Request for more standard MIDI drum map MIDI note assignments
I just spent many hours trying to get some standard MIDI files to play on my BB Manager drum sets and my BB pedal. I wish the BB followed a more standard MIDI note to drum set mapping.
It is a pain in the ass to get standard MIDI drum files from EZ Drummer, MIDI Editor, Kontakt, Roland, Analogue Drums and other kits to work on the BeatBuddy.
Please try to cover all the standard MIDI GM drum assignment names. You should definitely cover some standard MIDI time-keeping notes such as tambourine and cowbell. I already see these samples in Latin and Percussion kits, how about covering all the standard MIDI GM notes?
For example, here is the standard MIDI GM channel 10 mapping names compared the Standard BB drum set. Notice that many popular sounds MIDI sounds are not available in the BB drum kit. What, no Tambourine, no Maracas, no Cowbell?!?!
[FONT=Courier New]N # GM Assignment BB Standard Drum Kit
A0 33 Metronome
34
B0 35 Bass Drum 2
C1 36 Bass Drum 1 Kick Drum
37 Side Stick/Rimshot Cross Stick
38 Snare Drum 1 Snare
39 Hand Clap Handclaps
40 Snare Drum 2
41 Low Tom 2
42 Closed Hi-hat Hi-Hats Cls
43 Low Tom 1 Tom 4
44 Pedal Hi-hat Foot Hi-Hat
45 Mid Tom 2 Tom 3
46 Open Hi-hat Hi-hat Open
47 Mid Tom 1
C2 48 High Tom 2 Tom 2
49 Crash Cymbal 1 Crash Cym 1
50 High Tom 1 Tom 1
51 Ride Cymbal 1 Ride Cymbal
52 Chinese Cymbal
53 Ride Bell RideCymBell
54 Tambourine
55 Splash Cymbal Splash 1
56 Cowbell
57 Crash Cymbal 2 Crash Cym 2
58 Vibra Slap
59 Ride Cymbal 2 Splash 2
C3 60 High Bongo
61 Low Bongo
62 Mute High Conga
63 Open High Conga
64 Low Conga
65 High Timbale
66 Low Timbale
67 High Agogô
68 Low Agogô
69 Cabasa
70 Maracas
71 Short Whistle
C4 72 Long Whistle
73 Short Güiro
74 Long Güiro
75 Claves
76 High Wood Block
77 Low Wood Block
78 Mute Cuíca
79 Open Cuíca
80 Mute Triangle
81 Open Triangle [/FONT]
I see so many of these sound names already present in the BB Latin and Percussion drum kit. How about making them available in every kit?
[FONT=Courier New][FONT=Arial][/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New][FONT=Arial]Please improve the inter-operability of BeatBuddy with the general MIDI eco-system. Cover all these standard MIDI notes with the excellent Goran Grooves samples. It will save users re-editing and disappointment when they try BB songs in the MIDI world and vice-versa.[/FONT][/FONT]
You are also limited by the maximum size of the drum kits. It appears many are using the BB differently to how it was initially envisioned which was a “drummer in a box” not a GM drum sound module. If you are a drummer you will not be playing all those different instruments you would have a select few - which is why the BB is the way it is. The quality of the samples is all due to the painstaking hours Goran spent recording and editing them; doing that for the whole GM drum map would be a lot of work and as I mentioned above we are currently limited to the 100MB max file size for drum kits - why that is I don’t know. It would be good however to be able to mix and match instruments from other drum kits as well.
My request is to TRY to cover all the the standard MIDI GM drum assignment names. You are correct, I don’t need all those instruments at once, but I think there are many people coming up with grooves from Kontakt and EZDrummer, and they just have large gaps when bringing it to the Beat Buddy. I personally have 2 or 3 songs such as “Tears of a Clown” that need a tambourine, but I am ready to throw in the towel. What to do, edit the standard kits? Require my own personal drum kit? Edit and map each song tambourine to some other instrument? I think this is an impediment to a lively community of interoperability, sharing, and performing with the BeatBuddy.
If the drum size budget is an issue, please try to cover the most important instruments. I would say the primary missing instruments are tambourine, maracas, cowbell, bongos, wood block, and claves. Many of these samples are already in the BB drum kits. I think there is room in the current 1.33 release drum kits to add more instruments. The Jazz kit is at 87%, Percussion 25%, Rock 89%, Standard 96%. My “Percussion DLX” is 74% and “AnalogueDrumsSplitSticks” is at 99%. Personally, I would prefer fewer instrument sample alternatives (say 6 rather than 10) and cover more instruments.
Even if all were mapped in a BB kit, when using a DAW to build beats and audition (BBM has a long way to go for that) it’s also a challenge to get a similar kit sound outside of BBM so that it sounds similar once the midis are plugged into songs on BBM. It would be good for Singular Sound to enable BB as a USB GM sound module and also create a software VST interface to their drum kits. Then external DAWs and a rewrite version of BBM could use that VST and also be controlled by the BBM pedals (as a midi controller) for auditioning etc. If the BB kits were packaged as an EZDrummer add on I’d but one today so that the external work will sound the same once brought over to BBM.
No matter how it is sliced, the BB needs to coexist with the digital music production world (modules and controllers) not be thought of as a standalone box or application. Standalone hardware drum machines are all dead end products that don’t make it any easier to program via computer and take on the road which is why they end up in closets or on e-bay. It is annoying to have thousands of patterns and have to spend so much time getting just one to sound the same on BB as any number of very capable software packages.
@Norbert, I understood pretty clearly what you want. And I should say your suggestion is brilliant.
Turning BeatBuddy from a complete closed hardware drum player into a powerful programmable sequencer tool would be, indeed, great.
Thanks, it already is a very cool drum box and not knocking it, but again, just hoping to see the platform go far. Is there any way to get info on if it is a RAM chip or software limit on the kit size?
Unfortunately, I don’t have a detailed information about hardware, but most likely that’s it.
Fortunately, I know how to optimize the hardware to work around this hard limitation while both improving the overall BeatBuddy sound quality and dynamics plus enlarge the MIDI notes coverage at the same time.
