Premium song transitions

BeatBuddy Help, Questions and Bugs
1

I’m new to BB and recently purchased some premium songs expecting i could play them from start to finish using the beatbuddy to start/stop etc.

Anyway I now know it can’t do that, at least without editing the files and I’ve been told it’s better to just create or find an existing midi file.

Ok, so I thought fair enough I should have done more research before I bought the BB. But now I have it and I have these premium songs I’d like to try and use them. My idea is to create or use other users OP versions with the band while I try and learn how to work with these premium songs. The song I’m looking at ( Sultans of swing ) has 27 parts plus fills etc, is there any info on the breakdown on these.

I did sit with the CD playing the song trying to work out what goes where but failed tbh.

If there is a resource that shows when to transition the parts in the songs that would be fantastic, but as I’ve searched and not found any I thought I’d see if anyone had done it for themselves and would be willing to share ?

Thanks,

Lee

2

A technique might be to download or buy the sheet music for a song that you intend to work up and then outline (chart) the structure. If I were to guess how Goran Rista programmed Sultans of Swing, I’d SWAG it by saying he downloaded the chords from Ultimate Guitar and used that as the basis for the sequencing of the Intro—verses—pre-choruses—choruses and solos.

Some Options. In the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM), Export to MIDI and name and number those parts and then join them in your DAW (not something you can easily do-if at all-in BeatBuilder or the BBM MIDI Editor). Any Drum Fill and Transition Fill sections in the song are identified as “not part of the song” so you could probably ignore them. Once you get the hang of joining the Main Drum Loops, you would have your one-press drums.

Another option is to first make a copy of the song (you’ll want to keep the original intact) and then delete the Drum Fills, Transition Fills and Accent Hits and you have a complete song that you just need to be able to learn and follow along with when you rehearse. If you don’t like the sequence of the Main Drum Loops, you can move them around. The technique then becomes knowing when to move between one section and the next—I suspect that could be what’s challenging users-I know it challenges me.

Many users enjoy the flexibility of having those extraneous fills and use them (or not) to good effect.

Of course, you could always find a MIDI source file and modify it in a DAW to play as a one-press (DOP, OPB or OPBk, etc).

There are pro’s and con’s to any of these methods and you can use any one of them or use a combination of them to serve your musical performance styles.

1 Like
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Thanks for the reply. In this instance I’m not trying to create an OP version of the song, I’m looking to learn how to use the premium songs I’ve purchased as they were intended. Some songs are just 2 or 3 parts so I’m guessing those should be more obvious when you transition to the next part.

For now I’ll be ignoring fills etc and just concentrate on moving though the song while playing rhythm guitar. The issue with songs that have so many parts as you say is knowing when to transition.

I tried to just use the BB while I listened to the song on CD, but it didn’t work, within the first minute I was lost. Tbh I’m a little frustrated with it atm, at this rate it’s going to take a long time before I can use these premium songs.

It would really help new users if the songs showed the breakdown in connection with the transitions for the actual song, at least songs with a lot of parts.

Without wanting to sound antagonistic I’m so glad I only bought a handful of premium songs, originally I was keen on buying the complete set at the same time I bought the BB, I would have been kicking myself now.

I’ll have a look through the other premium songs I have and try one with less parts, but Sultans of Swing is one I was keen on learning !

4

The BeatBuddy has a progress bar that advances as the loop plays. On the plus side, it helps you to track where you are in a loop. On the minus side, it could create a dependency where the user is constantly staring at their pedal display. Gives a new meaning to shoe gaze music. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: and to some users it creates a less-than-desirable impression of the performer. Some users have raised the pedal off the ground so it’s easier to view and they use a remote foot switch to replicate the main pedal.

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Yes I’ve used that, I wrote down the number of bars per part. Maybe it’s my timing on the transitions thats throwing it out with the CD ?

6

I personally think having 27 parts plus fills etc. is a terrible workflow for a live musician. Is there anyone out there that really uses the BB this way? Might as well have a complete Drum track and play that back within your looper (Aeros) and then you don’t have to mess around with foot tapping. Is there anyone that can explain what I am missing here? I used to use backing tracking played from my iPhone but I now have been doing live looping instead. I might as well go back to my backing tracks if I want the drums that perfect. I’d love to see a tutorial of a use case on how the BB Premium song parts fills etc. were intended to be used.

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I agree that for live purpose that sounds terrible :grimacing:

I’d say that around 14 parts for Sultans of Swing would make sense as that is how many different song parts there are, but if each song part (verse1, chorus etc) has on average two separate beats then I guess that makes up the 27 :sweat_smile:

So my guess on how 27 parts could be used is that if someone is improvising/practising to match each separate beat with some melodies etc. Only in that scenario I’d see benefit of having that many parts :thinking: I mean that improvising/practising typically involves repeating same part multiple times until moving ahead :relieved:

Okay, another use case would be if you don’t want to keep the song strictly to the original in terms of the bars but you’d like to have all the different beats still there :thinking: But this would work only if the beats don’t contain any specific accent hits :no_mouth:

In any case the user would have to be able to (almost) play the song with actual drums :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: Same level of understanding as an actual drummer would need :face_with_peeking_eye: Which would be easier to obtain from some sort of description :slightly_smiling_face: