Hi all!
My name is Glenn. I am part of a 3 piece band, one which has long-suffered lack of a beat. After some considerable deliberation, I decided to order BeatBuddy. My box arrived, and I found it to be well packed. Upon first glance I was impressed-it seems very ruggedly built. I went on with doing all the initial steps; before plugging it in, I had the book read, as well as the downloads…
Wait. That is Too wordy. I am very frustrated. This is where I’m at…I’ve loaded: (several X…)
BB Beta Mac (W/ workspace on my Macbook Pro/ OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
BB Firmware v129
FINAL Content V120
Accent hit sound content v120
MIDI loops content 1.2
Unzipped zip files using IZipUnarchiver
On the Hardware, (the two pedals) I have:
Plugged unit in, and joined the enclosures with the provided 1/4 inch cable.
Inserted 4g sd card
Calibrated left and right switches.
Tested unit in my studio on my Fender Passport PD250 using audio cable and the 1/4 out jacks. All good.
Tightened the set screws on the knobs, as 2 out of 3 fell right off within 24 hours of unboxing. This unit must’ve skittered past quality control on a Friday.
On the bright side, I am happy with the sound it produces. The drums DO sound very real.
Here is the problem:
I followed the directions on the download page, and went into the app manager. From there, I was able to find the SD_CARD in projects, and low and behold, the manager sprang to life. Cool. But the kicker is, I am not able to put anything on this card, eject from my Mac, and load into the main box, and then find anything. Nada, Zilch, nothing. Specifically, there is a file I found called “Stu’s BeatBuddy MIDI” (and WAV’s to, if memory serves…) Anyway, I did everything I could think of to get “Gimme Shelter” onto the card, for use in the pedal. No joy. Not one thing I did came to where I could scroll and find something on the pedal. I’m not, nor ever will be a computer programmer, but I have been using Mac/Apple almost exclusively since 04; varies DAW’s and Garage Band…No expert am I, but I’m not a slouch, either. I have likely spent 12 hours with BB since Fri., and am not one iota closer to getting a setlist that can be used with the pedal.
I hope there is someone who might be able to lend me some guidance with this, before I totally “lose it”, and pack it all back up and get my $$$ back. Also, hopefully I’ve provided at least a good listing of what I have / have not done yet…It strikes me as strange, a huge portion of the “creative community” uses this Linux/Mac stuff, yet in this case my computer and BB can’t even chit chat with each other via USB cable.
OK, 'Nuff said; I have tried to write this in a cool headed, composed, manner, although I know I’m about at wits end.
Again, thanks in advance,
Glenn
Well…
At first, this is great you like the sounding of your BeatBuddy.
You add new songs to pedal in two simple steps.
You add the song to the project in BBManager via Import - Export > Import Song.
You export the whole project to the pedal (overwriting everything, answer Yes!) via Import - Export > Export Project to Pedal.
You’d better refer to manual for other question, look official guides (here in the topic about the latest Windows BBManager version, in Global Announcements). Then look Psalm40’s guides. They are great. Go to his forum profile http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?members/psalm40.87/ then select Information tab.
Enjoy!
P.s.: If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Still No-Go!
I attempt to import the song, (or folder-I’ve tried both several times) and I get I get to a point where there is nothing selectable. Like you said I go to
(1) add the song to the project in BBManager via Import - Export > Import Song. This takes me to user_lib. The content I need is not in that specific folder, so I scroll down to BEATBUDDY!, it is the folder on the desktop that I keep all my BB folders in. Once inside there, I locate Gimme Shelter, then open. It opens, but instead of anything being selectable, all I have are the really grey boxes - ie A Main.mid, B Trans.Mid, etc…Since I have nothing new to load to the card that that can go to the pedal, using the export
( (2) You export the whole project to the pedal (overwriting everything, answer Yes!) via Import - Export > Export Project to Pedal.)
is a moot point, without importing, there is nothing new to EXPORT to the pedal.
Yes, I have lurked around and read some the Windows/PC blogs, which is ok, to a point: I know that there are some differences between Pc/Mac, some big, some small. Using the Win as reading material provokes the thought that maybe on a good day I can cipher out the “important” steps that apply to me, while leaving alone the steps that don’t. If I was a BB “expert” since it’s inception, maybe I would know more of the workarounds. How much can it be assumed that the user knows to get to this blog, get “that” info, update the 'puter with this cool MIDI app that does this or that, or that there is this really cool hack listed (wherever) that the “user” should “just automatically know”?
If one has never seen a dirty floor or a broom, and someone directs you to a room with a dirty floor & hands you a broom, and simply says “get this floor clean”, I think the one has not been properly instructed with the “how”.
Again, I am all ears for some instruction here, and thankfully so!
Glenn
I completely agree with you, that BeatBuddy is a great tool with a somewhat lacking documentation. I hope this is fixed really soon, though.
The complete workflow looks similar to this:
Step 0. (Preliminary) Get the project to your BBManager from shipped SD card content. Export - Import > Import Project from Pedal, select the folder where your SD card is mounted to. Step 1.Change Project: Edit songs, import songs (BBS files), add new songs (MIDI files). Step 2.Export project back to pedal. Export - Import > Export Project to Pedal.
You perform step 0 only once to get started. Then just repeat step 1 until you get your song list ready. Perform step 2 every time you want to have your changes get to the pedal.
And I still recommend you to check out tutorial videos I was talking about in my previous post to get yourself more familiar with step 1.
Thanks for the effort guys, but I have had it. This will be returned, it is obviously not compatible. I simply do not have enough time & patience for unloading, reloading, multiple “Dropbox” visits, unarchiving zip files…et al; and still not one itsey- bitsey “Gimme Shelter” (let alone a normal setlist on my SD_CARD)
This would have been nice.
Thanks again, Glenn