UJAM PLUGINS PRODUCT OVERVIEW – BEATMAKER SERIES

UJAM PLUGINS PRODUCT OVERVIEW – BEATMAKER SERIES

 

 

KK-Access Review

 

 

UJAM have recently made a collection of their most popular instrument plug-ins NKS compatible, and have also told me that it is their intention to widen this to include all of the product line as a future development roadmap.

 

What better way to reflect and indeed celebrate these updates than with a superb bundle deal with their new partners Native Instruments, and at the time of publication we are midway through just such an offer.

 

We thought this would also be an timely opportunity to take a run through of the products included in the bundle line up, to see what they have to offer us in terms of NKS mapping and general accessibility.

 

UJAM & NKS

 

There are two bundles available in the current offer, so we will split the review into two separate articles and take a look at each, and also list the additional NKS supported products that are not part of the promotion.

 

The Beats Now bundle includes nine instruments from the UJAM Beatmaker series, which are genre themed drum instruments, listed as follows:

 

Cozy, – LoFi Hip Hop beats
Berserk, – Dubstep beats
Rico, – Reggaeton rhythms
Idol, – K-Pop hits
Glory, – Trap Pop Beats
Nemesis, – Cyberpunk Beats
Candy, – Sweet & edgy drums
Vice, – Guilty pleasures
Dope 2, – 90’s Hip Hop drum machine

 

The Supersize bundle includes all of the above, with the addition of three further instruments:

 

Carbon, – The Toughest element, Virtual Guitar
(Symphonic Series) Drums, – The Primal Force
(Symphonic Series) Striiiings, – Evoke emotions

 

Other UJAM products that include NKS support that are not included in the offer are:

 

Virtual Guitarist IRON1
Virtual Guitarist AMBER1
Virtual Guitarist SPARKLE1
Virtual Guitarist SILK1

 

 

WE’RE JAMMIN

 

Before we begin the review, perhaps a brief recap might be in order to look back upon UJAM’s history in the music industry and how they started their journey.

 

Founded back in 2010as an online music tech start up by cinematic composer Hans Zimmer, musician Pharrell Williams, and industry notables Peter Gorges and Axel Hensen, the original product concept was a web only based music utility that enabled users to whistle, sing or Hum a tune into their smart software whose algorithms could detect and then convert the signal into melody lines and subsequently generate a whole backing track based on the original input.

 

The business model has been developed significantly since that time, however the original ethos behind the company of empowering their customers to realise their own musical ideas whilst keeping the technical knowledge to a minimum is still a significant driving force for their products.

 

PLUGIN POWER

 

UJAM now have an expanding catalogue of instruments and effects plugins which are high in quality and are geared toward ease of use,

they feature plenty of preset patterns, and pre configured FX chains that can help users to realise their creativity as quickly and efficiently as possible.

 

 

TECH SPECS

 

All of the UJAM products have their own self contained plug-in, so Kontakt or other Native Instruments products are not required to use them.

 

They are available in all of the usual plug-in formats, but for use within Komplete Kontrol then VST2 & VST3 are the formats KK is concerned with.

 

The products can vary in overall installation size, but generally the Beatmaker series are up to and around 5GB, whereas the Guitars can be up to 23GB, and the Symphonic Elements require around 11GB of disk space.

 

 

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

 

Download and installation is via the UJAM manager application, and if the thought of yet another installer fills you with dread, don’t worry this one was perfectly accessible on Windows, and I would presume equally so on the MAC platform.

 

The creation of a UJAM account is naturally necessary, but the real bonus is that you are able to fully trial the plug-ins for 30 days before making your purchase decision, (although if you are considering taking advantage of the current promotion then I would suggest not hanging around too long!).

