BeatBuddy AutoPilot 2020?

BeatBuddy General
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SS…you really need to give a clear & concise update on the Autopilot feature. You keep teasing it. One of your posts even asks us to respond to a poll as a matter of urgency regarding a function of Autopilot.

This was back in Nov 2020 :open_mouth:

Are you working on it? When do you anticipate it will be implemented? If you can’t or don’t intend to release it…then just say so we can move on.

I am reading some very unhappy posts and you seem to be doing nothing to placate the people who have invested their time & money in your products.

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FWIW, I would happily -pay- (some reasonable sum!) for the upgrade that provides a solid working Autopilot feature.

It’s always tough on a company to try add value to an existing product when doing so has a very tangible, and sometime substantial, cost and yet will generate no new revenue.

So let Autopilot be a revenue generator! Just my $.02 worth …

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While in theory this is a good idea, if the company is having trouble producing a general release the thought of them producing a solid, reliable release where different features can be enabled based on upgrade fees should be out of the question. I am not sure they have the manpower, skill or desire to manage such an endeavor.

Also, a company basically selling ideas with marketing and not delivering unless you upgrade even though you bought into the promise prior to the upgrade idea isn’t the greatest either.

I do sympathize, I really do. I have been waiting for the order of the BB song id to to be independent of the song’s location for use with an ipad and onsong for years. I wrote the original feature request (under a different user name) and got the “in the next release” over and over.

< INSERT DAVID SAYING SOME PROMISING THING ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT OUR CUSTOMERS ARE AND SS IS LISTENING >

<INSERT THIS ISSUE BEING REVISITED IN 3 MONTHS>

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@DavidPackouz It would be appreciated if you would reply.

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I was a bit disappointed to receive an email about a major update to the Aeros firmware, when we’ve been waiting for so long for features for the BeatBuddy. Features which have been “being worked on” for years.
BeatBuddy is the overlooked older brother - Aeros gets all the love…

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Hey there,

Here is our latest response on this:

Thanks for the question

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I think that re-posting a response originally made 15-months ago, and saying that is “our latest response” really points out the problem. The response is so ironic it’s funny.

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There is no change to the response because currently there is no update, we will have more news soon, but cannot fabricate what has not happened yet.

The BBM 2 is our next big goal, autopilot is still in our sights.

Thank you for your feedback and your patience

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I still find the whole concept of autopilot not that far removed from OPB. I get it. It’s like OPB with an escape valve, and, as such, autopilot is an appropriate name. You can override an autopilot action and have the song act like a segmented song. So, where might one use this? The two obvious example are to vamp an intro until the singer is ready, and to take an extra chorus for a song that the crowd is “into.” It could also work for jams. Implementation of this is not a straightforward process. The intro vamp is not a current segmented song process. It’s essentially an initial main loop. The chorus seems easier. But, as much as I have seen users beg for autopilot, these uses seem secondary. What seems to get the most clamor is for a simple roadmap for the current Premium Library. There is no reason that Singular cannot provide that NOW. It requires no programming or development. Goran has the notes. Let’s get that info out now. You’ll calm down many of the complaints. The other issues can be handled with the current BBM, if we have the roadmaps.

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Phil_Flood’s comment is spot. Publishing roadmaps for the existing premium content would at least make it useful for current users, myself included, and would ease the wait.

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Sorry but it always seems like we get off topic.
I believe the issue overall is the Beat Buddy Managers inability to meet the basic needs of the users(musicians).
The capabilities we are asking for are years behind what technology is capable of.
This is basic stuff. As consumers of your product we expect more.
Where should I spend my hard-earned money?
I want support Singular Sound. If I didn’t then I wouldn’t waste my time.
If the BBM software is that bad then start over. Don’t try to fix a cracked foundation.
This is not rocket science but still we wait for years. It’s all about priorities.
To be honest…why would I buy more products from a company that wont support what I already own?

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Well I look forward to the next email from SS being an announcement about that then and not about the Aeros. I’m not holding my breath …

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I’ll respond to the question as to why I haven’t posted the BB song roadmaps public.

There are several reasons for that.

