Hi guys, I’m new here, my name is Joey. I’m a couple of weeks into Beatbuddying and loving it so far, but I have a lot to learn… I’m a longtime OnSong user though so that was a start for integrating
One thing I think could be improved with the setup is how we share drumsets and songs. The forum is great for songs, and persist has already helped me out with a song in the short time I’ve been on here, but it’s difficult to know what’s available and how good it is. I’ve seen some songs where they started as an initial file and then got altered by others in the forum to make them better. In other cases links are dead, or uploads from the old forum are lost (I want that Dancin’ in the Moonlight beat!)
I’m sure most people on here are familiar with Ultimate-Guitar.com and their setup, where you search a song and you’re given options for Chords, Solo, Bass etc. and the individual submissions are rated by the community and improved over time. How it would work for Beatbuddy would be the same principle, they could be rated by the community so you know right at the beginning what exactly you’re getting, and they could be split by Drum Kit, Drum Beat, OPD, OPB etc. Indeed for the bass version there could be several files for key transpositions (If you transpose it, upload it!)
I’d like to know the communities thoughts on getting this sort of resource together…
Anyway, I’m loving the whole experience so far and I can’t wait to see where it takes me musically. I have the house all to myself this weekend so I’m not planning on getting much sleep for a few days
Hi, Joey. The Resources section on the old forum had a star-rating feature and text field for users to rate and provide feedback but it was used by too few folks and then to express their appreciation; so that feature was not incorporated into this forum during the migration. Just not enough users take the time to provide meaningful and useable feedback. There are a few on this forum that will post their feedback but it tends to range from actionable (“the cymbals are too loud” or “the keys are not loud enough”) to subjective drivel (“your song sucks, dude”).
UG is a pretty good resource and I enjoy reading the objective feedback that users provide to whomever posts a good (and most times, a not-so-good) tune. I like the UG ability to transpose keys for the cheat sheets as that sometimes makes my life a little easier. It would be nice if we had a similar feature to transpose the key of a BeatBuddy song.
Many, but not all of us, try to transcribe a song in the same key as performed by the original artist. Several BeatBuddy users who download these songs have taken the time to learn how to use a digital audio workstation (DAW) so that they can transpose bass lines to better suit their vocal range or to adapt the song to their own style. Others when requesting a song know what key they need the song in and make that a part of their initial request (which makes it easier to work up from the get-go).
Some users’ expectations are probably way too high. They want the posted songs to be exact replicas of the original. That’s probably unreasonable as what I do is dependent on the quality of the MIDI source file and my very loose interpretation of what the song should sound like. Pretty much interpretive voodoo 
Cheers persist.I can understand the text reviews not always being the most productive way to drive improvements… I think you’re right and I could be really overestimating the number of people who would get involved in such a facility. I still think it could be something to look into in the future though, as the community of contributors is more likely to grow with a resource that promotes it
So far the user-generated content I’ve got my hands on has been top drawer - one from yourself and a version of Friday I’m In Love made by CharlesSpencer
I’m well used to GarageBand and I’m kind of using other people’s beats as a gateway into making my own to share, so I won’t be a leech!
Can you tell what DAW you use? I’ve exported the files from the two songs I’ve got so far to transpose them, and GarageBand isn’t exactly setup in a user-friendly manner to export as a .sng file
Appreciate that you shared your thoughts on how to improve the exchange. There are users willing to engage and share their experience and talents but I think the vast majority of users here would prefer to just lurk.
I use Logic Pro X because it made the leap from GarageBand intuitive and easy. Although I also use Reaper, it shows that it was developed first for Windows. It does the job and for 25% of the cost of LPX, you could do worse.
I finally managed to export MIDI from GarageBand there today, so I’ve transposed Friday I’m In Love to C to have fun with tonight. I learned more about the Mac in the past day or so than I have in the rest of the time I’ve owned it!
I’m fairly reluctant to invest in any decent software as the laptop is getting on in years now and has started struggling with newer versions of software, so I’ll truck on with GarageBand for the moment. I’m going to give London Calling a shot this weekend
Good to hear GB is working for you.
Since Reaper is trial-ware, you can try it for up to 30 days. I think it uses a lot less computer processing overhead and it might work well with an older Mac.