How to start drum machine vst

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1

I’ve downloaded a drum machine VST (Jamstix) and want to get it to play. I’ve loaded the VST and got it all ready to go. How do I trigger it to start playing? All the videos of Jamstix show it in a DAW where there is a “play” button that gets it playing. I don’t see such a UI feature in Cantabile. I’m pretty new to this kind of thing.

For now I’m just looking for any way to get it going. Eventually I’ll try getting my midi foot controller involved.

2

This solid green triangle?
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Media Player, Sequencers, etc. require the Cantabile Play Button to be activated. This can be done with a binding from an external midi device, too. If the Measures in the middle on Cantabile are not incrementing, nothing is playing. The 21 2.092 below:
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Effect VST’s Instrument VSTi’s will work fine with no playing, but other items (media player, sequencer) will be dead in the water. I wasted a lot of time trying to get CCstepper (CodeFN42) to “STEP” and all I needed to do what hit play!

3

Thanks @easteelreath. My play triangle is enabled when I choose “Metronome” and disabled for “Sync. to MIDI Clock”. When I press it for Metronone I just hear the metronome. Does something else need to be ‘wired’ up to get a VST plugin to respond to it?

4

Jamstix requires MIDI tracks to trigger the drum sounds. So you need a media player with a MIDI drum track loaded in it and then the MIDI out from the Media player would route to the the jamstix plugin.

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5

So… pre-program the midi drum file, load into Cantabile Media Player, Send midi out of Media Player to Jamstix, audio out of Jamstix to Cantabile audio out? Press Cantabile play then there should be an audible drum track.

I did not realize jamstix is only a sound generator and not a self-player.

6

Thanks @dave_dore and @easteelreath. I’ve tried loading a drum midi into Media Player and routing the Media Player midi out to the Jamstix midi in but the play button still doesn’t light up. It also doesn’t seem like the right path in that Jamstix is supposed to make up it’s own drum track with extra fills, etc - so it doesn’t seem like I should be loading a predefined drum track in.

I’m stumped but I’m ok to give up on this for now. Perhaps Jamstix doesn’t work with Cantabile.

7

I’ve never used Jamstix, so hopefully I’ve not misled you. Search for “Jamstix” in the Forum Search box and forum users are using with Cantabile, so it does work. Jamstix is mentioned 14 times in forum.

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8

Hi @malcolmvr,

I have loaded jamstix in a new song, just to test all the operation you have to do before getting a sound out of it.
Therefore:

  1. load a drum kit (after loading a kit I can play it and hear a sound just clicking on a piece (snare, hi-hat, etc.)

  2. load a style and a drummer

  3. go to “build” page and check that there is something in the box “Song structure”, then click “Create song”, so that the song is copied in the leftmost box (I use an old version of jamstix, free edition 4.4.6…maybe your layout could be different)

  4. select “Normal Jam” in the top left

  5. click the green triangle to start play in Cantabile

Result: I hear a groove playing :grin:

I hope this helps,
Gabriel

Update: To play the drums from my keyboard, I have to select “Midi playback” in the top left of the jamstix window. All the other options do not work for that.

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9

Thanks @cdv_gabriel! It was the “Create song” step that I was missing. I’m all set.

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10

Glad it’s sorted and sorry for bad advice … :slight_smile:

Dave

11

I use Jamstix for practicing Hammond trio (playing left hand bass and right hand comping or lead). Jamstix will tend to overplay (IMHO). I was given tips by Ralph Zeuner and several other Jamstix forum members on how to dial the player back.

After you “create” it will still play variations every time you hit the play button in Cantabile. If one time it just played perfectly you can lock that “performance” in.