The “charts” that I have were created for a specific purpose and were constructed in a manner to facilitate that purpose, which is the creation of drum parts and arranging them into BB songs. They were meant for my use only. Those charts are different from how they would have been done if I were to play them live, in real-time, on an acoustic drumset, which may still be different from how I would notate them for others to use.

In addition to myself, another three people did drum transcriptions for me. While I provided the exact specifications on how they should be done, many of them were done differently. So, they are not consistent. Some charts show how many times a section should be played, while others show how many times a drum part should be repeated. I know the styles of each transcriber, so I can tell what’s what.

When I first started creating the drum charts for the songs, I didn’t notate the lengths of sections, as there was no talk of AP then.

Realistically, if you were to hire a pro drummer to read those drum charts and press the pedal for you in real-time while you play your instrument, they would have a hard time doing that in most cases. Two of my assistants spent months deciphering and programming those scribbles into the unfinished BBM autopilot.

So, while some charts may be somewhat helpful, you won’t know what you are looking at and how to begin with, others. You won’t see how some parts were actually accomplished in MIDI and loaded into the BB. Some parts were glued together, while others stayed separate. This may lead to further disappointment and frustration.

I think they would be a waste of time, and that’s why I haven’t posted them. So, now that you know what they are let me know if you still want me to post them. To be perfectly clear, I do NOT offer any guarantee and will NOT provide any guidance or explain anything with regards to them.

Let me know.

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I’d like to have them. If nothing else it will help me to understand how difficult it will be to implement the whole autopilot process.

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Cheers for the detailed explanation @GoranGrooves,
I would be also interested with a similar motivation as @Phil_Flood …

Cheers,
Wolf

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I agree, “Cheers for the detailed explanation”. Thanks Goran!

One thought that does occur to me is that the “community” might in some fashion take in the originals, massage them, and ultimately create a more standardized and accessible set of charts for general use. Based on that possibility, even having the charts as hieroglyphics could be a valid starting point, as the original songs themselves (the audio) would be a guide to decyphering them.

Having a background in programming, I find this to be a fascinating sentence: “Two of my assistants spent months deciphering and programming those scribbles into the unfinished BBM autopilot.”

What was the result here? Lists? Tables? Data files? - representing the structures of the songs … (?)

None of these would normally be put up on a music stand for a gig, but to users familiar with programming the BB and thinking in terms of sections and repeats etc. such formats might actually be quite straightforward to understand structurally.

To me, the -structures- of the songs are very interesting - perhaps as much or more than the the “hits” or “beats” of the original drum parts per se. The structures could be replicated (and/or tweaked/varied) with any available hits or beats used as subs for the originals and thus become the foundations for new jams. Any library-like starting point for such efforts is much to be desired!

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I was thinking something similar along these lines. In fact, if there are other users who have already tried to string together the parts of the Premium Content into an OPB for a particular song, that would be most helpful to have as a guide. From experience, I can tell you that I generally was able to figure out what was going on with the “Main Loops”, but the timing for the fills was not easily discerned. If we were able to collaborate on developing useful roadmaps, that would be a big plus.

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@GoranGrooves Thanks. That’s interesting. I don’t use the Premium Library myself, but I’d be interested to know one thing, if you’re willing to say. In the absence of road maps, how were you thinking the users would use the song packs? Were you thinking that users would know the originals sufficiently well to work out when parts changed and fills occurred by listening to the original recordings?

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1st thing I thought too.

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That’s what I’ve done. It’s usually pretty simple to listen in and figure out what’s what. I don’t have the full premium, but have purchased 20-30 tunes, along with building some on my own out of the standard beats. It’s usually not terrible to figure out what the drum parts are. Sometimes though there are like 15-20 drum parts along with various fills and that does get tedious. It helps that some of the drum parts are named helpfully, while others aren’t so much.

I’ve also found some issues, like with Purple Rain. There’s a 6/4 part that’s just not there. The whole song is in 4/4 and I’ve not found a way to make it work. So I modified it myself to have it in there, and basically built a 1 press file out of it.

I’m pretty tech savvy though, and have been playing/studying music for 30 years, so YMMV.

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