RE: jamman | bob sellon software

["max valentino" <ekstasis1@hotmail.com>]

I have been using the upgrade from Sellon (vers 4.0 I believe) for a 
couple 
of years now.  At first it was very confusing...much different than the 
standard JamMan setup.  Infact after having the upgrade installed for a 
couple of months, I took it out and went back to the standard setup for 
some 
time before I got up the courage to abandon the familiar system.

And, boy am I glad I did!
It changes the whole nature of the machine, really.  To begin with it 
gives 
you the option of running multiple parallel loops, each with their own 
mute, 
replace, layer, erase fucntions as well as their placement in a stereo 
field.

The "midi fade" feature accessible only via midi, and then only in 3 
flavors, in the original setup, is a standard featuire of the upgrade; 
available on each "track" or as global feature.  This fade can be stopped 
at 
any point where the loop being played is held at the faded volume, but the 
info added to the loop (or played on top of it) is not; where the loop vol 
and the overdub vol are both changed by the fade amount; and the "fade 
out" 
can be inverted to a "fade back" or  "fade in".

You can at any point toggle from loop mode to delay mode (with enhanced 
feedback levels) to morph and elvolve loops (and this can be done on any 
of 
the parallel loops,  or globally)and you can toggle back to loop 
mode...back 
and forth if you like.

There are two dedicated "mute" modes: one which mutes the loop selected, 
albeit letting the loop still run, and one which "resets" the loop 
selected 
to loop start point so that whenever you "unmute" the loop plays from the 
begining.

MIDI CC info can control feedback levels in real time, invert loops, 
change 
"tracks" or modes....
but, you can access all the neccessary stuff via two 3 bitton footswitches 
like digitech fs300's.  This is what I use so I have no MIDI-worries (or 
woes) in my setup.  I have had no problems and expeerience no latency in 
this operaton.

Of course, Bob Sellon has not de-bugged the chips, and so they can be 
buggy. 
On mine the reverse function for a while would invert the loop and play it 
one time, and then shut down the whole machine (requiring a re-boot).  
Lately tho, for some odd reason, it plays thru inverted fine.

There is also an added click track to the new system (this is generated 
but 
not recorded, and is defeatable) as well as a pre-delay which can be added 
to audio before the looping process.

Of course, learning the new system takes a little work.  I printed the 
controls for the front panel dials off Selln's online manual for the 
upgrade 
and applied them to the front panel of my JamMan, and labeled my 
footswitches with function command #s.  There is another eprom upgrade 
which 
allows for front panel info (midi #s, panning, feedback levels etc) to be 
saved in memory of the JamMan as pages.  I never had that put in.

Likewise, I still have not even tried the Mellotron or sampler functions 
of 
the upgrade...they just don't figurte into my work with loops.

All in all, the upgrade is very worthy (I did a demo of this at Loopstock 
a 
couple years back...) and it really changes the personality and 
possibilities of the machine.  The JamMan, which in its original Lexicon 
form was quite limited, becomes much more interactive and becomes a  more 
responsive tool for making loop-based music, as opposed to be a "playback 
and jam" type box in which they only dynamic is to make the loops more and 
more dense until it all stops...

I have had  great success using my upgraded JamMan.  It is still my 
primary 
loopig device.


Max