Subject: RiffWorks T4 2.2.1

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/riffworkst4.html

OR.. http://www.sonomawireworks.com/ With links to some youtube stuff..J

Downloaded. Can't figure out how to make my guitar heard. I can hear the drum loop but can't see anywhere to add a guitar track. Guess I'll have to RTFM.

Go check out the youtube links at the Sonoma site..J

or go here and click Play.. http://www.sonomawireworks.com/products.php

As an aside..I just tried it.It is very crippled,you can't adjust anything on the guitar amps other than volume and none of the FX or stomps can be used either..I just thought it would be nice to check it out.. If you click on the hardware button at bottom and click yes it will allow you to then click layer and select amp for guitar.Also it seems to default to a 1024 buffer that you should change to 128 for latency considerations..If you want to delete it use the find for riffworks and also sonoma.. J

Yep. Price is definitely right but, I guess the old adage "you get what you pay for" certainly applies here.

I was interested in this as a off the cuff, insta-jam practice tool. If I can't figure something out without having to spend time pouring through endless web pages, user forums and less than stellar video clips, I just don't want to bother.

I have GuitarRig 2. It has a built in backing instrument tool and recorder. I had to pay out the ying yang for it but, there ya go. :P

With very little effort, I was practicing away with RiffWorks. It has a guided tour at the beginning that shows the buttons you need to choose for a quick start. After a couple of runs through the tutorial I was off and playing. 15 minutes into the program and I was pretty familiar with the layout. I was quite surprised to find out I could use my guitar rig plug-in within the program and any other plug-in for that matter. The only issue is a bit of latency while recording... I think with some tweaks there could be an easy remedy, probably due to software monitoring. Playing along had no ill effects. The riff window takes some getting use to. Familiarity and adjustment to the metronome demands some attention if you want to start into your riff at the right moment. Give this just a little bit of attention and I think it could be a fun application. I'm using an iMac g5 which is lacking a bit on processor power, I'm sure one of the newer machines could run this program a lot easier. There are more bells and whistles that I haven't even begun to tackle also an option to buy loops, like Drums on Demand and other interface upgrades. It's a bit awkward at first but so is any unfamiliar program. For a FreeBEE... I'm impressed.

My brother has worked with this company from the beginning and though I don't personally use it, the product seems nice when he and I record at his place. The coolest thing I dig about it is the instant drummer which has this ability to respond to what you are doing so that it doesn't sound like loop based drums. That's impressive.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the way it works though... I'm a live style recording artist and so working off of making live guitar based loops is very different for me. My own way of doing is much more linear I guess.

What else is cool is that (knowing the people) the guys who developed this are sort of PC types and not Mac-Heads... but they went all out when developing this software and really got into the whole architecture of the Apple OS and became mac heads in the process. They have a love for what the Mac is and it shows in the way the product now works so well on the Mac based platform.

The price is very good for all the bells and whistles that go with this and is worthy of being purchased as even an experiment being that it's so freaking affordable. I have it on my iMac, but am just a GarageBand weenie and so it mostly goes untouched by me I'm sorry to say. Still, it's a real nice product.

~M@

Matt,

That's cool that you know the people behind the software. It must take quite a bit of effort to come up with an idea like this. Just the fact that they are trying to create a product that can bring musicians together on collaborations is note worthy in itself. These guys may be the pioneers to an app that someday will let you and I rehears on line in real time verses corresponding about it in some forum. We talk on the phone in real time why not Jam? My hope someday when broadband gets broader. Thanks for your input.

John

Hi John, have you check this site?
http://www.ejamming.com/?about_videomov

I'm not a musician so I have not check it more then the video :D

when this program came out originally in its earlier forms, i was very tempted to buy it. it seemed to be an amazing jamming too. you have the ability to somply jam, and if you like, record your jam. and if you go to the sonoma site, there used to be a sister site where people posted thier music, just like this site. some really good stuff.
i think you have to look at it for exactly what it is; a practice tool. just like t exas said, it is a great too for practicing your chops.
as a song writer, it was not for me, but it got me addicted to Drums on Demad, which i purchased and still used woth a passion. it got me hooked on the idea of the one take recording approach, which i feel is necessary if you want your mucis to feel alive. it also
got me to thinking if they could do it, so could i. so, periodically, i run one loop fpr 8 minutes, hit record, and see what happens.
this song here, is one i did a couple of days ago. one take, all adlibbed, and a ton of fun. it is the kind of thing sonomawireworks is advocating. spontaneous creativity.
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=93282
sorry, i did not post it here, cause it wasnt part of my opera. not being a snob, just a purist.
i loved the riffworks program, and the people who were using it got alot of milage out of a simple recording suite. line 6 endorses it, and thier toneport, and guitarport devices were designed with riffworks software included.
personally, i found a similar way to do the same thing, and did not use the program. also, when i was looking into it, it was pc only, so another thing i was not into. but overall, a great idea for anyone from the bginner, up.