BEAT BUDDY “Start” trick for loopers.
I hope I phrase this so it’s understandable.
If you use your BB with a looper and you’ve had the issue of the BB starting before you wanted it to start, this may help.
I use my BB with a Boss RC300 Loop Station. It’s all connected with midi using the looper as the master clock. (Boss didn’t really give us the option to make the looper the “slave”).
And this is where the problem begins at the “Start” portion of the song I might be playing. Because at the moment I start the looper to begin recording or playing, the BB starts at the same time.
However, not all songs have their drums begin at the same time as the other music.
So I figured out a way to start the BB at the appropriate time by using this trick,…
First I opened my Beat Buddy Manager and created a new song. ( you can use either the BBMO or the BBM on your computer) Now, this song has no purpose. It makes no sound. I titled it <“EMPTY”>. You can title it whatever you want.
It should have the same time signature as the song you are creating or playing on your looper. (but not always necessary) And it should be only one measure long.
Next I only created one “Main” part. No intro, no outro, no fills… only one Main part. You must have a main part for a new song. Then,… I entered one beat at the beginning of the new song. That’s all,… just one beat. It can be a cymbal a drum or whatever… And I turned the level or volume of this beat all the way down to “1” so that it can’t be heard at all.
Next, I “Saved” it as a complete song. Now I have something to add to my BB which can be placed on my Gig List anywhere I want to place it.
I usually place it before the song I want to play on the Gig List. For example,… If I have a song on my Gig List that doesn’t begin with drums I place it on the list just before my song,… like,… # 10. A Hard Days Night,… but #9 is my “Empty” song. Or…
#9. “EMPTY”
#10. “A Hard Days Night”
- Now the “Empty” song will begin playing when I start recording or playing my looper. That’s ok because it doesn’t make any sound.
After I have recorded something on my looper and when I’m ready for the drums to start I simply stop the “Empty” song on the BB by punching it twice, then advance the BB from #9. “Empty” up to #10. “A Hard Days Night”. (while the looper is still playing my recorded track) And the next time I punch any of the Record/Play Track buttons on my looper, the BB will automatically begin playing at the perfect tempo.
You can also “Start” the BB by pressing it’s pedal instead of the looper. But, if you press something on the looper first, and at the appropriate moment, the BB will begin playing at the perfect time, every time and you won’t miss the cue. And because the BB is locked in time by MIDI to the looper.
- Having said all this I forgot to mention that I use the Singular Sound footswitch to advance or descend through my song list on the BB. But it works perfectly every time. And you can place the “Empty” song anywhere on your Gig List many times. The BB doesn’t get confused by this because it disregards any multiple copies in the Gig List.
I hope this helps solve the issue I had with the drums starting prematurely. It was the best solution I could come up with.
Keep On Rockin’
Randall