BeatBuddy Wireless MIDI Controller - Premium MIDI Layout for MIDI Designer Pro (IOS)

Hi guys! I’m very pleased to show you my lastest creation, a Pro-grade MIDI Layout made for the Singular Sound BeatBuddy.

Hope you like it!

Regards.
Ed.

BeatBuddy Wireless MIDI Controller V1.3

Now Available!
V1.3 Update - October 1 2020
V1.2 Update - September 22 2020
V1.1 Update - September 19 2020
V1.0 Released on September 17 2020

I have put my best effort in doing this, so thank you for support my work.
Follow me for updates on what I am creating.

The “BeatBuddy” is a drum machine produced by Singular Sound. This app is not affiliated nor endorsed by Singular Sound.

Main View, Left and Right Panels

Main View L&R Cheatsheet

Drums and Credits panel

Drums and Credits Cheatsheet

Main View L and Blueboard

BlueBoard CheatSheet

Drums and Main View R

Main View L and Credits panel

BeatBuddy Wireless MIDI Controller

  • Full tactile control over your BeatBuddy using MIDI over Bluetooth or MIDI to USB connections.
  • Bidirectional communication between your BeatBuddy and your iPad.

Features:

  • Includes all the BeatBuddy MIDI and SYSEX implementation based on the current firmware
  • Single Tempo knob capable to send a range between 40-300 BPM (this single point has proven to be really tricky, but this layout finally solved it in the most elegant way possible)
  • Capable to operate in any MIDI channel and remain operative (something great if you have some others MIDI Devices in your setup)
  • Saves your spine! Almost any usual operation can be done from the controller side, and provides many advanced features almost impossible to replicate with a physical controller (unless you use a very big one)
  • Wireless option: connect a Yamaha MD-BT01 to your BeatBuddy MIDI Sync cable and begin to enjoy a tangle-free life
  • Includes 6 octaves of Pads to play any individual drum sample. They also receive MIDI notes (turn On “MIDI Notes Out” in your BB settings), so it shows the notes playing in Real-Time)
  • Easy Folder/Songs navigation, with support for 128 folders X 99 songs.
  • Eight Transition Part buttons, allowing for easy non-correlative part changes
  • User Setlist: Store up to 128 user presets (Select Folder and Song, then press the “S” button to enter a name and store the preset in the desired location)
  • Drum Set selector: Store up to 128 user presets (Select the Drum Set number, then press the “R” button to enter a name and store the preset in the current location)
  • SYSEX receive: shows the Time signature of any song (Range [1-32], [1,2,4,8,16,32])
  • MIDI receive: shows the current part after a transition (only on channel 1 due to an BeatBuddy Bug. Please read post #7 on this same thread)
  • Embedded support for the iRig BlueBoard: 100% Plug&Play! Preconfigured and ready to use.
  • Includes a small MIDI implementation to emulate the BlueBoard behaviour using different devices (Airturn, Airstep, etc)

Hardware and Software Requeriments:

  • Singular Sound BeatBuddy
  • Singular Sound BeatBuddy Midi Sync Cable
  • Apple iPad (Also for old devices! Even a 7-years-old iPad Air first gen will work)
  • MIDI Designer Pro 2 (IOS app, sold separately)
  • This MIDI Layout (Now Available!!)
    Recommended MIDI Interfaces:
  • Wireless: Yamaha MD-BT01
  • Wired (MIDI to USB): Roland UM-ONE MKII + Apple CCK USB3

Recommended Bluetooth LE pedalboards:

  • Singular Sound MIDI Maestro (the BeatBuddy companion)
  • iRig BlueBoard (embedded support)
  • Airturn BT200 series
  • Xsonic Airstep

Changes Log:

V1.0 Released on September 17 2020
V1.1 Released on September 19 2020

  • Songs number limited to 99 (as it is in the BeatBuddy)
  • New “R” button (Rename) to easily label your Drum Sets on the controller side.
  • New Drum Set “Reorder” feature (it’s also on the Drum panel). Associate any Preset to any Drum Set number, then press the “R” button to rename and store it.
  • Minor graphic fixes

V1.2 Released on September 22 2020

  • User Setlist: 128 user presets to store and rename Folder+Song combinations.

