When working in BB manager, I managed to export and import a factory song into a new folder. That’s when I changed the tempo and deleted a few transitions. I want to add some of the factory transistions back in those positions, but I cant find them in any of the folders. The songs are listed as odd hex names and the have .BBS files in them that are greyed out. On the video, he clearly showed a way to navigate to the Funk folder and managed to grab a file to add back into the song. What am I missing here?
The default content midi files can be downloaded at the above link. From there you can copy and paste into a B.B song in B.B Manager. NEVER move things around in the BB Workspace using your computer’s OS. Use BB Manager exclusively as your file management tool for the BB. Welcome. Helpful warning given.
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Thank You. I downloaded the zip file and unzipped it. They are all in that one folder now. Do I just drag all those folders into the Beat buddy sync folder on my desktop under default_lib Midi_ sources?
No. Those folders contain the individual midi files that make up the default songs. They are, in effect, a backup of your default content. What I do is keep the default BB content intact. So first, find the song from which you deleted parts in BB Manager. Then drag the files for the deleted part into the BB Manager song to get the song back to its original state. In the future, rather than deleting parts from a song to get them the way you want, you can take either of two approaches. One would be to create a new song in BB Manager and drag the parts that you like from your backup midis into the song. This keeps both your original BB content and you backup midis complete. The other approach is to export the song you want to alter from BB manager, and then import it into a different folder in BB Manager, where you delete parts or otherwise alter it. This is useful for building set lists.
Forget about the idea of manually adding files to the BB Workspace. That practice will cause crashes and data loss of BB files.
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You’re losing me here, as I am unable to drag anything from an unzipped folder directly into BB manager. This is what I did. At first, I didnt want to touch any of the internal defaults, so I created a new folder in BB. I took the Samba under Brazilian and exported it. I then imported it into my new folder, so technically I now have a new copy of the same Same in a new folder. I altered the tempo and renamed it. Some of the fills were not to my liking, so I clicked on the fill pattern and my navigator popped up. There was nothing in the midi sources folder to grab another rhythm, whether that be in the default lib or the user lib. Now that I grabbed the link you gave me and unzipped it, I put all of those in the default midi_source folder that’s supposed to be my sync folder. Now the midi files are there and usable. I still notice that the drumset folder in the default_lib is completely empty. Same with the songs and projects folder. I performed a complete factory reset, and even trashed any of the folders I have on my desktop and started fresh. The beat buddy works fine and all songs are playable. I’m just trying to figure out what they’re considering a song, a project, etc. It’s just odd. Here’s another question, When I have the beat buddy tethered to the Mac via USB and I open BBB manager, am I actually seeing whats on the BB or what’s on my backup folder on my PC? When I’m working on something, I assume I am working on my Mac folder, then sending it to the SD card? Half of the online videos are from 2015 and navigation does not work like it does in the newer versions.
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“You’re losing me here, as I am unable to drag anything from an unzipped folder directly into BB manager.”
You apparently figured out to get rid of a part you click on the X in its upper right corner. To add a fill, if you click on the ellipsis (3 dots …) it takes you to a browser window from which you can select parts. You can also, copy and paste from with BB Manager by right clicking to copy and then right click to paste.
“There was nothing in the midi sources folder to grab another rhythm, whether that be in the default lib or the user lib. Now that I grabbed the link you gave me and unzipped it, I put all of those in the default midi_source folder that’s supposed to be my sync folder. Now the midi files are there and usable. I still notice that the drumset folder in the default_lib is completely empty. Same with the songs and projects folder. I performed a complete factory reset, and even trashed any of the folders I have on my desktop and started fresh. The beat buddy works fine and all songs are playable. I’m just trying to figure out what they’re considering a song, a project, etc. It’s just odd.”
Please try to forget that the BB Workspace exists. It’s not meant for mere mortals like us. It does not work like we expect it to. It has flaws. BB Manager puts things in random places rather than where they are supposed to go.
A “song” is that which is in a BB .sng file. It consists of midi parts, which get converted to .bbt files, and show as Main Drum Loops, Drum Fills, Transistion Fills; and short wav files which are the accent hits.
A “folder” to BB is a .pbf file. It is a collection of songs.
A “project” is the set of folders contain songs, and drum sets which are active. Its name appears here:
In this case it is 25-04-2020 project. The tag for a project is .bbt.
If BB Manager worked correctly, your songs, drum sets, and midi sources would show up in the BB Workspace folders. But, there were some edits several years ago that screwed that all up, and Singular has never been able to figure out how to fix it. As you have seen, it does work. But it is fragile. That is why I keep emphasizing to leave it alone. You don’t go into your Mac’s System files and muck about willy nilly without knowing what you are doing. At least I don’t. Why not? Because I want my Mac to work. Same with the BB Manager. The difference is that Apple actually has programmers that know how to fix things. Singular, so far, not so much.
fair enough. I have a better hang for it now. One more question: If I want to either edit a midi drum file in an editor or create my own midi file, what program is suggested? It looks as though garageband is not really an option? I can bring a midi file into garageband, and I can also create a fresh one, but I have no clue how to get that midi file back out of garageband and use it as a midi file for BB? Also, how are the extended packages?
There is program called GB2midi that can be used. Information with that program explains the process and its limitations. Be sure to get the 64 bit version.
I use Logic Pro. If you have an intro version of Ableton, it works, too. Others use Reaper or Audacity.
I like the add-on drum sets, and the extra basic beats packages are ok, if you use that stuff. I find that the Premium Song packages have too many parts to be useful for me. If I want BB arrangements of songs, I use midi, or, there are many songs and drum kits posted to the Forum.