I’m new with the Beat Buddy, mainly a Mac user. Still no editor for the Mac, pretty lame! And the latest firmware gives me no midi messages received still in Ableton I’ve tried everything, and I know I’ve got it hooked up right. Please help, what am I doing wrong, usually MIDI just works, any ideas anybody??
I’ve never used Ableton. But video in my signature definitely shows, that BeatBuddy’s MIDI sync does pretty much “just work”. In my video, BB is MIDI Master, and Boomerang III is MIDI Slave.
So. What is your problem again? What exactly have you tried, what do you expect to happen and what happens instead?
I want to use Ableton as the master and the BB as the slave, I just have the MIDI sync in/out connected to my focusrite saffire pro 40, midi in/out. So basically, I want to listen for midi messages coming from the MIDI sync on the BB, but I see no MIDI data being transferred through, hook up you BB to any audio interface card with midi, and you see what I’m talking about, seems like a pretty basic feature that the BB needs.
I am almost sure BeatBuddy is able to do what you are describing.
In order to make that happen, double check the “polarity” of your MIDI cables connected. MIDI Out of your computer sound card should go to MIDI In of your BeatBuddy, then MIDI Out of BeatBuddy - to MIDI In of your focusrite saffire pro 40.
If you made sure everything is connected correctly but you are still having issues, please try switch places of your devices: MIDI Out of your computer sound card > MIDI In of saffire, then MIDI Out of saffire > MIDI In of BeatBuddy.
Please report back the results!
Tried what you said, my pro 20, can send/recieve midi data, just fine with other external synths, I have. However, when directly hooked same approach to the Beat buddy, no luck. So I’m not sure if it’s an issue with just my computer interface, or an issue for others as well. When I went directly midi out to midi in, of my Korg Volca Beats, it worked just fine, with Beat Buddy being the master. However, when beat buddy is the master with midi in, into Ableton I get no midi calls at all. For some reason the BB, doesn’t play well with computer audio interfaces yet. Have you tried it out on your computer interface?
No, I haven’t.
I believe I heard something about BeatBuddy may not redirect MIDI events from its MIDI In to MIDI Out.
I cannot either confirm or deny this atm (as the only MIDI devices I have are BB and Rang III, and Rang III is only a MIDI Slave), but I’d recommend either using BeatBuddy strictly as a Master (no MIDI In used!), or as a Slave (and do not use MIDI Out, like let BB be the last device in your MIDI chain).
Some keyboards etc have a third midi thru jack to pass unfiltered midi to other devices. Midi out connections are for midi events generated by the device vs a pass thru. To Keep BB first for master or last in chain for slave you may need a midi thru type box. Also you can get a midi monitor app to check which messages are being transmitted from Ableton, helps to troubleshoot CCs etc.
I’ll install a midi monitor app on my Mac, and see if I see anything. I also tried it with this directly:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JL … UTF8&psc=1
Just a direct midi to usb cable, and still no luck that way either. I’ll keep looking into it further. But when I go just midi out, from my PRO40, or the usb cable to midi out, shouldn’t I expect to see the sync symbol for the tempo on the Beat Buddy appear, knowing now that it’s in slave mode? That seems to be the issue, it never works when acting as a slave from any computer related connections. Hard ware, yes. It works perfectly, but from a computer NO go!
Looks like Ableton (v9) needs to be set in Preferences - MidiSync in two spots. One is the Control Surface/Input/Output section to have the device selected in the output list box. Also in the lower section for midi ports the output Sync button needs to be enabled for device to tell it to send sync. I tested with a similar USB midi from M-audio. Ableton starts BB intro to part1 on blues1, adjusted tempo in ableton BB BPM responded, ableton stop and BB stops immediate without outro. using BB pedal while playing, normal fills, and stop does the outro. No changes were needed to BB settings.
Oh, wow! I’ll try that, which control surface option did you use?
I’ve got an Akai EIE that I use for analog in and midi but only the maudio midi adapter currently connected (shows as USB Midi Device). in this example others grey’d out and not available below to send/receive midi options from. An APC40 as the control surface device that Ableton sends and receives from also. Hope it helps.
I think that because start/stop are midi realtime events and not CC with Ableton mappings the BB doesn’t need to be defined as a control device.
That worked for me, thanks for the help!