V1.3 Update - Released on October 01 2020

  • Global MIDI Channel Selector
  • Plug & Play Support for the iRig Blueboard Mode C (2)
  • Small MIDI implementation to be used with different BLE devices (Airturn, etc)
4 Likes

I don’t use BeatBuddy, but I use Midi Designer Pro on iPad. I’ve started a layout for Aeros, just waiting for more midi commands to be implemented. Glad to see another MDP user here. Cheers!

1 Like

And it does (or is planned to do) what, exactly? Apart from look pretty :slight_smile:

See description below pretty pictures. It’s an iOS-based midi controller for BeatBuddy. :slight_smile:

Nice! I’ll follow this :slight_smile: Is it working yet…I have MIDI Designer Pro…

Very nice. Have you considered adding a song name field?

I think I have found a BeatBuddy bug while doing my final tests:

BeatBuddy seems to be sending the CC102 (sent after a part change) exclusively over the MIDI channel 1 (B0), no matter what Output channel is selected on Settings/Main pedal/MIDI settings/MIDI-OUT/Channel/

I can see the notes being sent on any selected channel, but the BB keeps sending CC102 on channel 1.

Can anyone confirm this, so it can be reported as a bug?

EDIT:
Well, forget it. Now I can see this is an old bug, reported at least since 2018 and still broken on the current Firmware 3.8.0:

So we are stuck on MIDI Channel 1 despite all my efforts to get a 16-channels bomb proof MIDI layout, and it’s all due to this horrid bug.

2 Likes

Yes, this is a very irritating issue! To get around this problem, I need to put a computer in the MIDI loop to look for that CC102 message (on channel 1) and then send it out again on the proper midi channel (channel 4 for my and the Ditto X4)

2 Likes

For some reason I had not seen this bug, making sure we have it in the bug tracker and address it.

1 Like

hmmm, I’ve been using Unrealbook (chart reader on iPad) to send commands to BB - I have used several different channels (according to the one I am using on BB - mostly 15 or 16 iirc) in sending data - not sure if I’ve used 102, but I use volume control, drumset change, tempo change and song change, among others…hahaha just checked, and 102 does not even appear in the MIDI commands used by BB on my data sheet .

What does 102 actually do?

It’s in the midi commands document on the Singular BB downloads. It’s listed as Next Part CC102. It gets sent by the BB after a transition. I believe this is what @JoeInOttawa uses for his lights command. It’s shown in the midi document as an Enable/Disable choice.

1 Like

Yep, CC102 is one of the commands my lighting system responds to.

What about CC110? (Triggers an accent hit). It is documented as if it were velocity sensitive [0-127] where 100 is the original recorded volume.

However, only the values 0 (mute) and 127 (maxed) seems to work. Any intermediate value sounds the same than max.

This renders my accent hit volume slider looks like wasted space. It was intended to determine the velocity sent by the accent hit button. And it works as intended, it just again the BB acting unexpectedly.

Thanks Phil - I’ll need to update my docs - the lists I have a pretty old…versions? I have two and 102 isn’t on either. I’ll search the downloads.

One thing I have noticed in the settings, is that turning 102 to enable is only available in the MIDI Out section, not the MIDI in section?? Seems it would need to be enabled for MIDI in…unless my firmware is also out of date??

EDIT: After checking the doc that Persist kindly gave the link to. Looks like this is the only way it works. It SENDS a part change??? Why would you need to send it, shouldn’t the BB receive it?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/16cNt2v0RL5adPzcpQASpr0PcTM8iEyBzbF6eOaz3j1o/htmlview#gid=488842810

thanks, that one I do not have :slight_smile:

I think the idea was that the 102 was an unused CC, so that having it sent upon part change allowed the user to create some kind of special effect, like Joe’s lights. The downside was that if some other midi device on the same channel actually used CC 102, you could have an undesired result. Thus, the ability to Enable or Disable the send.

Ahh, ok - yeah that makes sense in that usage method. Thanks

It will also receive next part commands of some sort, because you can switch parts via MIDI from the Aeros. A quick check of the MIDI manual tells me if you send a transition (CC113) with a value of 127, it goes to the next part.

If you haven’t seen it, that manual is online, here: Support.