El Choclo Midi

[Meri Thilmony]

Ithink that might be the only main pattern needed for a vast majority of midi songs for surf. Dunno I think we could fake our way through with just this one pattern with a few other 50's style patterns as well

For each song I had selected the beat patterns, fills, title, and BPM long before the performance. Our set list was in the Beat Buddy, and we simply clicked through the Beat Buddy as we went through our set.

I could have titled the thread "Beat Buddy Live Performances of Surf Guitar" or "Super Surfy Spring Reverb and Delay Zoom G1Xon pedal" because these recordings illustrate these as well as illustrating what a duo can sound like.

The only thing I can see about these drum pedals is it has relatively perfect time - where a real drummer pulls on the beat a bit and can play flexible time on the fly when needed. I can change the tempo etc but your playing and kicking a pedal at the same time which makes it much harder perform I think. Yet at the same time I like the total control a solo opportunity and drum pedal like this provides.

Been working on everything but my Surf solo band the last two weeks, so my Surf Guitar career skill declined a bit. Have not had much time to mess with the Beat Buddy either. Much like everything else I have it takes me a long while to learn and remember all the techniques and information in the manuals, some I have had for years and never got around to it yet. So much to do and so little time, what's new?

Myself I like the idea of just using the Surf Beat if I can find it on the oldies section of the SD card and just winging it pushing pedals on the fly instead of a whole song midi file etc....You can do song mash-ups that way and play different sets etc and versions of songs. I play that way anyway, even when I play along to songs I go into outer space jamming and trying different stuff on most songs/ The only song I usually play like a record is Walk Don't Run and even then alternate between the 64 version and the earlier one just because I never seem to be able to think of a different way to perform that tune. But there are a lot of A minor type songs that you can mash-up on the fly as well with either version or at least that's my idea.

I seem to have about a 30 song buffer brain in my head from memory and then have to write a down set list for all the other songs I know or I can't even think of the name of the songs, but soon as I see the name I can remember the tune, not sure if I can remember all the drum beats though connected to the Beat Buddy??? I was thinking of a list of staff symbols or those so I can remember all that too.

Nice work Squid! Yeah, I didn't mean to side step your above thread -- just thought it might be good to target the Beatbuddy in the post title. I hope to add vids of my duo w/BB to your thread ...once we get going.

Whelp, from the looks of things, I guess there's only three of us using a BB on this forum. Probably not much of a quorum for Groovemonkey to develop surf beats. I don't need the exact drum pattern used in the original recordings for the songs we cover anyway

So have you guys tried any other of the beats or drum sets from Singular Sound? I've added the Standard Pro and Vintage Ludwig drum sets and Drums with Percussion beats. I've incorporated different drum sets and beats into our setlist. It's all good!

I've been using the Beat Buddy for five years now! I was surprised to find it's been that long. I remember adding another drum set they offered free for a limited time, perhaps four years ago. I don't remember much more than that about it. I haven't paid attention to switching drum sets in the setlist, I'm trying to coast on what I set up in the first couple of years I used the Beat Buddy, including collecting many MIDI drum patterns and fills for it.

I've been more involved in writing and recording new songs, developing fingerstyle, modifying guitars, and adjusting multi-effects pedals. I know that Beat Buddy published updated software, but I haven't even downloaded it.

They also now have a lower cost drum pedal for about half price from the original and even that one is a lower price as well since I bought mine. The new one looks pretty basic and not as large either etc.

You can click on the Hi hat - Snare - Bass drum buttons to change the staff music and then play it to see how it sounds, not sure if its midi or not or could be used to create midi songs like a drum machine or use with the beat buddy somehow - can this be used to make your own drum tracks ?????

A computer controlled acoustic harmonium (reed organ) with touch control and individual registration. The starting point for this construction was an old Hamilton suction reed organ, of which we only kept the reeds and the key springs. Based on the serial number on the soundboard (48211), the original instrument must date from 1905. A new electric compressor was added (a small Laukhuff Ventola, rated for 50 mm H2O pressure and 1000 l/m). Since this compressor was pretty noisy in operation we designed a special silencer around it. Also, we modified the wiring to let it work on 3-phase current, leading to a somewhat more silent operation.

