Blue Jeans and Moonbeams 2

v.2.20.10 ©2018-20 by Malaclypse the Younger, mal2fnord@gmail.com

Thank you for Reading The Feature-packed Manual as directed in Step 5.

Blue Jeans and Moonbeams (or BJAM for short) is a sampled S-Type (Strat)
electric guitar designed for those familiar with the playing techniques idiomatic to
the instrument, and the signal processing techniques used to shape their output.

Getting Started:
• Installation: Windows users (32 or 64 bit) – copy the contents of the
installers\Win32 VST or installers\Win64 VST folder to the folder where your
VSTs (v.2, not 3) are stored, then restart or refresh your DAW. Mac VST and
AU are included, but I cannot assist with their installation procedures.
• If you have BJAM 1.x installed, BJAM 2.x will show up as a new instrument and
you will have the use of both. There is no need to bring existing tracks up to
date if you’re already happy with them.

Preparing BJAM Guitar:

It doesn’t matter what order you do the steps
below, but they all need to be done for the
instrument to operate properly.

Select a Master Volume via MIDI CC#7. This must be

done in your DAW’s MIDI editor. I generally set it to 80 or
100 by default, leaving headroom up to 127 for dynamics.

Select a keyswitch from the bottom two octaves of the

keyboard, as shown to the right. 
• Open Position is the cowboy chord zone, and uses as
many open strings as possible. The Slap & Pop and
Mute modes are also set up this way.
• Slap & Pop mode is exactly what it says on the tin. Also useful for chicken
pickin’.
• Solo Mode traverses the neck on a slant, using one string for seven semitones
until the high E is reached, blending smoothly from Open Position to Up Neck.
• Hammer-Pulloff-Slide mode produces notes without an attack envelope,
allowing for all manner of unplucked note changes. This uses the string
assignments of Solo Mode but should blend well enough with the other
positions.
• Up Neck moves the fret hand to around the 12th position any time it is possible
to play a given note there, otherwise sliding up or down the appropriate E
string.
• Harmonics. All harmonics are based on the same samples, but tuned to the
harmonic series. Harmonic 3 is +2 cents for a 3:1 ratio, Harmonic 5 is -14
cents for a 5:1 ratio, and Harmonic 7 is -41 cents for a 7:1 ratio. Prime-
numbered harmonics are provided because you can “fake” harmonics 4 and 6
by using 2 and 3 and shifting up one octave*. No distinction is made between
sources of harmonics (natural, artificial, pinch, etc.) but judicious use of
Autopicking mode (next page) can help.
• Mute produces palm muted notes which are also reasonable facsimiles of
sweep picked notes. There are two types of muting, Long and Short. Long
mostly mellows the tone without removing all sustain, while Short is more of a
metal chug. When played ff (velocity 111+), Short will add an 800 ms decay on
top of the natural decay of the chug.

*Yes, I am aware this causes the “wrong string” to produce the harmonic. It really doesn’t matter
that much, try it and see.

At this point you should have output (Bridge or Neck pickup on the left channel
based on keyswitch, Middle pickup on the right channel), but you still need to add
a signal chain to shape the sound. One typical order might be:
1. Pan or Mixer insert* – use Automation to change pickup balance on the fly
2. Wah or Auto-Wah, or other pickup-shaping EQ†
3. Fuzz
4. Compressor (multi-band recommended)
5. Boost, Overdrive, and Distortion, generally in that order.
6. Amplifier (simulator or sidechain)
7. Equalizer
8. Modulation (Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Tremolo, etc.)
9. Delay
10. Reverb
11. Cabinet or cab simulator (if not included in Amplifier simulator)

