+/-2bpm via footswitch

BeatBuddy Feature Requests
#1

Hey Guys,

I`ve been gigging with my Beat Buddy and am in general loving it. Sounding musical. :slight_smile:

One thing i would find really handy and a way of getting “closer” to that real drum feel, is to have 2 buttons, one that is +2bpm, one that is -2bpm ( maybe this can set to users preference 2, 3 , 5 etc ). As with most classic songs the tempo floats around, song gets faster at the back end. And beeing able to slow the last bar or few bars down to get a drawl would be fantastic. Being locked to one tempo is the only thing holding me back atm.

I`ve also seen plenty of talk about it being pre set in BBmanager, that would work for me also.

#2

If something like that can be developed it would certainly bring the BB one step closer to feeling like your playing with a live drummer.

#3

I have my iPad set up that way with OnSong; so when I touch the top of the screen it will increase the beats per minute. When I touch the bottom of the screen it’ll decrease the beats per minute. You should be able to set up a foot switch, such as iRig’s Blueboard, to do this.

#4

I also have Onsong set up to increase and decrease volumes by touching the right and left sides and corners of the screen.

#5

I have my Midi foot controller’s pedal set up to do it but the pedal is just to sensitive to make a flowing gradual change in Tempo for it to be very effective in live play. Still working on it to hopefully make it more smooth and less noticeable change when moving it.

#6

Is your pedal a switch or set up like a volume pedal? I bet if you set a foot switch up to “momentary” it would work. Each tap of the switch would increase or decrease the bpm by 1. When I get some time, I’ll give it a try.

#7

I see what you mean. I’ll try it on one of the foot switches and let you know how it gos.

#8

Interesting. keen to hear how this goes Jstrausss.

The last thing i need is more pedals on my board - always trying to downsize, but would be a handy feature indeed.

#9

So I was able to play around with this last night and with CC MIDI command 96 and 97 I set 2 of the foot switches to increment and decrement the tempo. It’s better then the foot PEDAL (which is way to sensitive).Now there’s an issue when you need a tempo change that’s 5 or more of a difference. That translates to 5 or more toe taps on the foot switch while trying to play your instrument. Maybe I’m missing something but as far as I understand the CC MIDI commands 96 and 97 only allow an increase or decrease of tempo by one. Hopefully that’s not true and I missed something. I’m going to go over it again to be sure. In any case it is better using the foot switches then the foot PEDAL in my opinion. Thanks for the tip.

#10

You may have to put a delay time in for MIDI commands.
In Onsong, go to Settings >Navigation>Delay. Try adding a delay time to MIDI commands

#11

[ATTACH=full]7119[/ATTACH]

#12

Thanks for the info but I’m using the MIDI foot controller to actively control the tempo. Not using any app. I do use set list maker for the inicial selection of song drums volume and tempo but once I START playing the song I use the foot controller to try and actively change the tempo while playing.

#13

I`m still really keen on this feature. But i need to be able to do it with my feet. A two button FS with +2 -2 would be so bloody great! Who has the technology??? :slight_smile:

#14

I’ve been playing around with MIDI tempo changes from my ipad to beatbuddy and I can get this to work in whatever increments are desired by repeating the data increment/decrement control changes multiple times. So if you can assign multiple CC to a pedal or define the Raw MIDI then it should be doable

so in I use Bandhelper, in that I created separate MIDI presets for…

  • NRPN Tempo MSB
  • NRPN Tempo LSB
  • CC Data Increment
  • CC Data Decrement
  • NRPN MSB Clear
  • NRPN LSB Clear

Then I grouped then together to create a Tempo+ and a Tempo- preset.

Initially the increment and decrement presets I did were 1 bpm at a time by sending CC-96/1 and CC-97/1 respectively. Band helper does not allow you to send multiple CC or repeat the same one. However you can specify Raw MIDI in hex codes…so for example CC-96/1 would be B0 60 01, so to make multiple increments it is just a matter of repeating that in the Raw MIDI string to get +2bpm or whatever you desire

One other thought. it is possible to send tap tempo signals whilst BB is playing. So you could use the BB footswitch to slow things or speed up, or you could program an app or switch to send CC-117

HTH

#15

This would be fantastic if a small pedal could do this.

I had my heart set on the small disaster area pedal, but it isn’t compatible with the Beat Buddy.

I’m still searching for a small two button midi FS that I can program like you have explained. That would work a treat for me.

#16

I have OnSong Setup to do this. I use an iRig Blueboard and have a midi trigger in OnSong that sends out the NRPN and increment/decrement shown above.
OnSong triggers dont filter the value of the MIDI CC message, so when you press a button on the floorboard, it sends 127, when you release it sends 0. So, my trigger happens twice, which means it’s +/- 2 BPM each press - which I suppose is what the OP was looking for.

#17

I notice in your comment that you use Set List Maker to select songs in Beat Buddy is that correct ? I use a Samsung Tab E with Set List Maker and I have been totally unable to get SLM to select songs. Any advice ? I assume from you comments that it is doable.

#18

I will try to help out. Maybe you can up load a few pics of your cable connections from BB to device and a sample pic of a song set up in SLM so I can compare it to what I have in mine

#19

I will try. In the meantime…I have accomplished some limited success. I have managed to get the tablet and SLM talking to the BB…and the BB responds. However, no matter which song I select in SLM it always brings the Beat Buddy to song number 2. It’s like the midi is stuck in a configuration to call up song number 2 in the Beat Buddy. At least it’s limited success, I know the cables are working and that there is some communication.

#20

I should have mentioned… I set up a midi preset in SLM per the manual. And I notice that I “must” select the midi preset in my song set up for it to call up song number 2 on the BB. I noticed that deleting the midi preset renders no BB song change at all.