I used your setup instructions years ago, and everything was fine. However unfortunately Singular Sound, or OnSong changed things and now nothing works properly. My iPad still talks to the BB, however it only changes the tempos, and not the drums like I program it to. It stays on whatever the last drumset it used when I swipe to a new song. It’s so frustrating! I do know that I have the latest BB firmware, and I have been trying to get OnSong 2020.9.12 per the suggestion of an OnSong rep, however I cannot locate it. I have been using a “work-around” for the past year or more in frustration. I have to swipe to the song I want to play, hold-press the screen until the “test” menu pops up in OnSong, then I click “test” and that changes the drums to what they should be, then I have to swipe to a different song, then back again for everything to activate properly. By then too much time has passed in between songs and I have lost gigs after playing at these venues for 4 years. Because of all of this, venue managers have directly told me it’s because “I take too long in between songs.” Can you help again? Do you have any suggestions?
If you paid for the 2020 version, you should be able to download and use it. There is a link on the bottom of the OnSong 2023 app. You can also revert to a previous version of the pedal firmware.
Is it just the drum set that does not change or is it the beat or song that does not change? If it’s the drum set, check the BeatBuddy (BB) pedal setting Default Drum set: Enabled
It is the “Drumset” that does not change, and my BB is already set to “Enabled” with regard to the “Default Drumset”
I’m still unsure why it won’t change.
Currently I am using the 2020 version which I did pay for the perpetual version back in 2020. In fact my version shows “2020.9.11.3” as the last updated version on my OnSong app.
The rep at OnSong that I have been communicating with stated that I needed to update to “2020.9.12” but I cannot locate that version.
As for the BB, I did update to the current version which is 4.1.6
Just to isolate the pedal in the troubleshooting process: when using the BeatBuddy (BB) pedal as standalone, does manually changing songs on the pedal change the drum sets?
Yes, the drums do change if I simply choose a blues 1 set and push the pedal to play, then if I change it to a different set, it does change and play the correct set.
I’ll try to help but I’m using OnSong 2023 and there may be differences between the version you’re using and I’m using.
I am so far unable to replicate the issue you are reporting. I’m using an iPad iOS 17.4.1, OnSong 2023 and the BeatBuddy (BB) pedal is using firmware 4.1.6.
You might want to double-check that your BB MIDI settings and in particular,
Main Pedal - MIDI Settings - Control Change - Drum Set - Enabled
The BB works and the connection works. I believe this is purely an OnSong issue. Have you tried their forum?
The only other thing that comes to my mind is that I’m sure you are changing the song/beat first and then the drumset, right?
Workaround could be to make the drumset you want the default for the specific beat. This works if you don’t want to use multiple different drum sets with the same beat
On a second read: Can you describe what MIDI messages you are sending (or should be sending) if everything worked as it should? And then you could say which of the messages work and which doesn’t
It sounds like your BB has option “default drumsets” disabled. My guess is that you try to change the drumset first and then the beat, but it could be that the BB requires them in reverse order
To answer the first: I have OnSong and BB setup to work via midi program changes because that’s all I need to do. I’m not doing any control changes; not needed for me at this time.
Ex: If I simply want to use a Funky #7 drum beat, I set a “midi event” up as follows:
Program Change.
Channel - (1) in my case.
Program Change - Since I want to use “Funky #7” I set the program to (6).
Bank MSB - is set at (zero).
Bank LSB - is set at (5).
That should make everything change on the BB to the drumset “Funky #7” and it used to change, but it doesn’t anymore unless I do the “work-around” process. ???
We are in discussion with OnSong so that we can fix the issue on the Aeros that we believe is being caused by the command they send twice every time a song opens. This command chooses the tempo, it is sent twice because if it is not sent twice users report that the BB does not switch the tempo.
That being said, I just wanna make sure that users are not using the wrong setting. If you disable the default drum set setting, this will make the BeatBuddy stop automatically choosing the drum set.
It is my understanding that the reason for needing to send two commands is likely due to the fact that the BeatBuddy automatically chooses a tempo when the tempo setting is enabled thus needing a second command. Please try disabling the default tempo setting and then using OnSong to choose the song.
You likely do not need to both send a command from OnSong and have the default drum set setting enabled, if you want to have the default drum set setting enabled, you must set all the drum sets you want to use in the BB manager, and not rely on OnSong.
Thank you for that information. I just disabled my “default drumset” setting in BB, and it did not work. The problem still exists.
Also, just so you know…I always setup the drums that I want to use on my song choices in BB Manager because I also create custom files, so I make sure everything is setup in BB Manager for every song that I play. I only use OnSong as a vehicle for lyrics and midi for my rig, so OnSong is very important in that way for me. BB is also very important because of the drum beats it offers, not to mention the custom drumsets that I add to my file base in BB. Both applications are equally important for me.
Unfortunately for some reason I can no longer get them to talk properly to each other. When I choose a song everything should switch automatically when I switch songs. That’s the way it used to be. I haven’t changed any program changes in my songs.
After the updates, I did have to go in and change the way midi was sent because the update changed it from (0 -127) to (1-128). I saw no reason for changing a 30, 40 year old way midi operated, so I changed it back to (0 -127). This also meant I didn’t have to go and change all of my songs to match the new change to (1-128).
I see the tempo change, but not the drumset in BB still. Right now, unless I do that “work-around” I’m dead in the water. Like I said in previous emails, it wasn’t always like this.
I thank each and everyone of you for trying to figure this out. I believe I can say thank you from all who are having this issue with your assistance regarding these types of matters. Thank you all!
Apologies, I had misremembered what command they changed, it’s actually not sending the set tempo command twice, not the drum set. It’s interesting that sending the tempo command only once would affect the drum set being correctly detected, I will edit my original post so it makes more sense.
I will reach out to them about this thread, maybe a different bug, thanks
Yes, that is correct Aapo. The drumset doesn’t change, and the beat doesn’t either UNLESS I use the manual test feature. Your statement is also correct: “So not a single midi command goes through without the test feature.”
As for the OnSong version that was suggested (2020.9.12), I was able to obtain that version and update to it. However, that still did not change anything other than providing me an updated version.
Thank you Persist.
I’m not sure if this matters or not, but once I logged into my account for OnSong, I noticed that my device shows an old version still. I updated to the 2020.9.12 version per the request of the rep, but my account still shows 2020.9.4.8 for some reason. I signed out of all of my devices, then signed back in at least 3 times, but my account still shows the old version. It shows the correct iPad, and version of the iPad, but the OnSong version is incorrect. Again, not sure if that matters or not.
I have reached out to OnSong regarding this matter as well.
I have a question…is there a way to provide a short video of what is happening so you guys can see it first hand?
Or you could upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video and send it to us via DM. Also suggest providing it to support@singularsound.com along with a link to this thread
