Using beatbuddy as a sample player & mp3 input

BeatBuddy General
1

2 questions before I buy this thing.

  1. Can I use this to play a sample ie. dialog or short musical piece in wav format?

If so this would really help live since my band wants to incorporate samples into our performances.

  1. Since the beatbuddy has dual inputs could you plug a guitar into one and an mp3 player into the other input?

Thanks

2
  1. You would have to try the wave file on the accent beat window in Beat Buddy Manager. I’ve had it play some but for the most part others will not play. It’s mainly set up for just the short beat or crash cymbol.
  2. The dual inputs will take any line level signal so yes the dual inputs would accept an MP3 player.

I never thought to use it that way. Thanks for the suggestion. If you run it through a mixer first you could play the MP3 in stereo along with the guitar on one track or the other or if the guitar ran through a stereo pedalboard and then into the Beat Buddy then you could mix it all in stereo.

Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.

3

Agree with FSP - you’d be happier with a small mixer rather than trying to use the BB to add an mp3 player into the mix. Behringer sells a couple of cheap small mixers that have worked really well for me.

Regarding your samples, you could add one (or maybe one for each loop in a sing) to each song via the BB as an accent hit but they will have to be short. I don’t recall what the size limit is in the BB for accent hits.

4

Size limit = 100Mb for the drum set
3Mb for the accent fill
Source: http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/wav-files.5794/#post-23035

5

Thanks Persist. That was needed. Also, if your handy with a soldering iron and a wrench, you could easily build a mixer with 2 Volumes and maybe 2 Tone Controls. I did that and put the mixer “After” the Beat Buddy which quieted the harsh cymbals down and took the initial volume of the Beat Buddy itself down to a usable level closer to line level and you could probably add the MP3 in at that point. You’re giving me some ideas to use myself. I have a lot of Rhythm tracks in MP3 format and can’t use them in BB Manager to incorporate them into the Beat Buddy, but I could tap them in right at the mixer for the Beat Buddy.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.

6

I have several examples in my Resources about using raw wavs:
http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?resources/public-enemy-fight-the-power.242/

http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/beatbuddy-karaoke-steely-dan-reelin-in-the-years.4349/#post-14836

http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/beatbuddy-loops-via-samples-warren-g-regulate.4441/

7

These samples are good aash. How did you make these? Can you please teach us how?

8

Lots of time in Audacity looking for music without lyrics. Sometimes you find “isolated tracks” that have the vocals removed, but it’s the real studio recording! I think i did the whole Fight the Power just using the song itself, and that’s why you here a bit of vocal at the end of one of the samples. Audacity is really awesome for editing wavs/mp3s. Beatbuddy loves wav files exported from Audacity, so it’s a perfect match.

The tricky part is to make the midi trigger the wav, and have the length of the wav = the length of the midi. The good part about doing this with rap/dance songs, is that they like to stick to standard BPM, like 108, 120, etc, so it’s very easy to calculate the lengths of the loops.

You actually have everything you need to reverse engineer how i did it: the midi (in the song), and the wavs triggered by the midi (in the drumkit). I LOVE how Fight the Power came out. My white whale is Humpty Dance… There’s no good loop to snag in the song that represents the different parts without vocals or something over top of it.

9

when listening, how badly do you want to yell: “1989 the number! Another summer!” bouncebounce

10

I’d like a wav file for the organ transition break in samba pa ti … in the bb mgr :wink: (like a vibraslap does now) :wink: