OnSong 2020 does not change BeatBuddy drum sets

BeatBuddy Help, Questions and Bugs
41

Hi Brennan,

Attached is a screen shot of my BB setup for “50 Ways” in the BB Manager.
Translating that in OnSong, this is what I have. This is a custom file, but I used the following:
Program Change, Channel 1, Program 0 (since it’s the first song in that custom folder), MSB = 0, and LSB = 22. (In this scenario, I used the "march beat #6, for the cadence feel, and then I used “pop beat #18” preset for the back beat portion of that song). Notice that I used the “brushes” drum set to give that marching beat a more realistic cadence sound.
I’ve never had a problem with it. When I do the “work-around” it plays just fine when I play the song. The problem is having to do that work-around when I should just be able to choose the song and the midi commands should tell the devices what to change to.
Also to answer your question, yes the beats and drum sets in BB Manager do play correctly and they also play correctly in the BB. The issue I am having is the communication between OnSong and BB has been lost somehow. I think it is from the updates.

Keep in mind that my LSB is 22 because the last drum preset in BB for drums is “Metronome” and that LSB number is 21. So my “custom” songs/folders started after that. They all work no problem. The problem is OnSong communicating with BB properly.

Again, maybe it’s my programming, but I haven’t changed the way I have done things since I started using OnSong and BB. If I am supposed to do something different since the updates, then I don’t know what that “something” is.

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42

One thing that came to my mind is that if you disable the default tempo then at least the workaround you have will be much simpler :blush:

I mean that then you don’t have to swipe left and right, only the test feature is enough :relieved:

43

Hi Brennan,

Thank you, that advice did help!
I now have both the default tempo and the default drums (disabled).
In doing so, I can now choose a song and press hold the iPad screen to get the “test” feature and click test, and that changes everything to sync up more easily.

The only difference now between the way things used to work is that I have to click “test” to get things to sync. If we can somehow eliminate that “test” step, then everything will be back to normal.

I chose several different random songs to test, and things went well.

1 Like
44

Good that it helped :blush:

P.S. Does the help feature send the signals also to your other devices? Like the open song feature? :thinking:

45

I don’t understand your question Aapo, sorry.
Did you mean “test” feature??
If that’s what you meant, then I would say yes it does send signals to my other devices.
Because I have OnSong set up with the correct midi information for each device, I believe when I hit the “test” feature it talks to all of my devices like it’s supposed to.
Now we just have to figure out what is blocking the communication between OnSong and BB when I choose a song from the start. It should talk to all of my devices, and OnSong does, however, while the other devices do change correctly upon command, the BB only changes the tempo…even with the “default tempo” enabled.
What I can’t determine is why the BB doesn’t change to the drum set and beat that I command it to when I choose a song? Only the tempo changes no matter if I have the “default drumset” enabled or disabled. Right now, only the “test” feature seems to be able to talk to the BB to change everything to the correct midi commands.

46

Ah, yes. Sorry for that :sweat_smile:

One thing that I would try is to not send tempo to BB and try to see if open song would change the beat and drumset then :thinking:

47

Hi Aaron_Johns,

Looking at your screenshot of your BB Manager, you have a song title (50 Ways), you have the tempo of this song set to 102, and you have your drumset set to “Brushes”. So all the info that BB needs is there when you save your sets/songs/lists to your SD card. So my question is, why do you need to set the tempo and drumset with MIDI code via OnSong?

I have my BB Manager set up in a similar way to you. In OnSong I only have one MIDI command—to locate any given song. So for the first song in my first folder in BBM I have this written in the OnSong code area, behind the lyrics:

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That’s it. I open the lyrics in OnSong and BB instantly has my song ready to go—correct tempo; correct drumset. Apologies if I’m missing something obvious in the way you have things set up. My set up is dead simple and works perfectly (he said, quickly touching some wood).

48

Hi Aapo,

I did remove the tempo in OnSong from one song to test it, and you were correct again. I don’t need to have the tempo there. When I first started using OnSong, I can’t remember if one of the videos I watched added a tempo, or if that was just something I added because it was there.

Anyway, the fact that I removed the tempo from that one song didn’t correct the still existent problem. The beat and drumset still did not change in the song (50 Ways), but the tempo did whether or not I had the tempo in OnSong or in this case removed it. The tempo still changed accordingly. I wish the rest would follow suit.

