I’m trying to record beat buddy onto ableton in windows 10, link parts, import tracks, etc. and cannot for the life of me figure out how to integrate beat buddy into ableton. Your help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
From what you’re trying to accomplish, it seems that you need to connect BeatBuddy’s audio out and MIDI in/out to your Ableton. For audio connection, the BB audio out needs to be connected to your Ableton’s audio interface. For MIDI connection, you need BB MIDI Adapter (if you dont have it yet, here’s in the link from BB website, BeatBuddy MIDI Adapter for the BeatBuddy Drum Machine Pedal – Singular Sound) and connect it to you MIDI interface (usually computer audio interface has MIDi support). Hope this helps!
Thank you for the response…I figured how to send midi…and can record directly from BB play back, but it would be helpful if I could send complete sound files of songs, for instance rock1 beat, rock 2 fill, etc. as sound files and manipulate them as loops in ableton.
Or sync BB up after full recording. Things like that…so far all I can do is treat it like another instrument I’m recording and it seems like using software files would be preferable. Is that possible?
Thanks again!
You can import the BB songs (and their parts) to Ableton Live. You will need to run the BBManager application, open the BB project, open the song and export the song part(s) to MIDI file by right-clicking the specific song path and export to MIDI. Then you can import the MIDI file to your Ableton Live Set.
In addition to what Fled says above, you can download all of the default content midi file from the downloads section at the bottom of this page:
It is listed as the “Loop Library.”
To get audio, unfortunately, you would need to record them separately.
Thanks so much for all your help. Regarding recording the audio:
That is what I feared…I figured out how to upload the midi stuff but that doesn’t do much in ableton because of the drum instruments are only in beat buddy…
So to get the audio parts I have to record them into ableton?
I’m wondering what the benefit of uploading midi data would be.
You can set up your own drum instruments from Ableton drum rack. You can use the accent hits found at the same area as the midi files as drum instruments in the drum rack.
Is there away to upload the drum sets available with beatbuddy as instruments to ableton? Thanks again!
Not directly, no. If you open up a drum kit for editing within BBManager, it will create a folder of the wav files within the kit on your computer’s had drive. You can search the HD by using the kit name and looking for a folder ending with the name then _WAVS, i.e., Standard_WAVS. Once you have all the waves, you could conceivable build the kit in the Drum Kit Ableton tool, but it’s A LOT of work. At the point, you’ll wish you just recorded the audio of the parts.
I see…very thorough and informative answers. I sure do appreciate you taking the time to spell that out for me, and hopefully anyone else doing the same thing…
Sounds like my best bet is to record the relevant parts as loops from direct audio interface or build a new kit and send midi commands within ableton….that’s also a lot of work because that puts me back into exporting each individual midi command block and then importing….so we’re back to audio recording each loop.
A lot to think about…but thanks so much for sure!!! Very kind of you.
Sounds like what you are trying to do is have the drums you have in BB as virtual VST instruments right within Ableton, correct? You’ll need Handy Drums plugins for that.
That way you’ll keep everything internally with your DAW and render a song at once while having a full recall and the ability to tweak things without having to re-connect external hardware.
You have a couple of options with regards to creating the midi performance that gets fed through the Handy Drums plugins.
- Use MIDI loops on your midi track. Combine them and manipulate them until you compose the finished drum track you are happy with.
- Use the BB to trigger the MIDI performance live. You need to route the MIDI out of your BB to MIDI in on your computer and record that MIDI data to your Ableton midi track. That track needs to be routed to a Handy Drums plugin and you’ll hear everything in real-time. After you record the BB’s midi performance live, you can manually manipulate the resulting performance inside the DAW.
Cheers!
I guess I am not totally understanding here.
Would this be easier than say recording each beatbuddy part as loop in ableton then making the song from those loops?
I have entire songs composed on beat buddy, but would need to adjust fills based on what I play with rest of the song.
I like the drumsets I’m using in beatbuddy…would the process you describe aloe me to keep those specific sounds?
Sorry for the confusion and thanks for your help.
I can already upload midi to PC and then to ableton from beatbuddy, but not the loops with drums sets from beat buddy, if that makes any sense.
Remember that BB consists of 2 components: the sequencer (midi loops) and the sound module (drumsets). The drum sounds you are hearing in your BB are individual drum samples assembled into virtual BB drumsets. They are being triggered by the MIDI loops.