*No Pan or Mixer insert is included with BJAM. There is generally one included with any DAW, and/or
you can download Pan+ from VST4FREE. They all do the same thing, they just look different.
†I recommend you download EasyQ from VST4FREE. Many of the Ella Gitauru demos use this insert,
and the specs are shown in the demo graphics. This is also where I roll off below 100 Hz to get a
spanky Strat single-coil tone.
Playing BJAM Guitar:
BJAM Guitar is admittedly for perfectionists and micro-managers, although good
results can still be obtained by ignoring the trivial matters and just throwing notes
at it. By choosing keyswitches A#-2 or A#-1, certain noises are provided for
enhancing the realism of your performances:
• Chuck noises are made by muting all strings with the fretting hand, then
strumming. Some are “tight” and others are sloppy, use what suits you.
• Swipe noises result from fingertips (or a barre) being dragged up and down the
neck. Usually these are considered the result of sloppy performance technique,
but sometimes provide dramatic effect. Used sparingly and lightly, well-placed
swipes can “sell” your performance.
• Autopicking is here! As of the October 2020 update, set the General Purpose
Slider 2 (CC17) to engage Autopicking mode, where the noise of a pick
scraping and releasing the string is added to each note. The sample is chosen
based on the string being played, and the level of the pick sounds is controlled
by the value of CC17. There is a new layer every 20 values: 0-19 is off, 20-39
engages lightly, etc. and 120-127 is the loudest. These are randomly selected
but always appropriate to the string that would be used in Solo Mode. Because
they’re on a slider, they will engage regardless of what layer you are currently
using, so try them with harmonics to emulate a pick squeal. Play at low
velocities (1 to 24) to get the most “crying” effect.
• Autoswiping is here too! This uses General Purpose Slider 3 (CC18), and in this
mode, there is a chance that a random swipe will occur after the next note
ends. The odds and volume increase with the value of CC18 although they are
also controlled by the Velocity of the note that triggered them.
• The “Picks” range of Noises mode still works as of the Autopicking update, but I
was making no use of it because it was, frankly, a pain in the ass. Since it’s
sharing samples with Autopick mode, there’s no real penalty to leaving it in, so
it’s still there.

The actual sounding range is the remainder of the MIDI range from C0 (lower than
a 9-string guitar or 4-string bass) to G8. Notes below E1 extrapolate the E1
samples intended for E1, and notes above D4 extrapolate the high E string. Pitch
bend range is ±2 semitones, which is unfortunately beyond my control.

There are four velocity layers using three samples per note: 111-127 is ff and
played as hard as I could without getting fret buzz. These notes often start
substantially sharp and glide down to pitch, despite being strung up at SRV
tension. 81-110 is f and may still have a minimal amount of pitch glide. 41-80 is
mf, and 0-40 is the same mf samples but with a 23 ms attack assigned to soften
the start of the notes.

Switching your performance from one pickup setting to the other merely involves
shifting the entire keyswitch range up or down to the opposite octave.

Touch the holy chao (do it now!) or the strings to stop all notes, aka the
“Panic button”.
Note: Pitch bends affect all MIDI channels, so in order to perform different bends,
or hold one or more notes steady while bending another, you will need two or
more instances of BJAM running. Several of the demos are done this way, and both
MIDI parts are included in such cases.

About BJAM Guitar 2:

• All samples were taken from the pictured guitar (which I built myself), and all
three pickups were recorded simultaneously for proper mixing.
• The pickups are generic “Hot Rails” style humbuckers, with ceramic magnets.
Background noise was further reduced “in post”.
• Sampling was reduced to 22k at the last stage to keep file sizes reasonable, as
guitar cabs shouldn’t be reproducing anything over 10k.

About Ella Gitauru:

 Sampled from a Fender
DG8S dreadnought
acoustic guitar. Strings
are Elixir Nanoweb 80/20
bronze, 12-53. These are
the same samples used
in v. 1.2.1.
 The new BJAM 2 layout has been implemented to the degree that makes sense.
As there is no need for a second octave of keyswitches, there is also no
“Noises” switch, so 5th Position has been slotted there, and the Noises remain
their own octave.
 Five dynamic levels. 120-127=ff, 92-119=f, 49-91=mf, 25-48=mp, 0-24=p.
 Four keys are dedicated to percussive sounds generated by striking the body.
Each key has two or three possible round-robin selections. Chucks and Swipes
(two more keys) have four round-robin selections each.
 Hammer-Pulloff-Slide mode offset is -4 dB vs. -8 dB for BJAM.
 6 vs. 12 string handling: Select only the left channel for a normal 6-string
guitar, both channels to add the octave/doubling strings of a 12-string guitar
(tuned 4 cents sharp for shimmer), or right channel alone for a “Nashville
tuned” guitar (4 cents sharp).
 To stop stuck notes, touch the strings.
 All samples are 16kHz, since I had to shelf the highs to tame dissonant
transients anyhow. A “tone booster” insert will help offset this, as used on
several of the demos.
 Ella G 2.20.10 has had some samples polished and tamed (see Version History)
but also has Autopicking and Autoswiping like BJAM 2.20.10 does. Existing
projects should not require any revision to use the upgrade, other than
swapping the instrument and leaving CC17 and 18 at zero (they probably
already are).
 Ella G 2.19.12, with all its rough edges, is included alongside 2.20.10 in case
you prefer it for some purposes. It now shows a version identifier when
selecting your instrument. It ignores CC17 and 18 as it always has.
About the Developer:
Mal-2 (mal2fnord@gmail.com) is a freelance musician (hired gun) who was
dissatisfied with the realism and versatility of existing free guitar VSTs. You have
the result in your hands. If you have a guitar you would like sampled and turned
into a virtual instrument, contact me. My preference would be to borrow it, but
perhaps I can get you to provide the necessary samples.

