Hi all, My first post here. I am trying to use my Ipad and Set List Maker to automatically make song changes in BeatBuddy. I have successfully connected the bluetooth midi Yamaha MD-BT01. I have gone through all the steps to set this up from Apps by Arlomedia the BeatBuddy MIDI integration thread (Link Below). It’s not working. If anyone is using Set List Maker with Beatbuddy successfully I would appreciate some help on this. I’m a little confused regarding the Arlomedia article when I got to “Selecting Songs” step 4 regarding setting up midi presets. My understanding is that when entering Program Changes that the 1st field is on the left (MSB) and that value should be 1. The second field (LSB) is the folder number. There are no folder numbers on my BeatBuddy that I can see so I assume that you count the folders from top to bottom to arrive at the number. Folders are titles like Rock, Blues and Reggae in the BeatBuddy menu right? And the 3rd field (Program) is far right and that should be the song number. After setup I went to my layout and the midi icon isn’t blinking and doesn’t control song changes in BeatBuddy.
By the way does anyone have an idea when the Aeros loop station will accept midi song changes? Is that a priority for future updates?
I have set ports to all and I connected the MD-BT01 through SetlistMaker. I have created a midi device in SetlistMaker named it Beatbuddy switched ports to all and made Beatbuddy channel 1. Is there something else I have to do to activate midi?
This is what I did, in the databank I made a setlist which a named “Band”. then you get songs, shows searchlist etc. one of them is MIDI Presets. For every song in “songs” you’ve got to make a midi preset.
Then goto songs and choose a song, there you have to add the midi preset you’ve created, you can add more than one midi preset to a song if you want, then it should work, if you goto shows and goto songlist and start a song. Hope this makes sence, this is how I got it working.
I think I have done all that. I have made 5 midi presets and added them to the corresponding songs. When I pick one of the 5 songs from a show by tapping it, the song is not changed on the Beatbuddy. I’m not sure how to start a song in Set List Maker other than selecting it from a show by tapping it. I’m not sure that I accurately entered the values in the program changes portion of the midi presets though.
MSB is 0 for all of the BB bank and program midi stuff. LSB is the one that changes as well as the PC.
It’s the Tempo,Volume, Drum Kit and start/ending controls that use a different MSB
I am confused and not at all familiar with midi. I simply followed the instructions from this link:
It said to set the first field which I assumed was MSB to 1. I understand that midi value numbering can be either 0-127 or 1-128. I set Setlist Maker to 1-128. This may or may not have anything to do with the MSB field I don’t know. I’m hoping if anyone can tell me what types of values to put in the three program changes fields in Set List Maker’s midi presets. Based on the article in the link above 2 of the fields need to contain a folder number and a song number. It said to set the first field to 1 but maybe it should be 0.
Here is an excerpt from the article under Selecting Songs step 4.
"On the BeatBuddy row in the Program Changes section, enter values into the three fields. If you have fewer than 128 folders, this is easy; just set the first field to 1, the second field to your folder number and the third field to your song number. "
So how do I determine the folder number in beat buddy? confused.
Hi Paul
I’m not using your program but am a new BB user and currently setting up onsong midi with BB. For me the ‘song tab’ in BB desktop manager on the left is the bank LSB and that first song folder (directory) is LSB 0 ( Zero)- if you wanted the next folder down it would be LSB1.
The actual songs within that folder are the program change identifiers 1 to 128. So in an example program change 1 ( selecting the first song in the first folder) is Acoustic Grand Piano ( the name means nothing).
I’m still going strong to get mine to work fully as I’m using full song WAVs so its trial an error a lot and reading around as best I can. I hope this may point you in a good direction or at least have a guru read this and correct me to benefit us both. Good luck and stay safe.
I don’t know wether your problem is still existent. I just read this thread the first time. It happens that we use exactly the configuration you mentioned for our band. The only difference is that I’m using Bandhelper instead of SLM, but that is just the same with a load of more functions.
Our setup is an iPad Mini with Bandhelper which is controlling:
Beatbuddy (song/beat/drumset selection and tempo)
Roland FP-90 Digital Piano (sound and volume selection)
iPad Pro with ForScore running (song selection)
two iPad Mini with Bandhelper showing chords and lyrics for our brass and base section (song selection)
Line6 digital effect system for our guitarist (effect selection)
I recently bought an Aeros which I plan to integrate (work in progress due to missing midi control)
The “master” iPad is connected via bluetooth to a Yamaha BT01 wireless adapter which is daisy chained between BeatBuddy, Roland FP90 and the Line6.
If you now touch the desired song in the setlist BeatBuddy immediately shows the tempo for the song and switches to the correct beat and drumset, the Roland chooses the new sound and correct volume and the Line6 will set to the correct effect. The iPads all switch to the first page of the choosen song. Compared to the switching and paper war just 2 years ago it`s an incredible progress!
To reach this goal I can share my settings with you:
Bandhelper/ SLM
You have to add a midi device “BeatBuddy” with the following settings: numbering 1-128, channel 1 (as you desire), connection port Yamaha BT01 bluetooth or all.
For each song in your BeatBuddy folder you have to create a midi preset. E.g. called BB 1-1 to choose the first song from the first folder. That preset gets the midi program change 1;1;1. Thats Bank MSB=1, Bank LSB=1, Program=1. But if you made a midi device it will appear under midi pc and you just have to fill the correct values. If you e.g. want to choose the 5th song from the 4th folder the values would simply be bank msb=1, bank lsb=4, program=5. This works for me perfect. Apart from that I organised BeatBuddy folder structure in that way I have all the songs for my performance in folder #1, which is the top folder. So it’s a no brainer.
