Anyone regularly gigging with BeatBuddy?

[Tim_Williams]

@Guitargal58

Hey Tim how did you get the songs to sort in alpha order (or did you manually do it)? That’s one thing I wanted to do since I have over 500 songs in my setlist master (I use the SetList Helper app) that I build my individual set lists from (who knew I knew that many songs…but I just turned 60 yesterday so I may have forgotten a few!!LOL). I too prepare set lists but depending on the requests and the mood of the crowd it’s nice to be able to jump to a song in an alpha list.

Thank you,
Geri

Manual sort, quite easy once you get it started! It is well worth while and my iReal music chord sheets are in alphabetical order too. I tried set-list order at a gig just ONCE! never again.

[Restless_Ray]

@Larry DirtBag

I’ve shared this many others, get an iPad a Bluetooth device, like a puc+, or a Yamaha, get OnSong and put the midi commands in the songs on OnSong, and speed up your show, stop bending over. It works great

This method works great . I’ve played many gigs with this same setup without any issues.

@Tim Williams

Manual sort, quite easy once you get it started! It is well worth while and my iReal music chord sheets are in alphabetical order too. I tried set-list order at a gig just ONCE! never again.

I also use the Bose L1 system, Tim. I’ve used the Bose for a few years now and couldn’t be happier!

[Guitargal58]

@Tim Williams

Bose L1 is behind you, you hear what the audience hears, right to the back of the room. And you don’t get deafened.

My Fishman solo amp does the same. I am using my Yamaha StagePass 600i for my outdoor shows and love it wish I could afford a Bose.

[Trent_Crawford]

Hey Ya!

For smaller shows I run my 2 QSCs and use one behind me for Beat Buddy, with some vox and guitar. And then the other QSC as the main speaker which is mainly vox and guitar with say, 25% of the Beat Buddy going thru it.

This weekend I have a trip gig in a large room so will bring another speaker purely for Beat Buddy behind us in the centre. Will also have a little Beat Buddy in the main speakers.

Hope that helps!
T.

@Guitargal58

Hey Trent I realized this past Saturday when I played my BB for the first time in my shows that I need a dedicated speaker for the BB as well. Even though I could hear from my mains it wasn’t enough. I don’t use a floor monitor so I’m thinking of getting a small monitor or speaker to use and set up behind me. Do you also run it thru your main board or separately?

[Tim_Williams]

@Restless Ray

This method works great . I’ve played many gigs with this same setup without any issues.

I also use the Bose L1 system, Tim. I’ve used the Bose for a few years now and couldn’t be happier!

Good to read that, it doesn’t bother me now that lots of people “don’t get it” because my confidence in the system and its power and flexibility has grown over the last 6 years of using Bose L1. My experience from the 4 different bands I play with using my Bose set up is that musicians need to learn to hear themselves IN the mix. Most people come from playing with their own back-line and like to hear their instrument ahead of the mix and gradually turn up during the gig, totally destroying the overall sound and balance in a “volume war”. Vocalists tend to like Bose L1 behind them the most because they usually get drowned out (by drums and guitars usually) and unless they’re really lucky with their wedge monitor set up they can’t hear themselves at all. I hate wedge monitors with a passion, worked with them for too many years! Now when people record our live performances on iPhones and the like, it fills me with joy that it sounds so good out there in the audience. When I record other bands in that way, there are usually deficiencies in the sound quality and the mix that are easily detected. Good old Dr. Bose of MIT I say!

[Raymond]

@Tim Williams

Good to read that, it doesn’t bother me now that lots of people “don’t get it” because my confidence in the system and its power and flexibility has grown over the last 6 years of using Bose L1. My experience from the 4 different bands I play with using my Bose set up is that musicians need to learn to hear themselves IN the mix. Most people come from playing with their own back-line and like to hear their instrument ahead of the mix and gradually turn up during the gig, totally destroying the overall sound and balance in a “volume war”. Vocalists tend to like Bose L1 behind them the most because they usually get drowned out (by drums and guitars usually) and unless they’re really lucky with their wedge monitor set up they can’t hear themselves at all. I hate wedge monitors with a passion, worked with them for too many years! Now when people record our live performances on iPhones and the like, it fills me with joy that it sounds so good out there in the audience. When I record other bands in that way, there are usually deficiencies in the sound quality and the mix that are easily detected. Good old Dr. Bose of MIT I say!

