New ARP and DrumJam

[wradcliffe]

I am comparing the ARP implementation in the latest versions of DrumJam vs ThumbJam and wondering why the implementation is so different. There are features in both that makes sense to me based on the fact that one is targeted at the rhythm aspect of playing and the other is targeted at the melody. I want to control both so I am having trouble getting either app to do what I want. I just did some experimentation with DrumJam controlling ThumbJam playing PowerChords and electric guitar via MIDI and it did not give the kind of control that I was hoping for. Since there is no simple way to control the actual MIDI notes form DrumJam and no way to communicate the scale that is setup in Thumbam you have to hunt around and select an instrument that just happens to sound decent. Should I just switch over to ThumbJam and wait for more ARP features or continue to pursue this? Any hints from the designers would be greatly appreciated.

For the record - I am researching how best to use MIDI based ribbon controllers to do expressive playing. Seems to be a very complex topic and no real standards for how to do this.

[Jesse]

[This was cross-posted in the DrumJam forum, here is my response from there]:

Well, DrumJam doesn't have an "arp" just similar quantized auto-repeat functionality. I know that the midi note output from drumjam is a trial and error thing, but a workaround if you are sending the output into ThumbJam is to enable Scale Lock in the MIDI input options in ThumbJam and then all midi input will be remapped to notes in the current ThumbJam scale. You can even enable thru mode and ThumbJam will send out that scale-remapped output somewhere else too.