all jazz posts here complain that nothng is usable out of the box. Way too busy, soloeverydamn bar.
also for keyboards (eg hotel piano lounge with vocals) all the drumming is too busy, so the beat buddy remains mainly for guitarist/vocalists, with extra drumming buttered all over?
korg roland yamaha casio you name them, any keyboard manufacturer has basic beats that work for live gigs. The problem is that evey keyboard has a different catalogue, different things to go wrong on a live gig.
Decemeber 24 and 31 are busy nights for live music , two gigs each night, and I bought the beat buddy this time last year because it would be sweet to have consistent drumming at each venue, I set up different keyboards and amps for a swift switch by motor bike through heavy traffic jams. The beatbuddy is back in its box for months, useless waste of money so far.
Beat Buddy is a professional price, developers please please redo all the jazz beats, edit out the mess and give us what we paid for - jazz beats out of the box. Give us what Roland Yamaha and all the other keyboard arrangers have for decades now, and please do it in style, do it with the magic and human feel we believed in, when you took our money and sold us a product we cannot use.
I do not believe that we will redo the original content, but we can always add more content to the library and maybe to the default content as well. The library gets updated periodically, and I can forward this request to our content director. Do you have a list of jazz songs you can submit where the drums are in your opinion(s), up to par?
I see lots of 'for sale & free ’ … beats out there using 1 or 2 min. midi’s broken down to main, fill, & endings …
It’s not too hard to break down Gorans submissions w a midi editor … if you find a particular useful groove.
or, do it yourself … they are just midi’s (musical text )… not backing tracks … IMO.
You might want to take a look at the Groove Monkee Jazz Buddy package. I just picked it up. It seems very useful. It’s on sale for $15.95 IIRC. It already has Beat Buddy mapped grooves in it, made into songs with fills and transitions. To my ear, they don’t sound too busy. Putting out a versatile jazz beats package is very tough. The genre is so broad. What one musician might use could be useless to another. Best wishes for a great New Year!
Thanks for your replies - it is NYEve, 2:30pm, two gigs to set up, and I just wish I had found Groove Monkey bEfore!! Bought it, thanks, sounds perfect on their website!
I have been trying the Beat Buddy again all this week, and I did buy many extra beats and drums from the store without any of them solving the problems. Groove Monkey with Ludwig kit should resolve the EQ challenges of the Beat Buddy.
I have some suggestions for main menu options that I noted yesterday, groove monkey seems perfect, but here is what I thought yesterday to resolve this with main menu options.
MAIN MENU - HALF BAR FILL INS
The fills and transitions are too boisterous. Replace with main beat (or intro clicks) until just after the third beat and they may be usable as they are across the whole library?
MAIN MENU - PRO INTROS
Replace all intros first three beats with (quiet) rim shots or stick clicks, or HiHat, intros then start from just after third beat. click click click bah ruppadum is perfect and professional.
MAIN MENU - SWING TIME
All 6/8 would play as swing time 4/4 (two bar units locked together making 12/8 effectively). Intros become double bars or with PRO setting click click click tishda tishada. Fill ins and transitions trigger to complete four swing beats.
MIDI MAIN MENU
Above settings available as MIDI instructions for example from OnSong software. However Midi changes on these would need to revert back to default at the end of the song, so you could set your default and then trigger this or that song specifically.
ONSONG MIDI
This would be for OnSong software to implement, but they probably will see in creased sales and so would Beat Buddy. Simple English commands from OnSong to set all Beat Buddy parameters so you never need to touch the floor pedal. English language, not computer code.
EQ SETTINGS
I am so used to great EQ on keyboards, these days, such a shock to have Beat Buddy EQ errors!!!
For guitar maybe you need more bass, but BeatBuddy tramples all over upright jazz bass or even piano bass.
Some simple EQ correction drum kit by drum kit would be nice, boost high, cut low, I don’t know exactly I am used to professional gear and Beat Buddy is bottom heavy on the toms and kick, except Ludwig kit which is fine. Because fills and endings use toms, oh boy, what a mess.
JAZZ SWING BEATS
Pink Panther. Fly Me To The Moon. You know, Groove Monkey jazz Buddy probably does the job, thanks for the suggestion !!
You might want to take a look at the Groove Monkee Jazz Buddy package. I just picked it up. It seems very useful. It’s on sale for $15.95 IIRC. It already has Beat Buddy mapped grooves in it, made into songs with fills and transitions. To my ear, they don’t sound too busy. Putting out a versatile jazz beats package is very tough. The genre is so broad. What one musician might use could be useless to another. Best wishes for a great New Year!
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Thanks Phil, I bought it, time is ticking away to the gigs today, can it load? Nope.
Seriously, from the information and a video Groove Monkey link to, you have to input these bar by bar?
.SNG files?
Give up again.
Formatted for beat buddy??? does not look like it. Again, beat Buddy promised Jazz beats OUT IF THE BOX immediately. THEN I bought half the shop of additional beats and drumkits. Now I paid again for Groove Monkey.
Here’s a list of the styles and feels included in Jazz Buddy:
01 Ballad
02 Swing Beat
03 Afro Jazz
04 Post Bop
05 Bongo Beat
06 Shuffle
07 2-Feel
08 Waltz
09 Blues
10 Samba
11 Jump Swing
12 Bossa
13 Mambo
17 sets = 13 sets listed above plus 2 extra ballad sets, an extra “swing beat” and a Bossa with Samba kick set.
Each set has “A” and “B” sections based on how a jazz drummer could play in that style (I used the drummer’s guidance to assemble the sets). The only exception is the Bossa with Samba kick set. I has one section.
Some sets have additional comping sections available as MIDI along with extra intros and outro fills.
Our Jazz buddy pack (
like many others) has a PBF file (it also has MIDI and .SNG files).
You will find the Beat Buddy files in your download’s “Other MIDI Mappings” folder. The folder is named “Jazz Buddy BB”.
The files are 100% mapped for Beat Buddy.
As Phil says above it has 17 “songs” with intro, outro, fills and transitions.
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The only think that I found to be less than intuitive with the installation of the beats was that the BB command used is “Import Folder.” You don’t actually import a folder; you import a PBF file, and then the folder magically appears with all the “songs” inside of it, ready to go. Pretty slick system, actually.
Hi Groove Monkey, thanks for your immediate clarification - the installation manual supplied has a very different video by Jonathan Aldridge, with instructions to watch from minute 6, installing beats bar by bar.
maybe have this fast installation video linked in the delivery email, and perhaps correct the information in the installation manual!
Looking forward to trying this! Thanks again! And Happy New Year everyone, it’s 2017 already!
I apologize for the out of date documentation. You’re correct so I uploaded new files today. Since creating install videos for about a dozen formats, I need to upload new files for everything. Thanks again and happy new year!
