The auto pilot is something I think I would use but can wait. Has there been any thought on allowing program or control message data to remain in the song for sending to external devices?
The more I play with the Beat Buddy as a new user, the more I am interested in this Autopilot feature. Iâm seeing myself doing a lot of pedal dancing to use it live. Iâm also finding it easy to make a mistake on more complex songs when performing.
Do you have a more detailed description of how Autopilot is implemented? Some screen shots or a demo video?
Thanks
Release what you have now.
Work on Autopilot and then release another update. It sounds useful in some circumstances.
Please make an extreme effort on upgrading, or replacing BBM to something that allows Copy and Paste or Repeat function. If I want to write my own feel with slight variants across a 16 bar loop I need to take a packed lunch. If I could write a basic bar, copy and paste, or repeat it 15 times, then effect those minor variants to the other 15 bars I could have a life outside programming my drums.
I see many would suggest I use a third party setup like Logic etc to write my midi files than import. Thats like Toyota suggesting I use Nissan for my servicing.
If you are going to build a device like the BeatBuddy, and then want the world to embrace it amongst its many competitors it MUST have at least the basic programming and editing features of a computer from the 1980âs.
BBM does not.
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Sounds like a plan: Update as isâŚ
SoâŚquiet here at the beginning of the next week. Any update posted that I may have missed as my Mac sits equally silent?
Many hours now invested with BB over the last week as a new user. I have concluded that without some sort of usable âplay throughâ capability, I will not be able to use the BB live. Far too distracting and far too easy to make mistakes on fills and transitions. Playing acoustic guitar, singing, and entertaining the crowd is plenty of multitasking and the clear priorities for me. So hopeful that BB would be a low-overhead adder, but so far very disappointed. I even started working in a DAW with the intent to build full tracks for the BB, but itâs just going to be too much work and really defeats the simple elegance and potential efficiency of this thing.
My only hope of not having wasted my time and $ is a greatly improved basic editor and this so-called Autopilot feature. Anxiously awaiting the next BBM release before I lose total interest in BB.
Please get it done!
Releasing later today - had some pesky bugs present in Fridayâs build that required testing and work over the weekend to fix. Look for a new thread in the announcements category with the new version. 
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Awesome!
Iâm sorry to hear you are disappointed. My duo has a repertoire of nearly 100 songs, and I MUCH prefer the control that running parts gives me, but I also know others much prefer the hands-off approach. You may need to look at the so-called one-press songs â songs that play through from start to finish with a single press. There are lots of them available on this site.
You might also be well-served to learn the differences between the standard General MIDI (GM) drum kit and the BB drum kits so you can use commercially-available MIDI songs, both paid and free. Iâve used one or two (personally, I always strip them back into parts because I like the control), and there are really only two broad steps: Separate out the drums; and transpose the parts of the GM kit that need to change to fit the BB kit.
I doubt Autpilot will resolve your issue, based on what youâve said, but who knows, maybe it will. But, in the mean time, you may also want to look at some of the (now) well-established options that could make the BB more suitable to your workflow.
Good luck!
Thanks for your comments. I am aware lots of folks are using the BB successfully live (in various ways). That is one of the reasons I just bought one.
I really need one-press operation to meet my needs, and have already read enough on this forum to understand the current âwork-aroundâ for the BB. I have also downloaded a few just to see what is out there, and there is not much I can use for the particular set list Iâm developing.
I have spent some time in a DAW refreshing my MIDI sequencing skills to create an entire song drum sequence. This reminded how much work that is, as I did it for dozens of songs back on the 90s when I was in to a one-man show with fully instrumented MIDI backing tracks. In those days, I did purchase some tracks (Google Tran Tracks ⌠I am amazed they are still around), but I still ended up doing an awful lot of work to customize them for my needs/taste. Now, even though I am just shooting for drums this time around (maybe also bass), I was hoping to avoid so much work with the BB.
I am well-versed (albeit a bit rusty) in the MIDI specs: instrument mappings, channels, CCâs, note on/note off, ad nauseum from my distant past. It does not look to me like MIDI has changed much in so many years. Of course, musicians have been finding clever ways to use it since its inception, and I am sure there all sorts of cool twists I have not seen since the âold daysâ.
Since I havenât been able to find any sort of spec for what Autopilot will actually do, I have to go on the tidbits Iâve read on this forum which seem to indicate Autopilot will provide a way to stitch together OP songs from various loops. If this is not the case, I will, unfortunately, be disappointed.
Sorry for the long post. Glad you (and others) are enjoying this thing. I hope I can do so as well.
