Using the Beat Buddy live - 1.76 beta firmware version

[Scott_Burton]

Also, is it possible to add the “pause” feature of the BeatBuddy as secondary part of the play/start button? On the BeatBuddy, it would seem to be handy to have the ability to pause sometimes. I wondered this as you have managed to retain the ability to hold the transition by holding down the pedal button for transition. It made me wonder if the pause feature could be enabled somehow.

[persist]

@Scott Burton

Also, is it possible to add the “pause” feature of the BeatBuddy as secondary part of the play/start button? On the BeatBuddy, it would seem to be handy to have the ability to pause sometimes. I wondered this as you have managed to retain the ability to hold the transition by holding down the pedal button for transition. It made me wonder if the pause feature could be enabled somehow.

If you have a remote foot switch, pause/unpause is available.

[persist]

@chesterjr1953

While i don’t have them with me, I believe the PUC uses a standard midi cable. The BeatBuddy should come with a midi adapter cable that has a plug for the BB with an additional 2 plugs (in/out) that also use a standard midi cable. The odd sized end of the adapter plugs into the BB (it is a unique sized plug/receptacle) and you use either the “out” or the “in” receptacle (depends on how you are using it) on the adapter cable.

The BeatBuddy midi sync breakout cable is sold separately.

[Scott_Burton]

@Scott Burton

Hi guys, this is awesome! I know it’s been a while since this thread has seen any activity, but hopefully you will reply.

I am wondering - the Blueboard has the capacity (in its original and connected apps) to have a volume/effects pedal plugged in to the side of the Blueboard, and then this to control volume in apps. Is there any way to do still include this whilst also having the above mentioned MIDI commands via the buttons? It would be pretty cool to be able to control the volume of the BeatBuddy with a volume pedal, and wondered if this could be done via the Blueboard still? Hope that makes sense! I am only beginning with MIDI and really have no idea how to program stuff - but I have got all of Ruairi’s things above to work.

Or am I going to have to put a volume pedal after the BeatBuddy (and before the mixing desk)?

Actually, I got it to work. Cheap volume pedal into side of Blueboard.

On Midiflow, I added a controller:
Incoming CC12
Outgoing CC108
Mode is direct
Remapping is linear

My one issue is that when the pedal is an minimum the level of the BeatBuddy reds 3%, which isn’t ideal.

Anyone any ideas why this has happened? And how to fix it?

[Scott_Burton]

@persist

If you have a remote foot switch, pause/unpause is available.

Indeed. But the Blueboard has 4 buttons. I have these set to start, transition, fill, stop.

I plan to situate the BeatBuddy up top so I can see it, so cannot use it in usual way. Thus my question.

[ruairiau]

@Scott Burton

I am wondering - the Blueboard has the capacity (in its original and connected apps) to have a volume/effects pedal plugged in to the side of the Blueboard, and then this to control volume in apps. Is there any way to do still include this whilst also having the above mentioned MIDI commands via the buttons?

I think so.I’m pretty sure I have a foot pedal at home that will do the trick, I’ll try it out.

@Scott Burton

Also, is it possible to add the “pause” feature of the BeatBuddy as secondary part of the play/start button? On the BeatBuddy, it would seem to be handy to have the ability to pause sometimes. I wondered this as you have managed to retain the ability to hold the transition by holding down the pedal button for transition. It made me wonder if the pause feature could be enabled somehow.

If you have ABCD set up as Fill, Start, Transition and Outro respectively then I’m fairly certain you can just replace the B (Start) and make it Pause instead as Start is kinda redundant; pressing the pedal or C (Transition) will start the drums also (I think).

[ruairiau]

@Scott Burton

Actually, I got it to work. Cheap volume pedal into side of Blueboard.

On Midiflow, I added a controller:
Incoming CC12
Outgoing CC108
Mode is direct
Remapping is linear

My one issue is that when the pedal is an minimum the level of the BeatBuddy reds 3%, which isn’t ideal.

Anyone any ideas why this has happened? And how to fix it?

In MIDI flow you can remap the range also. So you could make it that a small on the foot pedal (say 80-110) translates to a large range (0-127)

[Scott_Burton]

@ruairiau

I think so.I’m pretty sure I have a foot pedal at home that will do the trick, I’ll try it out.

If you have ABCD set up as Fill, Start, Transition and Outro respectively then I’m fairly certain you can just replace the B (Start) and make it Pause instead as Start is kinda redundant; pressing the pedal or C (Transition) will start the drums also (I think).

