How will this interface with the Aeros looping?
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How will this affect the existing one-press songs and user-created drum sets?
I believe it will work the same way as if you were triggering things manually on your BB.
One-press songs and any other regular songs will stay as they are unless they are programmed for AP. I think that once you open your previous project with the new BB Manager, the file format will be updated and then you will only be able to open it with that or higher version of BB Manager. Drumsets will stay what they are for now.
However, I will be requesting drumset versioning for one of the future updates. Whatever feature is introduced, the BB Manager will need to be backward compatible. You will always be able to open old stuff on the new BB Manager, but not vice-versa.
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Thanks Goran!
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This upcoming BB AutoPilot is a very exciting advance, as-described. Thanks for the preview info!
I’ve still got to keep mentioning Bi-Directional Part Navigation (BDPN) ( Request for Bi-directional Part Navigation - #15 by sj1 ) though.
I certainly understand if this nearly-ready implementation of BB AutoPilot did not plan for and won’t initially have BDPN, but it can be important to keep something in mind even if you can’t get to there right away. IOW, not to paint yourself into a corner!
Simple example: Suppose I have 4 parts - Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Ending (V, C, B, E). Consider those my building blocks for the user’s next MonsterJam. The goal is to be able to build that MonsterJam on-the-fly into any structure the user wants/needs in realtime.
VVCBVCE
VCVCVCBBCVVE
VCBVVVVVCBCC
etc.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but to have this flexibility I think you MUST have BDPN, yes?
So if there are implications for the file format, you need to build those in now, right?
(Else pay a very high price in changing the file format and updating the Premium Library twice, which probably means it never happens …)
Can you see the goal and concerns here?
This is best-answered by @julissadantes I think.
Keep in mind that the autopilot feature is really for pre-set complex songs, cover songs in particular. For situations like what you mention, I wouldn’t use the autopilot. If you are going to be changing the order of sections on the fly, that defeats the purpose of the autopilot, I believe.
Functions like this wouldn’t affect the file format. This has to do with BB firmware.
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Would also be good for the Aeros to have some similar capability. The Aeros parts often don’t correspond to a beat section and there’s definitely a need for the Aeros to be in charge at times.
For the BB autopilot, canb you setup someting like ABAC … or do you have to make a copy of A for the second usage?
Exciting stuff.
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Well, I grok the given AutoPilot motivation, but I suggest another way to look at it.
The BB AutoPilot (BBAP) as decribed, is basically a (major!) flexibility enhancment to the idea of One-Press-Play (OPP). BBAP will provide flexibility to a) define a complex structure using parts (instead of as a linear MIDI file), and b) extend or shorten the current part (in realtime).
BDPN, if ever implemented and compatible with BBAP, would provide flexibility c) to navigate backwards and forwards in a complex structure.
One could conceive of BBAP and BDPN as being separate modes of operation, but why do that? That would be choosing to build in a new unnecessary “wall” between a) b) and c).
I’m advocating for making sure (by thought and design) that a) b) c) can all live and work together in the ultimate unbeatable cyber-drummer accompanist!
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Hopefully this release allows for syncing to a Mac. Love new features, but this is a critical feature that is broken for many people.
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Bi-direction part navigation, IMHO, handcuffs the user needlessly. I don’t see ANY advantage to being able to go back ONE part versus using the flexibility of MIDI part selection. It’s frankly foolish to think that BDPN would free the user to work as they want. If you want to freely be able to skip around to parts, that’s fine, I understand that. The current system allows unlimited repetition of any main loop. The issue becomes one of song design. Will I always go to the chorus after Verse, or might I go to bridge after verse? If I go VCB, why would I necessarily want to go to C, I might very well want V, so how does BDPN enable that? Just use MIDI to jump to the part you want.
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Yamaha programmed that way on the RM1x 20 years ago. It would be nice if Singular could catch up. In fact, isn’t most drum machine programming done in this block style, where you have piece A programmed, you play that X times. Then go to piece B and play it Y times. Then you have an option to play A again or move on to C. This is not new stuff.
The BB method allows this, but does it by repeating song parts. It not really all that different. Instead, it seems there is a desire to have a system where a song consists of some number of pieces. The user then, on the fly, can select any of pieces, and play it for as long as he likes, before selecting another piece. And, to complicate this, we want piece dependent variations in the form of fills, along with another piece dependent variant that transitions to the next selected part. It just seems to me that MIDI part selection is the only viable way to get there.
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There is a gesture to go forward, A -> B. A gesture to go backward, B -> A completes the cycle and enables a significant increase in flexibility for those who want this and wish to use it.
I would say the injunction to “just use MIDI” for B -> A is equally valid (or silly) as saying “just use MIDI” for A -> B.
And, I note, “just use MIDI” in any case requires more hardware, more cables, more stage space, more pre-planning, more to think about in realtime, more $, etc. This is all appropriate if you want/need true random access. It’s a long, long walk around the barn if all you want/need to do is navigate backward from C to V!
Obviously, if a feature has no applicability in your personal usage scenarios you can ignore it. There is no question of “handcuffing” whatsoever.
Consider: Some people use only OPP. Other use only sectional navigation. I would never argue that the pedal shouldn’t provide both. Rather, obviously I’d say, providing more flexibility makes the pedal more valuable to more people.
My own current primary imagined use for BDPN would indeed be with simpler rather than more complex arrangements. I’d probably get more use out of manipulating just VCBE (or even just VCE) than anything else. That’s me personally, but I can fully see where someone else (or maybe even ultimately myself also) might want to use the BDPN along with a more complex starting structure. Wherever the boundaries of my own creativity might lie, I’m not going to presume those boundaries should apply to others.
I also note that since it has been announced that we will be able to name song parts, it strikes me as very intuitive and direct if we could be allowed both a “move forward” gesture and a “move backward” gesture to allow us to navigate to any point in the structure which will be referenced by name.
Given this choice, some people might choose to use a complex song structure as a “library” from which they could play live for a long, long (effectively unlimited) time while still having great variety on tap.
Such “library songs” might be by organized by genre, or by kit sonics, rather than by single-song composition.
Let the MonsterJams begin!!
We’ve all heard that ubiquitous marketing phrase “The only limit is your own imagination!”.
Perhaps that can never be literally and completely true, but we can approach it asymptotically, and that is the goal of tech, IMO.
I can say clearly that after acquiring my BB, my own imagination went almost immediately to the wish for BDPN.
At the moment, the tech is the limitation. This is possible to change …
You also need a computer on stage 
how do you think you are going to be setting up songs that are not from singular,.on some kind of computer. i offered the screen shot up for the developers to glimpse a visual representation for the BBmanager and whatever they are going do to it ,
The solution by Jamstix doesn’t incorporate drum fills, from what I can see. BB manager already arranges songs in a similar fashion, but incorporates fills. Visual redesign of BB Manager will make things cleaner, tidier and more user-friendly.
I was talking about actual stage use, not farting around in your bedroom! Jamstix is a great app, I own it myself, but as it needs a host to run, no standalones, and taking a laptop on stage is awkward the BB is the best system there is tbh, unless you are looking at all in the box solutions on the iPad platform where there are a few great alternatives.