Connecting Reaper to your BeatBuddy

BeatBuddy General
#1

if there is a midi device connected, it’s really easy. I use an M-Audio UNO

(random google result: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/used/264002/?gclid=CMeG2cuUrcsCFdGQHwod_WsLPw )

In order to learn more I got a Midi Monitor program, which can “sniff” the midi events and can also act as a midi device itself–> https://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/ This was very helpful detecting if Reaper was sending, and where, or if BeatBuddy was responding etc. Not essential but useful.

Restart Reaper if you’ve plugged in the device after Reaper started.
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Click on the ROUTE box.

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Click on under MIDI Hardware Output

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Select the proper device, M-Audio in this case.
I have both the UNO hardware device (with BeatBuddy attached), and the Midi Monitor program.

Make sure the BeatBuddy midi options make sure it’s listening for midi events, and you should be able to play midi in Reaper, and hear it come out of the BeatBuddy pedal. No more guessing what it will sound like!

#2

I can attest that this works very well. Only thing extra I did is get an extra power supply for the pedal for convenience so it doesn’t have to be unplugged at the outlet. Any supply over 300 maH is fine.

#3

Hi Guys ,

I can tell you that this also works perfectly with Logic pro X. Just set up an external Midi channel and route to the appropriate interface

Regards,

Paul

#4

I’ve tried everything to get a midi file to play right from Logic Pro X to BB. I’ve got the bass drum on C1 and the snare on C2. I’ve moved the drums up an octave; I’ve moved the drums up 2 octaves. I’ve tried many different attempts with a bass line also. Are their any tutorials on Logic Pro X exporting Midi to BB? Thank you

#5

What are you using to connect between your computer with LPX and your BeatBuddy?

#6

I have a MacBook Pro, I transfer the SD card from the computer after editing, and then to BeatBuddy.
Also, while you’re here, I downloaded the “Witchita Lineman” files. I love the orchestration on the V3, however, it’s a LOT louder than the rest of the songs I’ve loaded. Any way I can balance this? There’s one bass note that seems odd on the end of the D chord right before the C chord “And I need you more than want you” Thanks for all your work. Mark

#7

Okay, Mark—just needed to make sure as to what you were trying to do as the title to this thread is “Connecting Reaper to your BeatBuddy” and I thought that’s what you were trying to do. Sometimes it’s easier to start a new thread with a new title . . .

Phil Flood is the local LPX genius and I think he’s posted here on how to transcribe a MIDI source to a BBM-ready file. Might have to do some searching on the forum to find it.

As for the volume of Wichita Lineman, I’ll try to circle back and tweak the velocities. May take me a while, though. Is it just the strings that are too loud or is it the whole song? Thanks for the feedback :cool:

#8

Opened a conversation with you.

#9

This still works pretty well:

How to Convert a Midi file to Beat Buddy using Logic Pro X

  1. Find a midi file you would like to convert. Some good sources are http://www.ajsmidi.com/docdoc/docblues.html and http://www.ajsmidi.com/blues/blues_1.html for blues files, and middy.com and freemidi.org for rock files. Or, just Google, Song name midi.

  2. Download the file to an easily found location and open it directly in Logic. Logic will open the midi file and assign instruments to the tracks. Logic sometimes assigns a piano to what is clearly the drum track. Switch the piano out for a drum kit, or it’s gonna sound real bad.

  3. Play the file and note where the sections break.

  4. Decide how you want to present the song on the Beat Buddy Forum. Is it an OPB* or OPBk*; is it a song with a single jam section, or do you want to have many parts? Once you decide, Go back through the song and use Command T to break the song into sections. Listen for your sections, verse, chorus any bridges or transitions and any good drum fill sections; or prejam, jam and outro.

    *OPB - One Press with Bass
    *OPBk - One Press with Bass and keyboards

Save this file as [song name] tracks. You will be coming back to this file.

You will generally be using at least the drums and bass. If you want to add a keyboard section, figure out which part or parts will lend themselves to making a good keyboard part.

  1. Pick a section to work on, the jam, for example. Select just the bass track. Select all notes in the bass track and drag them up, such that nearly all of the notes fall between E3 and E5, if using a 63_91 kit, other kits may have other mappings. Check the mapping by double clicking on the drum set name in the drum kit list. Phil Flood kits and GarryA kits, usually use 0 through 31 (C-2 through G0). For those kits, you will drag the notes down, so they fall between C-2 and G0. Standard Pro bass starts the bass at E5. There may be some notes that are outside of the mapped range. In that case, select just those notes and transpose them up or down one octave as appropriate. You might also wish to transpose the bass track to another key using this process. If bass notes overlap, or are nearly touching each other, you may need to shorten them. The easiest thing to do is to select all the notes and drag the end of one note slightly shorter. This will shorten all of the selected notes. This has to do with the Beat Buddy’s original lack of recognition of “midi note off.” This has been fixed to a some degree, but its still good practice to not have bass notes unintentionally overlapped, as they will appear to drop out when the song is played.

If you are going to try to use keyboads, those usually need to be transposed up a couple octaves, and need to be compressed to fit the range of the kit. Again, check where the keyboards notes are mapped in the kit, and transpose accordingly.

Its good practice to save after you make significant edits or complete a section. This will help in the event you need to do more work.

  1. Check the drum track for non-compatible mappings and adjust as needed. Some tracks have a kick drum at B0 (Midi 35) and some BB kits do not have this drum. Also, some tracks have notes mapped to a location that corresponds to a handclap in Beat Buddy. Frequently, these are supposed to be a snare. Select all the handclap notes at the offending location and drag them to D1 or E1 which should be a snare. If you have odd sounding drums when you audition the file, you can come back to this step using the file you saved in Step 8, and make adjustments. You also may find that the drum track has notes that do not correspond to an instrument in your kit. In those cases, use your judgement on where to move the notes to a similar instrument. Alternatively, find a General Midi w/Bass compatible kit, and use it on the Beat Buddy.

  2. Select the bass and drum tracks (and keyboard tracks?). Join the tracks (Edit>Join>Regions). Create a new track, and move the joined track to the beginning of measure 1. This is a Logic idiosyncrasy. If you don’t do it, you’ll have blank space at the beginning of the loop. It won’t work as intended. In Logic use Export>Selection as midi file. Give it a name like [file name] verseA and save it to a folder where you will place all you files for this song. You can now add the newly created section to Beat Buddy Manager to audition it. Open Beat Buddy Manager and select a folder that has less than 99 songs. Select a song, and the +song button above that song will become active. Press the +song button, and a new song layout will appear. Enter the BPM and song title. The BPM should match or at least be in the range of the BPM that was showing in Logic for the song. You can now add the newly created midi file to the verse section. Simply click on the verse button and navigate to the file. Select it, and it will appear in that section of the beat buddy window.

  3. Make sure you have a “with bass” kit with corresponding mapping selected. Then you can press the play button on the track to audition it in Beat Buddy manager.

  4. Repeat the process with the rest of the song sections. Save the Project when complete.

  5. If desired, export your song from Beat Buddy manager to your project location so that the song can be added to other Beat Buddy Manager Projects if need be, or shared on the Beat Buddy Forum.