I am trying to make a transition fill with beat builder that will play for the first 4 beats then snare crash and ring out for the next four however I can’t seem to get it to play for 2 measures, even if I hold the pedal it will repeat the first measure when it gets to the end instead of the crash ringing out and going quiet. Anyone know how to do this. Essentially make the fill 8 bars instead of 4
The BeatBuddy is very simple, holding the pedal down loops the transition that is all you can do. If you need 8 measures with a crash you need to create one as all fills are 1 or 1/2 measure/bar.
just a guess… try making the time signature for the transition 8/4, so that technically the entire fill is one measure. i’ve done alot of tricking the bb using time signature issues
Thanks for the replys, I can’t remember exactly what I was up to that day… I’ve been at this for hours and hours this past week. I think I was working an a Steve Earle song “Someday” that had an intro before the vocals came in that was 2 measures and wanted to use the intro function. At any rate I’ve found a way around it, thanks
There are some work-arounds, you can make a fill really long - 12 bars or more if you want, then transition out of it when you choose to another main beat. You can make parts of a fill quiet and end on a cymbal crash or transition to a main beat that is quiet and put in a fill that starts with a cymbal crash. I can’t wait for the new midi editor to do this on the fly, I have fiddled around back and fore with good old BeatBuilder for hours.
If you need 4 beats, crash and then 4 beats of silence (letting the crash ring) you could create the beat by adding another 4 beats on the end with midi notes that the BB does not support.
I didn’t have any luck using transitions or fills with time signatures different from the main loops, did that work for you? If so, I will give it another try.
just found this topic. so a Transition Fill can’t be programmed more than 1 measure long? that’s unfortunate. i’ve programmed my own midi file as a 2 bar long fill, and putting it in the Transition location plays only the first bar.
i need it just like the OP - 4 beat fill, Crash on the next measure letting it ring, then transitioning to the next section.
for now, i have to make the T-Fill 4 beats only (not overlapping to the 1 of the next like usual), then use the Pause/Accent physical switches to catch the downbeat of the next bar - which is the next section. then Unpause/Accent again.
it’s definitely out of the norm for how i’ve programmed all other songs. for consistency sake, and not needing to remember different requirements per song for pressing the BB buttons, i always transition at a section change in a song, something like this:
[ATTACH=full]3948[/ATTACH]
the song i’m having trouble with is Badfish by Sublime. Although it’s just 2 parts (hi-hat only for intro section which repeats later, and the main groove with basic fills), the inability for a 2 measure-long T-fill is making me move my foot from its parked position over the T-Fill button, moving to the accent/pause button.
it’s been suggested to just put that crash and fill in the next Main groove, but then that crash/wait would repeat every measure. i can avoid that by making the fill its own Main groove only for a bar, and quickly T-Fill to the next section. but this is even more inconsistent than how i program all other songs.
i’m not really complaining here, just more explaining the thought process. if it won’t ever be possible for a multi-bar T-Fill, i guess i have to choose which of those 2 methods are the best. if anything, i’m leaning toward the 2nd one now, but that makes this very simple song look like this and require unique button pressing. this is my most complex song now:
[ATTACH=full]3951[/ATTACH]
it’s October now, previous discussion was in April - any update to this situation? i’ve attached the song file in case anyone wants to try it out - built on the standard kit.
I’ve been trying to avoid this and been working around it but its becoming more and more bothersome as I get more proficient with BB Manager
No, but there would be other ways to program around it to make the same thing happen. You could make the 2nd transition fill it’s own main, and tell it to loop only once. During that last loop, it would play the transition, then go to the next main, play the transition again, then go on to the next main.
just to be sure Autopilot is not out yet correct? In any case that dos sound like a good work around.
unfortunately it is not
No Worries. You guys have done great work so far. I’m having lots of fun with it
Do you always want the transition to be twice as long? If so, copy and paste it with your favorite editor, and make it 8/4.
Wow nice I’ll give that a try
This thread confuses me and maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but I have a number of songs I have programmed with transitions more than one measure long (sometimes for a pre-chorus or interlude following a chorus) and they have worked just fine provided I hold the pedal down through the entire transition until the final measure of the transition.
Dont be confused the missing information for me is I did not know and missed in this thread that you can hold the pedal down for that long and the transition will still go on. I usually hold it down just enough to engage the transition (display turns I think Gray) and then I let it go. It had never come to me to continue to hold it down. LOL My bad I know
Someone posted up Breakdown w bass,
but you had transition to the F double tag chorus
I put it as ‘the’ transition, it played 11 bars … works well, returned to the main.
just don’t forget the ending 
Really I don’t understand this behaviour : if I create a 2 bars transition, I obviously don’t want it to last 1 bar : I should not have to hold it pressed for 2 bars to guaranty a 2 bars transition… I should hold it for more than 2 bars only if I want the 2 bars transition to repeat a second time. If I’d like a 1 bar transition, I would make it 1 bar, that’s all… Very annoying as you have to change your way of thinking according to the number of bars… I must focus on my own instrument, not on the BB.
BTW the 8/4 trick does not work for me. I tested it under every condition…