How to end a drum fill/transition with a Cymbal crash to start the next song part

BeatBuddy General
#1

I am new to BB but I am a drummer of 35 years, and normally a new song part (Chorus or Verse) coming out of a fill or transition has a cymbal crash{Accent) on the first beat of the new measure. I cannot figure out how to do this on a new beat in the BB manager editor or BeatBuilder so it is at the right timing. If you make a 5/4 measure to do this, it will throw the whole song off. Is the only way to do this is manually adding accents with a footswitch on the fly. If you listen to the fills and transitions on the default beats, it is there , but if you look at them in the editor you can see they were recorded live due to note placement. Seems there should be an option on the pedal to place an accent automatically at the beginning of a new song part as that is the standard for drums.

Is there a way to do this or am I missing something?

Thanks,Michael

I hear a measure 2, beat 1 on intros and fills but don't see it
#2

I am surprised nobody else has had this issue as this is pretty standard practice for real drumming. More often than not a new song part starts with a cymbal and bass drum on the first beat coming out of a fill or transition.

#3

The way I do it in BBM. Say your part is 4 measures long. I extend that part to 5 measures add the cymbal and bass drum hit on the first beat of the fifth measure. play it in BBM to test it. then drop the part back down to 4 measures. play it again to make sure it still plays the cymbal and bass hit. For some reason even through the part is cut to 4 measures BB still plays the first beat of the fifth measure as it gos into the next part. Hope that makes sense.

1 Like
#4

I hear 'ya but I don’t know how many BeatBuddy owners are active or former drummers. Me? I bought the pedal because I’m not a drummer and am happy with the capabilities that have been provided. Guess I didn’t know what I was missing until you brought it up :).

I don’t see this so much as an issue but as a request for “how can I do this in a DAW” kinda thing. That said, it probably can be accomplished and some of the more experienced DAW jockeys can advlse you on the “how.” Can it be done using the BeatBuilder or the BBM MIDI editor? As you’re finding out, it’s not that easy with those tools. Try Reaper or another reasonably priced DAW.

#5

It can be done in BBM

#6

If the fill isnt working I extend the last note of the fill to a 16th or 6 parts (not sure if thats a 16th to be honest lol)in the midi editor ,you know the split the note into parts option and put the crash on the very last note 16th that makes it close enough.

#7

I was wondering if this would work but have not tried it yet and you just confirmed it. Thanks

#8

I actually was planning on getting familiar with reaper to see if it would help. Cymbal to start a measure on a new part is standard whether you are a live drummer or not. Every song has this.

#9

Great find. This will solve it

#10

Great find. This would solve it.

#11

Thats a very handy tip thanx

#12

Been playing around with this fix and it works perfectly. I think what is happening is after creating a beat extending 2 measures, when you reduce it back down to 1 the manager automatically does some type of auto quantitzed converting, which is why it works. If you notice after reducing it, the notes on the entire beat are all moved around a bit. What I have learned is you really need to have your beat all done before shrinking it back down, as it is pretty difficult to edit things after the fact. I might get in the habit of keeping the original 2 measure midi beat saved on my PC as a backup.

#13

You should be able to make the fill five measures long and the beatbuddy will only play it as a four measure bar. The beat buddy was designed like this so you could add a crash at the end of the fill.

Edit. Just realised you are using the beatbuilder or built in editor. Not sure how these editors work. This refers to using a DAW like Reaper to build a midi file.

#14

This may be a dumb question but can I use Acoustica software to edit BB drum patterns by importing them to Acoustica?Whats annoying about BB midi editor is I cant copy and paste when I want to extend 2 bar pattern to 4 bars without having to painstakingly add each instrument

#15

I’ve never heard of Acoustica Software but if it’s a DAW that has midi editing capabilities(which most do), then yes. The challenge with using 3rd party editors, is you do have to set up; the Midi mappings for BeatBuddy.

I do hope that BB improves the built- in editor though, as it is nice and simple, but limited in its feature set (a blessing and a curse)

#16

After reviewing what Acoustica is, it appears to be audio editing software and in the description from Mixcraft, I couldn’t find any reference to MIDI editing. You might be better off trying Reaper (try-ware).

#17

I use Studio 1…it’s free… just download it.

#18

yeh you’re right persist,I checked out reaper its around $60 AUS for basic version which is reasonable ,so I take it you can import drum midi from BB and in reaper editor copy 2 bar pattern to say 4 and add cymbals etc to last measure etc?

#19

Best thing about Reaper is that you can try it out for free. If it does what you need, it’s worth the low cost. As in with any DAW, there’s a learning curve. Once you get past that, the user manual is a good reference and you should be able to do whatever you need. Buy it only if you will use it. As Mike OC said, Studio One from Presonus is free. I tried Studio One and it did the job but Reaper was easier to use–at least for me.

#20

I would also say that Reaper has the best support system for learning it. Tons of tutorials, videos and forums