I know this might be more appropriate on an RC300 forum, but it seems like so many people use it here - I thought I’d ask to see if anyone has an answer because I’m stuck.
I have the RC-300 and the BeatBuddy and have them to where it seems like they are playing nice together using the MIDI. I’ve read of the issues people have had and I’ll admit setup was a chore but at this point I’m pretty pleased with them together.
I have also integrated my DAW to send an experimental Start/Stop Midi CC command to the chain. I used Assign 8 on the RC-300 and had it do an all play/stop on CC#70. I tried CC#64 and that didn’t seem to work, but may have been my setup. Anyway, I think I get how that works and how to set it up in the RC300.
But, what I want to do is to be able to send a Midi CC - or something else to put the RC-300 into “record mode” on a track.
Why?
Well, I want to have the RC-300 and the BeatBuddy on the floor (obviously) next to my piano for when I play the guitar or bass. Then, on the Piano I will have the Akai MPK Mini 25 key Midi Controller I just ordered. My plan was to then be able to trigger the RC-300 into record mode on a track while I sat at the piano. Basically, I don’t want to have to move the whole pedal board under the piano to get to it and I think the little mini midi controller on the piano would work better. I’m too old to climb under the piano several times a day (:
But, I can’t see that you can put the RC-300 into record mode. I find that incredible really when you see the other options in there that you can control. I must be missing something or there should be some work around.
Any ideas on how to basically - remotely - trigger the RC-300 into record mode like that? (Next I’ll want to try to do that on the BB fills, transitions, etc).
Thanks for the response, The Big E.
Correct, the manual doesn’t show that it can be done and Roland has told me recently it was impossible (:
But, I know there are a lot of people that tinker with things, modify them - so I was hoping there would be some hack to make it work. I thought maybe Roland would say - oh, ok, here are some secret midi CC codes to make that work or a developer kit - something.
I thought that well, you might be able to break the case open and tap into the foot pedal’s wiring, but shoot - don’t want to do that even if I can. But, maybe…
I don’t get the logic on why they don’t have the ability to set the record on any of the tracks - it doesn’t make sense to me nor does it seem that complicated for them to allow us to do that. Surely, someone has been able to add basically a remote record button. A CC command would be simple.
This is interesting, I held off on getting a beat buddy because I wasn’t sure how well the rc300 would play along with it. I use the internal beats…I am sure you feel my pain…but have dealt with it for simplicity’s sake. When you have a loop going on your RC, the beat buddy grabs the tempo well? Can you start and stop the beat buddy from the RC by starting a loop or starting to record a loop? Sorry for so many questions, this pedal seems so cool but I am afraid to spend the money and not be able to use it the way I wish to. I have an RC300 and have run into the recording start issue you speak of, trying to use an es8 to do so. Signed up for this forum because of your question, hopefully we hear answers somehow.
The internal beats on the rc300 - yep - I’m with you. I mean it works. Rotary phones work too, but you know… (:
Yes on the tempo. You set the tempo via the RC300 and it adjusts the beat buddy to the tempo set in the RC300. If you want to adjust the tempo up or down, you adjust it on the rc300 - the tempo button/knob. The beat buddy adjust automatically.
You have to have tempo ‘on’ for the Rc300, but mute the sound of tempo on the Rc300. Probably a lot of people miss that part. It won’t work otherwise. Then, assuming you save your rc300 setting then when you start the rc300 by say pressing track1 play, it will start the beat buddy as well. Stop the Rc300 and the beatbuddy stops too. Note that intro and endings aren’t triggered just the song’s main loop - although you can manually then switch to chorus or alternate verse 2 or whatever.
I have say program 1 on the rc300 as song A at 95, program 2 as Song b at 100. When I switch to say 1 - it will send the 95 tempo to the beat buddy, or 100 if I select program 2. You ‘do’ have to manually change the beat buddy track to the right song beforehand though. Make sense? There may be a way to auto select (via midi) the beatbuddy track and I recall that there is, but you’d have to do that via an outside interface - as in a midi controller and build some commands in it or separate software. I’ve not gotten that far yet - but I think certainly doable.
If that’s not clear, suppose I had program 10 on the rc300 and that was the song “aint’ no sunshine”. So, I turn the rc300 to program 10, get distracted(never) and hit play on the rc300. The guitar part for it starts playing, but I neglected to change the song on the beatbuddy from “rocking in the free world” to “aint no sunshine” and so beatbuddy plays “rocking in the free world” (at the right tempo), but ha ha - it’s messed up because the guitar is for “aint no sunshine”. Sometimes, it takes a second to register - like WTF? It’s really weird if one is say 6/8 and the other 4/4. So, you just then switch the song on the beat buddy. You don’t do that a lot - but - you know I said I got distracted (:
I got an Akai small keyboard and I can send a start command to the rc300 from the akai to start or stop the whole thing. I ‘cannot’ put the rc300 into record mode via midi - I have to do that manually - that was the heart of my question and your comment. I can now sit at the piano and through a toggle on the Akai, I can start the rc300 and the beatbuddy (but not record). So, that means I have to record the other parts first and it’s difficult to have the piano be part of the recorded track (without moving the rc300 under the piano).
