BIAB versus JammerPro

[Bill Mecca]

There are fans of each.

I happen to have a copy of each, albiet an older copy of BIAB (9) and Jammer Professional

Wondering for those who have used both, why do you prefer one over the other? specific reasons please.

One thing I have seen in Jammer is the inability to print, or am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Bill;

BIAB has only one major advantage over Jammer and that is it's huge fake book selection.
However after listening to a few songs there is the desire to slap that piano player for over use of those, long since unhip, half-step chord changes and to bludgeon the whole band for those absolutely stock intros and endings. These ARE editable, but the process is, to be charitable, tedious. The BIAB song style consists of an intro, an "A" groove, a "B" groove and an ending. The latest version MAY go beyond this but as of V.10 that seemed to be it!

(Shoutin' Shorty Hogan endorses the product whole-heartedly, I'm told!)

Jammer, on the other hand, has the ability to change the style as subtly or blatently as you desire, for EVERY MEASURE! Editing styles is, by no means, EASY, but with some work, you can have that little sucker humming to YOUR tune, rather than the stuff bleating between the Blue Light Specials. [And the people at Soundtrek actually know what they're talking about! ] You can put drum fills of several lengths (and styles) in any measure. In short, besides auto-pilot, which it does as well if not quite as simpley as BIAB, the more you know, the more you can use!

Not being much of a reader, I can only say that I use Jammer often for printing chord (and lyric) sheets, but I've never tried anything more advanced! Maybe I'll try it and get back witcha!

(Rumor has it Shoutin' Shorty Hogan sez it bites!)

I go way back to the (Windows) beginning of BIAB and about 2.0 of Jammer and at no time did I ever feel that Jammer was inferior. I think It deserves everyone's full attention... especially if they want a program that will grow with them.

The Artist Formerly Known as Selmer Fudd,
Berg Larceny

[Bill Mecca]

The fake book selection is good for biab, I have even subscribed to a yahoo group for the program.

maybe we need to get the word out about Jammer, make it more widely known and start some kind of file sharing group, if there isn't already?

I have to play with the program a bit more, but its a matter to finding the time, (the story of my life lately)

are we gonna have to find you one of those symbols like the Artist Formerly Known as Prince had? ;-)

BTW, did you have another handle on sotw before the last one?

[Anonymous]

I'm takin' the fifth!

[Richard901]

A new version of Jammer Pro is available – Jammer Pro 5.

A demo is available from:
http://www.soundtrek.com/

[Anonymous]

Apparently, what printing was available, has been "temporarily" removed from Jammer Pro 5. My guess is, some bug bit 'em in the butt! But they promise to have it restored soon! If you have 5, this is why you can't print!

They also let the automatic chord recognition...one of the coolest features, slide for the nonce!

But, I have faith that they'll be up and running in the very near future!

[Saxmo53x]

Listing to Jammer Live Demo, I was impressed by the professional players of the instructments and realism of sound. So monday (6/9/030) I bought Jammer Pro 5. I

I think Jammer Pro 5. is an excellent program and sounds better than BIAB. and it would be great if it had the sheet music feature so you could write are see sheet music notes as they are being played (vs BIAB). One thing for sure, Jammer was definitely created with the professional musicians in mind.

[Media Lint]

Use BIAB to make a MIDI file, dump it into Sonar, use some decent hardware or softsynths, and don't forget to tweak all the parts on the staff line. What do you do with those lame piano parts? I don't know what you do, actually, but I had good luck running them through a guitar modeler in strum mode. A good bass patch running through an amp simulator is a must. The bass line also needs the most editing, which is fortunately not so bad. Those string sections make for some decent synth pads.

[Bill Mecca]

Berg,

the tunes on your website, are most of them with Jammer Pro? sounds great,

Keep honkin!

[Anonymous]

Most of my stuff is hand made, but some may have Jammer parts---usually drums and drum fills sometimes bass, but I couldn't tell you what, where or when. I usually start everything on keyboard (in C).

Jammer is really outstanding when you want to try out things in a hurry. Most of the R&B (real 50's R&B, I should say) Jammer styles have been extensively modified by me to give me a more appropriate (ie less Holiday Inn) feel! I can crank out a finished (by demo standards) track pretty quickly except where I don't find what I need...then Mr. Anal, that little voice on my shoulder, causes me to diddle forever. Fortunately, once I have finished diddling, I won't need to do it again!

[MattC]

Does Jammer have the solist feature like BIAB does? How is it for straigh ahead jazz?