Agreed. Been waiting for 4 years.
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Hey guys, I want to chime in with a couple of details here.
Regarding the MIDI editor: yes, it is by far the worst piece of software I have ever come across. And it has to do with the fact that it was âdesignedâ and built entirely by a single developer. Obviously he had no concept of UXD, but that doesnât surprise me as I have come across several instances where software is powerful, but terribly complicated and impractical because they were made solely by software developers. In my opinion, a developer should not be let near anything until UXD is being done by a professional or at at least someone who can relate to an average person.
Fun fact: the developer of the MIDI âeditorâ once argued with me that a floor tom from drums was not named because it sits on the floor with 3 legs, but rather because of some mathematical floor!? That says it all.
As far as creating the BB Manager from the ground up- that was tried too. It may appear to you that nothing was done with regards to the BB Manager for years because the management does not care. But, that couldnât be further from the truth.
There was actually a very ambitious undertaking (insane, in my opinion) going on to build a modern JS-based BB Manager that was going to not only outperform all of the functions of the BB Manager, but integrate the Premium Library, previews, and purchases of all available loops with a single click, forum, user-generated contentâŚ
The project manager who was contracted along with his developer team promised it was all going to be delivered within a few months. Over a year and half, and a small fortune later, what they âdeliveredâ could not even perform the basic tasks of the current BB Manager. The project had to shelved indefinitely. You think that you and I are frustrated? Imagine the person forking the bill!
So, while we are all frustrated with the current state of the software (including the management and the CEO), it is not because the company does not care about the product or customers or not wanting to invest in it.
Without meaning to offend anyone, in my experience with dealing with developers (many over the years for my own needs), I generally find them to be extremely unreliable people. So, when you can not program things yourself and have to depend on them, you never know when and if things are going to be completed as they should.
I think that open-sourcing is a great idea. Hopefully, the team that is being put in place to oversee and help out with the endeavor will get this off the ground soon, so that we can all live happily ever after.
Peace!
p.s. If your experience with software developers is different from mine and you know of skilled AND reliable ones, please let me know. For real!
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Well, of course there is truth in some you say.
But letâs face one thing: if a tool does not do what you want there are always 3 options: 1 wrong tool: 2 no skill of the user or 3 bad quality.
There is no evil tool.
The same applies to developers, staff company owners etc.
If a development fails for any of the named reason it is usually due to bad management with no skill hiring the wrong people or going too cheap on the approach.
At the start there needs to be a qualified and competent decision. Letâs face it: there is NOT ONE software tool that you cannot have next week programmed incredibly well by an Indian or Eastern European developer. That is easy and cheap : IF you have the skill to actually describe what you want with skill and you follow up on your project with the correct intent.
Most projects like this fail because of half-lived ideas and dreams of almightiness without competence. It gets worse if marketing cares more about design than function and the money is pumped more in ads than in development.
All avoidable. In any way once more: BB is not rocket science. Put your time and heart and money where it should be and all will be just fine quickly. And stop protectionism. When there is something that needs proprietary approaches then itâs the idea. The technology here is nothing new. Databases, midi and interfaces are not in need of redevelopment. Letâs simply be real and use existing tech to make a good product usable.
I call bullshit. Have it done next week? No â unless, in your mind, âDevelopedâ = âPirated from someone elseâs hard work.â And easy and cheap is the lure, but farming it out, as Goran has narrated, was exactly the problem in the first place.
Iâm in the software business. This is not an easy fix. But, hey, donât you work at Apple? Maybe you could get a couple of buddies to build it in their spare time. Iâll even give you a whole month, see what they come up with.
JeebusâŚ
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@bandyman @JoeInOttawa Unfortunately, the developer team in question here was not outsourced or cheap. It was a US-based team lead by a supposedly veteran project manager who did some major project for Verizon. As I said, it cost a small fortune!
So, when you are hiring a pro team with an apparently highly experienced project manager, and paying a top dollar for it, youâd expect top results, wouldnât you?
I wouldnât trust that guy to manage a sheep drawn on a piece of paper.
I agree with what you said with regards to technology and protectionism. You know: you live and you learn 
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Let the team do their work without distraction.
It is business.Full of ups and downs.
Make the most of what you got.Sure if you spent a few and things do not live up to expectations get over it.
You are still above ground.
Let me introduce you to the BeatBuddy Manager.
Once we make it open source, weâd love to see how you get it all solved in one week. If you manage to somehow solve all the BBManagerâs issues and have it run smoothly with no issues whatsoever in both Windows and Mac (either using your own skills and/or outsourcing some Indian/EU team) in just a weekâs time despite the fact that we ourselves failed to solve this challenge after numerous attempts with several teams over the course of 6 years, we will send you a VERY nice care package! 
