Hi paulisher,
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!
Cheers,
Mark