Hi new to the area. Is there a program that i can program my own drum beats and down load them from my iPad to my device? I write more like oteph lots of different time signatures and beat changes and would like to lay out my music and put it on the Beat buddy. Love the product just want to personalize it with my stuff. Thx
Hi Krupdkrup,
I write most of my own stuff too. I haven’t been using the Pedal for very long but I have found it pretty easy to write in my DAW (Samplitude) using the built in MIDI editor and then export the midi files for importing into Beat Buddy Manager and ultimately into the pedal. (Have recently used the BBM MIDI Editor a little bit too and it works fairly well but can behave kind of wonky at times). I have done some as one press songs (kind of like a backing track) and others as parts with fills and the whole layout as intended.
The biggest challenge I have is that there is no way to change tempo within a song other than using the tap tempo which is very spotty at best. I tend to write on the metal side of music and I write what I feel and tempo changes are often a natural part of the flow. My biggest wish at the moment for BB is for tempo information to be able to be stored per part of each song. This is the only real limitation I have found so far for my use. This may become easier through other hardware but I am just not to that stage yet.
I put together parts that I have in my mind and then use them to “jam” out structures that feel right to me. I used to do this to some extent with an Alesis SR18 but the sounds in that unit were just weak to my ears and parts very limited. BB is a much more natural and authentic sounding machine than most drum machines I’ve used and that includes some top end V-Drums too. And the number of parts are nearly limitless. (If there is a limit to the number of parts for a song I have not reached it yet).
Hope this helps.
It’s a great tool for me but I really need the tempo changes to do what I really want.
I have faith that this will be available some day… soon I hope.
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Thx for the help!
hey man, i just got my first BeatBuddy and also am trying to write my own metal beats for it, and am struggling with tempo changes. What I’m finding I need to do is taking some lessons from my old drum line days playing around with paradiddles… which might make it click if you were a drummer but otherwise here:
i realized that a lot of my tempo changes weren’t straight halftime/doubletime (2:1) shifts, i was often still playing in even fractions of the original tempo, almost always either 3:2 or 4:3. so, with that knowledge, i just had to add the appropriate number of additional subdivisions in my grid / appropriate largest “measure” size if you think in that way, and just hunker down and figure out the new way to space it all out.
so to spell it all out (helps me to think about stuff when i put ideas into words, particularly with music) if you know you want your song to have a 2:3 tempo change (putting it this way instead of 3:2 because i just realized that is the easiest way to denote whether we’re starting in the slower or the faster tempo… 2:3 would be starting slower and then speeding up later)
if you know you want your song to be in 4/4 with a 2:3 tempo change, instead of that signature you need to tell your MIDI file to be in 6/4 and make each measure for the slower tempo sections out of four dotted quarter notes. and of course, any notes that are in reality eighth notes at the slower tempo need to be in the MIDI file as dotted eighths, half notes as dotted halfs, etc. then, when you reach the section at the faster tempo, your quarter notes in the MIDI file will correspond to real quarter notes.
i did, tho, just realize that 6/4 measures means that you’ll end up with potentially odd size bars at the faster tempo depending on how many measures you want in a bar… i guess 3/4 is better, then, and you just build each measure of the slower tempo out of two measures of 3/4 (the rest is all the same). you’ll still have potentially odd size bars, but at least they’ll be easier to manage
i didn’t stick with drum line long enough to know how to explain it the other way around (i.e. 4/4 with a grid of triplets rather than 6/4 with a grid of dotted notes) haha, tho it is possible to do that way too, and i could easily figure it out in grid based rather than classical notation based software
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Hello @Drill-Head ,
Can I record a drum pattern into my DAW (Studio One 6) then turn it into a midi file, then import it into the BB Manager, then into my pedal as you suggest? Will I get the sound of my jembe or do I have to have that sample in my DAW. Can I create that sample? I have never done anything with midi.
Hi Mike,
This is a bit complicated, but its seems that you do have good tool for the job in Studio One. In Studio One, you would want to first have set the tempo at which you want to record. Then, I assume, there is a feature to record to a click track at that tempo. Record your pattern. You would right click the Audio REgion you created and select “edit with Melodyne.” Select the proper track type from melodyne (something like, drums, rhythm, etc.) and Melodyne will produce a midi track of what you recorded.
You midi track will then have midi events (notes) assigned to various pitches which should, in theory, represent your different kit pieces. You will need to move each row of notes to the correct pitch to match the instruments assigned in a Beat Buddy Drumkit. For the most part, these will match the General Midi protocol. see attached zip.
–drummap.pdf.zip (59.5 KB)
Once you have the notes moved around to correct locations, you can export the midi file, and then import it into a BB song, in the main loop area. Assign a drum kit to the song, and you can play the loop, from the virtual pedal in BB manager. You would then Sychronize or Eport your Project to SD card to get the loop on the pedal.
Getting the sound of your djembe is another process. You would need to create samples of your djembe, and add them to a BB Drum Kit as a new instrument. When I sample instruments, I try to make 3 samples at a soft hit, 3 at a medium hit, 3 at a hard hit, and 3 at a very hard hit. This will produce twelve samples for your instrument. Again, in my process, I would assign the softest to velocity range 0-30, medium to 31-60, hard to 61-90, and very hard to 91-120. Those would be my initial settings, and I would then adjust from there.
You samples need to be created as 16bit, 44.1khz wav files.
The get an idea of what I mean, open a BB drumset in BB manager. To do that, double click on the kit’s name in the BB manager Drum Set list. This will open the Drumset Maker window, where you can view the makeup of the kit, and the structure of the instruments.
Good luck.
Wow, thank you so much for your explanation, @Phil_Flood . I’ve found a set of videos that is helping me. I can see that my question entails an awful lot of different processes and applications. I will get there. But I already have gained enough information to at least have a basic understanding of what you have shared with me. I’ll get there. Thanks again for your time.
MG 