Make transition fills wait for pedal release - as an option

BeatBuddy Feature Requests
1

I really like the fact that when playing live I can prepare for transitions by holding my foot down on the pedal as long as I want, and then have the transition go into effect when I release my foot from the pedal. It frees me up to pay attention to my playing and singing so I don’t have to look down at my feet for the transition.

However, this function only works if you DON’T have transition fills programmed in. If you have transition fills in your song, and you hold your foot on the pedal, the transition process will start whether or not you release your foot from the pedal. If you happen to be playing and singing during a transition, it can be a difficult mental exercise to also look down and try to coordinator your foot to hold down the pedal at the right moment and for the right length of time. (If you don’t hold the pedal long enough, it will just give you a regular fill and won’t transition. If you hold down the pedal too long, it will repeat the transition fill again). I believe that most working musicians who play structured songs would rarely ever have the need to repeat transition fills.

Also, this inconsistency in functionality (transition alone vs. transition with fill) can make it tough to remember which songs I can use pedal release for transition and which ones I cannot. For that reason, I’ve been leaving out transition fills from most of my songs, simply so I can use pedal release. I would rather be able to keep the transition fills in, but I don’t want to risk missing my trigger point if I have a lot going on.

So, my request for functionality would be to give us the option to trigger transition fills+transition on pedal release, and leave it as an option as to whether we would rather have a transition fill played repeatedly when holding down the pedal. I personally think more musicians would want the former option as the default setting.

Thanks for listening!
An otherwise happy Beat Buddy user

2

This post really confuses me o_O

Dependant on how you have your pedal set up (trigger on initial press or release) will have a different effect.
In your instance when you want a fill release the pedal if you want a transition hold the pedal for 2 sec. If you keep holding it after the transition it will just loop. But all you need to do is hold it for 2sec, it may just take a bit of practice.

3

Yes, transition fills already play as long as you hold the pedal.
You can hold it for several bars, and your BeatBuddy will only transition to the next main part after you release your pedal.

4

Hi Psalm40 & Daef,

Yes, that is exactly what I am talking about – if you hold the pedal, the transition fills keep playing over and over. But if you design a custom song in the Beat Buddy Manager that has NO transition fills (just transitions), you can hold your foot on the pedal as long as you want, and the transition won’t trigger until you release your foot. This is very useful when playing live, as it allows you some preparation time for the transition while you are focusing on playing. All of Beat Buddy’s built-in beats have transition fills, so you may not have experienced the “Pedal Release” function that I am referring to. Here’s an example of how the Beat Buddy will behave in two different scenarios:

Scenario #1 (Using a song that has NO transition fills):

  • Half way through the verse I put my foot on the pedal and hold. About 7 seconds later the chorus arrives, I release my foot from the pedal, and the Beat Buddy transitions to the chorus drumbeat. I can once again press and hold my foot on the pedal for as long as I want, and then release my foot when I want it to transition back to the verse beat.

Scenario # 2 (Using a song that HAS transition fills):

  • Half way through the verse I put my foot on the pedal and hold. After two seconds, the transition fill plays, and keeps repeating itself until I release my foot, and then plays the transition. (Who wants a bunch of repeating fills?)

So in Scenario # 2, I can’t prepare in advance for the transition by holding my foot down, because it will start the transition fill immediately and keep playing the transition fill over and over until I release.

My point is that I would like the ability to hold my foot down as long as I want, and then have the transition fill (and subsequent transition) play once I release my foot. I personally don’t see that many people would ever have much use for repeating a transition fill over and over. If people want extra long transition fills, they can just program them in advance, instead of holding the pedal down.

I’m often playing a walking bass line and singing during transitions, so it takes a lot of coordination to also focus on looking down from my microphone and getting my foot on the pedal at the exact right time, and holding the pedal for the right amount of time. It is so much easier to prepare for the transition by getting my foot on the pedal a few seconds in advance and then just launching the transition by releasing my foot. I think many other musicians would feel the same way.

Psalm40: Yes, I could press and hold the button for 2 seconds with a lot of practice, but why make me do that? It makes me have to redirect my face from the microphone to look down at the pedal, and my voice slightly drops out of the mix. That is the point of my functionality request, is that I should have the option to bypass that.

I’d encourage you to build a custom song in Beat Buddy Manager with transitions, but WITHOUT transition fills, and see what I mean about holding down the pedal and launching the transition on the release. It is very handy!

Lanny

5

@Lanny Fisher Now I understand what you are talking about. This is a completely sane and valid use case. Unfortunately, BeatBuddy was not designed with this in mind. I think this is a great idea for when I finally be able to work on overhauling the firmware. The other one is make something with double tap stop. It is really difficult for some people.

6

Thanks for listening! :slight_smile:

7

Any ideas help us re-evaluate the BeatBuddy in attempt to make it even better. Especially when these ideas are well defined and presented.
So, actually, thanks for sharing!

8

As for scenario 2:
You can use the chorus dumbeat AS tansition, so when you pess main pedal and hold it, it will start chorus and switch back to main part when you release…
Another (short) single click will (bevor or after) give you a fill if you need. Or you`ll have to make longer beats, including the needed fills…

9

After reading this several times, I finally figured out what Lanny Fisher is talking about. What he was saying that he would like to have the “Transition Fill” (not the actual transition itself but the fill part of it) play on pedal release instead of pressing down and holding the pedal. I see his point now. If he actually removes the “Fill” from the transition area, then you go from “Main Part 1 to Main Part 2” upon release of the pedal which is correct. Good idea. You would have to get used to the new method though. You would have to Trigger the the “Transition Fill” one measure ahead of where it actually would come in.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.

10

I would love to see this functionality added as described by Lanny. I think in the meantime I will be removing the transition fills. Has there been any progress made or changes in the recent firmware updates that affect this?

Thanks!

11

I set my pedal to release … in the main pedal settings (start beat) & (release time). 60ms. :wink:

12

I don’t think this accomplishes what we are going for. When you push and hold the pedal down (while playing) the transition fill starts (and keeps repeating), yes? We’d like it to not start the transition fill until release.

13

Great Idea…As an Alternative Option…Wee Joe.

14

That’s not my recollection but I will double check how this works tonight. IIRC, the transition fill starts when I release the pedal. Whether or not it happens in the current measure or the next measure depends on how you have a few of the other settings configured.

15

I think the Transition Function could use a few Menu options:

  1. Repeat (as it does now - personally I dislike this function).
  2. One Shot Up (after being held - as requested by the OP)
  3. One Shot Down (when being held - my favourite because it would be the same as the Alesis SR-16).

I find the Transition beats over complication of the pedal. Most of the time mine are very similar to the fills anyway. I wish I could just have fills, and if the pedal was still down at the end of the Fill, the song would transition to the next part. If not it was just a fill and you stay on the same part. This could be a Menu option as well. Use Fills as transitions. This would speed up my song creations by not having to make the song transitions the same as the fills (or editing some variation into them).

Food for thought.