Jamstik Blog

If you've seen or heard the statement "the jamstik is a MIDI controller" and thought "I have no clue what MIDI is," you're not alone. From it's introduction in the 1980's through to today, MIDI has left a lot of people scratching their heads. I'm going to do my best here to help bring some clarity to what MIDI is and how it functions, especially in connection to the jamstik and puc. 

"Apps We Got To Have” is a series dedicated to sharing info about the apps that we love to use with the jamstik. We’re not concerned with doing “deep dive” style reviews where we go over every detail of an app in exhaustive fashion, we’ll leave that to Dischord and Synthtopia. What we want to do is demonstrate the one or two things we love about an app, what makes it valuable for use with the jamstik.

We built the jamstik not only to be an amazing guitar learning tool, but also a high quality musical device capable of so much due to the portability and versatility.  We took it down to SXSW this year not only to show it off at the Music Gear Expo, trade shows, and meetings, but to bring it into real venues and onto the streets to get real people playing it. This is the story of our time in Austin, TX this March.

If you haven't heard, we decided to go to crowdfunding to launch our latest project, the jamstik+. We've seen an overwhelming amount of support so far, and are happy to have surpassed our goal by over 500% in just the first week.  

We've been privileged to receive a STAFF PICK by Kickstarter, so a big thanks to them for helping us increase the visibility of our project! Thanks so much to everyone who has pledged so far!  We wanted to provide a quick overview of the project, and tell why we're back utilizing crowdfunding to make it happen.

The Jamstik is perfect for practicing while on the road. The fact that it has real guitar stings makes it ideal for working on technique exercises or warm-ups. The best part is that when it comes time to board the plane or bus, I can just shove it in my carry-on bag along with my other travel items and be on my way.

Sampling isn't about "hijacking nostalgia wholesale," says Mark Ronson. It's about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that story forward.

We’re thrilled to announce that Jamstik has just been named as an honoree for the 2015 CES Innovation Awards under the “Tech for a Better World” category. We share the honor with several other great companies who have developed excellent products.

Needless to say, we’re absolutely thrilled and sincerely appreciative to be honored by CES.

I stumbled onto this article entitled “The Technical Constraints That Made Abbey Road So Good” written by Justin Lancy of The Atlantic thanks to a friend sharing it on Facebook. Said friend is a busy, well-known audio engineer in NashVegas, so I tend to inspect his posts and mentions with a careful eye.

The acronym MIDI stands for “Musical Instrument Digital Interface.” In the simplest explanation, MIDI is a language (technically speaking, it’s a protocol) that allows digitally-controlled musical instrument devices to communicate to each other. MIDI has been around since the early 1980’s. It was primarily used with synthesizers and sequencers, but quickly got implemented on all kinds of musically-related gear (drum machines, mixers, drum pads, synchronization boxes, etc.)

As much as the jamstik has changed how people learn how to play guitar or record their ideas in GarageBand or other recording apps, it’s also a great controller for live performances. As someone who has spent years in guitar-based live bands with no keyboard players, trust me when I say it’s hard to cover three hours of familiar material for an audience in one night without running into a tune that needs a signature keyboard part.

Recently, I re-created Charli XCX’s song “Boom Clap” using only a MIDI guitar controller (jamstik). We set out to do as much as we could with the jamstik exclusively in GarageBand and the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 really works well for this, so it’s not really a challenge to work only in the iPhone as a “limitation.” Like we demonstrate in our “GarageBand Loop Recording” video, you can record your ideas without stopping the music if you make your instrument track selections in advance.

Wish there was a place where you could search a database of information about the jamstik?  Or perhaps a place where you could ask a question, request a feature, or interact with other customers?  

Well the day has come.. look no further than our new Customer Knowledge Base. We hope this becomes a valuable resource for everyone with questions and comments on the products. We'll do our best to stay active and help with any issues that come up. Each answered question will remain in the database for future customers with similar issues, so ask away!

Customers and Supporters,

With all of the methods of communication available to us these days, things can get confusing.  We wanted to provide you with a single place to get reliable information right from us, the team at Zivix. So, from now on we'll be posting major updates and announcements here on our blog!  Subscribe to make sure you stay up to date on production status, firmware updates, app updates and more.  Be on the lookout for new videos, app and software demos, contests, events and other fun stuff too!

Our job doesn't end when we ship you the product. It's our goal to make sure you have a great experience with your jamstik and continue to have fun with it for years to come.  This is just the beginning, and we hope you'll stay with us on the journey as our technology and products evolve.

We look forward to your participation in the conversation, so feel free to comment on our posts and we'll do our best to get back to you. Thanks for stopping by!

As always you can get in touch with us at jamstik@zivix.net or for support related issues: support@zivix.net