Before this will work you will have to upload this drumset which contains the Bass to the drumsets folder. Rock Drums with Bass
To upload this drumkit please follow this excellent video tutorial from Psalm40. Edit: I have experienced problems on the beatbuddy I think due to the size of the drumset. I have deleted splash 2 and crash 2 instruments and now it is ok. The BB was and then after about 10 seconds would reboot. I have uploaded a new version of the drumset.
The only problem I have with this now is that when the bass note is cut off due to being a short note there is a small crackling noise like using a killswitch on a guitar or changing pickups. The shorter the note and hence louder it is when cut, the louder the crackling. Maybe needs some sort of decay setting implemented. Appreciate any help with this.
This has worked really well on a simple song like One Nation army and will do on songs that have fairly repetative bass lines. Instead of making a one bar track and looping you will have to make the loop as long as the chord progression but I think it will be workable. As with those who have found using the BB live keeping things simple will be the key. Adding in a bass riff like a fill will be interesting
Cheers.
How to create your own bass lines:
I advise learning to program the midi beats for the beatbuddy before moving onto the bass notes. Creating the bass notes is similar to the drums but extra work required due to having to program the length of the note or the time the note rings for.
The first step is learning the midi numbers to program to. You can open the drumset in beatbuddy manager and find them that way. They start at Low E at midi64 up two octaves to E at 88 and should lineup with the corresponding notes on the midi keyboard.
This is how i create it in Reaper DAW with multi track editing. midi editors with single tracks may be a bit harder as you may not be able to listen back to bass line as you go.
I will first create the midi drum track for any part being main, intro, fill, etc. I will then create a second track that lines up with the drum track and add a bass vst plugin for this track (I am using 4fbass) Then I create the midi file. When creating the drum track you don’t have to worry about the length of the midi event but the length of the midi event here gives you the length of the note.
Unfortunately when sending to BBM it will not recongnise the length of the midi event and will let the note ring out. To get around this I have had to set up the bass notes in the drumset editor to a choke group which is how when an open hi hat is played it is cut short when a closed hi hat is played.
Hence at the end of each midi event to cut of the bass note on BBM you will need to let the next note cut the previous note or insert a small midi event or note on a different bass midi number to cut before next note is played. EG if I trigger an A note at the end of the A note I will trigger either a G# or Bb but it could be any other midi execpt the one you are trying to cut short.
I make this midi event very short and make the velocity of the note the minimum (in reaper goes velocity goes to 127 so I make velocity 1) and then the note can’t be heard.
So I am left with a Midi track for drums and a track for bass. I then merge the two tracks into one midi track and export it how I normally would to BBM.
Thanks for showing us what the Beat Buddy can do even beyond providing beats. In a more general sense, the Beat Buddy really is a compact MIDI controller. It’s great for one man bands. Hopefully we see more people take advantage of this notion.
(Minor nit. I think your part C line is messed up a little. Your song part C does not use the C Fill 1 MIDI file. When I attempted to load that MIDI manually, I got an error message from the BB manager.)
Thanks, Dan
It’s a bit limited in what you can do with the bass at the moment as the beatbuddy only plays the wav file for the note and doesnt control how long the note plays for hence I have added short bass notes. I think I have a work around for this and will try it when I get home.
Honestly I can’t see that it would be too difficult for the beatbuddy team to implement an official version. The hardware is cabable, it’s only the software that’s holding it back. I’m just a tradie with no software programing experience and over the years have worked out how to do a bit of stuff with DAW’s etc just through my own persisence and google. I managed to get this working with the existing program on a Sunday night. Surely the beatbuddy team can get some better software out.
This is not to take away from the product as I love it and its great fun to play around with but it’s got alot more potential and should be easier to program to make it more accessible.
Cheers
Edit. I Think I have it worked out. Its to do with the polyphony setting and choke setting in the drumset
Ha Stu, You have just unveiled the second product for the company, bass buddy! Actually, once the software bugs have been worked out, a Bass buddy would be a great option. A catalog of baselines in different keys/chord progressions is a monumental task and would require immense programming. Thanks for the innovation!
Edit: I have experienced problems on the beatbuddy I think due to the size of the drumset. I have deleted splash 2 and crash 2 instruments and now it is ok. The BB was and then after about 10 seconds would reboot. I have uploaded a new version of the drumset. Will be up in about half an hour
Yes they did… but it’s more of a practice jamming tool. Not a performance tool. There’s no programming in it, simply an on the fly back track creation. Cool none-the-less.
It’s so much easier to figure your seq methods with the bass lines … thanks.
the weight is so timely with my bud sitting in, (big Band fan.)
Hope you’ll do the same for Well Alright (Y) cheers !
Just putting up a post in reply to a question about how to create the bass midi’s. I don’t have time to do any instructionals but maybe a screenshot of a Midi File might help. For this example I will use Billie Jean. I have just opened these up in free Midi Editor program. The second photo is of just the drum beat from the beat only file and the first photo is with the bass line. You will see the bass line is up higher and the bass notes correspond with the Piano Roll thing on the left of the screen.
Remember you must have the Rock with Bass drumkit selected in BBM to hear the bass or you will only hear the drums.
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Hey Stu
Basslines work great! I use my guitar as a midi controler using a sonuus, It makes adding bass lines a snap and less robotic… It costs around 100 bucks and works great. I still need to figure out how to add a low eb though on your drums with bass. I tune down a half step to give my singer more range.
To get a low EB you will need to add it to the drum set but you will first need a EB sample in wav form to add. The samples I used were two octave from E to E. You might have to search for a sample or create your own. Cheers
