Getting started putting together a set list with BeatBuddy.
Would be great to have a setlist of songs loaded with drums and bass and recall them with midi.
Any advice on getting started with this? Any experience with using song parts versus the entire song as a part.
Is adding bass to the premium library beats the way to go? Any other approaches that make sense?
Just looking for some advice before diving in.
I use OnSong midi commands to trigger the songs on my BB. You need to keep track of the assigned triggers because it’s really easy to lose track. I have a spreadsheet for all 183 songs I have on my BB and in the manager. I’ve attached a screenshot of the spreadsheet so you can see what I mean. Columns L - R are: 1 - to confirm that it is set up in the manager. 2 - Which folder holds the song and the MSB / LSB values. That’s replicated for each folder thereafter as I discovered you don’t want too many songs in one folder because I found it takes too long to get to a particular song on the BB and in the Manager. Currently I have about 40 in each folder. Next is the song title and last BPM.
As for your other questions about using song parts etc. I can’t help since I’m a fairly new BB user (about 6 months now). Good luck and if I can help further let me know.
I also have set up my BB with OnSong for calling up songs. Without getting too deep into the intricacies on OnSong, its drawback is that it relies upon song and folder position to pull up a song, which I guess is a BB issue, since we don’t have actual midi ID’s available in BB. Essentially this means once you have a folder in a given position in the BB, you can’t move it around, You can add folders to the end of the list of folders, but don’t insert any above your current mapped OnSong folders. Likewise, songs within a folder need to stay in place. Add new songs to the end of the folder rather than inserting them somewhere. It’s easy to managr once you get used to it. It’s just a matter of keeping your BB SD Card organized.
I use mostly entire songs in OnePress format. But I do have about 25% of my songs arranged in a “jam” format. These songs have 3 parts - intro, loop, and end/outro/coda. Intro is everything in the song before whatever part I would like to jam on over and over. Loop is the Jam. Outro, is everything that happens after the jam. This works well for blues arrangements.
I 100% do NOT recommend trying to add a bass part to the premium content. I find the Premium content to be mostly unmanageable. It is very difficult to discern where the fills are supposed to be and how many times you are supposed to allow a main loop pattern to play. You are better served by finding an exiting midi file, and transposing the bass up or down the required number of octavse to match the kit you are using. Then, merge the bass and drums into a single midi track. This is how One Press songs are created.
In that same regard, if you are trying to sound like a band rather than a performer playing over backing tracks, arranging your material to use the same drum and bass kit, or just a few kits, will provide a more “realistic” presentation. If you are going for the cover band trying to sound like the original, you’d be better off using a backing track format, or a wide variety of BB kits.
Good luck.
I have found simple is better.
I have 5 or 6 BB drum patterns I use most of the time.
And, I have learned how each one starts, plays the different parts, and ends so I can use them to play along with me.
And then with the supplied songs, I practice to learn how they go with the music.
It took some time but it is worth it.
YW and good luck. Once you’re used to the quirks of BB it works really well.
