I just responded to a couple of “newbies” to looping and to Aeros. They’re finding the lack of simple step-by-step videos challenging in their efforts to get going. I’m a fairly experienced looper and I had a long slog getting to where the functionality is working pretty well for me, but this is a pretty complex device. The development team and so many people on these forums are so technologically savvy that it seems it’s not in people’s consciousness how difficult it can be for a beginner to successfully get through the initial learning curve. This is not a criticism so much as just an acknowledgement of something that happens in all fields. I think it would be extremely helpful for there to be a separate topic titled “How Do I Do This?” or something like that where users can ask simple questions about how to use the functionality of the Aeros to accomplish their looping dreams. There would ideally be one devoted to Aeros, one to Beatbuddy, and one to their conjoined use - or there could just be one for all of that. Aeros team members and forum users could respond to the questions - whoever could help someone the fastest would get the job done. In fact, other users could probably do all of this so the Aeros folks wouldn’t need to spend their time. This would have saved me a LOT of hours and I think will make the adoption of the Aeros so much more possible and enjoyable for a lot of people that I think it would be well worth it. This could be avoided by having a number of VERY SIMPLE, slower paced step-by-step instruction videos and a more thorough manual but I don’t somehow see that happening, so a simple forum topic should do the trick to make a lot of present & future Aeronauts happy. Thanks for reading! @BrennanSingularSound - seems like some other folks think this might be a good idea and easy to implement. What about it?
A great suggestion .Thanks Meadowbrook.
Hopefully ‘‘tis will happen.
One of the best ideas of seen. I’m 68 yrs old and have been a professional musician since 1979. I’ve opened shows for some of the biggest names in the biz, toured extensively, written music for radio and tv. Was on the ground floor when midi was born. Have a full fledged digital studio (migrated from tape as an early digital pioneer) and have used multiple DAWs since Cakewalk, Fruity Loops, Acid… now Studio One.
Got a Beat Buddy from a friend who just got frustrated with it. Cool, I can put this into my solo show. Drums and bass. Wait. Where’s the bass? I’m telling you straight up that it was one of the most irritating experiences with a piece of new gear that I’ve had in… forever. No wonder my buddy gave me such a killer deal.
I’ve used Reapers Wiki Documentation for help more times than I can count and it seems to work well. It’s built from user contributions, so I’m not sure how it would work out taking some of the tutorials from this forum and copying them over and tidying them up to an indexed Wiki document. I haven’t a clue how this would be set up and whether it could be an be extension of Singulars host site or if it would be under Wiki itself.
I’m 72 and get really frustrated searching this forum for ‘how to do’ this or that. I thank Persist for all the help he is and this forum would be lost without him.
Thanks for your suggestion, but since THIS FORUM is already set up by Singular for the Aeros they should want their users to have a relatively painless adoption of their technology - thus, THIS is the IDEAL place for such a topic. It would not be hard to add this and would be enormously helpful. Let’s not complicate this request, thanks!
“Category” might better serve the structure of the forum.
I agree. There needs to be a category with sub-categories for BeatBuddy (BB), AEROS and MIDI Maestro integration/joint operation. When Singular Sound was migrating the BeatBUddy forum from XenForo to Discourse, I recommended just such a category @AnthonySostre and maybe now is the time to add it.
One of the touted advantages of Discourse was that it included Wiki underpinnings and that it would be easy to build content based on user input.
I really like the contributions and suggestions that users are making to this forum and I think there’s plenty of room for everybody’s suggestion to be considered and incorporated into improving our community.
I’ll see if I can’t devote some time to this in October. If I can’t squeeze it in then, it’ll likely have to wait till next year. Feel free to remind me when October comes around, though I’ll have my own reminder set as well.
Thank you very much for seeing if you can make this happen! I believe it will be well used and greatly appreciated, making adoption (and thus music making!) much easier. Thanks again!
Thanks for taking this up & passing it on to Anthony! You’re definitely right about a Category instead of a Topic. I guess some ideas - like yours for this Category a while ago - are just a little too ahead of their time! Thanks again & really looking forward to it.
In between it doesn’t prevent people to start creating some howtos. It would be nice if they could be flagged (tagged) to ease transition when categories will be available…
The impetus for this Category (thanks @Persist) idea was my running into difficulty trying to figure out how to do something with the Aeros and wishing I could just ask that question somewhere and maybe get a quick answer. I thought it kind of crazy that didn’t already exist, so I just muddled through and put off requesting that here until I saw some other folks further behind the curve than i was have their own hard times. If someone wanted to make howtoos to go in such a category so people wouldn’t even have to ask the question that would be a great complement, while having a community of people knowledgeable and willing to help should probably be the core and i imagine it also fostering a positive community similar to what the development process has done.
Hopefully we’ll see this in the near future!
I think the idea is quite good—in theory—but in practice, it may take on an unexpected (read, out of control) lifeform. Even if such categories existed, users have asked technical or functional questions before ever bothering to search the forum—much less a specific category created just for the purpose of providing help. Maybe the first category should be focused on showing users how to leverage the how-to categories and the forum in general. Having such a category does not guarantee that users will read and follow the principles.
Also frustrating are the off-topic questions that are related to their computer operating system.
Some users learn from how-to videos; others find answers in written step-by-step instructions and yet others prefer screen shots accompanying the text-based instructions (a hybrid approach). It’s particularly annoying when well-meaning users provide content that’s either incomplete or worse, incorrect. Should these how-to categories be curated with each category having user experts moderating the specific category in their area of knowledge and experience? In other words, before something gets posted in a how-to category, it gets vetted by it’s respective (non Singular Sound) user expert?
