I’m really excited to start with the Beat Buddy although since reading this forum and watching videos, I’m realizing that this endeavor is going to be way more complicated than I originally thought. Here’s what I want to do and what I’m working with. The main thing I want to do is to sync the Beat Buddy with my TC Helicon VoiceLive 3. Part of the reason I bought the Beat Buddy is that I couldn’t do this with my Boss Dr 770, even with the help of a ‘MIDI Solutions MIDI Delay’ pedal which helps sync two devices up. I would get them perfectly synced up (you program the MIDI Delay on your computer to delay the Drum machine a certain amount so that they are in sync), but then a few moments later they would be off again. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get it to stick. So, I bought the Beat Buddy to do this but also because this seems like a great product. So, my questions are: 1) Will I be able to sync the beat Buddy with my VL 3 AND do you think I will need the MIDI Delay pedal to accomplish this. 2) I use a Mac but do have access to a PC. Would you recommend that I just use my Mac or begin with the PC and move to the Mac when the issues with the Mac software are sorted out, and would that (going from PC to Mac) cause any problems? 3) I thought this was going to be a bit like ‘plug and play’ but in reading the forum, I can see that there is a lot of work to do when it comes to importing samples, programming songs, etc. Can someone suggest a couple of good links to learn about this.
I know that these are a lot of questions but any help is greatly appreciated!!
Well, as far as I can understand your problem, you needed the MIDI delay pedal to help offset the fact that Boss pedals are known to be pretty faulty at MIDI sync’ing. You should be able to connect BeatBuddy to your VL 3 without such a device.
I saw a lot of users here on the forum do have TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 and are pretty happy with both devices!
Despite I would really recommend sticking to using Windows version simply because I didn’t have a lot of time to thoroughly test the Mac beta version, it should work pretty well on Mac OS 10.10 Mavericks and 10.11 Yosemite. These are the two platforms I’ve personally checked. Anyways, fear not - migrating from either platform to another is really easy - you just export project to pedal SD card from one platform you are migrating from, and then import this same project from pedal SD card to the other platform you are migrating to. Please note, that the only way you can access SD card on your Mac currently is via an external SD card reader (not included). There are technical difficulties with that you cannot simply plug BeatBuddy into your Mac and access SD card as easily as you can do on Windows. This is indeed pretty shitty, and I hope it will be fixed soon.
About links - I am sorry as I have no idea what you wish to learn about, but I would strongly recommend using forum search - http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?search/&type=post. Just input whatever you wish to learn about, and hopefully you will have something interesting to read! You can also filter the results to specific posters. This is really helpful, and you can for example search through my own earlier posts, because almost everything was already covered. Many things multiple times already For example, I’d recommend you to read about Queue Period. This may be an interesting read for you, because I personally feel this very feature of a BeatBuddy opens up a lot of opportunities in your playing! Especially when you also use a looper.
Thanks so much for your helpful reply! With regards to the delay (or latency): I thought that it was common (keep in mind that I am quite new to doing midi sync), when syncing a drum machine with another device with a click track that there would be a delay, or sync issue. I would be delighted if this works well between my VL 3 and the BB, however, I think I’ll hang onto my ‘midi solutions midi delay’ pedal until I’m sure they will sync up-they have a 30 day return policy.
My last question, which was very confusing arose from reading so many different approaches that BB users on this forum are doing that, frankly, my head is spinning as to how I should best proceed. In other words, too many options!
As you know, my main thing is to get the sync with my VL 3. I have virtually no experience working with midi samples, though I have programmed drum loops and ‘songs’ on drop machines successfully. I’m definitely willing to learn because I want to get the best out of the BB and my VL but I’m just asking for a little guidance to narrow down my options. I hope this is clear.
Oh, another question is, that I play some Indian music and would like to have tablas samples on the BB. Are they already on the BB, our would I need to import some?
Thanks again!
One other thing is that I have bootcamp on my mac. Would it be useful to use that? Btw, my mac runs on Yosemite 10.10.
Thanks!
Btw, I still don’t have my BB-it should arrive in a few days.
To the best of my knowledge, boot camp will help you run OS Windows right on your Mac. Whether it would be helpful or not is up to you, as after you’ve burned a ton of money for your Mac, you will also have to buy Windows license.
While you are waiting for you BeatBuddy, you can already download the Mac beta and give it a try.
Regarding your previous post, I have no idea what ‘tablas’ is. If you need specific sound samples of some instruments, you will need WAV sound files - you can either record them, download from internet or buy them somewhere. You can add them to the BeatBuddy drum sets via BBManager.
I still strongly recommend you use the forum search feature as it will really help you get acquainted really fast!
I have already successfully downloaded the mac beta though I’m not really sure what to do with it. Is there a manual or video that can help me learn how to use it?
I looked around a bit today for some tabla samples and loops. Lots of stuff seemingly for free. I’m assuming that the best way to go is samples instead of loops. Loops seem much easier but I guess samples are better if you want to have the drums do exactly what you want then to do. I haven’t worked with samples in a computer program yet but I guess that’s where I’m going!
I assume that this is the way we can create our own kits and stuff within BB manager, correct? Can we create our own drum loops with these samples, also within BB manager or do we need to do that somewhere else? Also, I’m not able to open any of the files that I’ve downloaded from this site. The message says that I don’t have the app to do that. Do I need to download something specific for that? Thanks again!
You can create new kits using the BB manager and the WAV samples - see my videos if you don’t know how.
A BB song is made up of a number of short (4 - 8 bars) midi files, however to edit or create the midi files to make the BB song and thereby trigger the samples, you will need an external midi program and there are lots on the market in various price ranges. @CharlesSpencer has created a simple midi editor in Java see here http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/free-midi-editor-designed-for-beatbuddy.2545/#post-9939
Unfortunately what you are trying to do is not very easy to accomplish. You will need to create a midi file to trigger the wav samples and as you can’t trigger the samples in the BB externally using midi you will need to add the samples to another piece software a sampler or a sound font, otherwise you won’t hear correctly what you are programming.
I started trying to create a sound font of the standard kit but as this was the first time I attempted something like this I ran into issues as I was not sure what I was doing and trial and error seemed to take too long.
This will be easier once the BB is fully midi compatible but to get to that stage may take some time.
Based on what you said, I think I stay away from making my own beats for now. I’ll just work on importing some tabla samples and bringing them into the beats already in the BB manager. I think I have this right.
My BB arrived yesterday (yay!) and have had fun just messing around with it-very cool machine. MIDI cable and foot switch have not arrived yet so I haven’t had an opportunity to try any syncing yet. Another issue came up, though, is that I think I need to update my BB to the newest firmware, right? My understanding is that you’re supposed to go to the ‘tools’ in BB Manager and in the dropdown menu there will be a firmware update. With my BB manager, the only thing in the ‘tools’ dropdown menu is ‘help’, no firmware update. Thanks for any guidance you can give me. I’m excited to get this rolling but it’s a bit like going in the dark for a bit.
Your BB will have come with the latest firmware, the firmware update was removed from the latest version of the Software as it did not work and broke the BB requiring a very specific firmware to get it going again.
For example, I’d recommend you to read about