I have Band in the Box and thought about saving files as midis. I tried a couple and it works well for getting some different beats for the BB. Edited them in cakewalk. Band in the box has a lot of different styles and each one has a short description as well. Might be an option for anyone looking for some ballads or different beats. Plus you can easily make your song 4 or 8 beats long. You may have to edit out the count in.
If you put the chord changes in BIAB in just the right bars (not a real song) you’ll get a midi export with intro, verse, fill, chorus, outro all the right length. Just cut and save these pieces for BB.
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Exactly
Hi guys. I’m waiting for my BB to arrive this week and I use BIAB. Could anyone spare me an example of a file prepared for BB in BIAB please? That way I could see how to do this. I know its a bit lame, but as I haven’t yet started using BB it would help kick start me. Thanks!
I think this is it. Set BIAB preferences to no lead in count. Change the TXT file extension to SGU. I did this several time but I believe it’s not worth the trouble when you can buy a 1000 MIDI drum loops in your genre for $20 to $30.
Thanks much for that Pineears. Re: getting cheap / free MIDI drum loops - I’m on it.
Still, I’d be interested to hear from anyone who may have used BIAB to program multiple time signatures within a tune.
For that matter, is it even possible to change time signatures within a BB song?
Changing time signature will mean the whole MIDI file should be changed. No, this cannot be done on the fly currently.
I know something like that is possible on some hardware like Boss RC-3 beats, but this is only possible there because the beats are static and can never be changed. Different (but preset!) time signatures are pre-programmed and saved.
As BeatBuddy allows for arbitrary user MIDI files playback, it doesn’t seem possible to automatically convert one time signature (like 4/4) into some other one (like 9/4). It doesn’t even the matter of inability to do so, it’s much more that the result will be hardly usable to be even worth converting.
TLDR: You are much better off creating your samples in a different time signature, save them as other BeatBuddy songs, and you are pretty much can change between them any time you want! That way you are having much more control of a beat (and time signature) than having a very limited set of beats with toggleable time signatures like some other products offer.
Thanks much Daefecator.
Well… if any BB developers are reading this thread, I would put the ability to play multiple time signatures within a single file on my wish list for updates.
Well… This sounds really interesting, but why do you believe you want that? It’s not like what you are asking is difficult to implement or anything. You will still need separate set of MIDI files to support that. Why not opt to using a separate song instead of embedding one song in another like a new layer?
I am really interested in hearing from you about this.
Sure. I like a lot music that isn’t just straight 4/4 in different styles:
Country / pop: Lots of tunes will have a 2/4 break for a few measures in the middle of 4/4 song.
e.g., Lowell George’s “Long-Distance Love” has a brilliant shift momentarily before returning to 4/4.
Prog: goes without saying. Yes, Crimson, Zappa, etc.
Metal: again, playing Mastodon / Dream Theatre stuff uses lots of time signatures shifts.
I think people adapt to the limitations of technology, but rise to the new levels of creativity if the options are available.
Ah, so you want a time signature change supported in some parts of a song? This will definitely be implemented sooner or later.
Phew! Glad to hear that.
I’ll get working on my prog version of “Rites of Spring” right away!
In the Simple Cajon beats I posted there are some 2/4 feel beats that are actually 4/4. That is double the tempo and they feel 2/4.
I know what your saying. Especially some of the country tunes. You may have the bar of 4 followed by 2 like you said. I think Ring of Fire is kinda like that.
Take me to Church by Hozier starts in 3/4, has a 2/4 measure then goes into 4/4 … How do I do that with this pedal?
Currently, the pedal can’t change time signatures in mid-song. The only way I’ve been able to do it is to use a one-press version of the entire song - no fills, no transitions - just one main loop of the entire song. When you reach the short measures, the visual metronome will be off by the number of beats the measure is short.
Another user did it by using some really weird time signatures - e.g. 11/64 - but that was too complicated for me to use live.
I think different song parts can have different time signatures. Maybe make the intro be different, then the main part be the 4/4 part?
Yes. The different song parts can be in different time signatures. So we can do songs with Intros and Outros in different time signatures. Short or long measure fills and transitions are a bit tricker to set up, but we can do these too either by cheating with the patterns like grouping 2/4 measures into 4/4 measures to have one measure 2/4 fills or transitions, or by putting the long/short measure transitions in a song part all by themselves and carefully using the pedal to control moving into and out of that odd metered part.
I had one piece that was in 4/4 but had two 3/4 measures, leaving the piece with 62 measures. I set the time sig to 31/4, and it worked great 
metronome looked a little funny though!
singin the blues & cocaine blues is killin’ me for a bar of 2/4