has anyone experienced this when transposing: When I select the bass line and move it down for some reason its off sync with the drums even through it looks and plays sync up in the midi editor, only after I load it into BB song its out of sync with the drums ?
Thanks for this usefull post. I’m now a MidiEditor fan because it’s the only free software to adapt hitself to drums sounds when I import pattern files from BeatBuddy.
Would it be possible to add a MiDi message (some CC Control Change) in the MidiEditor bottom line to make a pattern self jumping to a next one once re-imported in the BeatBuddy manager software (mine is up to date on 1.8.5) ?
At the moment any midi cc or PC commands get deleted when the midi file is imported into a song in beatbuddy manager. I had previously tried adding PC commands
Yes Guitar Stu, you’re right, I’ve seen them at the end of each BB pattern, but it seems the BB doesn’t execute CC commands placed into the MiDi file or maybe I ignore the right syntax to make them applying on the BB bank itself (I mean once BB is running standalone) ?
This would be usefull to pass over the 500 notes limit.
Great tutorial but I’m stuck. Two issues already (trying to move Faith to the key of A)
- It won’t play through computer speakers
- My export midi file looks nothing like the screen shot you have. Bass should kick in at the first measure but it doesn’t (see screenshot below) I’m sure it’s something I’m doing wrong:
[ATTACH=full]5249[/ATTACH]
I don’t know how you got the screen to look like it does above. I am guessing when you selected all the notes, you continued scrolling right, and lengthened all the notes. But, I took a look at the file, and here you go.
Now, I know what you really want to do it to be able to edit this stuff yourself. I would suggest learning how to edit in a more mainstream DAW - Audacity, Reaper, Logic, Cubase, etc. I tried to look at and work with this file in the built-in midi editor, and I gave up in a hurry.
As to why it won’t play back: it’s a midi file. What you are editing is data. The data tells a real or software instrument to play a tone assigned to a midi note (0 through 127) at a certain intensity, for a certain length of time. Something would need to be assigned to your midi player to do that. Think of BBM as a midi player, which it is. We assign a drum kit to a song. The drumkit is the set of notes. BBM works like a split keyboard, if we want it to. We can assign a different set of tones to different part of the keyboard. With “Faith” with have the drum kit assigned to midi 33 through 57, and the bass from midi 62 through 88. Unless you have something assigned to those midi numbers, you are not going to hear anything. And, if you did have something assigned, most likely, it would sound like nonsense, since the drums and bass are merged together into one track.
BBM (Beat Buddy Manager) can export the midi file for editing, but its all in one track. Also, at least in my experience, and at least on older BB songs, those before we got recognition of midi note off, and before we eliminated the 500 note limit, always export as completely drum looking tracks. Bass notes have no length, so we need to make them longer to make the file work. Otherwise the bass part just sounds like a bunch of ticks.
Thanks so much for all of your support and Faith in A! I’ll look into some other software to help me out. I did try again last night to export the midi and on the 2nd try, looked more like the tutorial. I’m wondering if it’s a software glitch or if the problem is between the chair and the keyboard!
Again, thanks so much for your help.
It’s been a month (to the day!) and I still can’t get the Midi Editor to recognize the midi files. It typically shows up blank. All I want to be able to do is move some of the bass songs do a different key. Any other pointers, tips or software suggestions? I even tried to use the midi editor in BeatBuddy Manager but for the OPB songs, it’s way too much legwork.
Check out NCH MixPad Midi editor. It’s not a full-fledged DAW. It’s designed just to edit midi, and it’s got a free trial. I use one of their other programs for part of my sample making process, and it’s really great.
Having tried this now, it is useful for editing midi, and it is a fairly robust DAW. And, for personal use, it’s free. Available for PC and Mac, and, if I recall, for tablets, too. I won’t be giving up Logic Pro X, but for those looking for a low or no cost editing solution, this is another option - NCH MixPad.
Phil recommended this to me and I played around with it this weekend. I’m a newbie with DAW and had great success changing the bass line to a different key. Very easy to use. Recommended! Thanks Phil!
Hello All, found this thread as I want to change Guitar Stu’s “Use Somebody” song file & transpose to original key of C.
Is there a newer tutorial with active screen shots?
Thanks!
hey cant view these photos all blurred is there another option
Thanks Persist got the volume with windows 10 sorted phew now for this next step
Hello
Where can i get the free Midi Editor ?
The link here does’nt work.
Thanx a lot
Hi, Persist -
I’ve been fooling with this for a while and almost have it figured out. I’m simply trying to transpose the key to an OPB that I have. I exported the midi file from the BeatBuddy Manager, and then imported it into Reaper. I was able to figure out how to transpose and it worked ok, except that I transposed all of the lines so the drums shifted as well and sounded funky. In other words, the hi-hat became a crash cymbal, etc…
There are 127 lines in the midi mapping, and I’ve figured out how to transpose just some of them, but my question is how do you know which ones are the drums (to leave alone and not change) versus the bass line and keyboard (which I need to change keys for )?
I’m hoping this isn’t as complex as it sounds. I’m close enough to taste it, but can’t quite get there.
Any help or advice would be appreciated!
Thank you!
Hi, 40yoPirate. I’m glad you’re making progress. Once you get it all sorted out, it won’t be too hard to do.
The answer is: “it depends” on the kit you’re using. A simple way to find out is to use the pdf that accompanies the download for Phil_Flood’s custom drum sets and it explains the MIDI range of the bass, drums and keys (or other instruments). Another way to find out is to open the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) MIDI Editor and examine the MIDI ranges for the various instruments.
Because I now almost exclusively use Phil_Flood’s kits, the MIDI range of the bass in my songs is always 0-31 (below the drums, 33-59) and the keys and horns usually are located above the drum in the MIDI range 60-127.
Here’s a hopefully simple example using Can’t Help Falling in Love and the Bosendorfer Jazz Trio 60+C1 kit; I’m including screen shots to help illustrate my points:
Zipped MIDI export file for bass, drums and piano of Can’t Help Falling in Love
Can’t Help Falling In Love.mid.zip (5.2 KB)
MIDI Editor screen display of the bass and drums:
Reaper MIDI editing screen display for the bass and drums MIDI range
Reaper MIDI editing screen display for the piano MIDI range
The key takeway that I mentioned in my transposing bass tutorial: be careful when transposing notes that you don’t go outside the MIDI range for that instrument. If you wanted to lower the bass by say, 5 semitones (transpose -5), make sure to raise the bass notes at MIDI ID position 4 by one octave before you try to select all of the MIDI bass notes (in this case, 4-21) and then transpose -5). The same goes for transposing the piano notes -5 — select just the piano MIDI notes in row 62 and transpose +12; then you can safely select all of the piano notes and transpose -5.
Hope this makes sense and that I haven’t further muddied the waters for 'ya!
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Thanks so much, Persist! This is awesome.
I used the method where I opened the BBM Midi Editor and the mapping was all right there for me. (IT took a good while to open, but after “thinking” a lot, it opened).
Then I was able to lower the key in Reaper from D to C by lowering lines 0-31 (bass) and 60-127 (keys), leaving the percussion in lines 32-59 alone, and it worked perfectly!
Thanks again so much for your help.
You really went above & beyond, and it is appreciated!
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