Comments on: UJAM GrooveMate One Review

By: Tomislav Zlatic

Tomislav Zlatic — Thu, 13 May 2021 08:05:59 +0000

In reply to Oper-8. Hey Oper-8, thanks for sharing your thoughts! I believe that this is just the first release in a forthcoming series of Groovemate plugins. Similar to what UJAM did when they released Finisher Micro as the first Finisher plugin.

By: Oper-8

Oper-8 — Sat, 08 May 2021 14:07:21 +0000

Thanks for the review ! Even though I already bought it, it’s nice to see I’m not the only one thinking about how Ujam could seriously improve their product. I sent them suggestions and they say I asked too much for a $9 product. But being cheap is not a reason : there are dozens of free great VSTs with plenty of nice features 100 times better and more interesting than just playing MIDI phrases.
I’m not saying Groovemate One is a bad product, but Ujam really should give us a bit more.
I totally agree with the lack of tweaking sounds in Groovemate One. Here are the suggestions I sent them :
– round robins (try a flamenco clap pattern – it’s impossible to have something sounding at least a bit realistic)
– velocity-dependent sample start shift,and filter modulation
– toggle velocity on/off for phrases
– instruments lack fine tuning : why not add basic EQ, envelope, and filter for each sample ? Then when you click on a note on the small keyboard, it would display the sound’s settings underneath (over the “instruments” label)
– more presets (flamenco, more South American styles)
– more samples (shaker is nice, what about cabasa or eggs ?)
– a Humanize knob (there’s absolutely no velocity variation between two exports !)
– a “/2 – 1x – 2x” speed switch, like those in the Virtual Drummer series
– user-defined presets, so we can add our own grooves (via MIDI import)

Honestly, I don’t think I’m asking too much. These features are really what users would expect from a plugin that’s designed as an accompaniment. The manual even says it’s professional, though I think it’s genuinely not. Simply spitting out MIDI clips without even random velocities is just equivalent to a MIDI player, and I wouldn’t need to spend money for that.
Therefore I really hope Ujam will soon deliver a free update with a bit more exciting stuff !

By: Rex Roll

Rex Roll — Sat, 08 May 2021 01:46:09 +0000

Nice Plugin,definitely worth $9,but It’s actually quite simple.
It’s only 4 different types of perc with 5 tones,and some different build in midi loops，so you can do this by our own
Of course you have two extra effects to shape your sounds，which is cool.
I quite enjoy the sounds they pick though,they are so versatile.I have tons of perc samples,but sometimes it’s really hard to pick a right one,even a simple clap.
It would be much better if they have more sets of sound.

By: Tomislav Zlatic

Tomislav Zlatic — Fri, 07 May 2021 15:09:23 +0000

In reply to Kido. You're totally right, Skaka is cool too (as well as everything else from Klevgrand, pretty much).

By: Kido

Kido — Fri, 07 May 2021 13:10:48 +0000

Thanks for view. For 9$ it’s realy present. It’s sounds cool, simply to use. I would also like to draw your attention to Skaka, from klevgrand if you need more control for percussion. But it’s more expensive.