MIDI Drum Editor ???
I’m looking for a free MIDI drum editor for Windows. I’m using MIDI EDITOR 2.5.0 but it only allows open, cut paste and save. Which is almost all I need to do. But just almost.
I’m assuming I need a separate software to do this. Can someone provide examples for PC & Mac?
Further, the midi editor doesn’t create the SOUNDS, just the drum sequences, right? The SOUNDS are part of the kits within the beat buddy.
Thanks.
Re: MIDI Drum Editor ???
You could try EZDrummer from Toontrack - it’s what I have and works well and I run it on a Mac. There is also a Windows version. It runs MIDI drum sequences that you can create yourself. Has a selection of parts such as verse, chorus, fills, bridge etc. and you can export these to file. I am hoping I will be able to use this to create samples for the BB. We’ll see when the BB software comes out.
There is also Jamstix from Rayzoon which looks similar and has just come out in a Mac version but their original version was for Windows. I haven’t tried that yet but judging by reviews and comments people love it. It appears to do much the same thing as EZDrummer.
I think these two are the most affordable and most popular - at least based on my research.
Tom
As of current, yes. You will need a separate software to do just that. This may (or may not) get revised in later BeatBuddy releases.
I personally use Guitar Pro 5.2 for that. (I didn’t like Guitar Pro 6 at all). It allows to create or edit tablature files / notes sequence, and it also has an option to import/export MIDI files - just what is needed for a BeatBuddy to work on.
Thanks for the reply’s. I was hoping for something a little less expensive. EZdrummer and Jamstix looks cool, both are over $100. Guitar Pro is closer to affordable at $59. I don’t mind spending the money if I will use it a lot, I’m just not sure how much I’d use it. But I want to try it at some point once the BB Manager comes out.
I would take a look at Hydrogen.
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/
It works with Windows, Macs and Linux… and its free…
Uploaded Hydrogen, but can’t figure how to import a MIDI file. Says it can in the write up.
Interesting… I haven’t ever imported midi. I always created from scratch then exported midi… Ill play with it and see what I find.
Check out Groovemonkey.com for 700 free MIDi drum loop downloads. Do a search for Free MiDI Drum Loops then find Groovemonkey., Going directly to Groovemonkey.com doesn’t work well.
I am in the process of approving a concept to have a MIDI editor right in the hardware BeatBuddy.
Good Daef. Make sure it can start from imported MIDI. We have the BB MIDI files.
For Mac users… After a long search for a really good MIDI sequencer/exporter, I just stumbled across Doggiebox. It’s very simple to use and only $39.
I found Cakewalk in the closet when looking for a midi cable. It’ll run on Windows 3.1
Why would I spend more money when the software is supposed to come with the pedal?
Manager software is intended for arranging existing MIDI files into a BeatBuddy songs (BBS) files, for uploading content into pedal SD card easily, upgrade firmware and editing/creating drum sets. It is not intended for editing MIDI files.
A MIDI editor should have been included in the package from the start. Not having a decent editor frustrates me so much I’ll probably just get rid of BB on eBay and look for another solution altogether. When do you anticipate that MID editor, though? I want to try it first before giving up.
Following that line of thinking, BeatBuddy should have been invented, designed and manufactured from like the start of 2000-th. Not having a decent drum machine then frustrated me so much, I’ll probably now just get rid of my guitar, bass and amps and look for some online Role Playing Game altogether…
On a serious note, nothing ever comes up completely polished and perfect. But it eventually builds up and get there.
Seriously, we didn’t even have a compact convenient performance drum machine like half a year ago, but here it is!
True. In fact, I would have appreciated it in 1986 - what were you waiting for?? Sheesh, people…
But on a serious note, two things I really need to know because they are deal-makers or breakers for me are:
- Is there going to be a compatible MIDI editor soon, and
- Can there be more than just those few parts of a song in BB? IN fact, we should be able to just sequence any number of patterns and progress through them as we need, I believe (with the SD card capacity being the only limit). Are there such plans?
All I can share now is
- Yes, and
- Yes.
There is definitely going to be a compatible MIDI editor. I cannot say when, unfortunately. Right now I am seeing many users are having difficulties with creating new beats, and would love to be able to do it easier. While having to use an external software was probably okay for the project start, but it was definitely not a set in stone decision to never have a MIDI editor. Singular Sound is listening to the users, and I can say that such a feature is planned.
As for having more than just a few parts in a BB song - it so happened that shipped BeatBuddy content has exactly two parts. This was intentionally made to simplify the learning process.
When it comes to creating new songs - you can add (almost) as many parts as you want. When I received my BeatBuddy, the first thing I’ve done was making a song with 12 song parts. I’ve found very quickly I was overwhelmed with using fills and transitions at appropriate times while playing my guitar!
Once you find yourself more familiar with how fills and transitions are queued/played, you can make use of multipart songs (that you can either make yourself with the use of external MIDI editors or grab some songs from this forum that other users have created).
And the last thing I want to emphasize. Right now, BeatBuddy only allows for looped transiting forward. This means, if you have parts 1, 2 and 3, all you can do is INTRO - 1 - 1 - 1 -> 2 -> 3 - 3 -> 1 - OUTRO. You cannot transition from part 3 to 2, or from part 2 to 1.
If you imagine yourself a designer for a second, how would you propose making such a useful feature?
Thank you!
I probably wouldn’t, without a LOT of interest from users. Keeping track of all the parts and moving forward and backward while also dealing with your stompboxes and all might be too much; it’s simpler to use the flexibility in the song-making process and sequence things like 1-2-1-3-1-2 and so on by simply repeating patterns where you need them.
However, you could use the left button on the optional footswitch to move back and the right one to move (skip) forward or some such (but then, how would you do accents?)
The only option that would give you true flexibility of skipping from and to non-adjacent parts would be an additional footswitch/controller, a numeric pad of sorts, but that might be an overkill. With enough interest, however, you could manufacture two separate types of footswitch: the basic one that you have right now, for accents only, and an advanced on with that kind of functionality plus accents and let people choose what they want to use. Or maybe use a MIDI numeric pad built large enough to be controlled as a footswitch? That could be used to also trigger any MIDI-based sound changes for players who use various MIDI units instead of traditional effects.