By elmacaco
Tue Aug 25, 2026 4:49 pm
I wrote some notes for a guy newly using the JJ OS. Figured I’d share them here, many probably know most of them.
JJ OS 2XL TIPS
The ‘Main’ button short cut: press Main and a menu pd and the main button will toggle from that screen to the Main screen.
You can also set up the numeric screen as a shortcut button, I keep it on numeric though to use the pads to enter numbers.
Press the ‘Erase’ button when powering up when changing OSs. It resets the settings.
Stop and jog wheel for screen contrast control.
Non Destructive Chop:
Trim screen, take a sample and in the middle of the upper part of the screen it says ‘Chop:Off’ switch it to ‘On’
The sample is divided into 32 sections, one per pad banks A&B, banks C&D just repeat it 1-32.
You can set the start and end points where ever in the sample, overlapping or not. Once you get your chops you can press create PGM and it will make a program of the sample and chops. You can still edit the sample the same way after it it in the pgm.
You can set start and end points with the qlink sliders, you have to light the After buttons for this to work. It’s not the most precise at some zoom levels, the wheel is more presice, but it’s nice.
In the pgm you can change the order of the samples just selecting the chop number for each pad.
Hit shift in the trim screen and you can export a chop as a sample edit it and load it on banks C&D, I do this with breaks a lot.
Program Edit
Hit shift and F6 and all pads are selected, shift and pad bank A-D button will select just the bank.
First tab, pad playback set to mono (from Poly).
Also upper right hand side whole PGN can be set to mono from poly, all pads will mute each other, there are also 8 or 16 mute groups.
You can load 128 PGMs, so they are a good way to manage samples.
There are two filters when you get to the last tab (vel?) press the filter tab button again and you have the second filter, can be set to the eq or any LP BP HP filter, the first filter with env etc. shift all or shift pad bank to select all / whole pad bank.
Set any value in PGM with q link slider 1.
VCA ENV. :
I like to set the release to zero, that way there’s no fade out.
On drum PGMs I also set sustain to zero and decay to 100 Max, then assign Q2 to decay and be able to drop the decay on any drum hit from the main screen. Q1 usually controls pitch in my drum programs.
Setting the env decay on the drums can make them very punchy, before you reach for compression try that. The decay is the trick on the 60 to get it very punchy, I think that is the 60 ‘sound’ people chase.
Packed programs
On the PGM screen, hold shift and press pack (F2?) and the PGM file will have the samples folded into the packed pgm file. One file has the pgm and all the samples, and those samples aren’t available to edit in the trim screen. You can edit the program and move the packed samples to different pads.
This is great, I often load many packed programs, and when I need to edit a sample I unpack the program (program screen > shift+unpack F2?) and only have the samples from that program to scroll through in the trim screen, and any samples loaded not in a packed program.
Trim Program mode
Turn on PGM mode and each pad loads it’s sample in the trim window. With it off the pads have different functions on the one sample, pads 1,2,playbthe sample with the cursor on sample start, 3,4 sample end, 13 play loop, 14 play to edit point (good to hear what sound is before start point) 15 play from edit point ( good to hear what is after end point).
Hold the mode button and move the jog wheel to change tracks from any screen.
Hold Q link 2 After button and press a pad to go to that number track.
Sequencing I lay almost everything on separate tracks, that way in track mute screen I can mute individual instruments. Every new idea gets it’s own track. Some like basslines I’ll make one then mute it and make variations.
Trim screen:
Up and n the right where is says sample End, you can change End to Len for length, and set a sample size and move it like a window (MPC 2000 style) loop is disabled, but you can switch back to End, set loop to On, then switch End to Len, and loop will be enabled in length mode.
Open window is your friend, on seq it has copy / delete seq, on track copy/delete track, etc.
Other screen:
Check output level (you can lower it for more headroom, if you have a lot of sounds coming from the sampler it can help to drop it, if just a fee sounds it can go higher. I usually have it at -12.
Check the polyphony usage: play your seq and you can see all voices used in a bar graph, inpit through uses 2, if you need more voices and aren’t using input through, hold shift on the main screen and turn intout through Off (f6).
Jog wheel type 1 or 2, depends what jog wheel you have, if it takes two wheel clicks to change a number you’re on the wrong type.
Song mode
The mixdown function is great. The external input is also recorded. I used to solo each element and export stems this way, and they line up perfectly in a Daw. When I would run out of Ram from sampling 5 minute stems, I would save them and delete them from memory to be able to sample the next mixdown stem.
Make sure you set the Output level in the ‘Other’ menu to zero when mixing down or resampling, anything lower will cause the sample to be lower in volume.
Track mute screen is great. You can record your mutes. Dig in.
Looper is great, can set the bars. Have to stop it to save the sample.
Grid edit is worth checking out. Good for detailed editing, cc#s etc. i use seq edit and main screen to edit notes more.
Trim > Edit
Processing
Normalize, 100% excellent for setting levels or overdriving, save a back up before doing this because when you go over some point it sounds bad and it’s a destructive edit.
Some you can preview the effect on pads 13-16 normal on 1-12, ring mod and bit convert.
Bit convert is nice, can go 12 bit to 4 bit I think, 44.1kHz, 22.05kHz, 11.025 HZ, maybe lower. It can process a whole program on just one sample.
