Long time Alesis SR16 user

You’re maybe thinking of me Phil - I had the SR-18 midi files but not the SR-16. I think I’ve also got the SR-16 wav files of the drum sounds but as I say not the midis.

I don’t know how that happened. Here it is:

I’ve seen some patterns have the crash as the last event at 4:04:115 or similar so that it “sounds” like it is at the beginning of the next pattern. You could try something similar shrug :slight_smile:

[I]"Hi William,

I forwarded this question on to Goran, who creates the content, and this is what he responded:

I always create a 2-bar file for 1-bar fill, out of which the 1st bar is fill and the 2nd bar contains only a crash on beat 1. This goes for any time signature.

Keep Rockin’!
Jay, BeatBuddy’s roadie"
Me again… It appears the program plays the downbeat of the second measure included in the fill before resorting (continuing) to two beat of the first measure of any “main beat”… So the algorithm processes ahead to the second beat of the main beat after being told to play a fill.

If that makes sense?"[/I]

This makes perfect sense and I assume others have been using this for the fills and transitions they create.
I thought I would end up with 3 beats of silence at the end of the fill if I did that. Will give it a go and see what happens.

Paul I am doing exactly as you. And thanks for the tip on changing the note numbers in the SR-16. I was afraid that might mess things up. I’ll take a look. Like you, I hope to have my kits General Midi when complete. I actually find the Alesis samples and default patterns more useful than the stock BB ones. Not to mention the ones I created.

Thanks for the downloads as well guys!!!

Question:
What are the current limits on a Song in Number of notes?
Can Fills, Transitions, Verse, Chrous, Intro and Outro… all be different lengths (in bars)? Everything I have created so far has been 2 bars.

Cheers
Wally

I’d be real happy to get the SR-18 midi pattern files, too! And, anyone looking for tones from any drum machine, just ask. I have quite a few, several hundred, in fact. Chances are that I have what you are looking for or something very close from the same manufacturer.

No limit on song numbers of notes. We got rid of that a while back. Yes, fills, transitions, verse, chorus, intro and outro can all be different lengths. Just be aware that the way that transitions are triggered means that you must keep the pedal depressed until the end of the transition, or at least until the last bar, depending on your settings, or the transition will not play all the way through. But, all parts can be different lengths. Verses and choruses will typically be “main loops” within Beat Buddy Manager. You can have any number of main loops and all can be different lengths. Likewise with transitions, and fills.

[I]I forwarded this question on to Goran, who creates the content, and this is what he responded:

I always create a 2-bar file for 1-bar fill, out of which the 1st bar is fill and the 2nd bar contains only a crash on beat 1. This goes for any time signature.

Keep Rockin’!
Jay, BeatBuddy’s roadie"
Me again… It appears the program plays the downbeat of the second measure included in the fill before resorting (continuing) to two beat of the first measure of any “main beat”… So the algorithm processes ahead to the second beat of the main beat after being told to play a fill.

If that makes sense?"[/I]

Well I tried various lengths for my fills, but it will not play the Crash/Kick on beat 1 at the end of the fill, transition, Into etc. Has anyone got this to work? it looks like the BB is truncating the files to the nearest bar. I get the same results with BBM and BB.

edit: it seems the BBM is truncating the fill and moving the hits to the last beat of the fill. I didn’t hear it because it was not detecting the Crash as a valid BB midi note. At least that’s how it appears in the BBM midi editor. I moved the crash to another note.

So this leads me to more questions.

  1. Is this truncating and moving the notes timing what actually happens or am I interpreting this incorrectly? I thought, by the quote above ,that BB used some fuzzy logic on Fills/Transitions to know when to play the last Fill notes (on beat one) and transition into the next part on the next beat.
  2. I was led to believe I could create drum kits using any of the GM notes. Is there a midi note range limit for BB? Is there a limit to number of drums in a kit? (other than the memory limit).

I’ll soon have my head wrapped around this thing :slight_smile:

Mark Zanoni posted something on this a few weeks back. As I recall his method was to put the crash on Beat 1 of the next measure. He said it worked:

http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?threads/how-to-end-a-drum-fill-transition-with-a-cymbal-crash-to-start-the-next-song-part.7520/page-2#post-33672

Hmmm :\ I never tried it on a transition yet. I was trying to get fills to work properly. By his statement it looks to me like he only got it to work on a transition. It needs to work on both. I find it interesting that there is not an up to date manual from the creators of BB. Can’t test anything tonight, got band… still using the SR-16 tonight.

