Set tempo with OnSong on Beat Buddy

How do I assign a tempo to BB using OnSong? I cannot find the items labeled CC106 and CC107 which I’ve gathered are what you use to set tempo.

In OnSong in the song header, enter the term “Tempo: xxx” where xxx is the BPM.

You can send a CC106 and than CC107 from the title- or a section header. Just press the title for two seconds and with the “+” you can insert MIDI Controls. Example: CC106=0 and CC107=120 change the tempo on BB to 120 bbm.

regards Matthias

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Setting tempo via MIDI to BB

FORMULA: Tempo = MSB * 128 + LSB

Here is an example:

TEMPO 127
MSB: 0
LSB: 127
127 (Tempo) = 0*128 + 127 (in line with the formula above)

Another example:

TEMPO 128
MSB: 1
LSB: 127
128 (Tempo) = 1*128 + 127 (in line with the formula above)

And one final example:

TEMPO 150
MSB: CC-106 data = 1
LSB: CC-107 data = 22

I’m missing something. I’ve used MSB and LSB to assign the beat style such as Blues, Pop, Gig Basics etc.

I think you are talking about the MIDI Bank Select for CC-0 and CC-32 messages for selecting folder and style/song which also use MSB and LSB data. This is different compare to the Tempo Select which also happens to use MSB and LSB data.

Ok so where and how do I find the correct MSB / LSB? Thank you for your help!

There are 2 ways to set the tempo in OnSong to control BB song/beat tempo:

  1. In your OnSong song file, add the following text. This was mentioned by Phil_Flood previously in the thread. This is the recommended way and what I use. Replace the tempo, 120, with the tempo of your song.

    Tempo: 120

  2. Use the CC-106 and CC-107 as explained by matze and BeatBuddy Support in the thread.

Hope this helps!

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@beatbuddy2548 I am unfamiliar with @fled’s method (I do not use OnSong all that much), but it definitely seems simpler to do it like that. So if it works, definitely do it that way. :slight_smile:

I will elaborate a little more in detail as to what the guidelines I gave are, hopefully I can clear up any existing confusion from my explanation:

  1. You essentially need to send two separate CC messages, in sequence to form “one” tempo command. So you need to send CC-106 and then CC-107 right after that, both with the values according to the formula above, from the master device (in this case, OnSong) to the BeatBuddy.

  2. Keep in mind that OnSong will send the messages in the order they are configured (to the best of my knowledge). So if you are using OnSong to navigate to a particular song on the BeatBuddy not currently loaded on the screen and you want to send the tempo command to that song, then the program change command (to get to that song) needs to be set first prior to putting CC-106 and CC-107 for setting the tempo, which would come right after that.

Also, check out our MIDI reference guide, it has a ton of useful info: https://singularsound-publicly-downloadable.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/manuals/BeatBuddy-MIDISettings-Firmware-v1.77.pdf

Please do let me know if any further clarification is needed. I can also be emailed directly at support@singularsound.com.

Thanks to all of you for your advice. I really appreciate it. I have finally figured out, with your help, how to set Beat Buddy tempos with OnSong. This will really make things a lot easier when performing. Here are some instructions for those of us who are not as familiar with this process. I hope this helps.

To Set Beat Buddy Tempo using OnSong:

  1. On OnSong press and hold the song title until the MIDI EVENT box appears.

  2. Press “+” on the bottom right corner

  3. The first box is TYPE and should be set to Control

  4. The second box is CHANNEL and should be set to Channel 1 by clicking the + sign

  5. The third box is CONTROL. Click on the word “None” and scroll down to “Control 106” and click it

  6. The fourth box is VALUE. For tempos of 127 or less this should be set to 0 (zero)

  7. Then click Done in upper right corner of MIDI Event window

  8. Now start over with steps 2, 3, and 4. This time on step 5 click the word “None” and scroll down to “Control 107” and click it

  9. Then set the VALUE at your desired BPM. This process works for BPMs of 127 or less.

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OK, that is ridiculously complicated compared to just putting the tempo command in the song text. But if you insist on using the MSB, LSB system, go forth and be happy.

So to build on your message, step 4, if the tempo is greater than 127, but less than or equal to 255, then the value should be 1. Step 9, for value between 128 and 255, enter the number that equals the tempo minus 128. In other words, 128 equals 0, where the value entered in step 4 is 1, 200 equals 72, where value entered in step 4 is 1.

Or, you can just enter the Tempo command in the song’s lyrics header as follows. Here is my header for Riding with the King, by BB King and Eric Clapton, written by John Hiatt:

Riding With The King
BB King, Eric Clapton, John Hiatt
Time: 4/4
Tempo: 115
Key: B

(kit: Motown Piano & Brass)

After this, I start with the lyrics. OnSong see this header, and treats the first line as the song title. It treats the second line as the artist, and where there is more than one artist, names are separated by commas.

Time signature is line 3, entered as “Time: x/x” There is an intentional space after the colon.
Tempo comes next, or you can do midi math.
Finally, you can set the key.

I put the kit info in parentheses, as I use BB to call this, and it is just there in the song for my reference. But yeah, if you want to calculate MSB and LSB, go ahead.

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This is how I did it: https://youtu.be/CU9R8Z2web4

Works perfect for me.