Yeah, what Joe said. I understand that if you are doing a bunch of originals, the BB takes work to get your songs sound âexactlyâ the way you want. Depending on your midi programming skill, you might not get absolutely there. But, there is NO drum machine that can figure out what is in your head and then play it, at least not yet. Making accompaniment tracks for any device takes work. If you do covers, last I checked, we have 2000+ songs on here. If you want a song to be just drums when it was made as drums + something else, thatâs an easy fix, and, in many cases, the original creator of the BB song can help you out, if you ask.
So youâre NOT a MIDI Noob? That makes it way easier!
Almost anything youâd want to do is available as a full MIDI song â sometimes as MIDI Karaoke, sometimes as backing tracks. So â and this may all be self-evident to you, and if so I apologize â try this:
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Drag the complete backing track into a DAW as multiple tracks
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Delete everything that isnât drums. If there is more than one drum track (maybe theyâve added a Latin percussion track, for example), youâll have to decide how important those parts are to you.
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Export the MIDI file, combining the tracks where required into a single track.
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Re-import the track.
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Transpose the drum parts that donât map from GM to BB.
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Add a few bars to the end of the song with something â anything â on the final beat. This gives you time to stop the BB from playing after the song ends so that it doesnât just start up again immediately.
6a. (Optional) If you need to add a 4-count to the beginning, add one.
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Export again.
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Import into BB as a single part. No intro, no outro, no fills, just the part.
Now, you have a one-press song: step once to start, twice to stop, play in between.
Hereâs an example of one of the very few OP songs we do. Being Canada Day here in The Great White North (our Fourth of July), I offer up a Canadian hit: Just Came Back by Colin JamesâŚ
I can tell you that took almost as much time to type out as it took to actually do it in ReaperâŚ
Again, thanks for the info. No, definitely not a MIDI noob. I cut my teeth MIDI sequencing on an Atari 1040ST in the late 80âs. Should have kept the stupid thing as they are probably collectible by now!
A request for future updates. Would it be possible to incorporate a progress bar for playback within the BB manager? So we can forward to a point in the song (for loops/intros/outros of multiple bars) and not have to go through the whole song just to hear/practice a certain point or transition.
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I was like you and did a MIDI backing track show through the 90âs and 00âs. I have used Cakewalk to write and edit all my tracks. I started using the BB just for drums to practice with but it just keeps presenting new possibilities every time I go on line. I now have a drum kit I have made that has Drums, bass, piano (limited) and organ. I have made most of my tracks so that they have an intro, usually everything right up until a lead break (intros, main loops and outros can be as many bars as you like). Then I make the main loop the lead break. This is really handy if you have guest performers playing with you, you just keep the lead looping over until everyone has had a go, then click into the outro, which is everything after the lead and automatically stops where you have told it to. I make just about all songs in this format so I donât have to remember where I programmed the change overs. It changes a MIDI track from an unforgiving beast to a much more flexible tool. Not to mention instead of carting all the gear I used to, racks of equipment and computer, It is now all in one small pedal. Stick with it, itâs worth it, it has dramatically revolutionized the way I do shows.
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As a headsup to those in the thread, weâre going to be taking more time to fully iron out the build before release. If anyone can test and write detailed bug reports for windows, please reach out to me via PM.
Thanks for the additional notes on (hybrid?) OP songs. Good ideas.
I actually caught a huge break yesterday when I decided to contact the guy I gave my entire one-man show MIDI library to back in the mid-90âs. I had âgraduated to full bandsâ by then, and didnât see a need to continue the one-man show thing. Turns out he is still around, and still had a backup of my entire original MIDI library (which I had long since lost through moves, computer upgrades, etc.). He zipped everything up and sent it to me last night.
I spent 1/2 the day today working on a couple simple songs in Studio One. Goal was to create a final MIDI export file stripped of everything but drums/bass, mapped to the BB (Pro Kit w/Bass), and âadjustedâ for various issues (such as mix). Lots of pain/suffering/road blocks/false starts before I just about gave up. Then I stumbled on to a workflow that actually succeeded. Happy to report I was able to create a âusableâ OP song for the BB! Took it all the way to performing the entire song with vocals/acoustic guitar/BB through my JBL SRX815Pâs. Wife (picky critic) was impressed, so there is hope.
Still looking forward to a stable BBM update, since I now intend to use some combination of OP and manual drive BB songs for my final set list.
(moderator might want to move this hijacked thread somewhere more appropriate)
Iâm surprised there hasnât been more enhancements on the MIDI editor. Itâs been around a while now and still can be upgraded so much. Not a lot has seemed to change.
I have read almost all the replies on this topic and canât believe that no else feels that having the ability within the BB manager to program and set the volume for each individual song is not one of the top priorities for anyone gigging with the BB . The variances in the volumes even when using at times the same drum kits. ( maybe due to different velocity settings within the song ) but especially when using different kits through out a performance.
For me because I perform with the BB itâs my top priority
in the BB manager update.
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