feel better about things if I put more hours still into using JS, but the reality is that I don't have those hours to spare, and as I've said, no other software/program/hardware that I use seems to have as low a skill achieved/hrs of use ratio. Maybe I'm not the target consumer (home hobbyist on the DAW a few hrs every week or two), no program can be all things to all potential purchasers.

I want *very* much to continue with JS, I'm hoping JS4 will be a joy to use. I have stuck with it to date in large part for the gentlemanly and incredibly helpful support from Ralph, and power users like jas_lan and a_zimuth and others (sorry for probable misspellings, on a new phone and typing/editing is tough!), the fills, and the"sunken costs" of time and effort I've put into it this far.

Thank you for the opportunity to post here!

Kevin_W · Post by **Kevin_W** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 11:04 am

I could go either way on the graphics (I think the JS3 are fine), but i wonder if people could please post smaller pictures in the forum. These enormous images make it so I have to zoom and scroll to see the text in the posts, at least on my iPad and phone. Too whiny?

Kevin_W · Post by **Kevin_W** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 11:10 am

alexis wrote:
ckurz_7000 wrote: ... I have seen too many products go downhill simply because there was nobody around who paid attention to a sleek userinterface. A well written program scarcely needs a manual. Things are done the way people intuitively do them.

So far, JS3 is a powerful program whose bottleneck is the user interface. People who have been using it a lot (such as many posters on this forum) have no problem with that. But the biggest obstacle to becoming a really great program of widespread use is that JS3 has a very steep learning curve due to a less than intuitive user interface.

So, summing up, I believe that a good user interface does much more to generating revenue for Rayzoon Ltd. than any kind of picture of a drum kit.

-- Chris.
I will add that though I have been a loyal user/reliable purchaser since version 1 or 2, lately I start groaning inside when I think of having to "do the drums". The interface is among the most painful of any I have worked with in any program I use (details in some of the posts I've made). After all this time I still am having to hand program *lots* because the brain's arrangements are just so dang busy and I can't figure out how to sedate them. And these mystery "invisible" drum hits I can't locate to delete are becoming more and more annoying. And I've realized lately when rendering to the DAW that I'm *not* losing my mind, JS will actually randomly drop beats that I have hand programmed in - not good!

I am sure I would feel better about things if I put more hours still into using JS, but the reality is that I don't have those hours to spare, and as I've said, no other software/program that I use seems to have as low a skill achieved/hrs of use ratio. Maybe I'm not the target consumer (home hobbyist on the DAW a few hrs every week or two), no program can be all things to all potential purchasers.

I want *very* much to continue with JS, I'm hoping JS4 will be a joy to use.

Alexis post sums up my situation exactly as well.

In addition, I'm hoping JS4 by default has a "basic controls" mode, where the parameters for each drummer/style are all the same, then an "advanced" mode for times when you want a greater degree of control. I find myself pretty much using the same drummer and style for everything simply because I don't have time to figure out how to tame the majority of the drummers.

reggae_greggae · Post by **reggae_greggae** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 12:15 pm

I'm more curious about what the Bar Editor is going to look like. My own feeling is that while I like the concept of right/left foot/hand, the layout and organization is kind of painful to use if you're on a laptop screen. I'd like to be able to zoom in on that and make it a little bigger.

On the Youtube video at about :40
[url]http://www.rayzoon.com/jamstix3_vid7.html[/url]

I'd like to be able to get rid of the left panels and toggle back and forth between the top and bottom.

Also curious how it will integrate with the new Midi mapping for alternative kits. Not sure if that encompasses custom labels for the specific notes they offer. But it would be nice if you could configure it you could tie specific Midi notes to a specific hand foot, and when you RMB on that cell it shows the label. That way for kits with say, a bunch of different snare or high hat options you can divvy them up between hands.

I know, you're supposed to let the programming do it. But there are times when I want to let the generator get close but then say, I want it like *this*. So I flip back and forth between general an manual. And if you sometimes use kits like EZDrummer going over to Cubase Elements has actually been easier to do than with the current editor. I'd be a lot more inclined to stay in Jamstix all the time if the editor didn't seem as much of an afterthought.

reggae_greggae · Post by **reggae_greggae** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 12:22 pm

And while I'm bitching, I'd like to have a niceer interface for adding third party midi. If you have a long path, it will get cut off and you have to kind of remember what you added and where. It would be nice if it had a better visual representation of the drum hierarchy. Or better yet, if you could assign some kind of an alias/shortcut or label to a path it cut down on the length. So you wind up with something like EZD Funk Classic rather than the full path on disk.

reggae_greggae · Post by **reggae_greggae** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 12:27 pm

Also wonder if there was any thought about putting feature requests on github or something? I know it's a code repository(I use it as such), but I notice that real feature request discussions always seem to get swallowed up in a lot of noise and I wonder if some valid ideas/suggestions/bugs get missed. Might be a way of distinguishing and prioritizing real requests from some of the standard chatter. Not that I'm against chatter but from a developer's perspective it can muddy the water.