As usual in our instrument designs, we designed a welded frame for the entire magnet and electromechanical assembly. Since there is no keyboard we could lower the force required to push the pallets from the original value of 2.45 to 2.94 Newton to about 1.2 Newton. Since the magnets are wider then the distance between keys/pallets , we had to mount them on alternating rows. The types we used are 20mm wide. The two registers are each divided in a bass and a discant unit. So we provided also control for these 4 registers. This was implemented using solenoids with variable voltage , such that gradual changes ('expression') becomes very well possible.

The electronic control of this instrument was originally (2000) based on a multiplexed parallel bus, steered by our own GMT software, but in december 2005 we modified the whole circuitry such as to make a laptop to control this robot obsolete. Thus, since 2005 is controlled by no less than 8 PIC microcontrollers. Of course the instrument can play standard midi files. was designed from the beginning with velocity control, based on precise timing control of an initial pulse to activate the note solenoids. The effect of velocity control or touch sensitivity is of course by far less effective than it is on our player piano. The speed wherewith the valves open in a reed organ being generaly much faster than the rather slow build up of a sound from the reeds. However, any touch sensitivity a reed organ played by a human might have, is also implemented and at least surpassed in this robot. The electronic principle, displayed for a single note, is shown in the circuit below:

In 2015 after quite deceptive experiences with the way lazy composers handle the volume implementation on this robot, we decided to build-in an 'intelligent' wind control mechanism. So now, if no notes are playing it is impossible to set the blower to full force. The blower will adapt its speed depending on user decided volume (controller #7) as well as on required wind in function of the note-on commands effectively received. The mechanism also takes into account the fact that low pitches demand up to sixteen times more wind than the highest notes.

More circuit details can be found in the service manual at the very end of this page.

Hiervoor werd uitgegaan van een oud Hollands harmonium (gebouwd in Terneuzen begin 20e eeuw (Firma Camphens) , maar voorzien van een mechanisme, balg en rieten van James Baillie Hamilton (Massachusetts,USA). Het serienummer op de klankkast -48211- laat ons toe het instrument precies te dateren: 1905). Het instrument is voorzien van twee onafhankelijke reeksen doorslaande tongen en werkt met zuiglucht, zoals het gros van de Amerikaanse 'reed organs'. De balgen en windlade waren in een dermate wormstekige staat dat we ze helemaal verwijderden. Voor de windvoorziening gebruikten we een Laukhuff Ventola zuigblazer. (1000 l/minuut, bij 50mm H2O druk). Daar dienden we wel een goede geluidsdemper voor te ontwerpen want geruisloos zijn deze Ventola blazers bepaald niet... Deze module werd voltooid in de maand juni van 2001. In december 2005 werd de hele elektronische besturing gemoderniseerd en werd de oorspronkelijk nodige besturingskomputer, een laptop, vervangen door niet minder dan 8 PIC controllers. Bij die gelegenheid werd ook de motor herbedraad voor werking op driefazenstroom en besturing door een Siemens Micromaster motor-controller.

De kracht nodig om een toets in te drukken in het originele harmonium varieerde tussen 2.45 en 2.94 Newton. (250gF tot 300gF in oude gewichtseenheden). De veren die de paletten dichthouden werden in deze kracht tot zowat de helft teruggebracht. Daardoor konden we met orgelventielmagneten van de firma Laukhuff (12V/ 160mA) net uitkomen voor een volledige aansturing. De terugkeerveren werden van deze magneetventielen verwijderd. De terugkeerkracht wordt hier opgebracht door de naaldveren die de paletten dichthouden binnenin de windlade.

Hartafstand tussen de bedieningspallen voor de rieten was 13.54mm, waardoor we de magneten om en om (in twee rijen) dienden te monteren. Wanneer we de bedieningsmagneten om en om monteren, mogen ze hooguit 27mm breed zijn. De gebruikte types zijn 20mm breed. Voor deze montage bouwden we twee lijsten uit vierkant staalprofiel 16x16. Hierop werden de elektromagneten met parkerschroeven vastgezet en uitgelijnd.

De registers zijn telkens gedeeld in bas- en diskant. Voor de automatisering daarvan gebruikten we aanvankelijk vier stappenmotoren, maar dit werd later -omwille van de snelheid- vervangen door een mechanisme met sterke elektromagneten (15 Newton). Voor de 'expressie' -oorspronkelijk met een eenvoudige cylindrische afschermkap uitgevoerd, hadden we in een eerder ontwerp twee stappenmotoren ingezet. In de nieuwe versie evenwel bleek deze funktie veel beter te kunnen worden geimplementeerd via een soepele sturing van de winddruk via de kompressor motor.

3a8082e126