jammr Forum

Hey all. I've got an Alesis Strike and was wondering what I'll need to jam? I'll be running this off my mac book pro and have USB A to USB B cord as well as a MIDI to 1/8 adaptor. When I tried using the MIDI and my microphone jack, nothing was coming through. Is anyone able to help me problem solve?

These two tutorials might help you out

How do I jam using jammr?
Overview of the user interface: https://forum.jammr.net/topic/1727/
How to jam successfully: https://forum.jammr.net/topic/1724/

Hi Frates,
I took a look at the Alesis Strike manual and the easiest way to record this drumkit is by connecting a 1/4“ to 1/8” audio cable from the drumkit to your computer.

As you mentioned, the drumkit can also do USB MIDI and has a traditional MIDI connector. It's important to know that MIDI contains just the sequence of notes that you played, not the audio. In order to hear MIDI it needs to be reproduced by some kind of instrument (sampler, synthesizer, etc). Imagine MIDI like sheet music, if you give me a page of sheet music I could play it on trumpet or piano - it's not a recording of the sound, just a description of which notes to play.

If you want to use MIDI then jammr supports loading VST plugins and AudioUnits. You could load a drum plugin and it would produce audio from the MIDI your drumkit sends to your computer. The sound would not be the drumkits built into your Alesis Strike but those that come with the drum plugin software. If you have never recorded on your computer before then I would recommend the simpler audio cable approach I mentioned instead - setting up MIDI and plugins can be complicated.

I have a small Roland HD-1 V-Drums Lite. There is only one MIDI out in the brain. I plug the midi from the brain into a Mbox interface. Then another cord from the Mbox into my laptop USB. Then I open EZdrummer 32bit. So far this is the only way I can get my Roland to work when I open jammr. My headphones are plugged into the Mbox. Everything sounds great. I can hear other musicians just fine.
The problem is nobody can hear me. Yes, I click the send button. When I look for VST Plugins in jammr settings I get nothing. How do I load Plugins? I tried typing in a pathway. I tried Drag and Drop. If I hit scan nothing happens. Create a new folder? How do I do that?
Thank you for reading this. If anybody can help I would really appreciate it. I really want this to work. Ive been trying for days.

Edited Gomper (April 25, 2020 23:33:55)

Hi Gomper,
The cables are connected correctly and now the last step is loading the EZdrummer VST plugin inside jammr.

You can find the EZdrummer VST plugin folder by launching the EZdrummer standalone application and going to Help | Show Plug-In Path. In case it helps, the default 32-bit plugin path is C:\Program Files (x86)\VstPlugins\Toontrack. After you've done this please close the EZdrummer standalone application.

Now you can set the path in jammr:
1. File | Settings | Effect plugins.
2. Click Add.
3. Copy-paste the plugin path into the “Search path” text field and click “Add”.
4. Now click “Scan” and EZdrummer should appear in the “Available plugins” list.

Now you can select EZdrummer and click “OK” to load it in jammr.

Once EZdrummer is loaded you can check that it will receive MIDI messages by selecting it in the “Effect plugins” settings panel and clicking “Route…”. Please enable the “MIDI in” checkbox.

If you want to get to the EZdrummer user interface you can select EZdrummer and click the “Edit” button in the “Effect plugins” settings panel.

When you join a jam session you should now hear EZdrummer!

I click scan. And nothing happens. And I could not copy and paste I had to close ezdrummer and then type it in myself. And when I do click ADD, another (add to search path)window opens.

Edited Gomper (April 27, 2020 22:19:19)

Gomper
I click scan. And nothing happens. And I could not copy and paste I had to close ezdrummer and then type it in myself. And when I do click ADD, another (add to search path)window opens.

The two most common issues are:
1. The VST plugins need to be 32-bit. Did you install the 32-bit plugins or the 64-bit ones? Usually this can be fixed by running the plugin's installer again.
2. Was the path to the VST folder entered correctly?

Please do the Scan of the folder again and then go to Help | Show log. Please copy-paste the technical information that gets displayed onto the forum. It will contain details on any VST plugin that it attempted to load.

Thanks!