Playbeat 4. I create a beat. I go to export midi, where the drum pattern has at least two or more active drum layers (tracks?) being triggered, i.e in my case a kick, a hi-hat, and a snare. When I try to export all, all the drums get put into a midi file where the midi is all on the same lane. In other words, when I try and get the midi to trigger playbeat 4 now, using the exported midi, only the kick drum sounds because the hi-hat and snare (in my case) have all been put onto the kick drum midi lane or midi note.
An update. It seems that I have the same problem as the first half of the thread here:
In other words, in my DAW also every drum track (snare, kick etc) gets exported to the C3 note when I export the midi under export all.
As it turns out (and I started from an empty preset), the default settings even from an empty preset are to route all the midi to C3. So as a suggestion to the developers, can the default make sense please?
How I am using playbeat 4 at the moment is to generate a beat that I like, then export the midi. The reason being is that I donât have drums at the start, and so want to generate midi so that the playbeat 4 beat works as I need it to, and not how it thinks I want it, if that makes sense.
Anyway, the solution, at least part of it is to change the settings so that the midi output gets exported to the same lane (in my case, as I just want to trigger playbeat properly) or track as the original drum. So for me, I had to manually go in and change all the midi outputs to C#2, D2 etc.
But even then, the midi export is pretty useless. I have the kick drum set up for a shorter length than the hi hat and the snare, due to the different levels of complexity of tracks over time. But exporting all does not give me the drum pattern as it was playing, it simply copies and paste what is on screen, not what I had playing.
So how do we work with playbeat? I find the daw sync a mess as well, and hence the need for exporting midi. But the exporting midi is not very smart, not even AI smart, and I cannot export midi and get what I need. The reason DAW sync does not work for me is because I am working on a song that doesnât have drums at the very start. But Playbeat 4 thinks that if I move the DAW playhead to bar 4, then I must want to start playbeat 4 at bar 4 internally, but I have set it up so that I would like playbeat to start everything at the start.
So how do I get playbeat to help me craft a song? Or I will forget it, and go back to Superior Drummer 3.
You may have to experiment with the Fixed Note Output. I use this configuration to export Midi and to Trigger other Drum Machines.
If you then use the Midi Exported from Playbeat using C1 upwards as the starting point to Trigger Playbeat, the Pitch will be off and you will have to use the Pitch Tab to correct itâŚPlus Playbeat uses random pitch changes, so the sound will not be the same on playback.
You could start from C3, C#3, D3, D#3 etc and the pitch will be close to the original.
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Thanks Studiodbfx,
I actually figured that out, but we were posting at the same time 
I have more issues, as I have brought up in my later post. The midi export doesnât respect the sequence if the various tracks have different lengths, e.g. 2 bars, 4 bars etc.
And trying to use daw sync doesnât work how Iâd like it either. I want to start the drums on bar 4 in this song but when I try that, Playbeat 4 assumes I want to start the playbeat pattern 4 bars in.
I have read the manual for playbeat 4 but I still canât get the hang of the workflow. Nothing I am trying is getting me to a point where I can have a workable beat that starts and behaves like I am trying to program it. I typically convert all instrument tracks to audio (I am using Studio One 7 Pro).
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Final update and then Iâm giving it a rest.
The DAW sync, if on assumes that I want playbeat 4 to sync with my daw (S1 Pro 7) at the start, beat or bar 1. The only way to use playbeat where we donât want the drums to start at beat 1 is to turn off daw sync altogether, and trigger the drums using midi keyswitches. But just now in trying to do that, I created a variation on one of the remix keys, but then every time I switched from the remix back to c2 or whatever is the key for the main default pattern in full, the main pattern had changed to the remix pattern. In this case I had removed the remix patternâs snare hits, and then when I switched back, the main pattern also had the snares removed.
I donât know if the developers read these forums, but my 2 cents worth:
The midi export function is only of use if the pattern has all tracks the same length. Otherwise, the midi export function does not capture what we had as a pattern. Second, why not have the default midi output as per what we need, assuming that the first midi export issue can get fixed? In other words, have the midi output mapping such that when an unassuming beginner like me tries to export all, they donât end up by default with all hits on C3.
