[Review] UJAM "Groovemate ONE" Review (phrase-loading percussion library, ease of use, comparison with other UJAM products, etc.)
Manufacturer Information
I've built up my tracks, got the bass and drums, melodies and chords, but something is missing. Why is it still missing flavor? Percussion! Think of salt as spice. It works faithfully in the background and can be a bit bitter in large doses. But no dish can fully express its flavor without it. The same can be said about pop songs and percussion.
Groovemate ONE quickly and easily spices up your tracks with that all-important feel. Simply select one of the ready-made phrases and adjust it to your needs. Or play the included instruments yourself directly via MIDI input: claps, tambourine, regular shaker, one-shot shaker.
Features
- 30 styles - combi and solo styles
- 4 Sounds (Shaker, Clap, Tambourine, One-Shot Shaker)
- 9 mix & 4 ambience presets
- MIDI drag-and-drop
Quotes from UJAM
Functions
The usage is similar to the Beatmaker series.
There are 30 presets, each with a one-shot tambourine, clap, or shaker assigned to each semitone, for use as a pure percussion sound source. The Mix presets offer a variety of tones with effect chains, and reverb is also available. A lock function is provided so that you can change presets while the Mix information is locked.
And for the upper register, there are three patterns of phrases, SoftFullBusy, where the phrases become finer and more sonorous as you go from Soft to Busy. The phrases for each preset are variations on the Soft pattern, so you can switch between phrases and use them in succession without feeling any discomfort. Each preset has its own fill. This is also similar to the Beatmaker series, but it is useful because it allows a slightly different phrase to be added at the end of a phrase to accentuate it.
While some of the phrases in each preset are simple four-step style or two-step, there are also many different types of phrases such as samba style, bossa nova, five-beat, etc., and this alone covers a wide range of phrases.
Each preset has its own sound characteristics, ranging from so-called "Latin" sounds to pops sounds and more. The most useful feature is the drag-and-drop export function. Compared to drums, percussion is not so often used to create complex phrases, so it is very convenient to be able to easily prepare percussion just by making minor adjustments.
Evaluation
This will be very useful when I want to add a percussion part in the middle of a song. I can try playing the preset for now, and then edit the MIDI to fit the track if I like it, etc. I'm sure there are other percussion libraries out there, but I like the fact that the virtual instrumentation is carefully selected from pop music favorites, so it's very easy to sketch out a phrase.
The price is reasonable, but since it is on sale for less than $10, I highly recommend it to those who don't have a lot of percussion instruments or who want a small, easy-to-use sound source that can quickly procure a percussion part.
