Re:Jam Man Odd Time Signatures

[ejmd@erols.com (Ed Drake)]

Hello ,
      Sorry not to quote from the original messages, as I deleted them
before I responded. The subject was about the Jam Man  not allowing syncing
with an Alesis drum machine playing odd time signatures.

Well, there is way but not it's worth the trouble . You would have to
reprogram your drum patterns using step record and quantize say a drum beat
pattern in 5/4 to play within in the same time as a measure of 4/4 (or any
beat the Jam Man will recognize ). Do this by dividing the total number of
pulse per quarter notes (PPQ) for a measure of 4/4 ,which on the Alesis is
4 beats X 384(PPQ)= 1536 pulses per measure. Then divide this by the top
number of your time signature, 5 in this case, and that means that each
quarter note will occur at approximately 307 pulses apart and then you have
to step record everything in doing the math for eighths, sixteenths,etc.
Not a lot of fun in my book. I only know this from an incredible drummer
friend of mine who programs polyrhythms and tuplets etc. into his drum
machine and actually would rather step record as that's the only way he can
get some of these rhythms into his machine.

The Jam man only syncs up to 3,4 6,8,12,16,24 MIDI quarter notes in a loop.
I couldn't believe it didn't sync up to at least a few fairly common odd
times other than 3 such as 5,7, and maybe even 11 and 13.

This was one of my big complaints to Lexicon when I first got my Jam Man. I
spoke to them about it as a possible update and was told they would record
my request for inclusion in a possible future software update.     I used
to call them every couple of months to see if anything was up but nothing
has come of it and according to John Durant's post a while back they aren't
planning on doing any upgrades.

I got my Jam Man when they first came out and I really wish in retrospect I
had known the Echoplex was coming out as I might have waited to check it
out, but I had been looking for some kind of looping device for a long time
and I didn't even hear of the 'Plex for at least 6 months after I had my
Jam Man. Oh well, I'm still saving my pennies and dreaming.

One question for you 'Plexers , do any of you use MIDI instead of the
footswitch to control your Echoplexes .
I'm sure the MIDI implementation is extensive for the 'Plex but I  haven't
heard any of you talk much about it.


                             Here we go Loop de Loop              Ed Drake