The current song list display is in order of most recent access. This does not work. It means that with any reasonably large list of songs you spend ages searching for the next number in a performance. I beg you, this should be an easy fix because alphabetic listing was the old default. Please, please restore an alphabetic listing. The current method Is a major flaw that severely limits the usefulness of the device.
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Ideally there is a preference for sorting via recency or alphabet.
As a workaround, there is a search box at the top of list that is not obvious. Type in a few characters and your song might show up…
Yes, I know about the search facility. When your audience is waiting in dead air for the next number the search facility and clumsy keyboard is definitely not where you wish to be. The current song listing system is a giant fail for live performance. It’s frustrating to know that the code already exists to solve the problem, but we’ve had this crazy Last used first listed system now for several months. Songs take long enough to load already, without adding up to 30 seconds spent hunting in a non alphabetised list. Last used first listed only makes sense if you are playing around with just a handful of recorded loops in a studio. It is a giant fail for live performance. Have the software use casers ever experienced using the Aeros in a professional performance situation? It appears like they’ve just played around with a couple of songs in memory. This is not where serious performers want to be.
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With a numeric / alphabetised listing, songs can be organised for a set with a number at the beginning of each song name. This would be a huge advantage.
Ideally selection from a single alphabetised list on an iPad with notes about key signature, tempo, words and chords, such as exists in OnSong, would trigger both the Beatbuddy and the Aeros to begin loading the selected song. Moreover, the connections between these devices should be via Bluetooth, and selection by one band member would trigger loading on iPads of other band members.
Furthermore, although instruments feed into the Aeros, some songs do not use Aeros but do involve a Beatbuddy. There should be an option for any song to use the Beatbuddy without triggering the Aeros to start. In addition, songs that use neither the Beatbuddy nor the Aeros should be selectable on the Pad list.
Creation of a compatible iPad (and other pads) app that does this is a product opportunity for Singular Sound. It would be a world beater.
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I agree. Order in the most recent access is nonsense for performance use.
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I think the problem comes, when using apps like Onsong or forescore to make songlists and open songs on the beatbuddy via midi command. For these midi commands a fixed position of songs on the beatbuddy is necessary, because they dont stand for names but only for the position, where the song is stored on the beatbuddy (order of Folder, order of the song within the folder). If you change the order of the songs, wrong songs will be loaded. For faster searching and further organizing, I made a point zero a while ago. I took all of my songs, made 26 Folders from A-Z, and stored them alphabetically in the folders. New songs after this “point zero”, i put at the end in the alphabetical folder.
Assigning midi id’s to songs based upon some sort order is a pretty broken design; I hope SS fixes this in the BB.
There’s no way around each song having some number assigned to it that does not change. Call it a song id if you don’t like the term preset.
Don’t sweat the inevitable issues on the Aeros when an id is not unique upon inserting an SD card. It’s an edge case that is much better than the current BB “guess the ID of the song today”.A cheap way of dealing with this is warn the user upon insert and each boot if there are duplicates (and just choose one song to win out until they fix it) Longer term you can do something nicer.
@BrennanSingularSound Hoping the upcoming midi implementation has this covered.