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Hmmm... this should probably soon go to the OT forum, I'll bet because I bring the topic up somewhat philosophically. I just recently bought Stylus RMX. I was hoping to get the BackBeat expander so I could use it for more conventional drums as well, but the BackBeat SAGE expander wasn't in stock at my local GC.

Nonetheless, Stylus is amazing and seems like just the ticket when you want to whip up some complex rhythmic bed in no time. As somebody who is sort of "old school" and remembers having to come up with each individual element and cook from scratch, I have a twinge of guilt when I create something in Stylus in 5 minutes that sounds like it takes hours. I guess I should get over it? I imagine the real power is incorporating your own recorded audio and supplying original content to Stylus.... if you have time.

That said, I'm still also searching for a Drum VI that isn't a lot of work, but gives me something in the rock vein easily. I'm a big fan of very processed 80's type drum kits... compressed, EQ'd, gated, and aggressive sounding. I bought EZ Drummer and not thrilled with it. I have DHFS and don't want to have to do all that work to get it to sound like something I like. I heard the Addictive Drums demo and from what I heard I think I like the kit better than the one that comes with EZ Drummer.

James,

What a coincidence! I read your post right after watching some of the RMX tutorial videos. I got Stylus last spring as a gift to myself after finishing a project, but haven't had much time to learn it (had to finish another project that took months).

I had a little tinge of guilt too in the back of my mind yesterday, but for a different reason - I work with some world-class percussionists and thought they'd look down on me for using programmed rhythm. But I didn't get Stylus to replace my buddies (which, ultimately, it couldn't for most of the music I do). I'm not even quite sure how I'll use it in the jazz-oriented music I do, and whether it'll ever show up in anything I record.

Last night I created a groove and jammed over it using Scarbee's sampled Rhodes, and the quality of the groove and the sound and feel of the Rhodes were so good that I kept at it for a good long time. I play lots of eighth-note based music, so it was a great chance to practice 16th-note funky jazz (in the Herbie Hancock vein). So my first use for it has been for practicing!

I'm impressed with how deep it is - you can use slices, grooves, or kits, and the chaos designer can come up with some surprisingly realistic variations.

How dose it work? Can you program in chord changes like Bm9-E7-Gb dim7-AMaj7 for jazz or like G5-A5-D5-E7 for rock ect.? It sounds like you have control over as number of things. Is it loop based?

twistedtom wrote:How dose it work? Can you program in chord changes like Bm9-E7-Gb dim7-AMaj7 for jazz or like G5-A5-D5-E7 for rock ect.? It sounds like you have control over as number of things. Is it loop based?

Check it...

http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/stylusrmx.html

*******

As for cheating, I quote Burns*...

"If you can take advantage of a situation in some way, it's your duty as an American to do it. Why should the race always be to the swift? Or the jumble to the quick-witted? Should they be allowed to win merely because of the gifts God gave them? Well, I say cheating is the gift man gives himself!"



*C. Montgomery

James Steele wrote: That said, I'm still also searching for a Drum VI that isn't a lot of work, but gives me something in the rock vein easily.....

James, BFD 2 will be out in a week .. huge improvements and includes very powerful groove library / sequencer section

http://fxpansion.com/index.php?page=53&tab=148

Thanks Crispick it looks like it is MIDI VI's and loops. It also says it can be a VI in DP. So can I program in chords as all my music is based on chord changes and a melody.

James-

I would suggest these REX2 drum loops...
http://drumsondemand.com
...for your StylusRMX.

Chords won't sound so good through Stylus.

It's a drum machine.

I love it. Layering perc loops under real drums is great, and using it for "groove" click tracks is pretty great, too.

t

I use stylus in a number of ways. It's so programmable both with MIDI and audio that it's a perfect tool for programming compositions as well as having fun with the existing material.

I love stylus!! I believe some folks thought that digital recording was cheating too, not using "real" tape and all...


Did you know you can do odd time sigs in Stylus, even with the stock loops? Just work in slice mode. Change the time sig in DP and rearrange a few slices (MIDI notes) to fill in the gap ,like for 9/8, or take a couple of slices out for 7/8. Takes just a couple of minutes of fiddling and works great. You can make alternate 4/4 versions of loops the same way.

Stylus MIDI learn features are great and MOTU could take some lessons there. For example you can do multiple mutes/unmutes and solos at the same time in Stylus' mixer with any assigned MIDI controller and it's easy to set up. If only DP had half those features... sigh.

It's VERY MUCH worth the time to watch all the videos IMO.

James, besides Backbeat you might also like Retro Funk as well. I've also converted a lot of other loops for Stylus because I love both the interface and sound. I have an old Steve Smith sample CD I converted most of that I think you'd like for sure! Some of the rhythms are actually from Journey hits but I warp them to my own nefarious purposes.

Cheers
Phil

PS if anyone's interested, here's a song I did a couple years ago that features a lot of Stylus and Trilogy - and Numerology as an "algorithmic generator" all recorded in DP of course.
http://idisk.mac.com/doctorvague/Public ... elease.mp3
for some reason this isn't coming up as a clickable URL and I can't figure out why...

The guilt will fade..............

Your a guitarist, if you bought, say, "virtual guitar" now that would cheating.

You can always continue to program your drum parts, Stylus is a good sound source. It's a good program.

As much as I'd like to be all things to all people I've realized I'm not.


chrispick, do you keep that Burns quote on hand?

"it's your duty as an American" wow

dogBoy wrote:chrispick, do you keep that Burns quote on hand?

"it's your duty as an American" wow

Not as such.

Here is its origin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_of_Madness

philbrown wrote: PS if anyone's interested, here's a song I did a couple years ago that features a lot of Stylus and Trilogy - and Numerology as an "algorithmic generator" all recorded in DP of course.
http://idisk.mac.com/doctorvague/Public ... elease.mp3
for some reason this isn't coming up as a clickable URL and I can't figure out why...

Unicornation blocks any song made the 'cheating way' - if you don't play everything yourself Unicornation's special algorithms detect this and it won't link.

( )

chrispick,
That Mr.Burns !!
I thought it was from an Irish poet or sociologist, then again, maybe he/it is. The quote is very "Greed is Good" from "Wall street".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed_Is_Good

thanks for the link

chrispick wrote: *******

As for cheating, I quote Burns*...

"If you can take advantage of a situation in some way, it's your duty as an American to do it. Why should the race always be to the swift? Or the jumble to the quick-witted? Should they be allowed to win merely because of the gifts God gave them? Well, I say cheating is the gift man gives himself!"



*C. Montgomery

I learned everything I need to know in life from watching the Simpsons. That quote is very appropriate for the subject of Stylus, which I love by the way. As long as you dig a little, you'll avoid sounding like everyone else.