You can certainly record individual loops from the BB as audio loops, then combine them into full drum tracks. However, they are many caveats to this process.
First of all, recording the output of BB into your DAW will inadvertently result in a loss of quality since there are several stages of dithering, D/A and A/D conversion, and the introduction of AC noise that is not present in the original 24bit drum samples (16bit on the BB).
Second, unlike the midi loops, manipulating audio loops is extremely limiting.
If you want to stick strictly with the BB, your best option is to record the BB midi performance into Ableton, then feed that midi track back into your BB (acting as a sound module only), then record the audio output of the BB back into your Ableton project as an audio track once you are happy with the final drum performance. However, you can not get around issue #1.
To answer your question about keeping the sounds of the BeatBuddy in your Ableton project- it depends on which particular drumset you are referring to. I produced all of the drumsets and loops that shipped with your BB and the ones found in the Premium Library. Not all of those drumsets are available as Handy Drums plugins at the moment, but most of them are. You can see and hear if your favorite drumset is available as a Handy Drums plugin.
Yes, Goran’s Handy Drums are the VST versions of the BB drum kits. You would use the Handy Drums as the instrument in Ableton with the midi files. This would give you as close to the same sound as the BB as you can get within Ableton.
Thanks for the info. I looked through the drum sets and you do not have a good percentage of the ones I am using for songs, and for the ones that you do have I’d have to buy individually and that would start to become expensive.
I am thinking maybe composing entire song in BB, recording each individual part audio as loops in ableton, then piecing it together. Otherwise I am going to spend over $200 on your plug ins and still not have a good percentage of drum sounds I am currently using and will have to record those as listed above.
I wish I could just import what I have on my beatbuddy into abelton, but that doesn’t apper possible. Love the BB but it does have its limitations.
Thanks again!
also, this would be like purchasing the expansion drum sets twice…as I purchased the BB and the expansion pack which is pushing $600…if I buy even more kits I’ll be pushing $1000…that feels like I am buying the same product twice, only the second time (the time I need a complete set) it is incomplete. Pretty frustrating, but I will see what I can do as a work around.
I understand that it feels that way.
However, these are not just the same set of samples repackaged. They are entirely different software products that took 3 years of development and are specialized for recording. In addition to providing a simple, clean UI to easily accomplish tasks directly within your DAW, the included sample libraries of Handy Drums contain several times more samples at higher bit depths. And since your DAW would be dealing directly with the original samples internally with no orbitary conversions and noise inductions, the sound quality of the end results would be better. You can easily manipulate drum mix and its components, right inside your DAW.
What happens if you want to just slightly tweak the volume of one of the drum components on BB or EQ it to better sit in your mix? Apply an effect to an individual drum component? Yeah, there are ways you can get this done, but it will significantly cost you your time (as you will most certainly find out).
What drumsets are you using mostly?
So, if you decide to go the easier, practical route, msg me and I will do a deal for you.
If you decide to make do with what you have, your best option is as I described earlier. Record MIDI from BB to Ableton, edit midi in Ableton, then route the final MIDI track back to BB (live via a MIDI cable). Record the audio output of BB back in Ableton and use that.
I hope that helps.
Cheers!
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I totally agree with GoranGrooves suggestion. It would me much better if singular sound would just release a VST that would handle the interface and integration.
I’d be another fan of this and am happy to purchase it of course. My current workflow for a song I want to create is to find the nearest standard beat that is close, record midi into Ableton, tweak it to match in the way I want, export it back to BBM and then build the song in BBM from the parts.
It sounds horrible but it’s not too bad and has the advantage that I can overlay the original song onto what I am constructing. I’m not trying to copy the original but just just tweak something else to get the same feel. If I’m working with someone else then I can have our tracks in Ableton and then work on drum parts to drop into the BB. Even in BBM2 I’m not sure we will be able to do this with the Midi manager
The biggest issue is the mapping of the drums. I don’t even care too much about the sound as I can always send midi out to the BB and record what comes back. Creating a drum rack to match the BB is the biggest problem really. I just send the midi out to the BB and use the sound from it so I don’t care about the Wav files to much.
So, the question is, would a singular sound VST match exactly the midi codes of the BB so I can just export and import the Midi from ableton to the BB without any translations (e.g. using the RemapMidi site).
Althernatively, will Goran’s HandyDrums do exactly that. Allow me to use it in Ableton and then directly export Midi files that will sound quite close on the BB without always having to hook up the BB and midi to ableton
Thanks