UJAM's involvement with the A-List series

[joeyluck]

So I'm familiar with UJAM having heard of them and used the service in the past. It's a music creation website founded by Peter Gorges, Has Zimmer, and Pharrell Williams. I was just checking out A-List guitarist Pop Chords and saw the note "powered by uJam." This is noted in the description of all of the A-List devices. I didn't notice this before. What does that mean exactly? Is this referring to the same UJAM?

[craven]

any news on this? I wondered the same. Maybe Props use UJAM's proprietary SongCruncher technology (whatever that means)


About UJAM: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... 24951.html

UJAM is a music technology platform aiming to become the #1 solution for consumers, services and applications looking for customizable music for music production, videos or other applications on web and mobile. Backed by music industry luminaries such as Oscar-awarded film composer Hans Zimmer and producer Pharrell Williams, UJAM's unique SongCruncher technology makes music easily customizable for professionals and consumers alike, while producing stunning professional results. Started in 2010, the company co-pioneered music production on the web.

[joeyluck]

For those interested, Peter Gorges replied to my question over at Rack Extensionists on Facebook:

• Hi Joey, thanks! Yes I can: We developed the instrument based on our IDT engine (which is also the basis of instruments like Hydronexius or Emotional Piano, and now our own Virtual Guitarist IRON) in collaboration with Propellerhead. Propellerhead provided guidance on issues like optimal platform compatibility, user expectations and other things - basically "making the instrument a true Propellerhead product".

[joeyluck]

A video was released just a few days ago for Virtual Guitarist IRON:

This screenshots at 0:09 and 0:13 look somewhat familiar, yeah?

IRON-video1.png (85.14 KiB) Viewed 3411 times

IRON-video.png (105.33 KiB) Viewed 3421 times

As you can see from my screenshot, I joined the 'light side' on Google lol

Anyways... Pretty cool stuff. I'm very happy with Pop Chords! Might consider Power chords... Although I get plenty done with the Shreddage ReFill...

[joeyluck]

It's fun learning about stuff. I feel like I've been living under a rock lol

ujam-REs.png (278 KiB) Viewed 3409 times

[joeyluck]

So I'm not sure why much of this info isn't on the forefront of the Propellerhead Shop, aside from the small note at the bottom of the product pages 'powered by UJAM.'

I understand Propellerhead manages the product as their own, but knowing about involvement from the outside world is interesting and cool. To know that other big names and unique thinkers are working with the platform whether it's strictly business or they enjoy the platform (or both); it makes our somewhat small world seem bigger.

So what's the channel now I should take for bugging people for instruments like this?
Can we start bugging UJAM that we want a string instrument like Action Strings?

[Lov2sing]

So is this a whole new item or are you saying they developed the A-List guitarist series? Not to make waves but if they are the developer could we ask them to add items to the RE? Is that forbidden? Personally I like to be able to play single notes to lead into a chord. That gives the picking sound of Nashville.

[joeyluck]

So is this a whole new item or are you saying they developed the A-List guitarist series? Not to make waves but if they are the developer could we ask them to add items to the RE? Is that forbidden? Personally I like to be able to play single notes to lead into a chord. That gives the picking sound of Nashville.

They developed A-List in collaboration with Propellerhead. That is a good question though; which was the one I raised about future products... I didn't ask that question. I'll inquire!

[DNA Apocalypse]

nice! I love the fast disclaimer at the end of the video! rock time!!!

[joeyluck]

nice! I love the fast disclaimer at the end of the video! rock time!!!

Classic!

[Peter Gorges]

Hi everyone, this is Peter from UJAM. I just happened to find this thread here today and wanted to thank you guys for the nice feedback on our stuff. If you have questions or suggestions for us, feel free to post them and I promise to take them seriously. I can't promise to answer all and everything to everybody's satisfaction though

[craven]

Hi everyone, this is Peter from UJAM. I just happened to find this thread here today and wanted to thank you guys for the nice feedback on our stuff. If you have questions or suggestions for us, feel free to post them and I promise to take them seriously. I can't promise to answer all and everything to everybody's satisfaction though

cool, thanks for chiming in. I have one question: is it possible to update the devices to choose the phrase via mouse click in addition to midi? I often use reason on the laptop and it would be nice to just cycle through different strumming styles using mouse controls.

[Peter Gorges]

Hi craven - a technical limitation prevents us from doing this: a control in a Rack Extension can't be controlled both via MIDI a n d the mouse. As a workaround, you could use Reason's built-in on-screen keyboard (transpose it to cover the phrase octaves). This is actually what I do when I'm travelling!

[eusti]

Hi Peter,

I see there is a speed button on the Iron device... (0.5x, 1x, 2x)



Is there a chance we could get this via updates as well?
As well, the demos sound terrific for Iron... Somehow more lively... Is this something it has over the Reason devices?

Thanks!

D.