Thanks for this quick reply. As your second post shows, you saw that I got the volume pedal to work - I will try your suggestion for changing the range.

I got the pause feature to work on a second cheap pedal, plugged into effects pedal 2 jack input. Midiflow was SO SO useful for this!! Cannot rate this app highly enough. The settings I used were:

Incoming CC13
Outgoing CC111
Latch mode
Latch trigger value = 127
Middle trigger edge option
The “off” value is set to 127
The “on” value is set to 127 (as well)

@ruairiau

I’m fairly certain you can just replace the B (Start) and make it Pause instead as Start is kinda redundant; pressing the pedal or C (Transition) will start the drums also (I think).

Just to note - when paused (with my setup at least), I can press the transition button and the BeatBuddy will play the transition and change the part played. No other buttons do anything, which is fine - but helpful to know that I need to unpause before I can stop the song.

[Scott_Burton]

This is what my setup now looks like. This allows me to use all the BeatBuddy controls as well as control volume. I have chosen to move the START function to the first button, then TRANSITION, then FILL, then OUTRO.

Ruairiau - thank you so much for posting the original videos and details, you have really transformed things for me! I can now have the BeatBuddy completely up-top at eye level, allowing me to see the metronome as well as more easily switch songs, etc! Admittedly, it has cost me around £205 for the PUC+, Blueboard, BeatBuddy MIDI cable, MIDI volume pedal and MIDI foot switch, Midiflow app and Controller Remapping upgrade for Midiflow…but I reckon will be very helpful in the long term.

[Scott_Burton]

@ruairiau

In MIDI flow you can remap the range also. So you could make it that a small on the foot pedal (say 80-110) translates to a large range (0-127)

This worked. I set the values as:
INPUT: 10 to 127
OUTPUT: 0 to 100

This now means it goes down to 0% on the BeatBuddy, whilst still meaning the pedal has to go all the way to the floor for it to reach 100%. Thanks again Ruairiau!

[Scott_Burton]

@ruairiau

When you press play it will work just like pressing the pedal, so it will play whatever intro you have.

After getting the Blueboard/BeatBuddy combo to work my next step is OnSong…but awaiting injection of finance via Christmas!

However, I do have a question. When you advance to the next song on OnSong (either swiping or with another Blueboard), does the BeatBuddy start the drum beat straight away when it gets the MIDI command from OnSong? Or are you still able to control when it starts?

Ideally I’d like the second option, so that I move to the next song, then OnSong sets the BeatBuddy up with the required sng file, wherein everything is set including tempo…and then I get to start the song with the Blueboard pedal. This is especially helpful for songs that have a quiet start and the drums come in later.

Please tell me this the case, or if it can be done this way!

[ruairiau]

@Scott Burton

However, I do have a question. When you advance to the next song on OnSong (either swiping or with another Blueboard), does the BeatBuddy start the drum beat straight away when it gets the MIDI command from OnSong? Or are you still able to control when it starts?

It does not start straight away, you have to start it. In fact, if the beat buddy is already playing, it will stop the song and change the beat. I posted this video on the first page, you should be able to see how it works.

OnSong and BeatBuddy

[Scott_Burton]

@ruairiau

It does not start straight away, you have to start it. In fact, if the beat buddy is already playing, it will stop the song and change the beat. I posted this video on the first page, you should be able to see how it works.

Thanks for getting back to me. Yeah, I had watched the video several times but hadn’t joined up the dots, apologies!

[Restless_Ray]

Great thread! The info here should help me get my solo live gigs going with drums again. I’ve gigged with an Alesis in the past, but switching between songs interrupted my shows to the point that I quit using it. I’ve purchased (waiting on delivery) a Yamaha MD-BT01 wireless MIDI and Beatbuddy MIDI adapter cable. I’m not planning on the Blueboard, at this time. But, I have a feeling you will all talk me into purchasing one :).
…
Before I purchase Onsong, would you recommend any other app to use for solo live gigs? It appears Onsong has everything needed, but new apps appear all the time. The #1 need/needs are simplicity along with reliability.

[Greg32433]

@ruairiau

I just thought I’d share my current live setup so that it might help others. I’ve talked about various bits mentioned below in other posts, but I figured I’d collate all that information into one post so as to help newer people.
I play in a 2 piece, the singer plays guitar and uses a Boomerang loop pedal. I play bass and control the BeatBuddy. The BeatBuddy MIDI out is connected to the MIDI IN on the Boomerang to keep it in sync. With version 1.77 firmware, we now have this set to only sync while playing, this allows us to play songs without drums and it not interfere with the timing (no more pulling out the cable!).

