So here’s my situation. I manually create the drums for the cover songs I do in my acoustic project. It takes me all day to make 3 songs. And now that I’m trying to incorporate basslines in my drum tracks, it’ll take me much longer. There’s got to be a better way to do this.
Here’s what I want to do. I want to be able to download midi drums and midi bass for a song from the internet, adjust the midi ID’s of the tracks within the D.A.W. of my choice, (Logic Pro X in this case), export as MIDI files and successfully transfer them to BB Manager. Sometimes I’m able to download the tracks from the internet, chop them up in logic, and transfer them to BB Manager with no issues. But most of the time that’s not the case. The main thing standing in my way, is that I can’t find the ID of the midi notes in Logic Pro X. Would anybody know where I can find the Midi ID numbers in piano roll in Logic, or tell me the best way to adjust midi ID from MIDI tracks you download from the internet?
I have a couple resources I can get to you later today. The Logic Pro X midi map is consistent in that the lowest note, midi 0 is C -2 and the highest note is G 8. Some prebuilt drumkits in Logic use notes as low as G#0, I believe. The more inconsistent issue is how B.B. kits other than the factory kits are mapped. And for that, you’ll just have to look at the notes that are supplied on the Resources page linking you to the kit. Look for the other resources from me in the next hour or so. I still gotta finish my coffee!
Ok, so Logic actually goes down to midi 28 on the So-Cal kit, Crash Left Stop. Midi 28 is E0. 29-F0 Crash Right Stop. 31-G0 - Hi Hat Foot Splash, 32-G#0 - Snare Rimshot Edge, A0- 33 Hat Foot Close, 34 Snare Edge. From there it basically follows the general midi map, which I am attaching.
For converting found midis to Logic Pro X, I made a tutorial, also attached.
Also check the REsources section for songs that may have already been converted . Even if they are in One Press format and you want them in a segmented format, you can chop up the midi part and do your own thing. In many cases the source midis are provided. When they are not, you can export a midi file from BB Manager, by hovering over the part you want and Control+click to get the option for Export Midi Part.
Sorry Phil, but I’m pretty lost. I tried following your how to convert midi files with Logic Pro X document and I totally lost you on step seven. It’s really hard for me to rap my brain around this so bare with me.
The midi ID notes in my drum kits seem to match up with the GM standard drum map, and with the way logic organizes its drums. The general midi drum kit map document you sent me was totally off though. I tried highlighting and moving my drum progression from Bass Drum C1 up to C3 and I couldn’t hear anything when I moved to BB Manager.
I tried making a standard drum beat in logic using my midi controller. Bass drum on the one and three, and snare on the two and four. I export the track as a midi file and moved it to the B.B. Manager. There was no snare. When you open the editing window, the snare hits are all red and under a label that says “not supported”. But here’s the weird thing. The midi ID number for the “not supported” instrument is 40. My snares midi ID is 38. I don’t understand how that when I export the track and move it to B.B. Manager it thinks it’s 40.
Here are the drum sets I’m using
BB-808 with Bass:
Clave 33
Bass Drum. 36
Stick. 37
Clap. 39
Low Floor Tom. 41
Closed Hi Hat. 42
High Floor Tom. 43
Low Tom. 45
Open High Hat. 46
Crash. 49
Cowbell. 56
Conga Low. 60
Conga Mid. 62
Conga Hi. 63
Maracas. 44
Rock with Bass drum kit has the same specks roughly.
Overall I’m just frustrated because I don’t get why my exported MIDI drum tracks from logic aren’t translating well in B.B. Manager. And I have yet to successfully transfer a bassline into BB Manager. Let me know your thoughts brotha.
First off, it’s not a real good idea to criticize the resource you are given if you want the person that gave it to you to provide help. I have used that GM mapping chart since I started building Beat Buddy songs and drum kits. I have posted over 450 songs and drumkits, so I think I know what I am doing. The mapping shown on the chart I gave you is correct. It shows a kick drum at C1 which is midi 36, and snares at both 38 and 40.
