Anyone run Beatbuddy From A Midi Sequencer

Hello Everyone

I am trying to drive BeatBuddy sounds using DM1, an iPad drum machine that has Midi out. I think it would be great to have instant control of the beat so I can practice bass to it. Beatbuddy sounds so much better than DM1.

Right now, I have the Yamaha bluetooth midi device working. I can get DM1 to start and stop the current song loaded on BeatBuddy, but Beatbuddy won’t make any sounds if I hit DM1’s pads. (I have a midi cable as well, thinking I might run into problems using bluetooth.)

One thing I think I am missing is what are the Midi notes corresponding to a BeatBuddy drum machine. Where can I find that? I haven’t figured out yet how to change the notes that DM1 sends out, right now the Kick is Midi Note 36 and the snare is 38. I am hoping there is there is some sort of Midi ‘teach’ mode. All I have found is a learn mode, but I can’t see how to make that work with BB…

Someday, I think I will get a beatstep pro to drive BB as well a synth.

I tried searching on DM1, beatstep, sequencer, only found a guy who had similar problems back in 2015. Please let me know what the whole in my search method is.

Thanks a lot,

BassTrev

Beat Buddy 1.1 kit maps (basic)

Drum Midi Slot Note Value
Metronome 33 A0
Kick 36 C1
Cross Stick 37 C#1
Snare 38 D1
Claps 39 D#1
Clsd Hat 42 F#1
Tom 4 43 G1
Foot Hat 44 G#1
Tom 3 45 A1
Open Hat 46 A#1
Tom 2 48 C2
Crash 49 C#2
Tom 1 50 D2
Ride 51 D#2
Ride Bell 53 F2
Tambourine 54 F#2
Splash 55 G2
Cowbell 56 G#2
Crash 2 57 A2
Splash 2 59 B2
Shaker 82 A#4

Original kits did not contain Tambourine, Cowbell and Shaker.

The premium kits add additional instruments. To see what is in a kit, click on the drum sets tab:

[ATTACH=full]8835[/ATTACH]

Then double click on a kit name to bring up the Drumset Maker window.

[ATTACH=full]8836[/ATTACH]

The number in front of the instrument name, for example 33 before metronome, is the midi value for that drum.

This thread also contain midi information. The GM Map is very useful. BB follows GM mapping, except that BB does not usually have nearly all of the drums in a GM set. User created kits generally have mapping information included in their descriptions.

http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?threads/beatbuddy-midi-map.8510/

Thank you Phil,

Say is there a way I can buy you a beverage? I owe you. And Persist, and a couple of others… Wish I could do it in person.

It looks like DM1 is using the BetaBuddies channels, so that is good. Now I just have to figure out what settings I am doing wrong. I read the Midi Manual a 3rd time. Nothing jumps out.

I will read the link you included tomorrow.

Thanks again,

BassTrev

Check your midi out channel setting on your DM1. Also, check the midi in channel setting on the B.B., and check to your B.B. midi in settings. Make sure “note in” is enabled. Drink money can be sent to philflood@aol.com via PayPal.

I got it to work! Thank you Phil.

What did I do to make it work? I don’t rightly know, made a couple of changes at once. Both were on Omni, I moved them to Channel 1, and under System Real Time, I disabled Sync, Start, and Stop. Certainly something in the latter. If I have time tonight, I will reset and recover.

Now when I press play in DM1, BB takes off. That Yamaha bluetooth device has surprising range, can control BB from the other side of the next room. Fun listening to through bigger speakers how the beat changes when you change the sequence.

Thanks again for your help.

I find that I have to Quantiloops and connect to the Yamaha MD-BT101 before DM1 will find it. I have never really used Quantiloops as a looper, still wrapping my head around how to use a looper, but I found it really easy to use to control the BB. I can choose the song, change the tempo without having the bend over.

Looks like all the settings I changed to get DM1 working stopped Quantiloops from working. No biggie, it will be a good learning experience.

It would be nice if BB had a way to save different setups.

I don’t really get enough time to play with Quantiloop to know how it might react to more than one midi device. I do think that signal flow is something to look at. In what I perceive as your setup, Quantiloop is calling up your song, which then gets played by the DM 1 to the Beat Buddy, which is serving as a drum module. Presumably, then you also have the Quantiloop doing looper functions. That would seem to be a rather complex midi flow. A more straightforward approach would be to use OnSong to call up the song data. Then you would start the sequence (from the DM1?), to the B.B., and through to Quantiloop.

In the end, it’s really going to depend upon your gear needs. I find OnSong to BeatBuddy to a looper to be plenty. Well, except for my full board(s) of guitar pedals.

Oh no, Phil, I confused things. I don’t use DM1 and Quantiloops at the same time. They are just two things I have tried with the BB. The Quantiloops was just an experiment to see if I could control the BB, which I can. I just can’t wrap my head around using a looper for my music though.

I am more interested in using DM1 with BB as a practice device. I have a book on different bass grooves, and it provides a bass line and a corresponding drum pattern. With DM1, getting that drum pattern is a snap.

Where it gets confused is that I can’t seem to get DM1 to discover the Yamaha MD-BT01 unless I first discover and connect to it with Quantiloops. After I get DM1 connected to the MD-BT01, I close Quantiloops.

I am thinking of making the jump to OnSong. Does it handle PDF’s of sheet music well?

Thanks again for your help.

I went back through my settings tonight, and it looks like setting DM1 and BB to Omni doesn’t work, while setting it to Channel 1 or 2 works. (I assume the rest work but didn’t test). Hopefully this helps someone else.

OnSong will handle pdf files. I think you end up copying in full pages at a time. There needs to be a way to put the midi header information in so OnSong can find the BB song. I have not used pdf files with OnSong because OnSong also has key change (transposition) features that would be disabled with a pdf. Of course, I probably should explore that, since I am always using multi-part arrangements in the B.B., I can’t transpose anyway!

My setup is OnSong on an iPad, Beat Buddy with a BT01 connected, and an iRig BlueBoard. I use the BlueBloard just to scroll the song in OnSong. Since I make 3 and 4 part accompaniment arrangements for B.B., I find that I don’t really have need for a looper. I like experimenting with loopers, and I did perform with a looper a long, long time ago. But, for now, I just try to keep it to the B.B. and OnSong.