I don’t know if this fill/transition thing actually works, but it seems too many folks are having issues trying to do something that should be simple. If it does work I need step by step instructions.

If it does not work here is a suggestion for the BB & BBM developers (for Fills and Transitions).
If I want a 2 bar Fill, I want to create 3 bars. This will allow me to put my hit where I want it (Bar 3 Beat 1) and the rest of bar 3 will be empty. Logic in the program should look at the Fill/Transition and start playing the appropriate Main part on beat 2 of bar 3 (where ever it detects silence to the end of the Fill/Transition. If we want silence to the end of the Fill we could just put in a note at low velocity. Hope this makes sense…

Commets??

Just send me a private message with your email address Phil & I’ll get the SR-18 midi files to you. Same for anyone else who wants them.

Hi,
I have the same problem, do you find a solution ?
thanks

No could not get it to work properly (and had other issues as well). Gone back to using the SR-16. BB is sitting on a shelf. I have no plans to go back at it until new software/firmware comes out.

If I may add my two cents to this, as I’m also a long time Alesis SR16 devotee, and also have an SR18.

I’ve recently emailed this exact response below to Klink who (besides Phil Flood) kindly shared the SR18 MIDI’s, and instead of paraphrasing, it’s copied here:

"The Alesis SR18 MIDI’s you shared were a snap to import and saved a great deal of time. And thanks again M8. Not sure if you’ve had much success with your own similar efforts/results, but I’ll also offer to share all the .sng’s plus their MIDI’s in the Forum too, if this is allowed?

Perhaps I haven’t done justice to its potential, but I’m not 100% happy/satisfied with how they’ve converted to BeatBuddy’s system, as some patterns sound more usable and better than others. On some the timing is off when using an intro or a fill. As you know, the SR18 only has an A and B main pattern with an a-fill and b-fill. As stock, it’s not as comprehensive as what’s already available on the BB so maybe that has something to do with it. I’m also more enamored with the trusty old-friend SR16’s patterns in comparison anyway. So bias is creeping in here.

One of the main reasons for acquiring the BeatBuddy is to import/store all the SR16 & SR18’s patterns into one unit with a much smaller footprint for travelling, instead of packing two extra drum machines. Besides using it live for just drum and bass backing if performing solo or in a duo, but also to record, triggering Addictive Drums 2.1 inside Sonar X3 Producer. Maybe even using the BB’s own onboard sounds too."

As for the SR16 and SR18’s MIDI fills and transitions’ capabilities within the BeatBuddy; as far as the SR18’s MIDI’s are concerned, I simply placed the a-fill’s and b-fills in their corresponding slots within the BBManager, and also used the same for the transitions between. It all seems to work fine, except the aforementioned occasional accurate timing issues (?) which may have to do with their possible incompatibility and/or BeatBuddy’s own pedal’s responsiveness (and from it’s operator;-), and naturally some SR18 patterns will sound better than others using the BeatBuddy’s internal drum samples too.

I’m also experiencing a hiccup with the ‘Accent’ set footswitch feature not working at all when using the BeatBuddy to trigger Addictive Drums 2.1 in Sonar Producer or Premium. All footswitch functions work perfectly when using the BB as usual and while connected to speakers though. Anyway…

From my own experiments so far I think it’s still necessary to use either of my Alesis units directly for triggering a DAW’s VST drums within it, instead of using their imported patterns inside the BeatBuddy and then using it as a drums trigger for the SR’s patterns I want to use.

I hope this helps in some way, and if you’d like to have the BB’s Alesis SR18 .sng’s I’ve done (still fully customizable) plus their MIDI’s, welcome to email directly to randbowman @ outlook.com

Still unsure if posting these on this Forum is allowed, so best to email for now.

E-mail sent. I looked up the Accent Hit info. BB sends CC110 with a velocity value to trigger the Accent Hit. You would need to configure Addictive Drums to respond to this message, and trigger a selected tone, if that is possible. Maybe the command can be mapped or remapped within Sonar?