Generating Songs

Who is planning on generating songs? Which songs are you planning to generate? Will you upload them to the site? Which program do you intend to use to sequence your MIDI patters?

I’m going to try my hand at creating songs in Jamstix. It’ll be a first, so it will take a while while I figure it all out before I upload them here.

Guitar Pro 5.2 for life!

This is the best program ever. it can convert to and from MIDI and is very handy to view, listen and edit tabs.

How & where will you upload them to when you have finished?
Will they be midi or mp3 ?
What folder will they go in
Will BB read them without all the filenames they have now for their collection of beats ?
(they are not midi’s or mp3 )
Can I make a new folder & put them in there,
…or do we have only BB file names to use them in?

Last time I checked, BeatBuddy Manager eats MIDI files as an input and packs songs. They use internal proprietary (unreadable) format in order to save bandwidth for the BeatBuddy firmware to eat that and output actual beat sounds.

It is actually a rather complicated process to upload a song to your BeatBuddy without Manager software. So BeatBuddy Manager is designed to simplify this process. The only problem right now is that manager software is not yet ready :confused: I know, that sucks.

Most likely BeatBuddy songs will be uploaded in this internal proprietary data format. That way the file will be ready to upload to the BeatBuddy right after downloading with no post-processing required.

As for parsing the SD card content - files with names like A72FE34D.BBS - are your actual songs, CONFIG.CFG - is a descriptor text file that maps actual songs inside this folder to their logical names BeatBuddy will show when playing this song plus it sets the song ordering. Without this file BeatBuddy won’t see anything. If you add a new file, but forget to add it to the CONFIG.CFG in its folder - it won’t be seen as well.

Enjoy hacking! :slight_smile:

P.s.: Always make backups! This can save you internet bandwidth from downloading SD card content again! :slight_smile:

As I have now received my BB I have realised that I will need to create some beats and as I can play drums and have an electric kit I will use that and record the midi output into CubaseSX. Though as that is an old version I am thinking of getting Reaper. Again my request to be able to trigger the sounds in the BeatBuddy by an external midi device would allow the fine tuning of the beat easier or even hearing the beat being played through the beat buddy while recording or playing the midi data in the sequencer. I am hoping to add a topic to the content section for hints and tips on how best to create new beats. Goran did an amazing job and I want to ensure the beats I create are the same quality.

I don’t think you will be able to trigger any sounds on the fly.

The overall process of creating beats for BeatBuddy is approximately as follows.

  1. Record a number of WAV samples with how an individual MIDI note will sound at different volume levels.
  2. Combine them into a DRM drumset file for a BeatBuddy to use.
  3. (you can skip first two steps and use an already existing drumset)
  4. Prepare a number of separate MIDI files with the notes.
  5. Organize MIDI files from step 4 in manager software into a BBS BeatBuddy song. You can add an arbitrary number of song parts with fills, transition, set default drumset (probably from step 2) and etc.
  6. Upload a BBS from step 5 and probably a DRM from step 2 to the BeatBuddy. This is most easily done via manager software.
  7. Notice that manager software is still not released.
  8. Whine on forums :slight_smile:

Actually, at step 7 you are good to go. You power your BeatBuddy, select your song, wait for the drumset to load and it is ready! That’s the process that the BeatBuddy was initially developed for.

If you think the pedal functional could be improved somehow - please let us know!

I would really like to get additional details on steps 4 and 5.

I (and others) that are not drummers and/or MIDI recording/editing savvy, could really benefit from some detailed explanation, demonstration and tool suggestion for steps 4 and 5. In fact, since it is such a core task, it might be nice to have one forum top level group/topic dedicated to it. I have already noticed a number of questions about this scattered through the general discussions. It would be so helpful to have a focused and organized place for this helpful info.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

Download the SD card info and extract. There will be an extra file called MIDI LOOPS - content 1.2. It contains the MIDI files for the beats that are in BeatBuddy. Open your favorite up and look and the multiple MIDI files under a beat like Blues 1. You will see all the MIDI files that you could create if you are doing your own song. Typically a verse beat, a verse 2 or chorus beat, and several fill beats. You can download MIDI Editor 2.5.0 for free and edit these or other MIDI files to create what will become your song when you put the pieces together in BB MGR software.

I started editing the volume (velocity) of the fills for the BB songs I use, to make them more subtle. Will be ready to go when BB MGR is out.

As I am preparing the Midi for the Manager or to try to Hack the songs,

Are their any limitations that I should be aware of?

IE: Verses can only be 4 bars long… or Fills can only be 1 Bar…

Anton