Step 7 is referencing the bass guitar part, not the bass drum. If you have a midi you found or created with a normal sounding bass guitar part, that part will generally be mapped from C1 to G3 or C0 to G2. If you want that part to play with your kit, you are going to have to move it to where your bass notes are located. Yours are at 64 through 88, which is E3 through E5. After you move the notes in Logic, they will not sound correctly IN LOGIC. But they should sound correctly in the Beat Buddy, if you use a kit with bass mapped at E3 through E5. But then again, the midi part that you import into Beat Buddy needs to be created correctly, and your kit needs to be created correctly.
Finally, neither Logic nor Beat Buddy “thinks” your snare is at midi 40. It IS at midi 40. You should look at your midi file before you try to export from Logic. If, in Logic, your snare is at 40, and you want it at 38, in the piano roll select the row for 40, and Option+down arrow twice to get the notes to 38. Also review your file for any extraneous stuff that Logic may have added outside the range of your kit, particularly if you are converting drummer tracks to midi.
I think your best course is to troubleshoot your problem to isolate what is wrong. Start by finding a known good song and kit with a mapping that matches your kit. So, find something that play correctly with Rock with Bass Drum. Then try your song with that kit. Does it work? If not, your song has issues. Try the song you found with your kit. Does it work? If not, your kit has issues.
It was not at all easy for me to get my first song and kit to work. Were it not for the help I received from Persist and Phil, I would not have gotten there. In the end, what I was doing was mostly correct, but Logic was adding artifacts to my wav files that I had put in my kit. Phil had me get another program, Switch, which I now use religiously to clean wav files before I add them to kits. But, in your case, until we know where the problem lies, it’s hard to offer solutions, as there are just too many variables.
I didn’t mean for that to come off as condescending. I appreciate all the resources you’re giving me and walk me through this. If it wasn’t for you and Jay I wouldn’t have gotten this far so please don’t think I’m not grateful.
I looked at the Midi map for the BB-808 with Bass kit and realized some of the instruments don’t match up with the preset kits. So I went back and change some of the midi IDs. Here’s what I got now.
Clave 33
Bass Drum 36
Stick 37
Snare 38
Clap 39
Low Floor Tom 43
Closed Hi Hat 42
High Floor Tom 48
Low Tom 50
Open High Hat 46
Crash Cymbal 49
Cowbell 32
Conga Low 61
Conga Mid 62
Conga Hi 63
Maracas 31
Bass notes are the same. I didn’t get a big difference from these changes, but it’s still probably a good idea to keep these kits consistent.
I finally got a bass signal in the BB Manager. I would typically download a midi song from the internet, put it in Logic Pro X, delete all instrument tracks except for bass and drums, make a 4 bar section of the song, export as midi file to my desktop, and transfer it to BB Manager with no success. I realized I need to put the bass progression inside the drum track and move it up to G#3. Now I’m finally getting somewhere, but I’m still getting some weird issues.
When I upload the track to BB Manager and put it in the main loop section of a song, I get one bassnote in the beginning and the drum beat. When I pull it up in the edit window I get the whole bassline with parts of the drum beat missing. And when I plug the card into the pedal I get bass and drums with no issues. Now I’m happy that I’m getting bass and drums in my pedal, but the glitches in the software makes me nervous. Is there something I’m not doing correctly when uploading the file? Could it be the computer that I’m using? My Mac Mini is a 2012 refurbished with a 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 processor, and 16 GB of memory. My laptop is a hand me down MacBook Air 2015 with 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, and 4 GB of memory. I’ll probably be doing these projects more on the laptop because it’s more mobile. I’d love to know your thoughts.
One more thing about the software that’s kind of bugging me. When you go to the drum edit window, the mouse pad functions are backwards. Up Is down left is right. Is there a way to change the settings?
I do not edit drums in the B.B. midi editor. I have looked at it twice and found it to be unusable. I know tha5 others use it, but you have Logic Pro X, so that’s kinda like going from a Ferrari to a Model T. Your i7 ought to be fine. I did OK with an i5 mini until I started adding 3rd party plug-ins.