A fair number of demos are included with the BJAM 2 package in both audio and
MIDI forms, but they (and possibly more) are also available at https://mal-
2.bandcamp.com/album/bjam-demos. If you wish to tinker with BJAM yourself, the
Maize Sampler 2.2 source is included (a similar policy will continue with sound font
versions).

If this is all too much for you, Mal-2 is available for hire – drop a line to the
address above. This could be for the entire project, or just for the guitar part(s), or
anything in between.

Legal Bullshit:
• All rights wronged, all wrongs reversed.
• The sounds you create are entirely your own. Whether I approve or disapprove
or even know about your project is completely irrelevant.
• The guitar pictures, however, are mine. Consult me before you use them other
than casually, and I can provide you larger and/or better images.
• You may share this VST instrument if you wish, but leave this notice intact. I
would prefer that people go to the source to assure the most recent version,
but I know this is not always possible.
• This instrument is released under the MIT License, as follows.

---------------------------------Begin boilerplate license--------------------------------

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this
software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software
without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge,
publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to
whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or
substantial portions of the Software. Additionally, all alterations which are distributed are
to be attributed to the person or organization making them.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
----------------------------------End boilerplate license---------------------------------
Version History:
1.0 [2018-07-08] First Feature-Complete release.
• Sustain Mode: After ~5 seconds, the note loops, sustaining indefinitely.
1.1 [2018-09-07]
 Palm mute mode now split by velocity. 92+ is a short, hard mute while 91- is
longer and less abrupt on the attack.
1.2 [2018-11-06] and 1.2.1 [2018-11-09]
 Ella Gitauru (steel string acoustic) added to BJAM.
2.19.12 [2019-12-08 to 2019-12-27, rolling release]
 This identifies as a new instrument, so if you already have BJAM/Ella 1.x, you
will not lose them by adding BJAM 2. This also means you never have to
migrate projects you’re already happy with.
 Sustain mode has been rendered unnecessary (the new samples have
immensely more sustain than 1.x) and dropped.
 Keyswitch layout overhauled.
 Mute Long mode added, old “Mute” is now Mute Short.
 Mod Rate knob added.
 BJAM only: All pickups were sampled simultaneously, so the outputs of both
channels are in time and in phase to allow pickup mixing.
 BJAM only: All pickups available from a single instrument, which replaces the
12-string functionality.
 BJAM only: Noises are by keyswitch rather than always on, no more round-
robin on chucks and swipes since they have single keys now.
 BJAM only: Mute Short mode split by velocity. 111-127 is ff and has an 800 ms
decay time applied.
2.20.09 [finalized 2020-09-12] – the Acoustic Smoothing update.
 Ella G 2.20.09 is a beta and subject to change, which is why the stable
(2.19.12) is also included.
 All work done to Ella Gitauru 2 (no changes to BJAM):
 Left (6–string) channel corrected for the 19th/20th harmonics being much too
loud on the 2B/1E strings. The original sound remains on the right channel.
 5A “whine” around 2.3 kHz mellowed.
 3G no longer in use for normal plucked notes (now using 4D for those notes).
 2B “Thump” minimized.
 All demos using acoustic guitar re-mastered for 2.20.09.
2.20.10 – the Autopicking update. For when you’re too lazy to sloppy up your work
properly.
 Both BJAM and Ella G have received the same pair of features, and they
operate in the same way.
 Ella G 2.20.10 replaces 2.20.09 with the addition of the Autopicking and
Autoswiping features. These features will not be backported to 2.19.12.
 BJAM: Same filename used, so this will replace the previous BJAM 2.mse file if
you have 2.19.12 installed. If you leave the CC17 and 18 parameters at zero,
the only change (other than bug fixes) is the increased attack time when
playing softly.
 BJAM: Some Harmonic 5 and 7 samples were not properly detuned. Fixed.
 Both: Longer attack time on minimum velocity group, mostly to support a
convincing effect in Autopicking mode. (23 ms becomes 123.)
 This may be the last iteration of BJAM 2 (including Ella G) as a Maize Sampler
instrument. Development will most likely continue, but as a .sf2 and/or .sfz
sound font, and bugs will still be squashed if identified.