Thanks … it’s appreciated. And your work is appreciated as well.
Thank you, Goran, for your clarification. I don’t doubt that I would be very happy with the final product -I just hope I won’t be too old to take advantage of it (just me being cheeky)
I wish you all the best in this endeavour!
Cheers!
I’m pretty sure it fixes the huge issues with Sync not working on MacOS!
I do get your point. Why do a V2 with almost no features from scratch? Having looked at the open sourced BBM code, it doesn’t look that bad. Easy for me to say.
Yeah, you may be quite right.
I’ll keep hoping the final product (phase x) won’t take too long.
Based on how different this looks, I also fear that a new firmware might be so tied up to this new…(let’s call it) manager that it won’t support older Folder structures, preventing me from upgrading my Beatbuddy (on which I so heavily depend these days!?
Thank kindly for your thoughts, Phil.
How does this new “BB Loader” allow the AutoPilot feature to be released?
It sounded like Autopilot was on hold because the editing/creation of tracks with Autopilot info needed support. If the BB Loader doesn’t do editing/creation, then don’t we more/less have the same issue?
Are you saying you couldn’t get BBM to write/sync properly without a complete rewrite?
Thanks for sharing the pics. Great to actually see some progress.
The important thing to understand with the current BB Manager is that it hit a dead end. It became impossible to not only introduce features but to fix existing bugs without introducing new ones. It was an endless vicious circle of fixing and introducing new bugs.
So, while the current software may seem simple, it is solid. It is properly structured, being built using best programming practices, which makes it possible for adding features and capabilities.
As for the timeline, I don’t have the exact info, but the basic strategy is that once this version is released, next will be song editing and the autopilot. Those are the features currently available in BB Manager (minus AP).
Then will come the drumset maker. That one was designed to my wildest (drum-maker) dreams for BB 
Everything will be laid out beautifully and logically. There will be a grid with drum pads, where you’ll be able to see what you have and audition individual pads. There will be a mixer so that you can listen to a drum groove while adjusting individual components. Something that may take me a day to accomplish, I’ll be able to do in a couple of hours.
The design for those capabilities is already completed.
We’ll be able to copy drum elements from one kit to another, amongst many other desperately needed features.
At that point, we’ll have software far beyond the current one. We’ll likely then look at streamlining loading of the Premium Library content directly from the software without having to first download it from “my account” to your desktop.
@lugoluis The development is done in such a way to preserve backward compatibility without changing the structure of folders and files. Most of the functionalities of the software are not tied to the firmware.
@Quad BB Loader (which will become BB Manager v2) will allow the autopilot to be released because it will have the necessary functionalities to make that happen. The current BB Manager is dead, as far as development is concerned, so there isn’t a way to program and edit content for AP. We were using the “in-development” version to programming the AP content which was full of bugs . But none of that can be released unfortunately because as soon as you would load that content into the existing BB Manager (without AP), it would strip the AP info. The (AP) BB Manager we used can not be publicly released because it has bugs that affect some basic player functionalities. Further, some of those bugs were present in the firmware because they shared the player code. Those bugs were affecting some basic BB functionalities (like playing fills in the proper place within a bar). They would work well with AP on but get messed up in manual mode. Just an example.
So, the new software is needed to make anything new happen. We are having to go several steps back to make one forward, but that’s the only way forward, I am afraid.
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Thank you, Goran, you’ve been very patient (as have we! He he) and kind in answering our questions.
I was afraid I would open Pandora’s Box when I asked for pics 
But you seem to be rising to the challenge!
Cheers!
Cheers @lugoluis ! I share all of your frustrations, disappointment, hope, and excitement. Believe me.
We’ll keep you posted!
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This is great to see some progress and it looks sharp. I can’t wait to see where this software will end up. I’m thinking for someone like myself though who enjoys editing kits to have them suit what we use them for and also for editing in general it is going to be a long time until this software is useful for me.
So @GoranGrooves I’m curious how this new version will react with existing content. For instance all the info I currently have on the SD card (which is mainly custom content). Will the new software interact with this and access it all ok? And is this version currently able to import midi song parts created in a DAW and export midi parts correctly on PC?
Thanks for updating us though. Many of us have been waiting to see something. 
@GoranGrooves Hip Hip… hoooRay! So pleased to see a glimpse of hope as I had given up on a BBM update. Great to see the positive vibe that has been generated so quickly and the upbeat comments. Everyone playing nice again… Way go yous guys! Looking forward to the release!!
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@Neil_McCann Hopefully, it won’t take too long before you, I, and others here can use it to put together content. The fact that the developers no longer have to chase their own tails, has me feeling optimistic. Based on previous failed and slow attempts at BB software development, I’ve had serious reservations about it, just like everyone else. I was very pleasantly surprised by what I got to test last week.
And it is not just the functionalities of the software that matter, but how they feel to use it. I find that to be very important. BB Manager looks and feels as if it came directly from the '90s, while the BB Loader feels current.
The current BB Loader accesses everything perfectly on an SD card. It can move things around, import, and delete. It can NOT edit songs by importing or removing midi files. Those functionalities will be implemented in the next major development stage. We’ll have this robust, basic software to use while they work on the next stage. Nice thing is that to import a song, a folder, or a drumset that you downloaded in ZIP format, you don’t actually have to unzip them first 
One less obstacle to deal with.
I am happy to share with you what I know and hopefully, soon enough we’ll all be able to play around with it.
Thanks, guys!
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Thanks @GoranGrooves. If it’s a good solid base to build from then hopefully it won’t take too long to get those functions operating. The ability to ‘compose’ and edit our own beats and songs is paramount for many of us on here.
It’s exciting to see if this is finally going to be the perfect software support for the BB.
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was that update announced in 2020? when will be release??
Hi @GoranGrooves.
The one million dollars question is:
The new firmware will be compatible with the old BB Manager so that we can use features not present in new software (in the beginning) like song and midi manipulation?
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I now understand why new features have not been implemented up to now. This really does relieve the “you don’t care” factor. Thanks for not only the update but the explanation.
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So, now my next question is, will the new version be able to allow program and control messages to remain in the song file and be sent out the MIDI port to control external devices?
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I don’t believe that the new version will have that capability. It is a feature that BeatBuddy users have been asking for for quite a while.
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The new firmware will be compatible with the old BB Manager so that we can use features not present in new software (in the beginning) like song and midi manipulation?
Hey guys,
I just finished testing the release candidate 4.5 of the BeatBuddy Loader, with several issues addressed, which I reported last week. There are still some things to be ironed out and a few essential functionalities to be added (exporting of songs, folders, and drumsets) before I would consider this to be complete software at this level.
was that update announced in 2020? when will be release??
This whole thread is about that, so please scroll up, so I don’t have to rewrite everything 
@XBeat I haven’t discussed the firmware yet, but I know that things are done in a way to be backward compatible. Which song and midi manipulation features of firmware are you referring to?
@Pigy The BB Loader will not alter your existing BB song content. Whatever is in a song, stays in the song as it is. While the software handles songs and folders (imports them, arranges them around…), it does not edit songs. I assume you are referring to certain MIDI file info that gets stripped out during parsing inside BB Manager? At the moment, we still need the BB Manager to put content together, so we are still stuck with whatever shortcomings of it are present. Once the development moves onto the next phase (song editing), we’ll be able to address all of those issues.
I’ll keep you posted. Thanks, guys! 
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