This is my pedal board:
http://imgur.com/Y3GVep5

We both have iPads with OnSong, my iPad is configured to send out a MIDI command to the Beat Buddy via a PUC+ (see http://jamstik.com/products/pucplus) when I select a song; this sets the tempo and navigates to the correct folder and drum pattern. Here’s what one of my songs looks like in OnSong:

Psycho Killer
Talking Heads
Tempo:124
(Country 6 straight with count in)
MIDI: 0.23:9, CC106:0, CC107:124

So it’s got the name, artist and tempo. Then I have a comment in brackets to let me know what the beat is. Then lastly I have 3 MIDI commands that get sent to the beatbuddy via the PUC+. The first command selects the folder and drum beat. The next 2 set the tempo - it’s 124BPM in this example. CC106 is multples of 128 and CC107 is single values up to 127; both of these are summed to give the total BPM. Here’s another example:

Walk Of Life
Dire Straights
tempo:170
(Blues 1 count in)
MIDI: 0.23:0, CC106:1, CC107:42

CC106:1 = 128 + CC107:42= 42
Total (128+42) =170BPM

So whilst the beat buddy is a great design, having one pedal that does start, fill, transition and stop can cause a train wreck in a live gig. So I use an iRig Blueboard (see http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigblueboard/). Out of the box, the blueboard is quite difficult to use as the buttons are all set to latch. But of you hold down button ‘C’ while turning the device on, it will configure it to be a bluetooth MIDI device - this we can work with.
BeatBuddy version 1.77 firmware allows you to send midi CC messages to control things like fills, transitions and outros but the CC values don’t match what the blueboard is sending and there’s no way to change them or route them to the PUC+ (and thus the beatbuddy). So we need to use Midiflow app on the iPad to do this (plus you need to purchase the controller remapping addon). You can download my preset from here: http://preset.midiflow.com/mgIR9B4q0d. This will configure the buttons as follows:
A: Fill
B: Transition
C: Start
D: Outro

So what about drum beats? We play covers of popular songs and really the drums don’t need to be that complicated. Whilst I’ve made some custom drum beats for songs (you can find them in the resources section of this forum), I generally stick to basic beats where I can. I’ve created a custom folder with a selection of beats that pretty much do most songs that you’ll come across. Then I’ve made them all have a hi-hat count as part 1, then the main beat as part 2. So when we play live, when I start a beat we’ll get the hi-hats, then we transition into the main beat. If we come to a break, I transition back to the hi-hats and repeat as needed. Simple. You can download my drum beats here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1buwhf3l9xd83k/Go_To_Beats_Count_In.pbf?dl=0

I just wanted to take a minute and thank you again for this information…It has really made using the BB much easier and more fun.
Thanks Again
Greg

[Bootsy]

[QUOTE="Before I purchase Onsong, would you recommend any other app to use for solo live gigs? It appears Onsong has everything needed, but new apps appear all the time. The #1 need/needs are simplicity along with reliability.[/QUOTE]

Had my first gig last night with the Beatbuddy. Used OnSong for years. They work perfect together. I had the songs already in OnSong so it was minimal set-up. Connected through Blue Tooth and everything was easy to work with. I’d recommend it!

[didier_amont]

@ruairiau

CC106 is multples of 128 and CC107 is single values up to 127; both of these are summed to give the total BPM. Here’s another example:

hello Ruairiau i’m not good in english as well as in math formula’s can you explain us easily how you arrive todo this bpm programmation please

[Restless_Ray]

My first gig with Beatbuddy and Onsong went great. They work wonderful together. Ever since I got my Beatbuddy, I’ve been having a ball!

[ruairiau]

@didier amont

hello Ruairiau i’m not good in english as well as in math formula’s can you explain us easily how you arrive todo this bpm programmation please

I don’t don’t set the BPM via MIDI anymore. The OnSong guys posted a video on these forums not too long ago and showed some cool tips on how to control the Beat Buddy with Onsong. You can view it here:

Controlling BeatBuddy with OnSong

Here’s the easy way to automatically send the BPM in OnSong:
Utilities (Cog icon at top right) > Editors > MIDI > MIDI Settings (Spanner bottom left) > Tempo
I just send it on All Channels.

[didier_amont]

thank you very much I 'm gonna study all this loool