I’m all for making it easier to find the answers to user questions as well as for having access to tips, techniques and procedures that will enhance the user experience with the BeatBuddy, AEROS and Maestro in standalone usage as well as integrated in any combination of devices. It needs to scratch the itches of basement/beroom hobbyists and pro musicians.
A final thought: having such categories should not obviate Singular Sound’s responsibility for providing well-written and comprehensive user guides (updated regularly) for each device as well as each guide having instructional sections on e.g., using the BeatBuddy with any combination of AEROS or the Maestro (or other non Singular Sound devices). If those guides existed (and users actually read and followed them), it would probably make these how-to categories less relevant.
About:
• “users have asked technical or functional questions before ever bothering to search the
forum—much less a specific category created just for the purpose of providing help.”
• “Also frustrating are the off-topic questions that are related to their computer operating
system.” “It’s particularly annoying when well-meaning users provide content that’s either
incomplete or worse, incorrect.”
• “Should these how-to categories be curated with each category having user experts
moderating the specific category in their area of knowledge and experience? In other words,
before something gets posted in a how-to category, it gets vetted by it’s respective (non
Singular Sound) user expert?”
I believe you’re concerns can be mitigated and are greatly outweighed by the positives of a place where users can help other users with adoption of the Aeros.
Unnecessary and off-topic questions can simply be ignored. I’ve posted here with no responses, which has been just fine - everything doesn’t need a response. Incorrect info can be ignored or corrected by others with no risk to Aeros from trying to perform a function with incorrect toe taps.
I don’t believe there’s any need for it to be officially “curated” for correct information, certainly not by anyone from Singular. If anyone felt motivated to take this on for a sub-category that would be great - some people love to teach. You likely have more experience than I but it feels like you may be underestimating the community.
It might make sense to have a Category Disclaimer stating something like; “This is a user-centric Category for users to help each other with adoption of the Aeros. Singular Sound takes no responsibility for the accuracy of information posted in this Category and may or may not respond to questions and comments posted here.”
As you state, I believe " access to tips, techniques and procedures" and “well-written and comprehensive user guides (updated regularly)” would be great, but i believe would not preclude this Category. The Boomerang instruction manual was good and detailed enough (& humorous) that I was able to achieve full functionality without too much pain and wasted time, though even then I often wished I could have someone to ask something about when i ran into a block. Some people are just WAY less technically/linearly minded than others and benefit by direct instruction/communication.
My (and it seems others’) experience with Aeros has been much more time-consuming and challenging than my Boomerang experience. Since Aeros is significantly more complex than the Boomerang, I believe it would take a compete re-working of the manuals giving step-by-step instructions of how to do this and how to do that for a manual to be thorough enough. This Category would hopefully be the experienced “friend” you can check in with when you run into a roadblock.
I think an “unexpected, out of control lifeform” (sounds kind of interesting!) can be dealt with if that unlikely event materializes, but fear of such should not be a reason to not try to make this work so Aeros can gain easier, more widespread adoption and create greater cross connections within the Aeros community. If it turns into a forum for debating and promoting QAnon I’ll gladly admit you were right.
To me a forum is already a place for “How do I do This?”
A “How do I do This?” section is like…
How do I do This?
How do I do This?
Which is a section within a section.
Don’t really know what you mean. For example, the titles of the existing Aeros Categories and topics are:
General discussion
- Aeros
Support
- Aeros Feature Requests
- Aeros Docs and Downloads
- Aeos Bugs/Help
Product Feedback
- Aeros Reviews and Feedback
There is NO place here SPECIFICALLY set up for regular Aeros & Beat Buddy users or Singular Sound folks to help people do what we’re all here to do - LEARN TO USE AEROS & BEAT BUDDY. That’s why you see occasional posts scattered in different parts of the forum from people who don’t know how to do something specific and are having a hard time figuring it out. To have a CENTRAL PLACE DEVOTED TO THIS CORE NEED where people can go and have their questions answered is only sensible.
I mean that General Discussion means “How do I Do This.”, and support means “How Do I do This.”
So another “How Do I Do This” is overkill.
Perhaps a how-to sub-category might be helpful under this category https://forum.singularsound.com/c/device-integrations/47
Totally disagree.
Under Support there are 10 subtopics, none of which are focused on learning functionality. Under General Discussion there are topics all over the place. As i said before, it only makes sense - at the minimum so people don’t have to spend a lot of time roaming all over different parts of the Forum to find out where to post their questions and where to find answers - to have a specific place to learn and share about functionality. I don’t really understand why you would oppose this, but to each their own.
It could go there, but there’s so much other stuff there i think it would ideally be it’s own Category so it would easy to see and find when people come new the Forum. If it’s clear there is such a Category i believe it would give beginners (and others) confidence that they could get up to speed with this complex - and to some - intimidating device pretty quickly, knowing there’s an easily accessible place to get answers to their functionality questions as they arise.
It hypothetically could be anywhere as long as it’s dedicated (and limited to) the concept of people asking questions about functionality and others answering them, but I do believe it deserves it’s own separate Category. Not one for bugs or feature requests or any of the hundred other things that people use the other parts of the Forum for.
I agree with you that it would be ideal that “There needs to be a category with sub-categories for BeatBuddy (BB), AEROS and MIDI Maestro integration/joint operation.” Each of these sub-categories would likely get enough use that co-mingling them would make things unnecessarily messy. It all seems quite simple to me. Hopefully we’ll see fairly soon.