Condescending … just as others have complained about you.
I wish you and all others having issues with me to never ever have any other issues in the upcoming year.
Cheers!
I now have 4 MIDI files…now what?
- How does one get them into the BB
- How does one create a Song within the BB with the new MIDI files?
This really should not be this tough to do guys!
Hi Timmy!
(Or should I say, “Timmmaaaayyy!”)
First, a suggestion: I totally get your frustration, I suffered the same. But when you open a conversation with converts with “Your demi-god sucks,” you might get some, umm, unhappy responses.
So, to business.
I totally feel your pain, I really do. I was where you are, fighting with this pedal that I wanted to love (and now finally do). The pedal itself is actually pretty elegant, but the software is maybe not so much. That said, once you understand how it “thinks,” it will get much easier. For me, it took three days of on and off efforts and frustration to build my first song, but since then, I’ve added about 50 of them. And I’m friggin’ picky about getting the rolls and the off-time bits right, so it can still be a frustrating experience.
So, rather than tell you how to do it, why don’t you tell us what you’ve done, what worked, and what didn’t.
Also, FYI, the Manager has the following basic tenets (apologies if you’ve already figured this out):
[LIST]
[]It uses a series of file folders, each containing parts (MIDI files) for a “song.” For example, all of the patterns for the song, “Blues 1,” are in a folder called Blues 1. You do not have to create new folders to represent songs if you don’t want to, and I don’t always either. My rule of thumb is that if I’m editing an existing MIDI part, I generally leave it in the same folder from whence I got it, but rename it, usually adding a letter to the name (for example Blues-Fill-23a)
[]It is a bit obstinate in the way it treats songs and edited songs in particular, but will work with songs you rename and resave – no, not save, EXPORT. For example, I often will start with an existing song, usually chosen entirely on the basis that it has a close approximation of ONE of the general patterns I need. I immediately EXPORT that song to my MySongs folder, and import it back into a setlist – which is a virtual folder in the Manager and the pedal. So, for example, I’ll select the Blues 1 song, export it to my MySongs folder as whatever the title of the song I’m building is, and immediately import that song back into a virtual folder called “Set One.”
[*]Related to that last point, it’s important to note here is that the “folders” that appear in the Manager do not share a one-to-one relationship with the folders on your hard drive. I don’t have a folder on my hard drive called Set One, but I do have a virtual folder in Manager and on my pedal that is called Set One. So, in your case, you might create a folder called Songs I Actually Like in the Manager, and build songs into it without ever creating a matching folder on your drive. When you sync up your pedal, manager will create the “virtual” folders that you created on the pedal for you.
[/LIST]
I realize that that was a lot of rambling – hopefully it helps a bit. But now, let’s hear from you: What have you tried, and where did you run into roadblocks?
Joe
Very nicely put Joe. I’m presuming that once a song is in the user created “setlist” folder, it would be possible to then go into the song itself to arrange parts. The OP said he had 4 midi files, would his files be 4 different and potentially complete songs on their own, or 4 midi files that are to be used in creating a song or songs? (ex., intro, main, transition, chorus) (Sorry for the question, I’m just a lurker trying to understand in my own quiet way… I’m very new to MIDI and the BB.)
“Your demi-god sucks,”… huh?
I believe I already stated what I’ve tried but in case you missed it, I recorded the Beguine drum rhythm from the Alesis SR18 into Sonar 3X. That took some doing as I needed to make edits to the tracks but finally achieved the results I wanted. I then created a new “song” and copied the MIDI files from Sonar to BBManager. Playing the files through each one of the drum sets in BBManager doesn’t play the part correctly apparently because of the “limited” Midi Drums in the BB and my MIDI tracks are calling drums that are not there. As stated a couple times, the first thing I need to be able to do with the BB is get the same drum patterns into that I already used on stage with the SR18.
Sorry Timmy, wanted to be sure what the true problem was – or at least the first one – which I will interpret as “What do I do about drums I’ve recorded that don’t exist in the BB drum set?”
Every drum set appears to have three toms, a couple of crashes. I ran into the same problem you’re seeing when I played parts in through my Roland Octapad: the BB drum set doesn’t necessarily have the SAME toms and cymbals.
So, somewhere on this forum (and I think someone pointed it out already) there is a list of the parts in each individual drum kit. What you need to do is transpose those drums (notes) that don’t exist to drums (notes) that do. I personally use Reaper, and it is very easy to do, because Reaper lets you grab all of occurrences of a given note and move them to another note.
In my case, it’s a bit worse than most, because the Octapad’s High-Mid-Low tom translates into the BB’s MId-Low-Does Not Exist to,s, so I actually have to move all three.
That said, though, it’s still a pretty simple fix. And once you do it once, you can recycle those parts.
Going forward, I set up a drum kit in the Octapad that matches the toms in the BBManager. I’d be shocked if you could not do the same in the Alesis.
Does that help?
What’s next?
Joe
The issue is not that the drums in the SR18 do not map to those in the BB, the drums in the SR18 are standard MIDI drum notes. The issue appears to be that there are not as many drum sounds available in the BB as their are in all my other drum machines or from a standard drum layout on a keyboard. So… a couple questions
[LIST]
[]The drum Beguine drum patterns which I’ve recorded to MIDI files and imported to BBManager utilize: shaker, appogo, timbale and conga. Where does one find those drum sounds in order to map the MIDI notes to them in BBManager?
