You may or may not be aware that I’ve been working on an application to use on a computer with the BB + a midi cable which will allow you to search for songs in your collection (and song matched songs) and be able to push that song to your BeatBuddy without having to touch the pedal.
Basic (windows) executable: which is limited to the computer attached to the BeatBuddy
Web Based executable: which runs on the same computer attached to the BeatBuddy, but can be controlled by any Web enabled device on the same network as the beatbuddy computer.
The basic workflow is:
Search or browse for a song in your collection (if not found in your collection, auto searches the song matching site and will incorporate tempo and allow you to push the suggested beat to your pedal)
Push the song to the beat buddy to immediately play or add it to a setlist
Play the Song (using play, stop, fills, pause, next section, previous section, half time, double time, tempo controls).
Repeat
Other features include:
Drumset selection – allowing you to change the drumset after you push the song
Setlist Import/export – allowing you to create, reuse setlists
Chart Finder - searches for “chord tabs” on the free version of ultimate guitar
Requirements:
Basic Executable: Windows, BB, midi cable from BB to your interface, collection copied to computer in sync with your SD card. [Download Zip here. ] (NOTE: this may trip your virus detector as it’s not a signed binary.)(https://github.com/bluetex/bb_buddy/releases/download/v0.0.3/bb_buddy_beta_v0_0_3.zip)
Web Executable: BB, Python3, pip, midi cable from BB to your interface, web browser, collection copied to computer in sync with your SD card. Download Zip here.
This has ONLY been tested on win10 and win11. Mac may have some other “issues” – once someone tests that, I may be able to address it.
There is also an app called Opensongapp for Android users (available free in the Google Playstore) that manages all your songs, tabs, and set lists that now directly supports the Beatbuddy. Once you have set up the wireless midi connection between the tablet and the pedal, and edit your songs settings to select a particular Beatbuddy song, then selecting that song on the tablet automatically selects the song on the Beatbuddy and sets the tempo to that specified in the Opensongapp song settings.
Note: You need to get the Beta version of Opensongapp by signing up for it on the Opensongapp website. You need the midi cable for the beatbuddy, that connects to a bluetooth midi adaptor (Yamaha MD-BT01 works). There is an instructional video to show how to install.
I gave it a whirl this week and it works great.
Im not an android person. So I didn’t know of that project. Cool. This one only needs a midi cable, and can be used from any web browser on the LAN / wifi with the BB.
You gave it a name :). This is amazing to be a part of something new…I still haven’t been able to lay my hands on my BB. Will let you know once I start.
So the aeros can call songs on beatbuddy. Can you call up songs on the aeros? Ie can we view the aeros song list and settings. Find a way to set the tempo and beatbuddy beat into aeros settings.
I have zero experience with Aeros. I’m not sure. My app will let you search your collection, pick a song, it will set the tempo even if you matched it with the song match site.
I’m kind of surprised I’ve gotten zero feedback on this release. I can’t really tell if no one has tried (I see a few downloads), or no one has hit snags and things are just working.
For anyone reading this thread, so far the most common issue with setup has been the path to your beat buddy collection on your PC.
the Input on the setup doesn’t say enough about this, but the path should be to the folder that INCLUDES the folder “SONGS” and the end of the path should not have a slash.
so to say:
Good = c:\myfiles\beatbuddy\collection (contains SONGS)
Bad = c:\myfiles\beatbuddy\collection\
Bad = c:\myfiles\beatbuddy
Bad = c:\myfiles\beatbuddy\collection\SONGS
I’ve recently been enhancing my bb-buddy software to run on a standalone raspberry pi. The idea is that you don’t need to touch your beat buddy to pick songs to play no matter where you are.
With a web browser accessing the pi running the bb-buddy software you can change the song, tempo, etc of the beat buddy without touching it.
I more/less prototyped this back in 2023. I’m wondering if it’s at all needed/wanted.
I’ve gone farther for my online friends. We run our whole 180+ song list via a site I wrote that pushes charts, bb-beats, keyboard presets to the online players in multiple states. It’s pretty wild.
While it’s good to not have to bend over or use the remote foot switch to scroll thru and select songs, you still have to have access to a keyboard (desktop or smart phone)?
What does this do that can’t be done with a MIDI controller?
In your original post, you mentioned that macOS compatibility was a work in progress. Has that changed?
Don’t know if this dissuades other users but many BeatBuddy (BB) users have stated that they prefer the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) because it’s local (an app on their computer)—as opposed to the BBMO, which can only be used online with an active internet connection.
Not at all trying to be negative—just trying to stimulate some more conversation about what you are working on…
So the original version required a full pc in order to run the helper app. It’s still supported on Windows, and now is confirmed to work on Mac as well as Linux. However a full pc is not required. You simply fire up the raspberry pi either on your home wifi or on a hot spot it will “ready up the apps”, and you can start sending beats.
You open a web browser to the IP of the PI on any device on the same network, and you can start picking beats.
Some features of the app - ie. also how is it different from a midi pedal?
Text Search for song names or beat names.
I personally have thousands of beats on my bb and finding any one song can be nearly impossible without a search feature.
Auto Songmatching from the Singlular Sound Song match site (if your search returns no results).
– so imagine you search for “Budapest” by George Ezra, but you don’t have a beat for that on the BB. The search extends after looking on the BB to the Songmatch site and it finds a match … you select the matched entry and push the beat and tempo to the BB in one shot. Ready to go.
GUI control over start, stop, fill, pause, 1/2 time, 2x time, next section, previous section so someone else could control the BB for you via the browser to “help”
Auto chart finding from Ultimate Guitar if you’ve searched for the song, so you’re not having to open more windows and performing more searches.
Supports some basic setlist making, and loading
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the above is the baseline config.
Sounds really good Should it have filtering based on time signature and tempo range it would be even better
I kinda want to avoid having thousands of named songs, if most of those could just use the basic beats And for that the time signature and original tempo is the most important factor in addition to genre (if it’s known beforehand)
I’ve downloaded thousands of “user created” beats from the forums. Kinda hard to curate that sort of thing back into basic beats. They’re mostly one press songs.
FWIW, the tempo data doesn’t exist at the level we can read in the beatbuddy library
it all works from this meta data
cat /SONGS/326237B0/config.csv
[ binary file. ] [ item ] [ name ]
20F16B8D.BBS,1. All This Time- Sting
73C31FCD.BBS,2. Englishman In N.Y.- Sting
8937F0E6.BBS,3. Fields Of Gold- Sting
6B455023.BBS,4. Fortress Around Your Heart- Sting
2A58C181.BBS,5. Fragile- Sting
8A19457A.BBS,6. If I Ever Lose My Faith- Sting
E815CB8B.BBS,7. It’s Probably Me- Sting
286B9F34.BBS,8. Seven Days- Sting
366E752F.BBS,9. Shape Of My Heart- Sting
1CA7F292.BBS,10. When We Dance- Sting
So a search by tempo would be a bit of a journey at the moment.
Should it have filtering based on time signature and tempo range it would be even better 
