Jam Studio

Last semester my classmate Diane Cook and I did a project on JamStudio in Texts and Technologies. I think the software provides virtually anyone the ability to compose a song, and I think it would be a way for us to make soundtracks for the movies we’re going to make for this class.

JamStudio jamstudio.com took the automated sound arranging program called Band-in-a-Box and combined it with the best of what Sony’s program called ACID and Apple’s Garage Band offered. Neither of the latter programs supported chords, and neither was online nor free. JamStudio remediates these older programs because how it’s written, in FLASH, which means it can run online without an install.

The program represents a stellar example of Web 2.0. The access benefits are that it’s free (and easy to use). A detraction would be if someone didn’t have computer equipment available or if they didn’t have high speed Internet.

JamStudio encourages play, an aspect of the rhetorical canon of invention. The user can add and subtract chords and various instruments easily, allowing for instant results; an arragy of choices allows the inventor to create and arrange which instruments, the number, and type of instrument. For example, the user can choose to have one acoustic and up to three electric guitars. Each electric guitar has 43 possible sounds to choose from, and the acoustic has twelve sounds.

The software also remediates the necessity of memorizing cords and their progressions. Memory is inseparable from improvisation, an important skill for a musician—JamStudio allows novices to improvise. It does the work of memory, in a way. Memory is related to kairos (context—place & time, audience, and culture).

Music is delivered via postings on the site, but delivery can occur in a multitude of sites--not only online in other online forums or web pages. A user has the potential to reach large audience and many people the creator does not know if s/he posts on the JamStudio forum, where s/he can get feedback.

Delivery can be public or private, as the user can put their work on MP3 devices or online. The song can be exported into and then edited with Audacity. After that, if you wanted, you could put the song on a site like Box.net and make your file into a link..

Overall, the program requires the user to be more computer-saavy than musically saavy. Musically, it is advantageous to know basic chord progressions, but not necessary to use Jamstudio to play around with chords and how they go together. It’s fun, too!

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