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I donât think that guy works in software.
When I go beast mode, I can have an end to end proof of concept workflow in a day (up to a week for massive stuff). I can have it expanded to a few extra features in a week. I can have it bug free for a range of normal uses after a month. To take it from proof of concept to product takes a team at least 6 months to a year, and thatâs without considering sales, marketing or other corporate forces. Thatâs in optimal situations.
Now obviously, when a team uses Agile methodology and Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment, iterations are faster, but thatâs a newer approach and it sounds like the teams they contracted prior were certainly not using that.
I think whatever development team you guys hire or contract out, you should require they follow those principles so that at any point you have a viable (but maybe feature reduced) shippable product. The key is small testable increments that can be demoed to you at regular intervals. Measure their progress with concrete demos like every 2 weeks or 4 weeks. Do NOT settle for devs that say they hold off showing you their work until the entire product is done.
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If you read previous posts above you will notice a talk about a team being put in place to overlook the open source project. It is for the purpose that everything gets checked properly and have a clear direction.
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Man, I hate agile. âSprintâ is from the Latin for, âGosh, Iâd love to, but it wonât fit in our current 6-week sprint that we just started yesterday. Maybe next time. Probably not. But ask me again in four weeks. Maybe five. Or maybe you should hire someone.â
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Yeah, Agile can also be done poorly just like any other. My main complaint is that when implemented poorly itâs analogous to greedy search in that it de-emphasizes longer goals in favor of cheap and quick tasks.
But at least thereâs movement and something demo-able at the end of each sprint.
Interesting comments, but perhaps a bit overzealousfor this forum. I think we all want the same thing and hope that the onboarding of a new team and open sourcing a core part of the BB is handled well.
Definitely not without risks. Not sure we want to manage that via bulletin board posts. Perhaps we should switch the discussion from development methodology to the properties of reflection free irâs? 
Yeah, youâre right. I was just venting. Not about SS, but about my week.
And now, back to our regularly-scheduled program.
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I actually LOLâd when I read this, thank you! I am just coming off of a âBeast Modeâ 6 day stretch and I know exactly what you mean.
I am a full time developer, who manages a team that is made up of both state side and coders based in India. India coders are no better or worse than coders here overall (meaning you have heros and dumb f**ks).
The biggest challenge is up front communication, constant corrections and controlling my managers from saying âSure we can add that feature!â every time they show it to a new customer.
Regardless â This will be interesting!
âJoe
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Thanks Goran!
Putting it in perspective, Obamacare spent millions on a website that didnt work. We can all take exception to that since we paid the millions
At least Singular used their money!
You have a problem when customers perceive something to be a problem regardless of whether it is true or not.
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Reaper is not Opensource.
It is developed by Justin Frankel pretty much single handed, as far as I know.
Not sure what the rest of your post is getting at - you seem to have issue with the fact you are not project manager.
Problem is when you develop software, that has to be mutli-platform, and you start using Appleâs or MIcrosoftâs intrinsic API calls, you soon learn you spunked your budget, and maintenance becomes impossible without a massive budget.
As some other have pointed out Beatbuddy is bit niche and the market for potential users limits how much can be spent on it.
Opensource is great stuff - but Iâm reading some posts on this thread that just make me think if some of you got involved it would be a shit shower of too many chefs.
Closed source is good too. Like Reaper for example - the developer has control over the code. That doesnât mean you can not source design from others - both in terms of functionality and user experience. Then again Justin is a special talent.
From what some of you are saying I doubt very much youâve have any experience of software development what so ever.
Selling Apples is very different from software engineering. Theyâre both IT, but worldâs apart.
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Itâs a lot to do with it being very difficult and often beyond personâs grasp or ability.
Iâve worked with many developers that have zero idea about Software Engineering - they can bash out code all day, but zero design and no plan.
Writing code is trivial, well thought out design and understanding your platform is everything.
I developed bespoke applications for Scientists researching pain - mostly interfacing with obscure bits of hardware and APIs. Most time was spent learning about the hardware\APIs and thinking long before before writing code -
I also design systems to be developed by outsource developers and to be honest you spend more time in project management than if you did yourself. If you want a system built by coders in the other side of the world then you need to document to nth degree and design to the very last detail - I doubt is some of the poster here have the slightest clue what that entails.
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SWS
Yeah some plugins which interface with API to the Closed Source Reaper.
What is your point?