In your setlist you go to “edit layout” -> “edit details”. In “actions” you will find “send midi”. I’ve this set to “on choosing the song” so everytime I press on a new song in setlist it will fire the midi-commands connected to that song.
In “repertoire” - “songs” you edit the corresponding song by adding the correct midi presets from the list. I furthermore assign a midinumber to each song, because many other systems use this as a simple solution for choosing the right song. This works with ForScore as well.
If you now press midi status symbol you can start midi or it’s still running. You have to connect to the bluetooth device. In my case it shows the MD-BT01 input/output as “not connected” or “offline” (when the BT01 has no power). Simply hit BT01 and after a few secs it shows “connected”. Under protocol you can press delete and now you will see whether the Bandhelper sends a command to the network or not. For a simple change to Beatbuddy folder #1, song #1 it will send something like (F3, 07) to the midi network.
If you have more BandHelper devices running or a score program like ForScore, PiaScore etc. you should as well let the device serve as master by allowing connections from other bluetooth devices “propagate midi service” and then connect to this device from the other slaves.
BeatBuddy
Midi channel number is 1 for me, according to the setting of BandHelper. System real time ist enabled. Control Change is enabled. Output type is midi thru or midi out depending on your setup.
Last Device in midi chain
Depending on your midi chain somewhere you have to reconnect to the bluetooth device. Therefore it’s important not to set the last device on midi thru or merge. It’s only used to power the bluetooth dongle. Same thing is important in BandHelper. No midi-thru or bouncing back. This could lead to a strange behaviour of several device, mainly BeatBuddy which then switches the tempo every second and gets unusable.
Hope I could help you. It’s a lot of preparation in advance to get it up and running but once it is working it is a stress reliever for the whole band while your performance!
This will be helpful since midi programming is all new to me and I’m somewhat reassured that I can make this work now since you have done it with a similar set up as mine.
I look forward to getting this to work and to Aeros midi control. Hopefully it’s on the top of their list of updates.
Best,
Paul
Hi Mark ,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my midi problem and I’m happy to say with your help I figured it out. I wasn’t sure what values were to be put in MSB, LSB and Program, for instance where do you put channel #, folder# and song #. but now I know. I was assuming that the channel # would be placed in the Program box. Also in the song I was trying to get to work with midi I forgot to point it to the midi preset in the song in SLM. Anyways thanks for your help much appreciated!
Paul
P.S. I’m really looking forward to Aeros midi control.
You‘re welcome! I‘m happy if could help you.
However the midi channel # does not correspond to the MSB. Maybe I explained it a little bit confusing. That‘s so far just a value which maybe important if you are planning to have more than 127 songs in your folder. Midi channel is only defined in the device preset.
Ok I want my iPad Pro to be able to tell BB to bring up beat when song is selected
I am using SetList Maker hard wired from iPad Pro to
BB with Roland USB interface to BB midi cord
Where I get lost is the settings. The 3 blank boxes I set as 1 1 1- the 2 boxes below I don’t know what value to input
I have set 1 song as the 1 1 1
What I need is a step by step
I followed the instructions from Paulisher but still got lost. I am a newbie and I need help
If anyone has this setup with SLM and iPad I could use some help
Thanks for this forum!!
assuming you added a midi device named „beat buddy“ with a midi value numbering from 1-128 and the correct connection…
in your midi preset for song #1 you only have to use the midi program change (1-1-1). The first value should be „1“ and is not important unless you use more than 128 songs in a single folder. The second value points to the folder number of your BB (e.g. Blues, Funk, Jazz). The third value is the song# inside that folder.
The next section with midi control change (1-1) you don‘t need for selecting a song.
After that check that midi connection symbol up right. Is your midi running? Did you connect to your Roland? Do you use midi in at the BB breakout cable? Check as well the midi settings from BB itself.
In your desired song in SLM you have to use that preset you created. And you have to tell SLM to send midi when selecting a song from your setlist (edit layout - actions).
I did not realize that that I have to choose the correct folder. I have slow songs in channel 5 and Fast songs in channel 6. Shoul I jus t consolidate into 1 list?
Do I need to make these changes in Beat Buddy manager on my laptop and then reload the sad card? I think I have everything
Done correctly. I am just working with 1 song to see if it works.
Apologize for the ignorance, just want to learn and help our live performance
Mark
Thanks, I got it working. I tried going direct from iPad to BB though Roland Midi interface, but would not work. When I hooked up through Connect midi it worked perfectly.
The only issue is having that connect midi box- any way to get it working with just the Roland.
Agin many thanks for your help- this is a great time saver for live performance!!
Do you know if the latest Aeros update will allow midi control through Bandhelper/SLM? Can we now change songs in Aeros with our Ipads to match songs in BeatBuddy?
Honestly, I did not try this yet. Until now, we never used the Aeros in a live performance. It was on the to-do-list from SS as far as I read. But I don’t know if it is still implemented or a midterm-goal such as the real midi-number for song selection is.
I tried updating some songs and add to midi
Somehow if you change one it messes up the numbers and I had to go though and redo all. Now I just want to add 2 songs, used a number that was empty( I thought) I used 1 1 75, looks like it is ok, but will
Not update inBB
Any thoughts