My grandkids, all under 4 know that they can push the play on track 1 and all of the sudden, the recording from track1 (and the others if there) and the beatbuddy come on and sound engulfs the room. It’s pretty cool. They love it as do I when they do it. We’ll do it with some subtle guitar backing on track 1 and then they use harmonicas and egg shakers, the piano and whatever else that is here as well as several microphones. Obviously I don’t just use it for that purpose, but, well, it’s pretty cool - what can I say kids are the next generation of musicians (:
I have found and read others too - that after awhile the buddy and rc300 will get out of synch. For example, I may leave them going for 20 minutes playing a loop - at some point they drop out of synch. In normal playing no - not that I’ve seen. You have to just stop it and restart it if it acts up. I’ve not looked into that a lot as it hasn’t been an big issue at this point for me. There needs to be some synch check in the software somewhere though - that’s missing. After x time, something needs to see if they are in synch. I do understand the complexities so…
If you want to see a cool demo of it - look on youtube for a guy using the rc300, beat buddy and doing “ain’t no sunshine”. Search for those 3 things. You just see his legs and sandals as he plays using the rc300 and beatbuddy. He gives a ‘great’ illustration of it working. It’s what pretty much convinced me. I didn’t have either the rc300 nor the beat buddy beforehand.
I’ve made some drum tracks and put them out to the beatbuddy - ones that were unusual and I couldn’t find any sample. That’s been great too. I used Sonar and their drum part in there, built it and then just exported it.
I used to set up drums in Sonar and then use them. They sound awesome, but it was a pain to set it up, load different projects - certainly not as free floating as this - want an accent? hold the verse longer? This is just great and sounds awesome too.
You can’t print out the listings of songs on the beat buddy - you have to do a workaround - cut and paste in paint. I wrote a program to just read the listing and then print it out. That helped me a lot. I think there is also a slight bug in their software in that if you have a comma in a song it can create some issues. So, probably just avoid commas in the title and keep backups. They may have that fixed now. It isn’t that old of a product - I don’t know how long it’s been out but not a long time.
I hope that’s helpful - I’m just an old dude with more equipment than talent (: Let me know if you have other questions - or if you figure out how to send a midi command to throw the rec300 into record mode.
Thanks, I see what is going on there. I am not too worried about the fact that the rc is not able to be the slave, I have worked that into my routine at this point. The lack of intro and outro section control is a little bit of a funky thing, I guess I understand though since the intro would count as bar 1 for the looper. I guess to know for sure, I am gonna have to get a BB!!
All so helpful, thanks! I bet there is a way to change the drum pattern via midi, thanks for all the pointers. I am intrigued and will go check out that video.
Since that last post…mine has kind of evolved. In it I commented on using the Akai mini Keyboard to change the Boss Pedal via midi.
That worked, but what I found, as I indicated, was that I needed to ‘link’ the Boss Pedal loop - as in 1 through 99 - to a specific Beat Buddy loop - as in 1 out of how ever many I have on the beat buddy - hundreds I guess. I didn’t want to do it manually and I had to have a ‘sheet’ to write all that down… that soon became cumbersome.
It was a pain to change the Boss Pedal to say #14 which was my guitar tracks for ‘Down by the River by Neil Young’ and then have to turn the Beat Buddy to the xx folder and then pick the right beat that I originally used.
So, I wrote a program that lists my songs and I then pick the one I want - say Down by the River, and then it will select that on the Boss pedal (say #14) and the corresponding one on the beat buddy via midi. It’s great for not having to mess with it.
It wasn’t super easy to do, but it’s certainly doable. I in fact added a teleprompter to the mix and I’m working on a midi foot pedal to control the teleprompter too. I used the Akai mini but it’s not convenient to adjust it with your hand while you are playing.
You have to work on your midi cables and the midi thru’s. I had to get a midi thru box to add to the link so I could send commands to both the Boss and Beat buddy and between them. If you try this - make a note of this part (:
Also, for it to work - the Boss has to be in just normal mode - for example if you select edit to adjust the tempo - then you have to take it out of edit mode for the midi switching commands to work.
It works great - tempos adjust to the Boss setting automatically - they both pull up - it’s very cool and a big time saver.
Anyway, so ideas of what can be done with that kind of a setup - although it gets kind of technical.
One of the BB owners on the Facebook Beat Buddy site has an RC-300 and he posted a week or so ago that after MANY hours working on the settings he finally found a way to perfectly have the RC-300 sync up with the BB, to fix the issue many have been having. He offered to do up a video explaining how he did it so I am waiting to hear back from him and then he/I can post the link to help others.
I had the RC-3 but dont have the RC-300.
(Waiting for the S.S. branded looper pedal option to hopefully come out soon instead for my needs.)