I rented the BB mini and I love it but I cannot bring myself to purchase it. Here is why. It lacks a bass line. The Boss Dr. Rhythm, for the same price as the mini, has 3 variations, with 3 fills and most importantly, a bass line for each rhythm. When playing solo, just drums and guitar does not sound very full. The DR 3, with its bass lines, does. I regret this, because the portability, features and overall quality of sound with the BB is better.
Why was it not designed to at least accomodate a bass line or have this feature added at some point? Even my Korg Pandora from a decade ago has simple I, IV, V bass progressions.
I think the lack of a bass line for the solo performer is a huge disadvantage and will hurt the product down the line.
Is there any plan to include this feature or has someone come up with a workaround? I imagine this cannot happen on the BB mini, but on the main BB? If so, and it were really a viable set of bass lines, I would buy it i a heartbeat. Am I the only person who feels this way? TIA
Welcome, Shane. Try the full-size BeatBuddy pedal. With it, you can play one-press songs with bass. There’s a robust user community that is constantly uploading songs that includes bass. Check out the Resources section of this forum.
… even my old alesis 18 can make bass lines .
It seems more of a ‘novelty’ item than a real working model.
not using the potential of the BB forum’s from contributors for the BBmini, seems to be a huge oversight.
I’d choose the big brother.
One problem with including bass lines within the drum pedal is that the song structure and key is then defined by the bass line. When using the BB without bass lines it allows you to operate it more freely in a live situation without having to implement transitions to different drum parts in line with the song chord structure. Many blues songs, for example, could keep the same drum pattern all the way through. This is a distinct advantage when trying to focus on other things like playing the guitar and singing while operating the BB. In a blues context a real drummer would usually change drum style to vary verse 3 from verse 1 for example. Trying to do this with bass lines included makes the setup more complicated. Seems to me that an ideal solution would be one where the bass parts are run separately from the drum parts but still in sync with them. A BassBuddy pedal perhaps?
Since I added the bass lines hack I haven’t used the beat buddy without bass lines unless playing with a human bass player and then I just swap to a standard drumkit with no bass in it. It feels so empty when there is no bass to play along with.
And your right with the trying to operate the beatbuddy while playing guitar and singing. Keeping it simple is key and with smart midi editing this is no problem when including bass lines.
Here’s an idea: a setup with 2 Beatbuddies, one for drums and the other for bass. Ignoring the cost, which I know would be significant, I was wondering how this could be implemented. You would keep the original BB as standard allowing you to transition and add fills when you wanted during a performance. And the other BB would have bass parts (and any other instruments you might want - something that could be very interesting when the Note Off issue is addressed in future firmware). In the second BB you could save drum kits as different bass keys: each drum kit would represent a different key you want to play in. I am assuming the first BB could keep the second one in sync with tempo and midi clock etc. But if not both could be kept in sync using an outside midi clock source from an app like Set List Maker or similar. In the second BB you could store different bass sequences per song part and various riffs in the fills section as turn-arounds or accents providing real-time variance in the bass as well as drums. Set List Maker automation could control the transitions between song parts on the second BB keeping the bass parts in line with the song structure even if you effect a transition in between. Just an idea…I suppose it depends on the song whether such as setup would be useful or not.
Hi asshideacon
Am I able to now process 2 separate midi channels, 1 for bass and 1 for drums.
I have tried doing this by moving the drums on Beatbuddy to start from midi note 60 and adding a midi type 1 file which includes a track with bass notes ( to play on channel 7 ) and drum track ( edited to match the drum map I made on Beatbuddy on channel 10). I am using the Yamaha MU15 for the bass output. The problem I am experiencing is that I can only output one instrument only dependant on which instrument appears first on the midi file. For example, if the bass track is the first track, it outputs to the MU15 but no drums are output from Beatbuddy.
If drums is the first track it, Beatbuddy outputs sounds through to my amp, but without bass midi output.
Am I doing something wrong or is this still work in progress.
Cheers
Laval
right now the pedal doesn’t support multiple tracks, but it is definitely on The List to do exactly this set up!
You can achieve what you want by using a “with bass” drumkit, and moving your bass notes up to note 64 (or whatever the drum kit needs), and merging the two tracks into one. Then the beatbuddy will output both bass and drums!
Hi aashideacon
sorry for delay in replying. I’ve been experimenting with Beatbuddy and looking for alternative ways to play a midi file with bass (due to clicking sounds when using a kit with bass file). Midi files I have are Sweet Child O mine (i’ve also grouped Guitar Stu version on this song to play as one button press using his excellent separate channel Rock drum & bass kit); Paradise City; Brown Eyed Girl On the Road Again; usual stuff etc.
I would suggest the ‘Monster Mash’ as a good song to do for halloween - (we are doing as a full band).
the bass clicking sound should have been fixed a while ago… there are a few kits that have clicking in the sample itself, but you should be able to find a good new kit that doesn’t click