 

 

KOMPLETE KONTROL PLUGIN EDIT NKS PARAMETER MAPPING

 

BEATMAKER SERIES – TYPICAL NKS MAPPING TEMPLATE

 

Page One – Global Mix

 

Knob 1 – Kit Selector
Knob 2 – Special Effect (these are single control effect chains that vary between products and are genre specific)
Knob 3 – Mix Selector: Choose between a range of mix presets
Knob 4 – Sweep: a low to high filter effect
Knob 5 – Saturate
Knob 6 – Maximise
Knob 8 – Ambience

 

Page Two – Style & Timing

 

Knob 1 – Pattern Preset Selection
Knob 2 – Beat Intensity
Knob 3 – Kick/Snare Balance (Kick or Snare can be temporarily omitted from the mix via default assignment to the pitch wheel)
Knob 4 – Slack: adjusts the quantise of the Kick & Snare to provide pseudo mistiming’s of retro gear
Knob 5 – Speed: adjusts the sync to DAW rate between half, normal & double
Knob 6 – Player Sync: Note on, 1/16, 1/8/1/4/ Song Position
Knob 7 – Global Volume
Knob 8 – Unallocated

 

Page Three – Bass Drum & Bass Drum 2

 

Knob 1 – Bass Drum 1 Volume
Knob 2 – Bass Drum 1 Decay
Knob 3 – Bass Drum 1 Pitch
Knob 4 – Bass Drum 1 Filter
Knob 5 – Bass Drum 2 Volume
Knob 6 – Bass Drum 2 Decay
Knob 7 – Bass Drum 2 Pitch
Knob 8 – Bass Drum 2 Filter

 

Page Four – Snare 1 & Percussion 1

 

Knob 1 to 8 – As per page three

 

Page Five – Snare 2 & Tom Low

 

Knob 1 to 8 – as above

 

Page Six – Hi-Hat 1 & Tom Mid

 

Knob 1 to 8 – as above

 

Page Seven – Hi-Hat 2 & Tom High

 

Knob 1 to 8 – as above

 

Page Eight – Hi-Hat 3 & Percussion 2

 

Knob 1 to 8 – as above

 

Page Nine – Vox 1 & Cymbal 1

 

Knob 1 to 8 – as above

 

Page Ten – Vox 2 & Cymbal 2

 

Knob 1 to 8 – as above

 

Page Eleven – Sample Selection 1 to 8:

Knob 1 to 8 – choose a sound for each of 8 sample slots using the rotary knobs

 

Page Twelve – Sample Selection 9 to 16
Knob 1 to 8 – as above slots 9 onwards

 

 

ACCESSIBILITY

 

UJAM have done a great job in terms of the NKS mapping for the Beatmaker series, the ability to swap out kit pieces, mix presets & drum patterns all from within a single preset mean that it is possible to fully customise and create an individual kit using all of the instrument samples within the product.

 

A kick from preset 2, a snare from preset 20 etc you get the general idea, add to this the individual volume, Decay, Pitch & filter tweaking options, and the potential combinations are significant.

 

The only thing missing here is the ability to pan each instrument within the stereo field, however, this appears not to be a plugin feature, so it’s not really an omission , but is instead one for the future update request list.

 

THE BEATMAKER ENGINE

 

The keyboard layout of the Beatmaker series is uniform across all of the genre based titles in the series.

 

C1 to D2 are assigned to static and playable samples, which as we have seen can be swapped around to suit our own choices.

 

C3 to A#4 provide pre-recorded midi patterns, which are sub grouped as verse, chorus, intro, fills & Endings. Again like the individual kit sounds, the patterns can be switched in order to use the groove from another preset, you cannot however mix & match individual patterns assigned to keys which is fair enough.

 

There is a drag & drop feature, which sadly like most products that use this method, we are unable to use accessibly, which offers the potential to move the midi patterns from the plugin to tracks within our DAW for midi note editing.

 

I have requested that we may be granted use of the midi files to use externally, however there may be some DRM rights that prevent UJAM from doing this, we will wait and see.

 

MULTI OUTPUTS

 

Each of the Beatmaker series has the potential to offer multi output routing to your DAW of choice, and in common with other such plugins, this is an invitation you can accept upon instantiation of the plugin.