The daw sync function makes no sense. It seems to be hard coded in advance to assume that all drums start at bar 1. Sure, playback is syncâd, but only allows for songs or projects that have drums starting at bar 1. I know Captain Plugins (Mixed in Key) addressed this with a âresyncâ button. In other words, and I know playbeat 4 is not ARA2 or ARA aware, if I want to start things at bar 4, and I move the DAW playhead to bar 4, then a resync option would mean that playbeat 4 then starts ITS beginning when I hit play in my daw, at bar 4. Otherwise, I need to write beats that have a symmetry that considers where I want the beat to start with respect to where beat 1 is.
I am going to bed, but tomorrow I will re-read the manual to see if I canât figure out why my main pattern keeps changing to remix 1.
This is a contentious issue. A disconnect between the way Audiomodern intended the program to be used and the way people keep trying to use it and getting frustrated.
You will find a workaround - they exist - but are all fairly inelegant and will depend on your DAW and workflow.
This gets discussed here as well:
The tldr is that more than a simple âdrum samplerâ the presets and samples were all designed to depend heavily on the pitch engine. Each lane is capable of full pitch range and outputting a simple GM drum pattern breaks that. Despite this I have strongly requested a GM MIDI file output option that would discard the pitch info in favour of the drum information.
They may hate it but I suspect it will make much of this complaint go away.
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Thanks for your insights, Birbhope.
Yeah, I guess I got playbeat 4 as a drum software, primarily, and I see what you are saying about the pitches for drums.
If I am also not mistaken, to expect sane midi output when using the export all option, then we can only use patterns or sequences that have all drum tracks the same length? If so that is fine, the workaround that I figured was just to build the drum performance using key switches.
Hopefully the other main issue - the daw sync issue - can be recognised and fixed? That is if others feel the same way. At the moment for me it isnât really DAW sync, just glorified playback sync, meaning when you hit play in your daw playbeat 4 starts. Again the workaround is to turn off daw sync. But then why have it? For me, with every other plugin I currently use, either they use ARA2 (which isnât always well implemented anyway) or the plugin has an option to âresyncâ, like the Mixed in Key plugins do.
When I write a song, I am trying to get an idea if something works before committing it down. So I opened up playbeat 4, created a simple beat, then aligned my daw playback to bar 4 to see how the drums were sounding, but then it was all wrong, because the beat in playbeat started at the wrong locationâŚ
Anyway thanks.
Yeah I havenât run into the other issues yet because I immediately stumbled on the export issue and got stuck on it. So I have no insight into those unfortunately.
From reading on KVR forums, it seems that the midi export was never designed for anything other than driving things other than itself (i.e not driving playbeat 4 itself).
I know before I bought Playbeat 4, after reading the manual in parts plus reading lots of forums, watching youtube videos, I got the sense that midi export was available, but that loads of people complained that Playbeat 3âs midi export never worked correctly. But reading tonight on KVR that Audiomodern never intended it as people thought it was intended.
However, if that is the case, perhaps this could be communicated? I mean, when you see a âmidi exportâ, you think that it would export the midi as per most other drum plugins and vstiâs. Before I bought playbeat 4, I got the sense even from forums and youtube was that midi export was still an issue, but it seems that it is this way by design.
Thatâs fine, just put something in the documentation to let us know that is the case, that is my suggestion.
All said, I think that Playbeat 4 has enormous potential as a creative tool. Hopefully things will get sorted out. I will keep investigating to see what I can figure out.
Thanks.
Hi @jsljustin,
Playbeatâs MIDI output is not designed to be fed back into Playbeat. Instead, you can arrange your patterns, remixes and track arrangement using the bottom keys in the âSequencersâ section.
From this section, you can trigger single sounds (one shots), the full mix, individual sequencers 1-8, as well as custom or auto-generated variations (remixes).
See this video:
The MIDI output is designed to capture what the pitch tab (if enabled) is generating in real time and it allows you to use this MIDI data to integrate it with other plugins when using Playbeat as a MIDI generator plugin.
Thanks @Audiomodern,
I have finally just learned that too, over at KVR. My apologies, this was never clear to me, if it was covered in the manual I must have missed it.
I had a couple other issues, one was daw sync and one (which I havenât fully investigated yet) was some issue with remix pattern overwriting my main pattern, but on that last issue, it might be some key command I am failing to do, perhaps - I base this on several other threads I read here tonight.
With the DAW sync issue or question, should I start a new thread for that?
Thanks.
Absolutely, and please share any screenshots, theyâll help us better understand the problem.
Great, thank you!
I will look at the issue closely again tomorrow, then start a new thread on it.
Cheers.