Rhythm Editor for BR-1600?

[Rizza]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm new here and haven't found a good way to search the forums yet...

I downloaded the BR-900 Rhythm Editor and it is sweet. But it doesn't seen to work with the BR-1600. I've seen some posts that seemed to imply that I could create a Roland folder and somehow fake out the program to think my BR-1600 is really a BR-900. Can this be done? Is there any way to build new drum patterns and song arrangements in the Rhythm Editor without a BR-900?

I have built a song using drum and bass parts in the BR-1600, but it is so slow and cumbersome that I gave up half way through the song. It sounds nice with intros and fills, but it takes so long to enter! I am so tired of having to scroll the wheel each time I enter a new line. Why does it always start with P001 instead of the one you were just on!

Thanks for any tips or suggestions!  - Rizza

[64Guitars]

I downloaded the BR-900 Rhythm Editor and it is sweet. But it doesn't seen to work with the BR-1600. I've seen some posts that seemed to imply that I could create a Roland folder and somehow fake out the program to think my BR-1600 is really a BR-900. Can this be done? Is there any way to build new drum patterns and song arrangements in the Rhythm Editor without a BR-900?

The BR Rhythm Editor is designed to work directly with the files of the BR-600/864/900 via USB. It won't work directly with the files of other BRs because they have a different structure and location.

If you unzip Fake_BR-900.zip to the root directory of any drive on your computer, the BR Rhythm Editor will treat that drive as if it were a BR-600/864/900 connected via USB and save its patterns and arrangements in those files. However, the files are not compatible with the BR-1600 so you can't just copy them to the 1600 and expect it to work. Instead, you have to play the arrangement with the BR Rhythm Editor and capture it to a stereo WAV file using any WAV recording software. You can then import that WAV file to a pair of tracks on your BR-1600. But understand that this is now an audio track, not a drum track. So you can't edit the arrangement on the BR-1600 using its built-in rhythm editor. If you want to change the arrangement, you'll have to edit it with the BR Rhythm Editor, record another WAV file, and import it into the BR again.

You might prefer to use Hydrogen for creating drum patterns and arrangements on your computer. It can export the finished arrangement to a standard midi file and you can import that midi file into the BR-1600 as a pattern. One advantage of this method over the BR Rhythm Editor is that the arrangement remains editable by the BR-1600's built-in rhythm editor. Although Hydrogen is written for GNU/Linux, there's a Windows installer on the download page, as well as a Mac OSX version.

[Rizza]

Thanks for the info on the "Fake BR-900". I was hoping that was possible. I think the Rhythm Editor's flexibility in building songs might be worth it. Any other PC tool is going to take some work to get into the BR-1600, so capturing a WAV may not be a bad way to go. Shoot, maybe I'll just send the computer audio into the BR-1600 as I record! I saw a converter to make the BR-900 compatible with the MBR. Do you know if it would be technically possible to convert the BR-900 format to the BR-1600?

I've used Hydrogen before, but as a non-drummer, I am not very good at putting together beats, and especially not intros, fills, and endings I can get from a BR. I also recently stumbled on LMMS through this Forum somewhere, which is insanely slick. I think I like it's flexibility, versatility, and interface over Hydrogen. I also used SynthFont for MIDI music, and I think LMMS is going to take its place too. But I still have the struggle of building good drum loops. Can you capture MIDI coming out of the Rhythm Editor? Or any advice of where to find a good drum loop library? As much as I like free stuff, this might be worth investing some cash... 

Thanks for the tips!  -Rizza

[thouston]

I have a BR-1600, and find it easy to arrange drums, and drop in loops.

[Tony W]

I might have to meet up with you again Tony. I never got the hang of programming drums