You are getting the idea of the process right. Create the bass and drum tracks, then transpose the bass track to match your kit. Then select the two tracks are merge or join them, whatever that command is. When you export the resulting merged track as a midi file make sure that your track is starting at measure 1 and not somewhere later. If you export a track that starts at measure, for example, Logic add 3 blank measures and it seems that you get no sound.
Also, what software version of B.B. Manager are you using? The latest for Mac is 1.6.4. And your firmware version should be 2.0.4.
In your kit, you drums should be designated as percussion, and your bass notes should be non-percussion.
Another thing that can cross you up. Make sure that the bass track has no transposition enable on it before you start moving it to the correct range. I often see the bass tracks come in as transpose +12, or raised one octave.
So to answer your question, I do have the latest software and firmware for my devices.
I feel like I got the hang of making my tracks. However I’m still getting issues with the drum beats. Some drum notes are missing when I export them as midi files from Logic and move them to BB Manager. And I know I said that when I plug the card in the pedal the drum beats and bass lines are all there, but now I’m missing parts of the drum beat when it’s being played by the pedal.
Also, how do you make bass notes sustaining cut off? There are certain parts of the song thst I want the bass note to linger on and other parts were I want the bass to be totally quiet. When a bass note hits, it seems to resonate forever Until the next bass note is played. Any thoughts?
Rather than going through every possible cause of your problems, it would help me greatly if I could look at the midi file(s) and the .sng that you trying to get to work, and be directed to the drum kit you are trying to it to work with. Then I can tell you what is wrong, how I found that, and what to do about it. That should give you some insight on how to troubleshoot these things and how to solve them.
I liken this process to buying a car vs. building a hot rod. When you buy a car these days, you just expect to get behind the wheel turn the key and drive away. With the Beat Buddy, that’s like getting ready made songs and drum kits installing them and then playing away. There is nothing wring with that, but you don’t learn how things work. With the hot rod, you gotta know what everything does, how it is supposed to look when it is working correctly, how to fix it when it breaks, etc. Building your own songs and drumkits is more like the hot rod.
I know it’s been a while. Just wanted to let you know things are going great on my end. It took a little trial and error to figure out how to fix my last issues. With the missing drum beats and sustained basenotes. It all came down to the notes not being quantized properly. And for some reason, in Logic, if two midi notes right next to each other are touching, the notes cancel out when I transfer to BB Manager. So if there’s two midi notes right next to each other, I need to shorten the end of one of them so they’re not touching.
As for the bass notes, for some reason, when ever I open the midi editor in BB Manager, the bass notes just sustain forever. So I just make absolutely sure the bass is quantized and edited properly in Logic before I transfer it to BB Manager.
So far I got 36 songs down. On my way to my goal of 50. But now, I’m trying to make a track for Alicia Keys “If I Ain’t Got You” which is in 6/8. How would I change the time signature for a New Song? Best regards.
As long as you set the time as 6/8 in Logic, the Beat Buddy will treat it as 6/8. The BB reads the time sig from the midi file. But, it will not change a time sig during a song. So, once you start as 6/8, you are in 6/8 for the whole song. Be sure to set the Logic time signature with the cursor at the very beginning of the song.
Oh ok. So I would assume that would be the same for tempo? I’m also trying to do “Rolling On The River” by Tina Turner and there’s a big tempo change in the middle of the song. I can’t program a tempo change for that section?
You can’t have a pure midi tempo change. There are three ways to handle something like the Ike & Tina Proud Mary.
I would create a pseudo tempo change in Logic Pro X. I have tutorial posted on how to do that. If you can’t find it, let me know. I’ve been thinking about re-doing it as a pdf.
Since the change is so drastic, you could keep the tempo the same and cut all the notes in half for the fast part (double time). Logic has a very simple tool for doing this in the Midi Transform section.
You could actually have a short break at the end of part 1, and start part 2 as a new song. Ike bd Tine just about do this with the live version.
Personally, i’d probably go with the pseudo tempo change, as then I can go from any tempo to any other tempo. The downside to using it is that after the tempo change, the visual metronome on the pedal will no longer be aligned with the tempo that you hear the drums playing. You have to use you ears instead of your eyes to stay on beat.