 

Unfortunately we are not able to easily access the user interface either in or outside of Komplete Kontrol to a level where this is achievable.

 

The routing unlike Kontakt is actually already done, however each kit piece needs to be selected as an individual output in order to make this magic happen.

 

I think this is something that would be easy enough to solve on a per product, per DAW basis and shared within the community should the demand arise, and potentially the creation of a single NKS preset per product would also be feasible given that kits and patterns are changeable from within a single instance.

 

PERFORMANCE FX

 

UJAM have integrated some useful fx into the Beatmaker series, and these vary between product according to the music genre. Things like Vinyl crackles, Lo-Fi degeneration, pumping compression, & filter sweeps and so on are all well established tropes that work best in certain fields.

 

Other unique features are provided with the use of the pitch bend & mod wheels, the pitch bend up and down will remove either the kick or snare from the mix,which is a handy and instant performance tool.

 

Similarly the mod wheel up and down will increase or decrease the intensity of the beats within a playing pattern.

 

It is of course also possible to automate any of the assigned NKS controls, so the flex ability and creative potential is enormous if you are the kind of person who really likes to roll up your sleeves and tweak things in detail.

 

KITS & PATTERNS

 

The Beatmaker series instruments each include 10 different kits, which are made up of 16 instrument sounds, that’s 160 individual sounds in total, which are switchable between kits.

 

Each kit preset is given a groove style, but again different groove patterns from other kits are interchangeable, there are 45 styles in total for each Beatmaker title.

 

The styles in turn are made up of the various song sections, 23 for each of the styles, so there is a good variety available with suggested tempos which can help to serve as a guide.

 

As ever I would suggest checking out the walkthrough video links at the review footer in order to hear the sounds included in the Beatmaker series.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

UJAM have achieved a number of things with their Beatmaker product line, a uniqueness in respect that they are all self contained products with no reliance on a separate program or player in order to use them.

 

With the inclusion of NKS there is an immediate appeal for Komplete Kontrol users who wish to work with some genre based beats, without the outlay of something like a Maschine set up, yet still offers more sound flexibility than is possible when loading up a Battery kit within KK.

 

The amount of tweak ability for each product is good, so even if you choose not to make use of the supplied patterns, you can still personalise your drums to match your needs and create your own patterns from within your DAW.

 

The Beats Now bundle is also remarkable value given that there are nine individual themed drum instruments included for around £10 each, and they usually retail at around £60 each.

 

As a first foray into the world of NKS, UJAM have managed to make this particular series almost entirely accessible for the blind & Vision impaired customer, and we look forward to seeing further NKS support throughout their product portfolio.

 

 

The UJAM Beats Now bundle is available for a limited time from the Native Instruments website for £89.00 (regular price for individual content is £559.00).
Offer ends 31st August 2023.

 

 

UJAM & Native Instruments Bundle Page:
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete/ujam-offer-2023/

 

 

Beatmaker Series – Getting Started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao25XaSXRfw

 

 

*Individual Beatmaker product walkthroughs are also available, simply Google the title & YouTube to find a selection

 

 

UJAM Product Manuals:
https://support.ujam.com/hc/en-us/articles/213660069-Where-to-find-the-product-

 

 

(c) Chris Ankin

 

 

KK-Access.com

 

 

22TH August 2023

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer

 

The author can not accept any responsibility for subsequent purchase decisions made as a result of this review,or Any inaccuracies found therein. All opinions and product functions stated are based solely on information perceived as a blind user whilst using the product and/or gathered from official factual sources such as the developer, web or supplied product manual.

 

 

About the Author

 

Based in Buckinghamshire, England, Chris Ankin has worked as a freelance review writer and contributor with articles published in Sound On Sound, Home & Studio Recording and ST Format Magazines.

 

He has also successfully worked extensively in and around the music, recording, film Soundtrack scoring, Game & media composition, the creative arts, Charitable trusts,publishing, music streaming and property investments since 1982 whilst continuously and deliberately managing to evade any mainstream recognition under his own name by the use of various pseudonyms.

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