I feel like I don’t speak the language here on this forum. But, let me try, as maybe you can understand me.
I think I might be able to get a downloaded song into my Beat Buddy after reading a number of topics. The problem is, my BB Manager will only recognize .sng and .p?? files and every time I find something to download it’s in .drm format.
I play an acoustic guitar and sing. Most of these drum songs won’t work for me. Maybe none of them. I need soft percussion. People talk about changing songs or using different parts from other songs. It’s all Greek to me.
I’ll keep looking. I’d appreciate some help.
Ok, so I figured out that .drm files are drum sets. So, I set about trying to get them to work using the BB Manager. That was a big bust. I would probably need someone to do a Zoom meeting with me to learn how to do this. I am older and this just isn’t computing.
I would appreciate it if someone could try explaining this to me. I probably won’t get it. But I’d like to give it a try.
So, I think I could use most of the default drum songs if I could just delete the bass drum. Is that possible?
I would also like some guidance here.
What you might most helpful—if you have not done so already—is to download and read the quick start guide and the user manual. There are several helpful posts here on the forum along with video tutorials. All of these are available from the Singular Sound web pages. You can click on this link and it might help. Helpful BeatBuddy (BB) and BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) links
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Thank you so much, persist. I was pretty sure the basic information I was looking for was available. But I’m so lost I was not able to find it. Thanks for pointing the way.
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If you run into any problems or have questions about the process, you can search the forum for answers or you can start a new thread and ask your question or state your problem with as much detail as you can provide.
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Hey MikeGaur, I hear your cry. I am a ukulele player that uses the BeatBuddy for performing. I am new as well. This, I believe, is my first post. It will take a while but you’ll start to get the feel as you unlock simple things. What OS are you using? Windows or Mac? I was going to give you a simple tutorial to get you going but it will do nothing unless you are using Windows like I am. The Beat Buddy Manager takes some getting use to but is very capable for calming drum beats like kick drum you mention. I found this information extremely helpful as I got started. Beatbuddy Beginners Guide | How to get Started with BB pedal - YouTube His channel is full of guides of how to use the Beat Buddy Manager. I’ll be more than happy to help as I can.
Hello @ChucknFlea , Thank you so much for responding.
Yes, I am a windows user. I have been at this little gadget for over a week now and I have put in hours and hours reading manuals and watching videos. I have even started working with it. I love this little thing. It is already helping me so much I can’t believe it. And yes, I have been doing some with the BB Manager. But I still don’t know how to “calming drum beats”. So if you could share that with me that would be fantastic. And I will check out the link you gave me.
Okay MikeGaur… Strap in. This will be fun. I’m going strait in as if you know nothing so I beg your forgiveness for my presumptions.
The very first things to know are:
-
Create a song. Let’s go with Frosty The Snow Man, since it’s Christmas.
a. With the BBM (Beat Buddy Manager) up and running, highlight the songs tab on the left. You will see Ballad-mini, Blues, Brazilian, etc… listed. Click on Songs in the menu bar at the top of the window and select "New Folder "(ctrl+ins). New Folder will show up in the songs tab.
b. Click on it to highlight and rename it Christmas.
c. Now click on Songs again in the menu bar and select New Song (ins).
d. Under the Christmas folder click on the New Song and rename it to Frosty The Snow Man. -
Assign a main loop to the song and rename it for that song. By now you can see the song bar in the main window with “Main Loop” in red on line 1. To the right is “Drum Fill” then “Transition”, then Accent Hit" all in Red. Under the words "Main Loop is a button with three dots.
a. If you click on it, file explorer will open with the title “Open Midi”. I do not know what directory you are in but it should have BBWorkspace in the path bar at the top. Mine says “C:\Onedrive\BBWorkspace\user_lib\midi_sources\Christmas” because I have my workspace installed in my local onedrive directory rather than My Documents. This does not matter. The main thing you want to navigate to is BBWorkspace\default_lib\midi_sources\COUNTRY\Country Song 1- Shuffle.
b. Once there, choose COUNTRY- Beat 7- Shuffle snare + hats.mid and push the open button. Here comes the fun part.
