BeatBuddy Firmware 3.9.x "MIDI Optimizations and Bug Exterminations"

BeatBuddy Docs and Downloads
#1

Hi fellow BeatBuddies!

EDIT (May 3, 2021): We changed the firmware version to 3.9.9. This fixed the reported issues in previous versions as well as some additional issues we discovered.

We tested this extensively, but we will put a ‘beta’ designation here for the next week just in case anyone finds an issue that we missed. If you do find a bug please let us know:

  1. What happened (more details, the better)
  2. What were you doing with the BeatBuddy when the issue occurred.
  3. What other devices were connected to the BeatBuddy
  4. Are you able to repeat the issue?
  5. If possible, post a short video of the issue (you can send it to us by email if you wish, to support@singularsound.com)

3.9.9 Changelog

  • Improved Pause / Unpause behavior
    • Add outro command support while paused
      • Stops the BeatBuddy if the outro is disabled or the song does not have an outro
      • Plays the outro otherwise (on current beat if Mute Pause is enabled, from start of fill otherwise)
    • Update the handling of the MIDI messages CC-112 (fill), 113 (transition), 114 (intro), 115 (outro) while BeatBuddy is paused, the BeatBuddy will now behave as expected.
    • The BeatBuddy continues to play the outro fill if it is paused and unpaused during the outro.
    • Disable hold commands while paused if Start Beat is set to Press
      • If BeatBuddy Main Pedal is held down while paused and tap has not been set to stop, BeatBuddy will start a transition.
      • If BeatBuddy Main Pedal is held down while paused and tap has been set to stop, it will enter Tap Tempo Mode.
      • The same is true for the Main Pedal Footswitch emulation and the MIDI CC120 MIDI command
    • Added settings to Main Pedal Unpause for Stop Song and Transition with tap action using the Main Pedal
  • New Settings
    • New Mono / Stereo Setting for drum mix: This is useful if you don’t have a stereo sound system, you can set the drums to mono to hear the BeatBuddy’s summed signal
      • Found in the Audio Settings Folder
      • Mono / Stereo setting only affects the BeatBuddy’s own signal in both the Main and Headphone outputs. It does not affect any sound the BeatBuddy passes through from the inputs to the outputs.
    • New midi setting to enable / disable Program Change (PC) midi messages
    • Allow MIDI Start message during unpause to be Enabled/Disabled
    • External Device Unpause Outro setting - Follow Main pedal or Stop Song
      • This allows users to have a similar behavior to version 3.8.0 and prior when the footswitch is set to Outro and the BeatBuddy is paused.
  • Improvements to handling of Outro
    • If Outro is disabled and song is set to stop, the screen will say “Stopping” instead of “Outro”
    • Add outro command support during intro
      • Swap to outro if outro is enabled and exists on the current song
      • Play the intro until the end and stop if the outro is disabled or there is no outro available. The screen will say “Stopping” instead of Outro if this is the case.
    • Double Tap during stop / intro state
      • Outro enabled: BB will switch and play the outro
      • Outro disabled: BB will immediately cancel the intro and BB stops
    • Change outro request from external footswitches to follow the same behaviour as a midi request

MIDI

  • Added support for successive transition MIDI commands
    • This helps with the stability of quickly repeated Transition and Complete Transition MIDI commands sent by the user
    • Allows receiving both the Transition and Complete Transition commands simultaneously
  • Fixed Mute Pause MIDI activation issue
  • Wake up BB when receiving MIDI Messages from sleep state
  • Disable Internal MIDI Sync Output (from BB) when the BB is synced to an external clock. This fixes the ‘double clock’ problem.
  • Send Time signature every 3 seconds (approx). Keeps the time signature on the Aeros synced with the time signature on the BeatBuddy (Aeros song must be blank for the time signature to be changed)
  • Added MIDI CC Inc / Dec for Headphones (CC:109) and Mix (CC:108) main volume
  • Display volume changes (Headphones and Mix) when changing them with MIDI
  • Fixed bug where Next Part CC:102 command did not follow the BeatBuddy’s set MIDI Out channel
  • Set MIDI merge as default MIDI Out value
  • Use MIDI velocity for MIDI accent hit
  • Song Player MIDI control logic update
    • Go to stopped state when receiving MIDI stop message from paused state
    • Play outro when receiving outro message when stopped
  • Add MIDI remote main pedal on CC:120
    • Value > 0 : Pedal Press
    • Value = 0 : Pedal Release
  • Folder selection done through Program Change can now address up to 16,384 folders

New MIDI In transitions message logic:

CC-113, value = 0: Quit transition
CC-113, value = 1…32: Start transition to part X (if part X exists)
CC-113, value = 33…125: Ignored, no part possible
CC-113, value = 126: Start transition to previous part
CC-113, value = 127: Start transition to next part

Other

  • Add the possibility to cancel a Count-in intro with a double tap after count-in has started
  • External Footswitch now automatically controls scroll up/down while in song or folder screen, regardless of footswitch settings
  • Help text added and refined for various features

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed un-pause hold option still being processed even if Start Beat is set to Press
  • Fixed broken polyphony algorithm on player
  • Fixed bug where cue fill settings were affecting playback
  • Added special rule to support PC messages if CC messages are disabled
  • Handle triple tap timing the same as main pedal when MIDI controller and/or External Footswitch is emulating the main pedal.
  • Allow users to see help text even if option is disabled
  • Empty inactive folder names will now scroll if too long for the screen
    • Used for promotional messages from BBM / Download more songs, etc…

If you happen to find a bug in the new firmware, (first please tell us!) and you would like to revert to a previous version of the firmware, you can use the same update process as in the video above. Just use the older firmware version files.

