Hey all,
I have been gigging with the BB for awhile, but have yet to try using it to sync with the ditto looper I have on my board. I have heard that it doesn’t work all the time.
First–does it work?
Second–what are the advantages of connecting the two vs. just clicking the looper in and out in time?
Curious what everyone’s experience is, how it works, the variety of things you are doing, etc.
I use it with a ditto looper 2. You need to loop the BB then switch it off as it seems to go out of sync over the song length, then just use the accents (cymbals etc), also that way stopping the looper stops the beat as well
I bought a Ditto x4 recently and returned it the next day. I posted here about it: http://forum.mybeatbuddy.com/index.php?threads/beatbuddy-and-ditto-x4-midi-sync.5283/page-2#post-33395. I was hoping to make a simple looping setup that was solely on my floorboard; but after some testing it was clear that it was vastly inferior to the iPad setup I have.
To answer your questions
Yes, it sort of works. But you have to have expert timing; it only syncs to the beat not the bar. Also, I had the latest firmware and it was just buggy. It would drift out of time and occasionally stuff up altogether. I had no confidence in it at all.
You can’t just click a looper in time with something like the beat buddy that is playing a precise BPM; it might sound alright for a few bars but the slight differences will compound over time. Connecting MIDI devices allows them to share a clock for precise synchronization - although, MIDI implementation and support varies a lot between vendors.
Have a look at my setup here:
I punch in and out loops and they queue up to the nearest bar. There’s no tap dancing, no precise timing, just simple and intuitive workflow.
Absolutely ruairiau, but for simple set-ups and for some of ‘us’ who are not ‘midi-minded’ it’s a case of just keep it simple. Record the beat over the loop then switch off the beatbuddy as otherwise it slowly goes out of sync, you can if you practice bring it in and out for transitions etc but otherwise once looped just stop it. This is what I do (and did last night at a gig), no-one notices unless they are serious muso’s, and then they tend to be understanding of the limitations of beatbuddy/looper set-up. I suppose it’s diffferent if you are a pro, but then you would get your sound tech to sort it out, or as stated have a fully programmed (expensive!) set-up, in that case you wouldn’t be using a beatbuddy!
Totally agree Davm; keeping it simple is ideal. Too many moving parts and it can all fall apart quite easily. However, Mark was specifically asking about using MIDI with the Ditto, that’s what I was trying to address.