BeatBuddy

Version 4.44 supports the BeatBuddy pedal directly.

Run unrealBook and choose Do>BeatBuddy

The BeatBuddy window will appear.

In the picture above, press the big blue button to select songs on the BeatBuddy. Press the Tap button to send tap tempo to the BeatBuddy. Note: The tempo shown may not be exactly the same as the BeatBuddy’s tempo but it will be close. If you want exact tempos, type it into the temp field (shown as 107) above.

The PEDAL button acts just like the actual pedal on the device. One tap, start and fill, and hold to transition, double tap to stop. There are convenience buttons on the bottom that do the same thing.

To save the current song and tempo, you must choose a song and set a tempo. Once you have done this, press the + button on the top right of the window to save it to the current page in unrealBook. The minus (-) button removes the saved settings.

The channel (Ch) field should be set to the channel number of the BeatBuddy. However the default is OMNI so any channel from 1-16 should work.

To the right of the Ch field is the clipboard button. You can press this and the MIDI strings for the current settings will be put on the clipboard. You can then paste it anywhere – in a transmogrify MIDI button or in the Settings>File>MIDI window if you want manual control of MIDI.

You can also create favorites – think of this as the favorite songs/groove in the machine that you are likely to use. Press the blue star left of the big blue song button and you will be prompted to add a name and style/note. This is useful for on the fly selection of groove/songs. The song and tempo is remembered per favorite.

The volume slider is there to control the main volume of the BeatBuddy.

Selecting songs

When you press on the big blue button, your songs will be shown. You can search and select songs from the menu. When you press on a song, the MIDI is sent and the song will be will shown on the BeatBuddy. You can use the PEDAL button to start/fill/transition/end a song. Press the SELECT button to accept the song.

If you press the star on the top left, your favorites will be shown.

The Load and Export buttons allow you to save a backup of your favorites.

To load your own names, create a (csv format) file with a .bbn extension named: beatbuddy-default.bbn containing this format.

First field is bank select, second field is program number (all zero based). Third field is folder(i.e. style) and last field is the song (i.e. program) name.

To create your own favorites file, just add a tempo entry after the song name.

A file containing all the songs for the default songs is here: https://diystompboxes.com/beatbuddy/BeatBuddy-Songs-Collection-Default.bbn

Use Airturn to control the BeatBuddy!

You can use an Airturn footswitch to control the BeatBuddy! To do this, you need to map one of the footswitches on the Airturn to the BeatBuddy pedal.

Go to Settings->Airturn->Airturn switch assignments

Choose any one of the footswitches to control the BeatBuddy:

In this case, I will press on Port4 (4th footswitch) and select BeatBuddy Pedal

That’s it! From now on your Airturn will act like the BeatBuddy’s pedal as long as the iPad is connected to the BeatBuddy via MIDI.