Logic Pro X midi - Live Sync - Play through Beatbuddy

BeatBuddy Help, Questions and Bugs
1

Hello,

My apologies for not knowing how to do this but I have been trying for hours now and have given up. So as a last ditch attempt I have come to you…the forum :slight_smile:

I am trying to sync my Beatbuddy with my daw…Logic Pro X

I would like to write a midi drum beat, press play in Logic and have it play through the Beatbuddy. I am pretty sure I have achieved this in the past, but my knowledge of how to do this has deserted me.

My failed attempt

My Beatbuddy is connected through Midi sync cable and into my Laptop through USB. This is seen by Logic.

I created a software instrument channel strip. Then a midi region with drum note entries.

Under utilities I have chosen the midi channel for the strip.

I am lost!!!

Could anyone provide some guidance please.

Rodney :slight_smile:

2

While waiting for Phil Flood to help, you can search the forum for “connecting Reaper to the BeatBuddy” and it may just have enough similarity to jog your memory with Logic Pro X

3

Beat Buddy settings - Main Pedal - Midi In - I believe System Time has to be enabled. Note On and Note Off have to be Enabled.
Your Midi Channel number has to match the midi channel of your drum part in LPX.
[ATTACH=full]6968[/ATTACH]

In the Example above, my drummer track is set to Channel 10 (kind of an old standard for midi drum tracks), so my BB midi in must be set to Channel 10. Don’t rely on Omni or All settings. I find them to be undependable.

4

Also, your Beat Buddy drumkit has to actually have drums at the same points where they are in Logic. To test this, try my Logic So-Cal kit in your BB.

http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?resources/logic-so-cal-kit.1862/

5

Hello Phil and Persist,

Thank you for the replies. I have been watching a basic external midi course on macprovideos which has given me lots of useful tips which I’ll try this weekend.

I am going to run my midi keyboard into the beatbuddy. The midi keyboard will also be attached via usb to computer.
Beatbuddy will have an analog out into my audio interface.

So the idea is to trigger the midi in the beatbuddy with the midi keyboard then have the audio run into interface/computer/Logic.

Nodoubt it will be difficult to do successfully as I will have to link the midi keyboard and beatbuddy inside the mac midi window.

Fingers crossed

Rodney :slight_smile:

6

Ok, one more bit I forgot. REAL IMPORTANT. Maybe you saw this already in your research. When you set up the track for the BB, you have to set it up an External Instrument track.

[ATTACH=full]6978[/ATTACH]

Here, my output is set to my Interface, a Pro 14, at MIDI 1. The BB is connected to the Pro14. The BB and the track are set to the same channel. So in your setup with an external keyboard, you want to be transmitting on the Midi Channel selected in the BB, and you want to have the track you are playing/recording to also set to that Midi Channel.

The BB is going to need a midi connection to your computer to be receiving the midi notes.

Your set up is essentially thus:

Midi keyboard > Computer > Interface midi> BB, all with midi connections.

Then, since the BB is producing sound you want to record, that is connected as:

BB>Interface Audio>Computer

It took me a little while today, but I found it and I have it working. Then, of course, you also want to have the BB drumkit selected as the one you want.

There is a real good tutorial on 9to5mac.com. Search for “The Logic Pros: How to use MIDI hardware synthesizer in Logic w/ External Instrument plug-in.” The External Instrument plug-in is part of Logic. What it does is automatically create you external instrument midi track and the audio recording track when you have it selected at the time your create a new track. It’s all in the tutorial.

Just remember, you’ll be recording a mid track (i.e. external instrument), and an audio track (the output from the BB), at the same time. So, you are going to need both tracks set up and enabled for recording. And, yes, it does work. :slight_smile:

7

I ran out of usb ports on my macbook pro. So I ordered a usb hub and hopefully I’ll get it whole thing up and running later this week.

Rodney

8

Hi Phil,

Everything seems so difficult until the penny drops. It is up and running now. I had a lot of difficulty with the midi keyboard, not knowing if USB was a port or not. Two ports show up in Audio Midi Setup, but I have a USB and two midi on the keyboard (making three ports in all).

However, I finally figured it out and can play the Beatbuddy samples with my keyboard. Yay!!!

The real reason that I wanted to do this was to convert BB samples into audio loops to use with the Drum Machine Designer in Logic.

Regards

Rodney

9

Glad its working. While your set up definitely now will work for your purposes, you could also export the midi files from BB Manager and import those into Logic. The Drum Machine designer would work off those, as well. In actuality, for Drummer tracks, your audio loops will be better, but for Drum Machine Designer, you are going to need midi notes to run the drums.

I would think the best way to go then, would be to go ahead and record like you intended; go into the arrangement track and split the song into verses and choruses, etc.; create a drummer track that would suit the song (that gives you the midi track); then go into Drum Machine Designer and customize the kit.