Using BB to play actual backing tracks - a short tutorial

[Phil_Flood]

The load time is not very long. The one long wav is smaller in total than most BB kits. But yes, all three techniques, OPB, traditional, and wav player could be in one set list.

[aashideacon]

here’s an article i made in 2015

BeatBuddy Karaoke: Steely Dan - Reelin in the Years

Drum kit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ffjs477rrr1yc8/sample.drm?dl=0 (pretty large-50megs) So what we have here is the fully instrumented backing track of Reelin in the Years - Steely Dan. Since you don’t want to continually loop the 4 minute wav file, the main loops is a single metronome click. Hit a fill to play the whole song, then end when it’s done. The drum kit is just two instruments: the metronome, and the sample. The main loop is a midi that triggers one metronome hit, and the f…

[Phil_Flood]

Yup, that’s what I found, and I was like, huh, why haven’t we done this? I’m guessing no one really explored it. But, then I had a guy ask me if we could hack the BB to work something like his JamMan XT Solo. Anyhow, I had never tried it because I remembered something about at 3.2mb maximum sample. But then, when I did give it a shot, it worked perfectly. My only problem came from the length of the trigger note. I thought if I had the long wav set as percussion, even a short note would trigger the whole wav. When I tried that, the wav faded out after a second or two. Then I made the midi note as long as the wav, and it worked as intended.

[Bigangbo]

Can you do a you tube video to your show process please ?

[Phil_Flood]

That’s outside my skill set. That’s why I use words.

[Pigy]

You said to “Put a null or blank file in the main loop”. Will that not just keep looping the blank file after the backing track has played?

[Phil_Flood]

Yes. And then you double tap to end.

[kinglerxt]

agreed a vid would help a lot on this

[Phil_Flood]

Just curious as to what parts need a vid? What don’t you follow?

Looking this over, once more, very little of what I discuss herein is done in BB Manager. Creating the wav is done in Logic, and then a tag stripping program. I use Switch. Creating the mid file is done in Logic.

[hagglelad]

Thanks very much for taking the time to share this @Phil_Flood. With the help of your guide I managed to extract a drum section from a song and have it loop continuosly.

Some notes in case it helps others:

• I used the “Piano Roll” within Logic Pro X on a Mac to create the midi track. I had to use the note “C1” which is the equivalent of midi 36.
• In BBManager I had to get the BPM set exactly right so that the wav/midi would replay at the exact right momemt. I just used trial and error until when playing the track back in BBManager it sounded good.

HTH, thanks again.

[David6]

Hi aashiedeacon - Old post but got my interest - would you still have the dropbox file please that I could have please? The link sasy not found. Thank you very much David

@BeatBuddy Karaoke: Steely Dan - Reelin in the Years Tips and Tricks

Drum kit: Dropbox - File Deleted - Simplify your life (pretty large-50megs)

So what we have here is the fully instrumented backing track of Reelin in the Years - Steely Dan.

Since you don’t want to continually loop the 4 minute wav file, the main loops is a single metronome click. Hit a fill to play the whole song, then end when it’s done.

The drum kit is just two instruments: the metronome, and the sample.
The main loop is a midi that triggers one metronome hit, and the fill is a loop that triggers the sample.
Swap out samples, and you can have any song or backing track

[aashideacon]

see if this works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j9bigz4vfzwkzp3/Reelin.drm?dl=0

[David6]

Hi and thank you
Downloaded - will check it out tomorrow
Big thanks
David

[dallonjay]

Sorry to post in an old thread but i seem to have run into a snag. Using Reaper, everything went according to plan until i clicked play in bbm. My wav file plays perfectly at the right tempo when i added it to the drumset. However when i hit play on the virtual machine, its playback is slow. Did i miss something?

[Phil_Flood]

See Hagglelad’s post above (#12 of 16). Apparently some trial and error is needed with setting the BPM in BBManager. I did not experience that, but there are a number of different BBM versions out in the wild, including several betas.

[Wolfsuit]

Success ! Thanks Phil and others. My only problem now is that BB (using intro or main loop to play the trigger) will play the whole wave through and cant be stopped. If you want to stop it for any reason, a double tap or transition will only start it again overlapping. Only fix I can find is unplugging. Not a big problem in that you wouldn’t want to start again in a performance situation. Many thanks again!

[Phil_Flood]

There is a setting for a “triple tap” to stop. This acts as a sort of panic stop and end the song immediately. Look through the settings in the BB manual for details.

[Wolfsuit]

Mmmm, its not working with these backing songs/drumsets.

[Phil_Flood]

I’ll check it out and get back to you. Do you have the external footswitch for your BB?

[Wolfsuit]

Yes I have a footswitch. Thanks.