Problems with Beat Buddy Manager and Beat Builder Fills

I am experiencing a problem with my BB Manager and fills/outros made using the Beat Builder. This has only recently started after using both packages successfully for a number of months. Whilst creating a drum track for the Boxer by S&G, I used a simple snare /cymbal hit for the famous chorus ‘crash’ . When I inserted this into the BB Manger I noticed that the preview produced a ‘double’ hit…one momentarily after the other. When transferring this to the pedal the effect was that only the snare hit came out…no cymbals. The fill plays as normal through the Beat Builder. When I removed the snare hit, the cymbal were audible through the pedal. The ‘double hit’ or 'ghost hit still evident on the BB Manger. I then tried other previously inserted home made fills/outros already existing on other tracks…again the ‘double hit’ was now evident, though these worked fine before…again these fills played ok through the Beat Builder. The default beats and song parts play normally. I stress this problem occurs only in the BB Manager…and consequently transfers to the pedal. I did down load the new Firmware this week…but the problem was evident prior to this…as such the ‘release’ function in the BB Pedal makes no difference. Have I somehow corrupted the BB Manager Software? Would reinstalling it help?

In the Beat Builder program I found that if the snare note is too close to a cymbal note (say like on the next block adjacent) that one will cancel out the other one or cause a double beat in the same location. Also, watch for the hidden notes you can’t see until you delete the one note. I run into double-bass notes all the time if the bass beat is too loud on the last note of a fill or even at the outro fill and none of this is present in the Beat Builder but will stand out when transferred to the BB Manager. Also, if there is a note in a fill on the last note downbeat that the main beat also uses, there will invariably be a “Double-Note” heard but only in the BB Manager. I always have to delete the last note in any fill or intro when creating a fill from scratch or editing one that’s already there. Another thing that happens with the Beat Builder is the starting note on a fill or beat cannot be altered to a different position in the measure cause when you save and bring up the fill or beat in the BB Manager, it will freeze everything right there and you cannot correct it and it jams up the whole song. The only way to clear it is to restart the BB Manager and you will lose all the info you have not saved. Save the project often when working with both of the programs together. The more you work with both the programs, you will find strange things happening such as “Ghost Beats” that get worse timewise the longer you play the measure in the Beat Builder and you can’t get rid of it either. There are a bunch of little things that will happen that I can’t even tell you about only for you to find out for yourself. Another great thing I found to do when working with both programs is to save all of the beats and fills for all the same category such as jazz all in a folder derived from copying all the beats and fills into that folder, it is much easier to find them when trying to initiate the changes made and opening them in BB Manger to the particular song. It also works great when using a fill from say the “Blues” files and use it in “Country” or “Jazz” songs.
Works great for that. Not only that, they’re easier to find all in one place.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
P.S. There is another program called “Anvil” for correcting timing to a finer degree.

Many thanks for this fingerstylepicker…since my original posting I have stumbled upon the snare/cymbal issue by accident and sorted this by putting the ‘crash’ half a beat after the snare…no noticeable difference audibly, but it stops the cancelling problem. I am still playing around with some of the other things you mentioned and making progress…but your comments are really helpful. Basically, these appear to be minor glitches which, once known about, can be worked around successfully…and it doesn’t impact on the usability of the Beat Buddy Manager or Beat Builder software…cheers!

As you have probably noticed about the Beat Builder and the BB Manager that the Tom-Tom sounds are different and some of the effects such as cowbell will not transfer to BB Manager because of the “Sound Font Bank” that your personal computer has in it. This is not the fault of Beat Builder but hopefully in the near future there will be a “Sound Font” that can be downloaded to use with both succesfully. Here is another tip I just remembered. To lower the volume levels for use in BB Manager and subsequently the BeatBuddy itself, they are too quiet to work with in the Beat Builder so what I do is raise the volume levels of everything in Beat Builder and then before I transfer them into the BB Manager I lower the note levels back down again to a useable level. It is a little bothersome but it’s another small hurdle that you have to conquer to make everything OK.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.

Thanks again fingerstylepicker…I look forward to the ‘Sound Font Bank’ download. Interestingly, I find I have to increase the volume of the beats in the Beat Builder as they are too quiet when transferred to the BB Pedal…cheers again!

How do you do that in the beat builder software???

Either right click on the individual instruments and adjust/set volumes…or go to ‘Edit’ and adjust all volumes…or go to the ‘note volume’ adjustment at top right of the screen…you can also ‘randomize’ the note volumes so it sounds more natural…or fade the drum parts in gradually (think the start of ‘Don’t Stop’ by Fleetwood Mack)…very flexible.