[joeyluck]

Hi everyone, this is Peter from UJAM. I just happened to find this thread here today and wanted to thank you guys for the nice feedback on our stuff. If you have questions or suggestions for us, feel free to post them and I promise to take them seriously. I can't promise to answer all and everything to everybody's satisfaction though

Thanks so much for chiming in! Great to have you here, Peter!
I had meant to send you a link here the first time I reached out to you. It appears I didn't. Glad you found it!
I'm really digging the interface of Virtual Guitarist Iron (particularly the top half) gives you a reference of where you are on the keyboard...and perhaps might lend itself to mouse selecting phrases as craven suggests? [EDIT] and just saw your previous reply about the current limitation with Rack Extensions and having something selectable via MIDI and mouse. However, still nice to have the reference on the interface

[joeyluck]

Hi Peter,

I see there is a speed button on the Iron device... (0.5x, 1x, 2x)



Is there a chance we could get this via updates as well?
As well, the demos sound terrific for Iron... Somehow more lively... Is this something it has over the Reason devices?

Thanks!

D.

On A-List there are phrases for half-time/double-time. Although this interface might make that selection more intuitive.

[eusti]

On A-List there are phrases for half-time/double-time. Although this interface might make that selection more intuitive.

Right now we have Normal and Slow in Acoustic and double time in Pop Chords.

D.

[joeyluck]

On A-List there are phrases for half-time/double-time. Although this interface might make that selection more intuitive.

Right now we have Normal and Slow. We don't have double time, as I understand it.

D.

Gotcha. I'd have to double check Power Chords, but I've been using Pop Chords a lot recently and it includes phrases for "HalfT" and "DoubleT"

[eusti]

On A-List there are phrases for half-time/double-time. Although this interface might make that selection more intuitive.

Right now we have Normal and Slow. We don't have double time, as I understand it.

D.

Gotcha. I'd have to double check Power Chords, but I've been using Pop Chords a lot recently and it includes phrases for "HalfT" and "DoubleT"

Double checked and edited my post: There is "slow" for Acoustic, "double time" (and occasionally "Half Time") for Pop Chords and "Hi" for Power Chords.

D.

[Neko the Jaguar]

So is this a whole new item or are you saying they developed the A-List guitarist series? Not to make waves but if they are the developer could we ask them to add items to the RE? Is that forbidden? Personally I like to be able to play single notes to lead into a chord. That gives the picking sound of Nashville.

[joeyluck]

On A-List there are phrases for half-time/double-time. Although this interface might make that selection more intuitive.

Right now we have Normal and Slow. We don't have double time, as I understand it.

D.

Gotcha. I'd have to double check Power Chords, but I've been using Pop Chords a lot recently and it includes phrases for "HalfT" and "DoubleT"

Double checked and edited my post: There is "slow" for Acoustic, "double time" for Pop Chords and "Hi" for Power Chords.

D.

Cool. Well if there are any missing samples, perhaps it could be updated? As I mentioned, Pop Chords has HalfT in addition to the normal and DoubleT phrases.
I suppose one could also automate the BPM...although that might not make things as easy for other instrumentation in a piece.

[craven]

Hi craven - a technical limitation prevents us from doing this: a control in a Rack Extension can't be controlled both via MIDI a n d the mouse. As a workaround, you could use Reason's built-in on-screen keyboard (transpose it to cover the phrase octaves). This is actually what I do when I'm travelling!

Thanks for your fast reply!
yeah, that is also my workaround - do the melody first, then the phrase. I would have preferred to play the melody using the on screen keyboard while changing phrases with the mouse, though. Too bad there are technical limitations, I assumed this would be the issue.

[eusti]

Cool. Well if there are any missing sampes, perhaps it could be updated? As I mentioned, Pop Chords has HalfT in addition to the normal and DoubleT phrases.
I suppose one could also automate the BPM...although that might not make things as easy for other instrumentation in a piece.

Agreed. I would just love to have all options in all devices... There seem only certain phrases in Pop Chords that have HalfT / DoubleT...

D.

[joeyluck]

Cool. Well if there are any missing samples, perhaps it could be updated? As I mentioned, Pop Chords has HalfT in addition to the normal and DoubleT phrases.
I suppose one could also automate the BPM...although that might not make things as easy for other instrumentation in a piece.

Agreed. I would just love to have all options in all devices... There seem only certain phrases in Pop Chords that have HalfT / DoubleT...

D.

Indeed. Curious if the 0.5x and 2x options are selectable for every phrase with VG Iron. And if either Iron or Power Chords has more or less samples than the other. Is Iron's timing selections playing independent phrases, or is it simply adjusting the timing for one phrase? In any case, I think having the timing selection separate works nicely with the workflow and automation.

[Peter Gorges]

Hi all, I can say this much: We have been considering that as soon as the dust has settled over the launch of VG IRON, we will be looking into updating the Rack Extensions, and some of the stuff you've been asking for above is on the list! Thanks for all the feedback!