Instruments

The six instrument types in Jam Club, what each is for, and the controls they share.

A Jam Club track is a rack of instruments. Each one is an independent voice with its own pattern, loop length, effects chain and mixer channel — you add as many as you need, and each occupies a column in the session grid.

Choosing an instrument

InstrumentUse it for
SynthDesigning sounds from scratch — bass, leads, pads, textures
SimplerPlaying a single bundled sample across the keyboard
SoundFontRealistic General-MIDI instruments like piano, strings and organ
Drum MachineBeats, using a step grid of drum voices
RecorderTurning your own mic, line-in or uploaded audio into an instrument
MetronomeA click track to play along to

What every instrument shares

Regardless of type, each instrument gets the same surrounding machinery:

A pattern and a loop length

Every instrument holds its own notes and its own beats-per-loop setting (4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 beats). Instruments therefore do not have to share a bar length — a 4-beat drum loop can run against a 16-beat pad, and they will phase against each other in useful ways.

A mixer channel

Each instrument has a gain knob, a level meter, a mute button and an activator in the mixer strip beneath its column.

An effects chain

Any instrument can be fed through the effects chain — delay, chorus, phaser, overdrive and more.

A filter

The Synth, Simpler and Recorder share a low-pass filter card with cutoff and resonance controls, which is also the main target for modulation.

Clip slots

Each instrument column holds up to five clip slots, so you can keep several variations of a part and launch between them. See Clips & Scenes.

Arming

Only one instrument is armed at a time. The armed instrument is the one that receives keyboard and MIDI input, and the one whose editor is on screen. Click an instrument's column header to arm it.