What are the ways you guys are using (or not using) BB that makes the way it is designed not suitable?
JoeInOttawa -
Fair enough. I’ll modify my statement:
“Beat Buddy and the Beat Buddy Manager software were not originally conceived, nor designed, to handle complete tracks.” How’s that?
Over time things evolved so that complete tracks (OP songs) became more practical. Partly this was Singular but a lot of it was the user community figuring out how to work around limitations. There are still issues to work through because of the original design limitations.
I’m pretty sure whenever Singular releases their updated BBM software that complete backing tracks will be part of the design from day 1 and they will be (much) easier to work with; today it is kind of a slog.
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I’m sorry if this sounds ignorant, but what is the difference between a user who finds BB perfect for their live show needs and a user who wants”complete backing tracks” that BB Can’t deliver?
Arent’t those the same thing? I would not want incomplete tracks for a live performance.
Ignorant? Not at all.
I interpret this in two ways: Songs with parts vs. 1-press songs; and drums vs. multiple instruments.
Honestly, we do all four: Parts and 1P with bass (for solo) and keyboards (for duo) interspersed. I would also note that I have our Beat Buddy running our light show.
It will do all of these things, but as the OP (I THINK it was the OP) alluded to, some things require more effort than others. If I had zero MIDI skill and patience and unlimited funds, I would do what someone else (almost) suggested: I’d buy the karaoke tracks configured to be missing the vocals and guitars, burn them to CD or stack them in some sort of a file player, and go from there.
TatayTCK,
First of all JoeInOttawa is impressive. If he’s got his BB running his lights he likely has complete command of MIDI commands (pun intended). I’ve never quite got the hang of all that (although to be fair I’ve not made much of an effort).
The majority of BB users work with loops. In a basic case they might have one loop, say a 4 bar pattern, that just repeats itself for the whole song. This is great for practice or maybe a very simple song. But more often there are multiple loops that are triggered by the pedal (or an accessory switch) to move to different parts or to put in drum fills.
Learning to use the BB in this way takes time, but it is more of a physical thing like playing an instrument. Configuring it to operate that way is not too hard.
Some BeatBuddy users prefer to use complete songs (they call them OP or “one press” songs). An OP song mean that you can have multiple drum sections, verse, chorus, bridge, fills, all preset and ready to go in a single track. You press the pedal once, the track plays all the way through, and then it stops. Very easy to use in performance, but (in my opinion) a real pain to set up and manage. That is why I decided to abandon (for now) the BB and go with audio-tracks. I create them myself using a MIDI editor but, as JoeInOttawa points out, you can also purchase backing tracks (there are free ones you can download too).
If you do end up going the audio-file route I’d recommend looking into the many apps available for tablets and phones. They can store and play back your audio tracks. You could start tracks by hand (tap on the mobile device) or use a bluetooth pedal to trigger the tracks. (you could also use a MIDI pedal to control things but that quickly becomes more complex).
I hope this helps!
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Thanks for the replies, I think I understand it a bit more. It seems to me like the BB (without any BBM use) works fine in live situations when you don’t need a complex beat, just something to pull things together, probably most helpful to small groups. But the more complex things are, the more you would need to use BBM or the methods indicated above.
I would personally rather use something like the BB instead of stripped karaoke tracks, simply because you are so locked in to that track that if anything goes wrong, or you want to extend the song or a solo,you can’t.
Not being a Midi master nor wanting to try and become one, I will most likely buy the BB and hope that BBM2 comes sooner, not later.
No. You need BBM even to create a beat from existing parts. Many of the complaints about BBM are due to its weak midi editing, which you don’t have to do. Other major complaints center around the lack of a robust copy/paste function. Don’t think you can use the BB for anything other playing the factory shipped “songs”, which are really just beats, without using BBM. BBM is a necessity for loading anything found on the Forum, or for loaded any new songs/packages purchased from Singular. You dont need to become a world class expert in the ins and outs of BBM to enjoy using the pedal, but you will need to install and use it unless all you want to do is play the shipped factory beats with no rearranging.
Download BBM and the factory content and play with it on the virtual pedal built into BBM. This will give a reasonable idea of how it and the BB work.
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I agree with Phil here…
Playing with the Beat Buddy Manager software and using the virtual pedal is a great way to determine if working with the BeatBuddy songs is going to work for you.
People who just use Beat Buddy in their home as a fun practice tool can perhaps just use the patterns pre-loaded on the device. Anyone who wants to use a BeatBuddy for real performances will want to create custom song lists and tie those songs to various drum loops. The BBM software is the way to do that.
I’ll add that my challenges using the (current) BBM software do go a bit beyond just “a lack of robust copy/paste” but I’ve documented some of those challenges earlier in this thread so no need to repeat!
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You don’t need the Beatbuddy Manager software to load the Premium Complete Collection IF you purchase the entire collection at once and do a fresh install. That’s what I did. I did download the BBM later on. I’ve used it for a few little edits, but I really haven’t used it a whole lot. I use my Beatbuddy live, along with MIDI Maestro, and I feel that it’s totally possible to play live without doing a bunch of editing, or searching the forums for one-press songs. I use several of the Premium songs as is. I just have to spend some time rehearsing when to hit those transitions. I enjoy using my Beatbuddy this way.
Bbm isnt really all that complicated unless your anal about getting the drums to sound like the original song. Otherwise, it makes it easier to make a set list snd put the name of the song your adding to your set list by allowing you to put up to 100 songs in a single folder which you can name as you please. Then you can export that folder into the BB sdcard and there you have it. Open the folder Nd your songs will ne there for you to choose from. Click on the song you want and away you go. Besides that you cN find a lot of songs on the forum that will help you greatly but dont use the song matching tool. Too many tone deaf people sending in too many suggestions of what they consider good beats. I did look thru it when i 1st started and i was soon to find out they dont match. Some did but not a lot. Enjoy the drummer, its simple and it sounds great in a good pa system