[]If this is even possible, does the re-mapped drum sounds only affect the one song/pattern? Meaning, if MIDI notes are re-mapped do they get re-mapped for ALL drum patterns/songs?
[]Can drum patterns in the BB be longer than one measure?
[]What is Reaper and how is it different than Sonar 3X?
[/LIST]
I understand your frustration, unfortunately due to the 100Mb drum kit size limit the BB does not have a full GM drumkit. Once the online store is open they will need to make a full GM kit available, unfortunately if they can’t overcome the 100mb limit ,the quality would not be same as the current stock kits,
On to your questions see below.
Some of those sounds are in other kits, however currently you can’t use them for anything else as you can’t get to them. You would unfortunately need to make your own drum kit for which you would need to find your own samples. Berkerdo’s “DLX Precussion” drum kit has some of those samples and you could use those and incorporate it into your own ensuring they are mapped to the correct midi note for your midi files. The BB manager software download incorporated a drum set maker manual which explained most of the process, Bekerdo also documented in a post how to make a drum kit from scratch.
So if you created a new drum kit with the correct samples mapped and assigned it to the songs that required it, then it should work. If you changed one of the stock beats then any song assigned to that kit would be changed as well. If you do that I would recommend that you make a copy of the drumset first. I am currently creating a tutorial on how this is done. So the mapping is per kit only.
Yes, however due to a limitation in the BB any file can not contain more that 500 notes (that may even me events).
The Intro plays only once and can be any length.
The main loops again any length, the longer, the more realistic it will sound. 1 bar would be very robotic, most of the BB’s are 4 and 8 bars.
Fills - I would assume any length, or though most fills are 1-2 bars, all the BB’s fills are 1 bar. Fills of 1 bar length are easier to time. Not tested this as I have no need for fills longer than that.
Transitions - Theseare just like fills so 1 bar you can have more however as someone reported here, to have a 2 bar transition playing fully you need to hold the pedal down for the full duration.
Outros - These again are like fills and could be any length however 1 bar is easier with timing.
Reaper is just another DAW like Sonar. Each will have there own strengths and weaknesses - If you have Sonar you wont need Reaper. Personally I tried Reaper, I liked its price and upgrade structure. Unfortunately I did not find it intuitive after coming from Cubase SX - so got Presonus Studio live instead which is similar to Cubase.
I hope that has answered your questions, I cover most of the Drumset “issues” in my next tutorial video which I hope to stick on YouTube early next week.
I’m new to this form but I don’t understand this bickering back and forth. Isn’t this a form for sharing ideas. If someone wants to offer help then all the power to them .If they don’t, then thats their perogative. The way I look at it they took the time to try and help me and for that I am grateful.
I’m using an alesis18 as well as BB , I’m interested in taking some beats off of it,
so I can leave it at home, following this with interest …good luck Timmyd 
So, if I understand correctly. If I create a new drum set with changed numbers it will only affect that drum set and not the other stock drumsets.
So, with that said…we are now going on 3 months with this thing and as of yet not been able to put in onstage live. However, in the meantime… I have programed 15 new drum tracks on the SR18 and have used in live performances. So, am going to attempt to give this one more try and if that doesn’t work…it’s up for sale!
What do you mean by “changed numbers”? If you mean midi notes then yes, however I would export the drum kit first then reimport (making a copy) - then make the changes. My 2nd drum tutorial video explains how to do that.
Yup…that’s what I mean.
Help me out here folks. I am trying to get a swing type beat for a country song. 4/4 alternating from kick to snare, 100 bpm. Some hi hat 16s generating that swing feel. The best I can find is the Polka in the world sect, but it needs a bit of a swing hi hat feel to it. Tried all the country beats but they have these double kick parts which just sound really off. In Ireland we call this a jive beat. I just cant find my jive in my BB. Any ideas BB users?
Cheers
Jim
@Stone[/USER], You can try searching for the songs you like here on the forum, or try finding some drum MIDI files anywhere in the internet that sound good to you. You can create your own song with the MIDI file then. Just check an official video (in the announcement topic about BBManager) as well as some [USER=87]@Psalm40’s videos to get yourself more familiar.
I’m getting the following error message when importing midi files into BB Manager:
[ATTACH=full]964[/ATTACH]
The file was created by exporting a one bar long drum fill from Guitar Pro 6. Anyone that can help?
Well, the message is pretty straightforward. You seem to have more than 500 MIDI Note On events. You need to use less notes.
You can also upload your MIDI file to somewhere on the internet and put a link, so I can check your file for you to make sure.
Thanks, found the problem; although the export from GuitarPro was only a few bars, it was exporting all the instrument layers and thereby exceeding the 500 note limit. One has to switch on the solo toggle for the specific track before exporting it.
Even when exporting just drums you might hit limits if rapid closed hh/ride etc are in the full song so will likely need to chop the track in an editor. Also GP has 35 as kick and needs to change to 36 unless you mod the bb kit.
Timmyd,
If you have mid files ready to go then this is how I understand you add them to beat buddy.
1.