Awesome the midi file editor. To mount beats it works very well for me. By cons if I load an existing midi file to change the notes are not synchronized. For example I took a midi file in the first ‘’ blues 2 ‘’, notes are shifted. Not the end of the world because personally I think up my files from scratch, but I just wanted to report this problem.
Thank you Charles for all your effort! Are you planning on releasing a “packaged for Mac” version and if so, is it something that would happen soon or weeks/months away?
This is probably due to the quantization that takes place while loading the file and mapping it to the 64th note grid. If a note’s tick is 50.01% into a 64th note’s range, it will get shifted up to the next 64th note. I’ll double check the math though to make sure there isn’t a flaw there. I should probably weight it towards notes being late rather than early, and shift back, if say the note is like 66% into the 64th’s range.
Thanks for editor! So if we load say an existing BeatBuddy unquantised pattern in your editor then make changes and save it it’s now quantised to the nearest 64th note? I’d personally want to keep the timing in unquantised files as they sound more human.
I could add an option of automatic de-quantization during save, where the user could provide a percentage to randomize the notes, similar to how I added randomization of volumes. I rather like that idea, one more thing that makes it easy for folks to whip up a drum track.
When I edit a BB or other drummed in non-quantitized, I just have quantitize off the whole time. Copy and paste, cut and delete, map and scrap. Sometimes I paste it a little off if I’m not zoomed in enough.
The attached file is a repackaged version of application file. You should just be able to double click the .jar file in Windows and it should launch, so just save it to your desktop and rename it without the .sng extension. There should be no need for a separate launch cmd file.
For Mac users, try these steps:
- Click once on the .jar file in the Finder.
- From the menubar in the Finder select File -> Get Info".
3 Click on “Open with” and from the popup menu. - Select “Jar Launcher”, which is built into OS X.
- Whenever you double click on the .jar file the program should start
btw the download link http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre8-downloads-2133155.html also has the Mac Java installers
I added code to preserve the original sequence’s note event timestamp so if you open an existing unquantized MIDI and save it, there will be no changes to those notes. I’ll be uploading an update soon, I’m adding a startup tip window for new users and a help window.
In your screen shots I see a drop down to change drum kit, but I do not see that when I run BeatBuilder on my Mac. If I can load up Rock Set with Bass, I think I can kick some butt on making a ton of songs with bass!
The current “Beat Builder” is OK but is not quite close enough for the real touchy timing needed. A little finer would be fine. The Beat Builder is a great little program except for a couple of things. The registers above the Tom-Toms do not function or can’t be heard when the track is finished and saved. Don’t know what the problem is there, but see if someone can look into it and fix it. Number two, rather than highlight the whole section for deleting, could there be just a spreadable window with the mouse button to make it as wide or small to take out small sections like all the cymbals and leave the bass and snare sections intact? This would be nice. I don’t mind working with the “Beat Builder” for now because I used to do a lot of “Step Writing” a few years ago with “Voyetra” made by Turtle Beach. Liked that one but they discontinued it and removed all support. I still have it. Can’t get it to work though.
Anyway, like you idea on a new program for “Us Guitar Players”. Thank you for that. Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
Funny you mentioned the Voyetra software, I really really miss Voyetra’s Orchestrator Plus. It was the easiest piano-roll editor I have ever worked with. You could easily grab a group of notes and shift them in time or transpose them by dragging or change all their durations or velocities at once. It was basic but did absolutely everything I needed and with the least amount of clicking. The last operating system it would run under reliably was Windows 98, though you could kinda get it working in Windows 2000.
I still have my legitimate copy of “Record Producer Deluxe” but Voyetra does not support it anymore and I can load it but it won’t work properly without there Consent. I have contacted them several times and they just say “No Support” available. Turtle Beach won’t do anything either and they are the “Parent Company”. If you can find a way around that, I would gladly share my copy with you. I created over 100 “Orchestral Arrangements” using my ideas and still have the “Computer Generated” arrangements on CD. No actual musical instruments were used and I have the original “Ensonic” sound card that I created all the natural sounds with. I would like to find someone to build me an old computer to fit this sound card into. Not another one like it. I will probably keep it forever. Anyway, nice talking to someone that actually used Voyetra. I have a “Blues Loop” in my Digitech JamMan Delay Looper that was created with Voyetra and I still use it to play along with. Still an “Awesome” sound. Thank You, Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker. P.S. I really like my Beat Buddy and the “Beat Builder”. Creating my own stuff now.
Charles Spencer, I totally agree when it comes to Digital Orchestrator Plus. It was the most user friendly Piano Roll editor I ever used and found myself longing for it when I wanted to specifically pull out beats for The Beat Buddy…
I’m not a programmer so I don’t know if this is feasable but If you made something that was able to “tap write” like my old boss DR110 that would be a very easy way to create a drum beat. You would press play and it would continually loop while you tapped on the kick drum, snare, etc. It was so easy to create with because you could hear it in real time. Here’s an example.
^ my old drummer … could never get it right
…lent it to a friend …he made a jingle with it …pocketed 2 grand 
This tool is really cool! Thx for doing this. Just one thing: I am using the beatbuddy + the Bass notes (which are above the visible notes you are showing in the tool) - could this be maybe visible in the next version? Thx!
I had a question about BeatBuilder- For some reason when trying to open a midi file, and navigating through my PC to the folder, some of my subfolders do not show up in the Open dialog so I can’t get to them - These are within cloud drives that are synced on my PC so it seesm to be a mapping issue. The only way I can is to copy the midi fil to another place such as Desktop and get it from there. Any thoughts on why it could be doing this. Also, when editing a midi file, is there any way to loop the playback so it keeps playing the loop over and over - I find that helps when trying to make beats.
Laslty, if I want a drum fill to end on a Cymbal Crash (as is normal), which is really the first beat of the next measure going into a Chorus, how do I extend the bar by one or more beats (Like the BB dafault fills have extra beats for this - I know these are recorded live and non-quantized)? Wonder how everybody else overcomes this.
Thanks for all your great work on this tool,
Michael
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