Syncing BB with DAW

Phil_Flood · February 23, 2022, 9:09pm

If you have the midi files with the drum parts, and you want the drum parts only for BB, sure, that’s simple to do. All you have to do is select just the drum track, and export it as a midi file. Or, if for some reason CAkewalk is given you difficulty in doing that, first make a copy of the midi file sand save your original somewhere safe. then open up the copy. Delete all of the tracks except for the drum track. Export or save the song with just this one track as a midi file. You can then go into BB Manager, Click on the “+ Song” button between any two tracks in a folder, or select New Folder, and then click on +Song.

This will then display:

Enter the song’s name and tempo. Select a drum set from the drop down. Then, if you click on the box with … in the Main Loop section, you will be given a browser window from which you can navigate to the midi file you just made. Click on it, and it will be added to the song. You can then play the midi file in BBM. When you are done, save the project, and then export the project to your SD card (or synchronize, if you can), and you file will be on the card and available for play in the BB.

Feel free to ask for help.

If your stuck, send me the midi file, and I’ll take a stab at it.

Wayne_McNeil · February 24, 2022, 1:22am

Thank you very much sir. I sent the midi file to you so i’m hoping you can do something with it. However, if not then i’ll have to accept that i just can’t get it to work. Not sure why tho it gave me an error something about parsing but i’m at an age where all this computer stuff is confusing at times. I just love to play a bit of music. Again Thank you Phil.

Wayne

Phil_Flood · February 24, 2022, 1:45am

I didn’t get any attachment. Try sending it to my email, philflood@aol.com

Wayne_McNeil · February 24, 2022, 1:52am

attachment sent to your email… Thanks again
Wayne

Phil_Flood · February 24, 2022, 2:28am

I have it. I’ll work on it in the morning.

Wayne_McNeil · February 24, 2022, 2:44am

perfect. thanks again

Phil_Flood · February 24, 2022, 2:59pm

Wayne,

Here it is as a BB Song.

Isedaby.sng (15.7 KB)

and as a slightly corrected midi file (you have to unzip this):

isedaby drums.mid.zip (541 Bytes)

I did the song up just using one of my kits that I was pretty sure had something mapped for each instrument location. I used my SUB-Standard Pro Plain kit. You can find that here:

Your song has drums mapped at:
C1 midi 36 (kick drum)
E1 midi 40 (alternate snare)
Eb2 midi 51 (ride cymbal 1)
G2 midi 55 (splash cymbal)
G#2 midi 56 (cowbell)
B2 midi 59 (ride cymbal 2)
B4 midi 83 (no general midi is assigned to this. it is mapped to castanet in my kit)

I did notice a couple issues with the midi file that you sent. First was the instrument mapped to 83. Actually, in most of my kits, nothing would be there. Of course, if you are building your own kit, you can put anything there that you like.

Next, the midi file did not start on measure 1, beat 1. I have corrected this.

Finally, the file was filled with midi commands that there were not note information. This may have been causing your problem. It had MSB and LSB commands, instrument commands, midi volumes, etc. - all kinds of stuff that the BB does not use. I generally scrub all this from my files. I don’t know how Cakewalk does it, but in Logic, I can display a midi list editor that show the list of midi being played in the file. The BB only wants note information, i.e., note number, note on, note velocity, and note off. That is all that is recognizes. Anything else is superfluous and depending upon the rest of the mid set up can cause confusion with other gear. In logic, I can have the midi list editor filter the midi commands by type. That lets me display everything except the note data, which I then delete. The midi file I have sent back to you has just the note data, and is corrected to start on measure 1 beat one. You may want to examine this in Cakewalk, and see if you can find the differences between it and the file you sent me.

I hope you are able to use your beat. Obviously, you can change the default drum kit and default tempo in BBM to suit your uses.

Enjoy!

Phil

Wayne_McNeil · February 24, 2022, 3:48pm

Thank you sir for the work you put into this. In using the plain drm set you shared thru dropbox to me it plays exactly now as i wanted it. In the standard drum set it didn’t, but with the set you shared thru dropbox it does. So i’ll keep that around now for sometime to come. Newfoundland music is usually all party music and jigs and unfortunately they don’t get played much in your neck of the woods. I have a lot of songs that uses that style of beat along with the World/Waltz beats. Party time haha.

Thanks again sir you just made my day, now on to buy the Ballad song and drums beats to add to my BB. Ballad1 was missing and i wanted it.

Have a good day and i certainly appreciate the time you must have put into this. I would nevere had been able to figure it out.

Wayne

Wayne_McNeil · May 5, 2022, 12:07am

Hi Phil:
Seems you did a great job for me on that Ise da Bys beat (which i use a lot), i’m wondering if you’d have the beat by Darius Ruckus called Wagon Wheel?

Phil_Flood · May 5, 2022, 12:36am

Wagon Wheel (set up as capo 2) is in the T-Z folder. These are from the other Phil. Try that one out. If you need something more, let me know.

Wayne_McNeil · May 5, 2022, 1:06am

I went into your folder and downloaded the T-Z pdf and it won’t open in Acrobat. By the way thanks for the speedy response.
Wayne

Phil_Flood · May 5, 2022, 1:11am

You want the T-Z PBF. A pbf is a Beat Buddy folder. Just use File>import>folder in BB Manager. You will get a folder with quite a few songs, one of which is Wagon Wheel.

Wayne_McNeil · May 5, 2022, 1:16am

Stun me i read that as a pdf file. haha. Gotta go to bed i think. lol

Wayne_McNeil · May 7, 2022, 2:43pm

i finally got that Wagon Wheel file however, there doesn’t seem to be anything there that sounds like it would fit that song. Actually, i’ve had a couple sent to me and i’ve given them a listen and yet none of them sounds like it fits that song. Is it the files or maybe it’s me. Either way i can’t use them as they just doesn’t seem to be right.

Phil_Flood · May 7, 2022, 4:12pm

I’ll look for something better. I’ll let you know.

Wayne_McNeil · May 7, 2022, 6:02pm

thks Phil fo your patience

Phil_Flood · May 9, 2022, 7:06pm

Hi Wayne,

The midi service I use from out of the U.K. has a pretty good version of Wagon Wheel. I just gave it a listen. and I’m pretty sure I can turn that into a BB file for you. It has drums, bass, several guitars, and a banjo track. I could make it up with drums and bass only, or add the banjo to it, although if I did that, I’d probably use a kit that has what I called picked guitar. Let me know how you want to proceed on that, or, if you just want the midi, I can get that to you as well.

Phil

Wayne_McNeil · May 23, 2022, 11:35pm

All i need is a good drum pattern for it. Nothing on BB thsts suitable.

Phil_Flood · May 24, 2022, 12:20am

Wagon Wheel.zip (233.8 KB)

link for kit:

IF this works and it’s too busy, I can edit out what you don’t want.

skidooer_3 · May 25, 2022, 11:08pm

i found a song 'wasn’t that a party and it has the same tempo as the song Wagon Wheel except for the beats per minutes. I slowed it down to 145 and it’ll be quite sufficient to use as the beat for Wagon Wheel. thanks for the zip file, i saved that also as i liked it.