3rd Party Midi -> BeatBuddy

General Discussion
#1

Tell me if I have this right.
You can’t really import 3rd party Midi unless it’s in a proprietary BeatBuddy MIDI format?
So you’d have to open up, say, a Loop Loft MIDI drum file in some MIDI Editor (ie Reaper or Superior Drummer) and then move the various hits (ie Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat) to the correct BeatBuddy mapping?

Anywho, I looked at SingularSound’s packaging, but their Complete looks like mostly songs, with just a few straight up MIDI files.

I’m not looking for songs really, just singular MIDI files to jam ideas to.
So far, I found a huge song dump, and see I can just save MIDI files from those User Made songs to the User Midi folder as single MIDI files. Which solves my immediate problem of getting more MIDI files.

But is there an easy way to IMPORT 3rd party midi, or do you have to laboriously hand move individual parts of a drum to some BeatBuddy MIDI mapping?

I love how Superior Drummer allows you to just set whom you’re MIDI file is coming from and it auto-maps for you. BeatBuddy won’t be complete for me until they have that function, or there is a way to easily translate 3rd party midi. This propriety MIDI seems kind of cheap (ie forcing you to buy their offering)

IF I am wrong, correct me. Those are my impressions I’m asking after as a newbie. Got the pedal yesterday at a local store to support small business owners. I like it so far. Very cool device. Tho some songs don’t seem to stop when you double press the pedal. IDK why.

#2

You got a lot here, so let’s try to parse it out:

  1. You can’t really import 3rd party Midi unless it’s in a proprietary BeatBuddy MIDI format?
    So you’d have to open up, say, a Loop Loft MIDI drum file in some MIDI Editor (ie Reaper or Superior Drummer) and then move the various hits (ie Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat) to the correct BeatBuddy mapping? - Maybe yes, maybe no. Beat Buddy stock kits mostly comply with General Midi standards. The difference is that some thing are missing in some Beat Buddy kits. The things to look out for are the second kick drum at midi 35, and the lowest tom at 41. Since Beat Buddy kits are limited in size to 100mb, some compromises need to be made when creating them, and these are two places where cuts were made. Several third part tools that create drums from their plug ins tend to add extra hi-hat articulations, and yes, those would need to be moved around. GrooveMonkee makes several beat packages designed for BB kits. I also have a package designed for BB, replicating the beats from the Alesis SR-16 https://www.sherlynsdesigns.com/phils-music-products.html

  2. Anywho, I looked at SingularSound’s packaging, but their Complete looks like mostly songs, with just a few straight up MIDI files. - True

  3. I’m not looking for songs really, just singular MIDI files to jam ideas to.
    So far, I found a huge song dump, and see I can just save MIDI files from those User Made songs to the User Midi folder as single MIDI files. Which solves my immediate problem of getting more MIDI files. - See the answer to 1, and also check the Forum for a Boss or Roland DR-880 midi collection.

  4. But is there an easy way to IMPORT 3rd party midi, or do you have to laboriously hand move individual parts of a drum to some BeatBuddy MIDI mapping? - If you find files that are midi drums, for the most part, they come over. You can open them in a DAW and select all of the notes at 35 and move them up one space to 36. Likewise, move the 41 to 43.

  5. I love how Superior Drummer allows you to just set whom you’re MIDI file is coming from and it auto-maps for you. BeatBuddy won’t be complete for me until they have that function, or there is a way to easily translate 3rd party midi. This propriety MIDI seems kind of cheap (ie forcing you to buy their offering) - It’s good to have opinions. Superior Drummer is the one going outside the standard. Along, with Steven Slate Drums, Apple’s Drummer, etc. They added tones outside of General midi, making them non-standard. If you take Goran’s midi files and play them on a General midi drum kit, they work (with the exception of the original Latin kit, which was it’s own non-standard offering, and the current Latin kit that has some non-standard drum placement.)

  6. IF I am wrong, correct me. Those are my impressions I’m asking after as a newbie. Got the pedal yesterday at a local store to support small business owners. I like it so far. Very cool device. Tho some songs don’t seem to stop when you double press the pedal. IDK why. - Some songs, if they are the one-press songs here on the Forum, are designed with the whole “song” part in the Outro section in BB Manager. They stop when the get to the end of that section. Double tapping is code for “play the Outro section.” Thus, those don’t end with a double tap. There is a setting available for a Triple Tap to stop. That works in those situations, but you have to have the setting activated. Refer to the manual.

Welcome to the Forum.

3 Likes
#3

Phil,
Thank you for taking the time to read and answer bit by bit. I think this will help many future owners. I had a tough time reading older topics weeding out 3rd party from Gen Map MIDI. Your answers are superb: insightful & helpful!

Thank you. I had the Alesis and the DR808 (rebought it actually) so thanks for the lead on those.

Thanks for also pointing out who is non-standard. I don’t want to make Toontracks sound like they are the standard and Singularsound isn’t. I’m OK with non-standard if they provide translation mapping on the fly which Toontracks now does with Superior Drummer. I mention them b/c many own them. I have their software and Reaper is my DAW, which I’ve seen some good topics on here.

You’re the best, Phil!

#4

Thanks Phil_Flood, I have over 50,000 std midis

If I could figure how to include the bass on BeatBuddy I would be in heaven

#5
#6
#7

Cool. What DAW do you have?