With the removal of the 500 note limit, there are now a number of ways we can create new full midi beatbuddy songs, including “with bass” ones.
First some definitions:
Intro, which plays into the first main loop.
Main loop, which will repeat over and over, unless you 1) hit a Fill, or 2) Transition to another Main loop, or 3) trigger an Outro, which will play a bit, then end.
In the “old” (current) days, you had to examine the midi song, and hope that it could be broken down into 500 note or less sections. The “ideal” song would be:
Intro
Looping Verse/Chorus
Hit end to play an Outro.
I
VC
O
Sometimes I label the VC as L (for Loop). The advantage of this is you hit start, and hit when you want the outro. One interaction while the song is live.
Often, however, a song will follow this, but have one extra section, like a bridge, or a solo, so you get:
I
L | F
O
Here, you have at least two interactions, live, during the song. One to trigger to Fill/Bridge/Other part, and one to trigger the end.
If you can’t get a verse/chorus loop in less than 500 notes, you have to trigger them manually. This is where it gets tricky because the beatbuddy likes to trick you and play “fills” either within the current measure, or after the current measure. When you are playing a song, this might mean that it will SKIP the first line of the chorus you are trying to trigger! A song like this looks like:
I
V | C
O
Here you loop the verse, and trigger the chorus. Many songs have two verses before a chorus, and the 3rd chorus is only one time before the next chorus.
Ok, so here’s where it gets good. WIthout the 500 note limit, the easiest way to make a song is:
(no intro)
L (Loop is just a foothat, keeping the beat, tsh tsh tsh tsh, you hit song end to play the song)
O (Outro is the whole song, and ends.)
Alternately, I propose another structure:
I
L
O
Where “I” is the song up to the point of a solo, and L is, say 4 measures of a solo that you can repeat at will, then trigger the O which will play the rest of the song. Super easy to create, but you still get the creativity to solo at will.
I have created a java program which seeks to find a track labelled “bass”, and from there, we also know the drum track (because it’s ch 10). I might be able to create a filter that can create a fully finished “with bass” midi track from most any midi songs that you drop into it, into a Version 1 song file, and BAM, a new beatbuddy with bass song. I can even move the common issues like 35 kick to 36 kick, 40 snare to 38 snare, etc, and transpose the bass notes appropriately.
Main limitations? BeatBuddy can’t change tempos via midi on the fly, so any song has to have the same tempo all the way through. Sad for us Rush fans! 
I’m sure a future version can do this.
@Phil[/USER] , [USER=500]@Guitar Stu[/USER] , [USER=389]@CharlesSpencer[/USER] , [USER=4738]@Brian O’Meara[/USER] , [USER=56]@BeatBuddy Support ,
discuss? Include any other “with bass” guys!
