Dear David Castles

I want to thank you wholeheartedly for your contributions to music lovers and to this forum. I have been waiting many years for a program like JAMMER Live. Often I would read advertisements for “autoaccompaniment” programs, hoping they would be what I wanted. However, the critical real-time feature was missing. Judging by the responses in this forusm JAMMER Live meets a long-felt need. I believe the only two-page thread in this forum addresses JAMMER Live.

With any important new software introduction, there is a learning curve, both on the parts of the users and the developers. I think those with a mature respect for complex software will take time to learn the capabilities of JAMMER Live before trying to integrated it with other types of software. I think a little patience would have avoided some of the “sour grapes” attitudes.

I think the complaints about having to preload are largely unfounded. Of course it would be better not to have to preload. However, hardware arrangers have styles preloaded into ROM. Inherent in any RAM based system is the need to transfer stuff to RAM before using it. I do not see the need to preload as limiting creativity. All musical instruments have limitations. Acoustic instruments have limited sound palettes and no arranger functions. The styles in hardware arrangers are limited in complexity. JAMMER Live offers the most flexible format available for real-time accompaniment styles.

Those concerned with creativity forget that just because you have JAMMER Live does not mean that you have to use it all the time. Styles generally are canned to some extent. What JAMMER Live does do is to allow a musician to choose any keyboard and turn it into an arranger. You do not have to pick a 61-key PSR-9000 or Solton X1, and give up two of five octaves for chording. You can use the full capabilities of your favorite 76-key Triton or 88-key Kurzweil, or two-register Roland Hammond imitation, and add (or not add) auto-accompaniment at will.

We need to thank you for making JAMMER Live available at an irresistibly low price. Of course, a computer is needed to run it, but its cost can be amortized over other applications. When it is time to upgrade, the hardware arranger will have to be replaced, while a software update will suffice for JAMMER Live. Over the short and long run the economics are compelling in favor of JAMMER Live.

The most promising aspect of JAMMER Live is your willingness to contribute to user discussions of your product. I found the explanation of the decisions that were made regarding JAMMER Live very illuminating. I think with this sort of engagement, the future of JAMMER Live is very bright.

Here’s to the further development of JAMMER Live, including “mega-versions” with expanded style sets.

Clif