“…musicians need to learn to hear themselves IN the mix”

This advice is pure gold! I think many old-time club/bar musicians like me have a hard time adjusting to the concept. It took me a lot of practice but you’re right, it’s really easy for different sound sources to quickly become a pile of mush by the end of the 1st set.

[Tim_Williams]

I have got used to hearing the whole mix now. I usually send a mate out into the audience with my iPad to adjust the levels. Plus I record the final mix digitally to check later.

[Restless_Ray]

@Tim Williams

Good to read that, it doesn’t bother me now that lots of people “don’t get it” because my confidence in the system and its power and flexibility has grown over the last 6 years of using Bose L1. My experience from the 4 different bands I play with using my Bose set up is that musicians need to learn to hear themselves IN the mix. Most people come from playing with their own back-line and like to hear their instrument ahead of the mix and gradually turn up during the gig, totally destroying the overall sound and balance in a “volume war”. Vocalists tend to like Bose L1 behind them the most because they usually get drowned out (by drums and guitars usually) and unless they’re really lucky with their wedge monitor set up they can’t hear themselves at all. I hate wedge monitors with a passion, worked with them for too many years! Now when people record our live performances on iPhones and the like, it fills me with joy that it sounds so good out there in the audience. When I record other bands in that way, there are usually deficiencies in the sound quality and the mix that are easily detected. Good old Dr. Bose of MIT I say!

I totally agree and couldn’t have said it any better!

[Restless_Ray]

It’s an art within the art…When I’m not gigging myself, I run sound at a popular club. I have mixed some very good musicians, but very few that know how to play as a band. It’s a real treat when you get the whole package!!
I wittiness “the volume war” all the time. As a sound engineer, it’s very frustrating mixing the entire mix around a guitar player or drummer that is way too loud…

I would much rather play with a “less talented” drummer that knows how to play the room and with the band than the “super talented” drummer that has one volume…loud!

Mixing other bands has been a great education! I learn something ever time I’m behind the board.

[Lifescorer]

I’m gigging regularly with mine. Got it in December and took the holidays to familiarize myself with it. Play as a duo with acoustic guitar and vocals going through my T.C. Helicon Play Acoustic and I control the BeatBuddy and my partner plays electric guitar through a Boss Looper. Rig is small but enough to get by and be heard. It’s a Gemini ES-210MXBLU-ST Portable PA System. As someone who was the front man for two bands (one a 6 piece and one an 8 piece) I’m quite impressed and happy the range of backing it has! And now with the drum & bass drum kit and all the tunes everyone is sharing for it there are times you’d be forgiven for mistaking the two of us for a 4 piece!

[/QUOTE]

[Tim_Williams]

@Restless Ray

It’s an art within the art…When I’m not gigging myself, I run sound at a popular club. I have mixed some very good musicians, but very few that know how to play as a band. It’s a real treat when you get the whole package!!
I wittiness “the volume war” all the time. As a sound engineer, it’s very frustrating mixing the entire mix around a guitar player or drummer that is way too loud…

I would much rather play with a “less talented” drummer that knows how to play the room and with the band than the “super talented” drummer that has one volume…loud!

Mixing other bands has been a great education! I learn something ever time I’m behind the board.

Totally agree, I’ve done the same and worked sound in a theatre for 4 years part time. Learning to listen is really important and working with musicians instead of against them. I regularly work with a keyboard player who likes to hear himself ahead of the mix, so he gets his own, localised monitor in a stand right by his keyboard and close to his head. No one else in the band can hear it nor the audience, so that was an easy one to solve. I occasionally use the frequency spectrum analyser on my iPhone to identify resonant peaks and where to pull in a notch filter on the mixer. Most of my problems these days are around amplifying my double bass, I have a workable compromise now after a couple of years experimentation. A “boomy” stage sometimes gives me a hard time.

