G’day all, While this might not be the best forum for my question since not directly related to BeatBuddy, I’ll ask in hopes that someone somewhere has worked it out.
I’ve created high quality drum audio stems for transitions, intro patterns etc to some of the songs I want to load into my BeatBuddy. I am looking for a tool that will reliably convert these stems to MIDI files. So far, I’ve tried Ableton, RipX, Samplab, Logic Pro (my default) and EZ Drummer. None of them seem to reliably generate a MIDI file as when I import the file into BeatBuddy (via BBM) to use as a fill, transition or a main loop, it gets messed up. The main challenge seems to be that the kick drum and snare parts get reversed and a ride gets converted into hi-hat etc. Unusable.
Short of creating my own parts via an MPC, does anyone have a tool that is known to work with BeatBuddy Manager or BBFF. thanks heaps !!
Kind of curious as to what you are trying to accomplish and following this topic to read what @Phil_Flood has to say…
Have you created a custom drum set using the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) and the stems (wav files?) to take advantage of your high quality audio? If not, the MIDI files you are using will only trigger the sounds from the default or premium content kits.
You can search this forum for MIDI Maps—here’s one link— MIDI Maps 2018-02-25 - Various that might help you with the kick, snare and ride end up in the wrong spots. The kick drum should end up in MIDI ID 36, the snare in 38, and the Ride in 51.
AFAIK, there is no tool that will reliably take your audio drum file and turn it into a midi that is automatically mapped to given drum machine, including the BB. That said, the fact that you are creating a midi that appears to have a reliably wrongly mapped result is excellent progress.
The path you would take from there is to create a copy of the BB drumkit that you would like to use and rename it. I have a tutorial on this. Search for “renaming a drum kit.” Once you have your renamed kit opened, then start by playing back the midi in a BB song using your renamed kit. When you can identify which piece is playing which part, start to remap them. Example, if the kick notes are being played by the snare, they are likely at midi 38 or 40. Look at the drumkit and see where the kick is assigned, likely 36 and/or 35, and swap the assigned midi locations to get the kick correct. Then do the same with each other drumkit piece in your kit. When you are done, you will have a custom mapped kit that worked for this conversion tool. Save that kit. Whether this kit works with the next conversion, i cannot say.
The alternate process is to adjust the midi files one by one. Using a DAW, move notes in each incorrectly assigned midi lane to the correct lane. This would be more time consuming in the long run, if the remapped kit process works reliably.
I should have also clarified this morning, audio to midi conversion uses a pitch to midi process. Therefore, if you have a tuned drum kit, you could have some idea of what pitch equals with drum. You also need to know the predominant pitch created by each of the cymbals. With good pitch to midi conversion and no two kit pieces producing the same pitch, you should be able to customize a BB drumkit without too much difficulty.
Thank you, appreciate the tips. I am a keys/guitar player and new to drum (machines) programming so this really helps.
It’s the usual story , drummer goes awol every so often and I use the BB to cover the absence. I have a regular collection of beats that usually do the job but every so often we have a few songs that throw a curveball my way in terms of my ability to program it on a drum machine, hence the stems.
Appreciate your patience with my questions. Thanks again !!
One solution (the one I’m going to use when I have time) is to use some MIDI programming library to do the tedious drum id re-ordering
This way once you solve the mapping, you can always reliably (and easily) convert MIDI into BB tracks. Bonus is that you can use most of the BB drumsets with that song (not just the drum set you have converted yourself)
, drummer goes awol every so often and I use the BB to cover the absence. I have a regular collection of beats that usually do the job but every so often we have a few songs that throw a curveball my way in terms of my ability to program it on a drum machine, hence the stems.
