[Your strong ally!] ujam software sound sources/plug-ins that allow you to easily make high-quality tracks!

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced computer music creator, you may have moments when you think “something is missing” or “want to add a nice track” in songwriting. This time, I’m going to introduce you to some products by the popular software instrument maker ujam that can easily improve the quality of your music.

https://www.minet.jp/brand/ujam/top/

It’s okay if you can’t play an instrument.
Produce professional tracks in a minimum of 3 steps.

These are impressive words by ujam.
ujam’s product lineup includes a large number of rhythm/guitar/bass/symphonic software sound sources and contains high-quality sounds with phrases specialized for each instrument and genre. You can quickly use it as the main track for the core of the song, layer the matching included phrase on the song you’re creating to add depth to your music, or randomly playback the tracks to get a little bit of inspiration!

Moreover, in addition to the mode that plays the built-in MIDI phrases, ujam drum and bass software products are equipped with modes that can also be used as a general software sound source when exporting the built-in MIDI phrases to a DAW track or programming single notes as a sample/playback sound source.

In fact, one of ujam’s founders is Hans Zimmer, the maestro of film music. It makes us expect a high quality from ujam products even more! ujam products are mainly launched in the following series.

Each series has sub-categorized models according to genre. For example, DOPE in the Beatmaker series is the rhythm for hip hop and SILK in the Virtual Guitarist only includes the nylon guitar sound.
The price of each single model is reasonable so you can buy the sound samples you want to focus on and need. This makes these ujam products appealing because you can easily add the model to your software collection.

Since ujam’s software specializes in samples from each genre and musical instruments, therefore many presets are created with effects. The characteristics of genres and the nuances of each musical instrument are well expressed in every sound pack. The operability of software sound sources is another nice selling point.

Now, I am briefly going to introduce the lineup of each series and the demo videos of one model from each series I pick up!

Virtual Guitarist software series specializes in guitar. The characteristics of the tones/patterns for each model are as listed below. Some of the sounds that are included are sounds that can be easily picked up right away as backing for various genres of music. You will easily be able to add the unique guitar flavor with the detailed expressions to your music that is difficult to obtain from simple typing.

AMBER → Acoustic Guitar
SILK → Nylon Guitar
IRON → Powerful Distortion Electric Guitar for Rock
SPARKLE → Electric Guitar for Pop
Carbon → Drop-Tuned 8-String Electric Guitar

Video: Virtual Guitarist IRON ※The sound starts around 00:42.

■ Virtual Bassist

Virtual Bassist is a series that only focuses on bass sounds. This contains the tones/patterns that can easily be applied to different genres. In addition, it is equipped with a “Character” function that allows you to easily adjust the tone, and the parameters where you can easily adjust the sound for each product. All of them are responsive so you can comfortably create sounds.

Dandy → For Soul/Pop/Blues/Rock
Mellow → Upright Bass
Rowdy → For Punk/Rock/Metal
Royal → For Soft Ballad/Pop/Indie Rock (Finger Style)

Video:Virtual Bassist Rowdy *The bass tone demo starts around 00:35.

■ Virtual Drummer

The Virtual Drummer series specializes in acoustic drums. Each model has a different sound that expresses the best part of the drum tone well. Furthermore, even if you select the same drum kit, you can press a button to change the sound texture completely. You can intuitively create a drum track.

Deep　 → For Soul/Funk
Heavy → For Rock/Pop/Grange
Phat → For G-FUNK/Retro Soul
Solid → Basic Sounds for Various Genres
BRUTE → For Grange

Video: Virtual Drummer Deep

■ Beatmaker

Beatmaker is a series specifically made for drums for dance genres. A wide variety of sounds are available, and all of them contain sounds/patterns that you will definitely need. For example, the plug-in KANDY includes pop sounds that can be heard from the latest top hits off the pop charts. It has a chewy mid-low range that emphasizes the grooving feel in pop and also has an exquisite texture which gives a nice vibe in the sound as a whole. Other plug-in models from this Beatmaker series also add some nice textures and a good overall feeling to the music tracks. Please visit the product pages below and watch the demo videos to check out the differences in the sounds between the models for similar genres!

Dope → HipHop
Glory → Trap
Hustle → Trap
Eden → EDM
Hype → Progressive House/EDM
Void → Drum ‘n’ Bass
Nemesis → Cyber Punk
Kandy → Top-of-the-Charts Pop
Vice → 80’s Drum Machine

Video: Kandy ※The demo including the drum tones starts around 01:07.

■ Groovemate One

Groovemate ONE specializes in percussion that will add colors to the rhythms to help it stand out with instrument options such as a shaker, claps, tambourine, or a one shot shaker. As of now, the Groovemate ONE series has only one model in the lineup, but it produces a groove feel that computer music is unable to express, so this one is a gem that is really easy to use.

Video Groovemate One

■ Symphonic

Symphonic is a series that contains treasured symphonic samples recorded by a maestro from the film music Hans Zimmer with the world’s best top-notch players. In addition to creating background music, you can easily add the magnificent and thrilling essence to your music as well.

Strings → Strings
Drums → Percussions

Video:Strings

■ Finisher

This effect plug-in series named by ujam is called Finisher. Operate a few knobs displayed on the front to control the internally set up effects such as distortion/delay/reverb to significantly change the sound. These features make Finisher unique.

The breakdown and detailed parameters of each effect that is internally set up are not visible or adjustable, but you can control the timbre change sensuously just by the knobs on the front display ujam provided.

The RETRO and VOODOO models can easily give you significant effects as the product concepts claim. Both the NEO and FLUXX include deep reverb, delay, and presets with strong modulation. These two models look similar, but the NEO has the presets that configures the presets to match modern club music. FLUXX has more presets that will give you aggressive effects as it is described on ujam’s website as, “Finisher FLUXX is the mad professor’s answer in big glowing letters. The experiment has produced a creative effect plug-in that is certain to animate your sounds.” Please check out the demo if you’re interested!

Neo → Modern Effects
Fluxx → Creative Effects
Retro → 90’s Vintage Effects
Voodoo → Guitar Effects

That’s all for now on my introduction to some really cool ujam products that have both high sound quality and usability. Please use it for your comfortable music production!