Blue Jeans and Moonbeams 2

v.2.19.12 ©2018-19 by Malaclypse the Younger, mal2fnord@gmail.com

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, if your DAW makes a distinction) 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 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.)
• 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. You can also fake harmonic 4 by using harmonic 3 and moving the source
note up 5 semitones and end up just 2 cents sharp, but I prefer to stick with octaves.

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.
• “Picks” are the sounds made by preparing to pluck a string, or by a pick
landing on a string after playing the adjacent string. These don’t usually come
through in continuous playing, but can often be heard before the first note after
a pause. These will drift slightly (less than a quarter tone) around a central
frequency to de-mechanize the output, except for the Neck pickup which mostly
just hears a thump because it is “behind” the point of attack.

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.

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. If I can borrow it, that would be optimal
because I can record from multiple pickups separately and simultaneously. If not,
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.
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.