[Guitargal58]

@Tim Williams

Manual sort, quite easy once you get it started! It is well worth while and my iReal music chord sheets are in alphabetical order too. I tried set-list order at a gig just ONCE! never again.

I found saving all the songs to my music folder on my computer (from the BB folders in BB Manager ) made it easy to put in alpha order AND I built my set lists in the same manner just dragging to the Set List folder in the order of my shows to match the Set List folder on my SD card for BB.

[Guitargal58]

@Tim Williams

Totally agree, I’ve done the same and worked sound in a theatre for 4 years part time. Learning to listen is really important and working with musicians instead of against them. I regularly work with a keyboard player who likes to hear himself ahead of the mix, so he gets his own, localised monitor in a stand right by his keyboard and close to his head. No one else in the band can hear it nor the audience, so that was an easy one to solve. I occasionally use the frequency spectrum analyser on my iPhone to identify resonant peaks and where to pull in a notch filter on the mixer. Most of my problems these days are around amplifying my double bass, I have a workable compromise now after a couple of years experimentation. A “boomy” stage sometimes gives me a hard time.

@Tim Williams

Good to read that, it doesn’t bother me now that lots of people “don’t get it” because my confidence in the system and its power and flexibility has grown over the last 6 years of using Bose L1. My experience from the 4 different bands I play with using my Bose set up is that musicians need to learn to hear themselves IN the mix. Most people come from playing with their own back-line and like to hear their instrument ahead of the mix and gradually turn up during the gig, totally destroying the overall sound and balance in a “volume war”. Vocalists tend to like Bose L1 behind them the most because they usually get drowned out (by drums and guitars usually) and unless they’re really lucky with their wedge monitor set up they can’t hear themselves at all. I hate wedge monitors with a passion, worked with them for too many years! Now when people record our live performances on iPhones and the like, it fills me with joy that it sounds so good out there in the audience. When I record other bands in that way, there are usually deficiencies in the sound quality and the mix that are easily detected. Good old Dr. Bose of MIT I say!

I agree Tim. It’s frustrating when a bandmate feels it’s all about them and they need to turn up so loud on stage you can’t hear anything. Nothing worse than the stage level being above the PA! I loved playing in bands from 1995 to 2015 but now that I’m mainly doing solo gigs (from time to time teaming up with other musicians when the event calls for a “band”! LOL) I don’t have any issues hearing myself and getting a “clean” sound of guitar, vocals and BB. I just need to find that happy medium and decide if I want a personal monitor for the BB so I can hear it better.

[Tim_Williams]

@Guitargal58

I found saving all the songs to my music folder on my computer (from the BB folders in BB Manager ) made it easy to put in alpha order AND I built my set lists in the same manner just dragging to the Set List folder in the order of my shows to match the Set List folder on my SD card for BB.

Thanks for that tip, I must try that sometime soon.

[Trent_Crawford]

Here`s a little clip from a solo gig this past weekend.

Always learning, and developing the way i use the BB.

Most times when i edit a beat in the BB midi editor, it swaps all the drums around, one edit mistake skipped thru and you can hear the hand claps instead of snare in the outro fill on last song in clip. Listening back to the set, lots of fills are still too busy.

And maybe this is just a matter of time with the pedal, but i feel like i could do with some sort of “thing” on the ground to guide my foot towards the pedal for fills and transitions without having to look down! I do think it is something that will come eith time… But i had to miss a word or two to look down making sure i hit the BB! lols.

Any ideas / feedback, type away…

[JoeInOttawa]

Nice, Trent!

You’ll get used to finding the pedals without looking, it’s just a case of developing that muscle memory and trying to be consistent about where you place the pedals.

Joe

[jstrausss]

Its not easy to sing play and step on pedals all while in time. Most of the time no one really hears those small mistakes. I think it sounds great.

[Guitargal58]

Good job!

[kinglerxt]

@Trent Crawford

Here`s a little clip from a solo gig this past weekend.[/MEDIA]

Nice job Trent. Im not into country music but I liked that country version of “Sex on Fire”
Keep it up. Sounds great

[Guitargal58]

Me 'n “BB” and a friend, Patrick Foy playing at an event this past Saturday. BB showed up and was right on time!