Just bought the BB... Manual for the Manager? Play the entire song?

BeatBuddy General
#1

Hi,

After a long consideration, I’ve just bought the BB. Having connected it to the PC and fired up the Beatbuddy Manager (and loaded the project), I feel a little bit lost even though I have worked with a DAW and composed MIDI files before. My first questions are rather simple:

  1. Is there a text manual for Beatbuddy Manager somewhere? I hate watching videos.
  2. Can I just play the entire song?
  3. If there is a way to play the entire song, can I also trigger a transition mid-song if I feel like it?

Cheers,
Artem

#2

Welcome, Artem. It is sort of overwhelming at first but you’ll rapidly get up to speed.
[LIST=1]
[*]Yes. http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?resources/beatbuddy-user-guides.1979/

[*]Yes. Use one-press songs; get started by learning what the acronyms stand for and then jump in to the deep end of the pool: http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?threads/is-there-a-guide-to-what-obpks-and-all-those-other-acronyms-stand-for-listed-anywhere.8087/

[*]Probably not easily as the one-press content is usually placed in the Intro or Outro section of a song and I don’t think that when the song is playing in one of those sections that it will allow a fill or a transition. Even if you place the song in the Main Drums Loop section and then press transition or fill, it will revert to the beginning of the song—which I don’t think is something you want. I’m sure others will weigh in and share what they’ve done to get a one-press to work with transitions and fills.
[/LIST]

#3

I’ve started making OP (one press) some songs for BB using Logic Pro X, it works well for songs with a rigid structure, but it you want to extend a lead guitar break or repeat a chorus because the crowd demand it, or keep it free-form like a blues jam, then one-press is a disaster. However, if you’re playing bass and singing, pressing the pause or transition at the right point (within a beat) is very challenging and for some songs brought me into task overload territory. For me OP works best with the whole song as intro, then at the end the main beat is a velocity=1 beat on closed high hat (which is inaudible, particularly if there is applause :)), which then just requires a double or triple press (depending on your BB set up) to terminate the song ready to move onto the next. Here is Lying Eyes (Eagles) to show how it might work for you. This is using the Latin 1.2 kit, but might work with others.

#4

The best thing about BB is the authentic drum sounds, which with a good sound system sound as good as a real drummer but you can turn them down. I play live with BB in two bands (probably badly) but in small venues it prevents drummer volume overload. The drummers I’ve worked with hate rehearsal and seldom play the same sequence consistently, so every gig is a scary adventure. Great if the audience and the rest of the band understand, but their body language usually says otherwise! The best drummer I work with wears earplugs in gigs, he’e a pro drum teacher and knows he’ll lose his hearing if he doesn’t wear the plugs. His rim-shots make my ears ring without protection. My favourite drummer had a Roland Digital Electric kit, playing through two Bose L1 rigs, injured now and unable to play, he turned down to a good level but for jazz the brushes sound did not work well. There are so many variables in this business! It is a wonder that any band actually makes music at all!

#5

Thank you, Persist. Speaking of the manual, I meant the one for the Beatbuddy Manager software, not the pedal itself. Is there one?

#6

Thank you Tim, I will explore the song.

#7

^^
I’m not sure there is a definitive guide for the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) software that shows you the “what, how and why” to get things done in the BBM. I realize you have asked for a written text guide but the next best thing I can offer is to view the tutorials listed in Psalm40’s signature: http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?members/psalm40.87/ Once you’ve viewed those, there are several other tutorials offered here on the forum by Guitar Stu, BeatBuddy Worship and Phil Flood. These are very good and are text-based but they don’t really cater to new-to-the BeatBuddy users.

It would be nice to have a written tutorial from “soup-to-nuts” that walks a user through every step of using the BBM software e.g., download, install, load premium content, purpose and limitations of the MIDI Editor, creating content (beats/songs and drum sets), project management and etc. Oh yeah—it probably wouldn’t hurt to explain the differences between default (multi-part) content and one-press content (that was probably never in the BB creator’s minds and thus never really supported by the makers of the BB system).

While I understand that it’s easier to create video “how-to’s” than creating and updating written content, Singular Sound seems to prefer the video method rather than to provide and to sustain text-based user guides (admittedly more time-consuming and costly—especially for a small company) that are informative and genuinely helpful. Many users prefer to have written content to reference instead of having to FF or rewind thru a Youtube video (which works for the other half of users).

So where does this leave new users? They have to grind through the forum searching and reading for content that may or not answer their questions. The forum is a great resource and users will go out of their way to help you when you’ve made the effort to wade thru the material here on the forum and have made an effort to learn and then ask questions when they get stuck.

#8

***haha, now redundant! Probs a little off the main OP, but I’d like to see a third variation main beat option introduced…

In regard directly to the OP, would placing a one press into the main variation, and then a second one press into variation 2 work? At least that way you get some variation interest going.

#9

I am unclear as to what you mean by a “third variation main beat option.” You can has as many main beats as you want. I believe I have about 10 in the George Benson White Rabbit.

#10

ahh, okay thanks Phil. It’s just most (if not all) the beats I have on mine seem to only have variation one and two…the ones controlled by the pedal long press. I’ll investigate further. I didn’t bother until now as I thought that was just the way the pedal was.

#11

http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?threads/how-to-move-a-main-loop-from-one-position-to-another-how-to-add-a-main-loop.9104/