ThumbJam Forum

I love playing drum sounds and loop slices in one-shot mode by "painting" with the finger and using the "Retrigger Time Interval" quantization parameter to get weird beats with constant tempo. This is a great performance feature, it is perfect for touch screens and unique to ThumbJam.

I have two suggestion regarding the retrigger behaviour that could make TJ an even greater "beat paint tool".

1: As far as I see, the RTI quantization kicks in as soon as you put a finger on a pad and slide it to the next pad within the set retrigger interval time frame. If you stay longer on a pad and then move the finger to the next pad, no quantization occurs. If, in this case, you move the finger further to another pad (again, within the set interval time frame) the quantization grid gets reset and quantization will be active again.

I would love to have the following behaviour: The RTI quantization grid starts when you put a finger on a pad. It works independent from the time you stay with your finger on the pad. If you decide to move your finger after seconds, even minutes, the grid you startet by hitting the pad ist still active and quantiizes the retriggering of the new pad to the next grid line, say Bar or 16th note. This way, when playing longer samples or looped stuff, sliding to a new pad would always be quantized as long as the finger isn't lifted. This would be perfect for keeping the groove with much more sample material than now, for example with loop segments of different length...
The quantization grid would be reset by lifting the finger (all fingers, see below) off the surface for a moment and the touching a pad again.

2: When you slide a finger across the pads to play an "RTI beat" and then start using a second finger to play a secong one, the second finger starts a new quantization grid that is not related to the first. You have to hit the pad exactly in time with the second finger, else the second loop ist somewhat offset to the first.
I would prefer if the quatizartion grid from the first finger could be used for further fingers, so that all fingers are automatically in sync. Hitting a pad with the second finger would not need to be quantized here (i guess this can't be done well), but sliding to a new pad should.

Thanks for reading and keep up the good work!

1) I like this idea as an option. Actually implementing it and tying it to an absolute timeline (synced with the loops, for instance) might be more work than it sounds, however. I might discover that once it was done, I would suddenly have note quantization and sequencing implemented But your basic idea is simple and easy to do.

2) Ironically, I was having fun the other day by actually using the fact that the second touch is *not* related to the first... when you have a relatively long interval set, throwing down a second finger right between retriggers of the other lets you get double-speed or other interesting flams. But I see your point, and it should be an option to lock them together.

Another thing you'll have noticed is that the timing of RTI is not really accurate, no guarantees are made that what you ask for is really what you get, due to the way it is implemented. This is why tying it to an absolute timeline reference (such as the loops) will be more involved.

I'll go ahead and suggest a feature you probably also want: ability to specify the RTI in terms of tempo and/or beat fractions based on current tempo.

Hi Jesse,

thanks for your reply. Sounds like there is hope that something like this might be coming. Great!

I'll go ahead and suggest a feature you probably also want: ability to specify the RTI in terms of tempo and/or beat fractions based on current tempo.

Yes, of course! And I love to see this parameter on the main GUI...

Best,
Uwe

I was wondering if something similar to the DopplerPad Gate/Arp feature would be possible?

We could have a "pattern layout" similar to the grid in ughoenig's latest instruments, which would define when triggering would occur. Loop time would run from the top left box to the bottom right box, one row at a time, with the RTI (or tempo) specifying how many ms pass between each box. Then you could draw the pattern/phrase you want. When this grid is active (with a button set in Key Controls?), holding a finger on some one-shot pad will trigger sound when time runs over active boxes in the grid. This would also work with "beat painting", so that the triggered sound would depend on where the finger is at that time.

If you were allowed to draw partially filled boxes in the pattern grid (similar to iDrum), then this partial value could determine e.g. the volume of the triggered sound.

I think the above would work quite well and feel both right and fun in Thumbjam (DopplerPad is also described as an expressive instrument, with little sequencing support). How it fits with the current timeline handling in Thumbjam, I don't know.