c. Right click on the same button (should say COUNTRY-Beat-7-Shuffle share +…yada yada) and choose Export MIDI file. Navigate to BBWorkspace\user_lib\midi_sources\Christmas. Make sure you are in “user_lib” not “default_lib”.
d. Change the name of the MIDI file to Frosty_The_Snow_Man-Main.mid and hit save.
e. Now, left click on the Main Loop button, navigate to BBWorkspace\user_lib\midi_sources\Christmas and select Frosty_The_Snow_Man-Main.mid and hit Open. The Main Loop button should now say “Frosty_The_Snow_Man-Main” It takes a while to get use to all this export/import in order to replace a file in the manager.
f. Just to the left of the Main loop button and under tempo there is the Default Drum set. For now, select Standard.
g. Select Play button, push Save button when prompted and listen to a very slow paced heavy drum loop for FTSM.
h. Hit Stop button when you’ve heard enough.
i. Adjust tempo now or later… Let’s fix that heavy kick drum… -
Change velocity of kick drum using MIDI Editor.
a. Right click on the main loop button and select edit.
b. The sequencer pops up and a message that asks if you want to Quantize. For now, select No. You should see a vertical list of drums on the left. #36 is Kick Drum.
c. To the left of that are settings. Check “use colors”. This will colorize the measures and help you know what measure/beat you’re on. For this exercise it’s not a big deal.
d. On the menu bar is MIDI Editor. in that drop down menu is Zoom in and Zoom out. try zooming out one click. You should see almost three measures of beats. Blue, Purple, Blue.
e. The first Kick Drum beat has a velocity of 99… click on it and a slider will pop up. Drag it down to 50
f. The next one is 68 so drag it to 25.
g. The next one is 117. For a really quick way to adjust, click on the number and slide the bar to Off and continue to hold down the mouse button. Then type in 50 or the strength of the number (1-127) you want and release the mouse button.
h. Go to the next (107) and set to 50. Keep going… watch for the the one in the thin column. (might have to zoom in to see it properly)
i. Use the horizontal slider at the bottom to move further right and keep changing the kick velocity values to 25 or 50 depending on the relative strength. Don’t worry about the “exact” number. The drum waves are saved in velocity ranges (0-38), (39-62), (63-90)…etc… so 25 will play the waves in 0-38 and 50 will play the waves in 63-90. They are multiple samples at the same volume. Each folder has a louder set than the next.
j. After you’ve lowered all the kick drum velocities hit play at the top to review.
k. Adjust until you’re happy. I like to take all the snare hits at 127 and lower them to 99. Why 99? because it’s faster to type than 100…lol!
l. Lastly, hit Apply at the bottom left to save and exit the MIDI Editor.
m. If you’re happy with the loop, don’t forget to right click the main loop button, export and overwrite to save current edits.
You have just created your own custom beat loop for Frosty. Don’t dare ask me how to add Jingle bells. lol!! But it’s easier than you think. You can Syncronize with the pedal and see your new song under Christmas song list. Start with a press and end with a double press for a simple backing drum track for holiday fun. Merry Christmas my musician friend.
Hope this helps get you going. Just remember to always export the default loops to a new name before editing.
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Wow, this is so amazing @ChucknFlea . Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I am going to go through this step by step. I will update you to let you know how I fared. I have already been having a lot of fun with my BB. There is so much I can do with just the songs that came with it and trying different drum sets and using different tempos. This might be the best thing I ever bought other than the guitars themselves.
Hey again, @ChucknFlea ,
You asked my forgiveness for your presumptions. I am very happy that you didn’t assume that I knew anything. If I knew something you elucidated, no harm done. But if I didn’t know a step, then you did exactly what I needed and told me explicitly. So many times “How To” videos skip the very thing I didn’t know. So thanks again for giving me this.
Hey MikeGaur,
I’m track’n with you. When I read your initial post I knew exactly how you felt. I hope you’ve been able to create some custom drum tracks. It adds so much to the strumming and singing and wish the most joy in your celebration of Christmas. You are most welcome.