JJ OS 2XL TIPS
The ‘Main’ button short cut: press Main and a menu pd and the main button will toggle from that screen to the Main screen.
You can also set up the numeric screen as a shortcut button, I keep it on numeric though to use the pads to enter numbers.
Press the ‘Erase’ button when powering up when changing OSs. It resets the settings.
Stop and jog wheel for screen contrast control.
Non Destructive Chop:
Trim screen, take a sample and in the middle of the upper part of the screen it says ‘Chop:Off’ switch it to ‘On’
The sample is divided into 32 sections, one per pad banks A&B, banks C&D just repeat it 1-32.
You can set the start and end points where ever in the sample, overlapping or not. Once you get your chops you can press create PGM and it will make a program of the sample and chops. You can still edit the sample the same way after it it in the pgm.
You can set start and end points with the qlink sliders, you have to light the After buttons for this to work. It’s not the most precise at some zoom levels, the wheel is more presice, but it’s nice.
In the pgm you can change the order of the samples just selecting the chop number for each pad.
Hit shift in the trim screen and you can export a chop as a sample edit it and load it on banks C&D, I do this with breaks a lot.
Program Edit
Hit shift and F6 and all pads are selected, shift and pad bank A-D button will select just the bank.
First tab, pad playback set to mono (from Poly).
Also upper right hand side whole PGN can be set to mono from poly, all pads will mute each other, there are also 8 or 16 mute groups.
You can load 128 PGMs, so they are a good way to manage samples.
There are two filters when you get to the last tab (vel?) press the filter tab button again and you have the second filter, can be set to the eq or any LP BP HP filter, the first filter with env etc. shift all or shift pad bank to select all / whole pad bank.
Set any value in PGM with q link slider 1.
VCA ENV. :
I like to set the release to zero, that way there’s no fade out.
On drum PGMs I also set sustain to zero and decay to 100 Max, then assign Q2 to decay and be able to drop the decay on any drum hit from the main screen. Q1 usually controls pitch in my drum programs.
Setting the env decay on the drums can make them very punchy, before you reach for compression try that. The decay is the trick on the 60 to get it very punchy, I think that is the 60 ‘sound’ people chase.
Packed programs
On the PGM screen, hold shift and press pack (F2?) and the PGM file will have the samples folded into the packed pgm file. One file has the pgm and all the samples, and those samples aren’t available to edit in the trim screen. You can edit the program and move the packed samples to different pads.
This is great, I often load many packed programs, and when I need to edit a sample I unpack the program (program screen > shift+unpack F2?) and only have the samples from that program to scroll through in the trim screen, and any samples loaded not in a packed program.
Trim Program mode
Turn on PGM mode and each pad loads it’s sample in the trim window. With it off the pads have different functions on the one sample, pads 1,2,playbthe sample with the cursor on sample start, 3,4 sample end, 13 play loop, 14 play to edit point (good to hear what sound is before start point) 15 play from edit point ( good to hear what is after end point).
Hold the mode button and move the jog wheel to change tracks from any screen.
Hold Q link 2 After button and press a pad to go to that number track.
Sequencing I lay almost everything on separate tracks, that way in track mute screen I can mute individual instruments. Every new idea gets it’s own track. Some like basslines I’ll make one then mute it and make variations.
Trim screen:
Up and n the right where is says sample End, you can change End to Len for length, and set a sample size and move it like a window (MPC 2000 style) loop is disabled, but you can switch back to End, set loop to On, then switch End to Len, and loop will be enabled in length mode.
Open window is your friend, on seq it has copy / delete seq, on track copy/delete track, etc.
Other screen:
Check output level (you can lower it for more headroom, if you have a lot of sounds coming from the sampler it can help to drop it, if just a fee sounds it can go higher. I usually have it at -12.
Check the polyphony usage: play your seq and you can see all voices used in a bar graph, inpit through uses 2, if you need more voices and aren’t using input through, hold shift on the main screen and turn intout through Off (f6).
Jog wheel type 1 or 2, depends what jog wheel you have, if it takes two wheel clicks to change a number you’re on the wrong type.
Song mode
The mixdown function is great. The external input is also recorded. I used to solo each element and export stems this way, and they line up perfectly in a Daw. When I would run out of Ram from sampling 5 minute stems, I would save them and delete them from memory to be able to sample the next mixdown stem.
Make sure you set the Output level in the ‘Other’ menu to zero when mixing down or resampling, anything lower will cause the sample to be lower in volume.
Track mute screen is great. You can record your mutes. Dig in.
Looper is great, can set the bars. Have to stop it to save the sample.
Grid edit is worth checking out. Good for detailed editing, cc#s etc. i use seq edit and main screen to edit notes more.
Trim > Edit
Processing
Normalize, 100% excellent for setting levels or overdriving, save a back up before doing this because when you go over some point it sounds bad and it’s a destructive edit.
Some you can preview the effect on pads 13-16 normal on 1-12, ring mod and bit convert.
Bit convert is nice, can go 12 bit to 4 bit I think, 44.1kHz, 22.05kHz, 11.025 HZ, maybe lower. It can process a whole program on just one sample.