Im wondering if there are any tutorials or helpful tips for creating beat buddy songs from a wav file. Im not a drummer or great with a daw but Id like to be able to take a drum track and convert it to midi in reaper and then use that to program my song. Im using BB for contemporary Christian music so songs arent really readily available. tracks are more available though.
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This link should help you get started Using BB to play actual backing tracks - a short tutorial
The principles are pretty much the same for Reaper as they are for Logic Pro X.
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I really appreciate you responding, however, im hoping to create a song for the beatbuddy itself so that I have the control to go back to a chorus or bridge part as I see fit. Though its possible, playing an actual backing track is really not a strength of the beat buddy. there are other items more fitting for this purpose. Id loike to create a custom song from the midi files of drum tracks.
I am in a similar situation and would like to know how to do this, as well
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Thank you, persist, for this very detailed explanation! Excellent info. In short, you have an entire backing track that appears as a BB song.
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Tntent02, It seems that could be easily be done with the Aeros looper, yes?
There are several pitch to midi utilities now available that work for drums, to some extent.
Search for “Convert drum audio to midi,” and you’ll find links to several YouTube videos that discuss the process for Cubase, Reaper, Logic Pro, and Ableton. You’ll need to do clean up of the resulting midi file using any of these programs, but it will get you started, provided that you have a clean audio recording of the drums. If you have a multi-track drum audio file, it’s quite easy, but sadly we normal humans rarely have these available,. These would be what you get when you record a live drum kit with mics on each drum. I you are really needing the exact same drums that you have in your tracks, take a look at the YouTube videos to see what you are up against.
As a working alternative, I highly recommend PG Music’s Band-in-a Box. With it, you can enter a chord chart, and then select from many styles to auto generate an accompaniment. They have many style that will produce a multi-track midi file, from which you can then transfer the file to Reaper, and build your song parts.
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Thanks for the insight. Im getting closer but its a big learning curve. Im new to creating BB songs and new to this type of midi. I can create a basic midi file in reaper and transfer that to BBMO but the midi file Ive created from a wav file so far has no audio when transfered to bbmo online for some reason. Ill keep learning. perhaps the band in a box and having it created for me is easier.
When you transfer the midi file to BBMO, there needs to be a Wav file in the drum kit for each location that you have a note. Essentially, you need to have a drum kit that the file will play. If you have a note a C1, for example, where you would likely have a kick, then the drum kit assigned to that song has to have a kick drum at location C1, and so forth. A BB song has 2 basic components, the midi file, which contains the instructions of what note get played when, and the “drum Kit” which contain wav files that will be triggered by the midi notes. If you don’t have a drum kit with locations that match the notes, it is like playing piano with no strings. You can hit the keys, but there are no notes.
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I just saw a new drum track separator today called ReStem. Claims to separate audio drum tracks to separate tracks for kick, snare, hats, toms, cymbals. It’s a $79 plug-in for a DAW.
Hmnn. So What I did was to create the midi file from the wav. I went into bbmo and created a new song, imported the midi file to whatever part, then picked a drumset. What you are saying is apparently I can not just pick one of my existing drumsets to play the midi file because the notes wont necessarily line up ? How do I reconcile the midi file and notes ? My motivation would be to build a BB song a little closer to the original but perhaps somewhat simplified that allows me to jump to a part like a bridge or chorus without having to be locked completely to a full backing track.Thanks for helping..
Attach the midi file you created to a message to me. You may need to create a zip of the midi file to attach it. Tell me what kit you intended to use. Then I can give you some guidance. Attaching a zip of the original drum track might be helpful.
Ill have to wait until I can get some time at The Home Studio But WIll Do ! Thanks for being so helpful.
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While not directly answering your question there are quite a lot of song files available on the Facebook BeatBuddy Worship page. You never know - someone might already have built the song you’re looking for!
Thanks for the tip