Previous firmware versions:

BeatBuddy Firmware 3.80

BeatBuddy Firmware 3.60

BeatBuddy Firmware 3.20

BeatBuddy Firmware 2.70

BeatBuddy Firmware 2.04

18 Likes
Can't transition to next part with a single tap (of an external footswitch)
Custom Mode - Can't get toggling working
Coordinated BeatBuddy and Aeros Songs and Song Parts
Midi sync trouble
#2

Nice list of tweaks/fixes, thanks!

1 Like
#3

Lot of great stuff here. Nice job.

Now you can easily move the BB to the top row of the pedalboard and use a MIDI controller on the bottom row.

This will help a lot.

Nice idea.

This one probably needs some explanation to be clearer(and perhaps the last word needs a change).

I guess this means the sum to mono sounds better than just a single channel of drums. I usually just pick one channel when going from stereo to mono for guitar.

2 Likes
#4

Im using BeatBuddy every day - love this pedal!
But Accent hit volume (CC-110) is not working after this firmwareupgrade.

From the manual: “CC-110 [0-127] Triggers an accent hit with a volume from the value 0 (mute) to 100 (original recorded volume) to 127 (amplified more than the original recorded volume)”

  1. First time I reported this problem:
    “When I send value 0 its muted, but value 1 to 127 is the same volume - no difference.”

  2. Singular Sound’s answer:
    “Wow, I received a quick response from the programming team. This appears to be a bug. I have submitted this to them as an official bug to fix. It is now on their to-do list. I will update you once I have additional info from them.”

  3. Today I ugraded the firmware to 3.0.9:

a) Send CC-110 with different values (0-127) from OnSong-app to Beatbuddy. YES - it worked!! - for a short time…

b) I disconnected OnSong and set the Accent hit volume on BeatBuddy: not worked. Changed drumset: not working. Changed to another drumset: not working. Changed Accent to Global selecting: not working. Changed back to Default: not working. Changed to another drum-set: WORKING! — for a short time. Re-installed the new firmware: no difference…

c) When I select a value for the Accent hit volume on BB (-40dB to +6 dB) with the Tempo button, and push the Tempo button for testing the volume, everything sound as it should. But when I Push the left arrow or Drum Set button to get back to the main screen, the Accent hit volume is not saved with the latest value.

#5

Quick question on the mono/stereo setting. If I have a stereo monitor speaker setup, but I’m only running mono (single cable) from the BB out to my audio interface, should I set the BB to stereo or mono? IOW, is it based on the output cabling or the ultimate speaker setup/output?

#6

Still no auto pilot?

#7

I think that will have to be a part of the new improved BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) and the beats converted by Goran Rista. Until those get done, it probably won’t do much good to have the capability in the firmware.

#8

Hey there, all this means is that while the BB is playing intro, if you double tap, two things can happen:
If outro enabled it plays outro
If outro disabled it just cancels the intro

It’s odd you say it stopped working, how exactly were you sending the Accent hit command once you disconnected OnSong? Were you using the footswitch? Or a MIDI controller?

As far as I know, CC-110 is not affected by the volume level set, the volume is meant to control the accent hit when sent by the footswitch.

Also, you have to press the Tempo encoder, the TAP button, or the right arrow button to set the volume of the accent hit.

Is there a behavior you were expecting that is not present?

Let me know!

This will only affect the BeatBuddy’s own generated signal, so if you set it to mono, you can plug just one cable in, the BB signal is being sent in mono to both jacks.

The Headphones will be in stereo but will sound mono (the image is centered). As a plus, there is no ugly bump in volume on headphones last I checked, so it is averaged.

We’re not there just yet, but we felt it would be great to get you guys a tested version that is working well (since we have been doing bug fixes leading up to AP).

We are still working on BBM constantly.

1 Like
#9

I think the manual update is really good. Nice and clear, and the Midi settings are easier to find. Great job there!

4 Likes
#10

Not sure if this is a bug but in v 3.8.0 when I hit the pause on the footswitch pedal everything stopped playing in V3.9.0 it seems as though things continue to play for 1 to 2 seconds after pushing the pause, and then when I press the main pedal to stop the song it plays a little riff before it actually stops.

#11
  • Fixed bug where Next Part CC:102 command did not follow the BeatBuddy’s set MIDI Out channel

Awesome. This will help (me) a lot. I will test it!

1 Like
#12

In my experience, 3.9.0 is sending 3 SYSEX messages every 1 second (approx):
the usual 10 bytes message described in the MIDI-OUT Command list, but also a pair of 4 bytes.

It seems quite a lot of data being sent constantly. Now the Output LED of my MIDI adapter is blinking like never before.

Perhaps this is needed for keeping the Aeros looper synced with the BeatBuddy, but for any other MIDI device, it was probably enough sending the time signature when a Song is loaded (prior to 3.9.0), or just if/when there is some time signature change (don’t remember if this was the case before 3.9.0)

#13

This means now we have 128 Songs per Folder? There was a limit of 100 not described in the manual prior to 3.9.0

+1

+1

This is great, and the same applies with the tempo, but why not to do the same with the Accent Hit volume parameter?

Why not to use 0-63 OFF, 64-127 ON? In this way we could use the expression pedals to control playback or some other creative uses.

#14

This epitomizes MIDI in 2020.

We can stream 4k video without wires now.

#15

Let us know if it seems to not work!

feel free to make a feature request!

This can also be it’s own feature request, if you’d like.

#16

Just to clarify. This does not affect my external footswitch settings in play mode (after a song has loaded) ?

#17

Brliant. Updated firmware and MM now speaking to Pigtronix Infinity.

#18

… But after you play the last drum pattern in a song it doesn’t go back to the first one!

#19

Fixed. Thanks for the update, Jay.

#20

I’ve had this same issue. How was it fixed?