49

Hi Nito,

The song (50 Ways) in my song list uses the “Brushes” drumset, and also uses two different drum beats. No problem there right?
First let me say that the method of adding midi commands for the tempo and drumset in OnSong is the method I’ve used from the very beginning. I never had an issues for a couple of years until there updates to both OnSong and BB.
If I remove the tempo, no problem. However, if I remove the midi command from OnSong telling the BB which file to choose from, how would it know which song and drumset to use? I understand that the information is on the SD card, but in my case, the (50 Ways) song is in a custom file with the LSB being 22. If I don’t tell the BB to choose the first song in that custom folder (program# zero in this case), and then tell the BB also via midi to look at Bank# 22 because that where that folder is located, then how would the BB know where to look and what to choose? I hope this answers your question. Also, I believe that “code area” you mentioned that is behind the lyrics, is placed there in OnSong when I choose “send” and then add the proper midi commands to talk to the BB.

Please let me know if what I just explained is the same as you writing in the “code area behind the lyrics.” Thank you.
Forgive my ignorance if I’m not understanding your question above as to why “I need to set the tempo and drumset with midi code via OnSong?”
That said, I did try your method by removing the tempo and drumset midi commands, and that did not correct the problem. Unfortunately the drum beat and drumset still did not change even after removing the tempo and drumset midi commands from the (50 Ways) song.

50

My theory is that in the specific OnSong version you have they sort the MIDI commands so that tempo comes after bank select but before program change. This means that BB gets confused as it’s expecting the bank select and program change to be right next to each other :thinking:

Tempo goes through because it’s just single command, but song select doesn’t as it’s three commands :no_mouth:

Now this is just a theory and I haven’t confirmed any part of this :sweat_smile:

If I were you I’d still try to re-update or even re-install to try to fix it :thinking:

51

Hi A_J,

Here’s my suggestion for you to test:

First, in OnSong, select the lyrics files for the first two songs in your BBM folder “Custom 1”. It looks like the first one is “50 Ways”; second one—I don’t know what that is. And for the sake of this test, can you go to BBM and give song #2 a different drumset to “Brushes”?—just so you can see the drumset will change from song #1 to song #2 when you do the test in a minute. Back in OnSong, go to the “Song information/MIDI event” in each one and delete all the MIDI details you currently have in both of them (take a screenshot of each just in case you need to revert to your existing details).

Back in Beat Buddy Manager, you’ll need to determine what number your “Custom 1” is in your library/list. I can’t tell from your screenshot because I can’t see the full list, but I’m going to take a guess that “Custom 1” is the 18th folder in your list. As you probably know, MIDI always starts at “0”, so the folder #1 will but be connected to by MIDI “0”. Therefore, folder #18 will need MIDI “17” to locate it.

Okay, back to OnSong and those first two songs in “Custom 1”. Go to the first one (“50 Ways”) and go to the coding area behind the lyrics that I showed you in screenshots here yesterday. You’ll probably already see “50 Ways” written there. On a new line below it, type in this:

MIDI: 0.17:0

Do the same on the second song and type in this:

MIDI: 0.17.1

To explain—the first “0” refers to your BBM project. I’ve never used more than one project personally—maybe some users have two or three projects—but I would suggest most times you’re always going to want that first digit to be “0”.

The second number is “17”. This refers the folder in BBM. In your case it’s “Custom 1” and I’ve made a guess that it’s the 18th folder in your list. Obviously you need to change that number to the correct one.

The third number locates the song. So a “0” will find the first song in “Custom 1” folder, which is “50 Ways”.

So the code for the second song is exactly the same, except it has a “1” at the end, so that will find the second song in “Custom 1”.

So now, your OnSong lyrics files (2) will have NO other MIDI info except the very short bit of code I’ve just shown you. Synchronize your SD card with BBM (because you may have used a new drumset for song 2), plug it into your BB, OnSong is running on your iPad and your Bluetooth connection from OnSong to BB is running…you should be ready to test. Try those two songs via OnSong and see if they appear correctly in your BB.

52

@Aaron_Johns - I agree with Nito’s suggestion. It’s kinda what I as getting at the other day. You are depending upon OnSong’s automated coding. You indicated that the problems started after an update. I propose that the update somehow affected the results of the automated coding. If you hard code the Midi command into the lyrics sheet, this will tell use whether your version of OnSong responds properly when that is the case. In this regard, the Default Drumset command in BB should be On.

53

Hi Nito,

So I did everything per your suggestions, and it still didn’t work.
I removed the OnSong “auto” programing midi commands that I did from the “send” option in OnSong, then I went in behind the lyrics and pressed enter to create a space after the title of the songs. Then I typed the followings for “50 Ways” and “Ho Hey” since they are lined up as the first and second songs in the custom 1 folder:
MIDI: 0.22:0
MIDI: 0.22:1

This still did not make the songs change automatically. I still needed to do the “test” thing to get the beat and drumset to change for both songs.

Question: A couple of things I have noticed. If I’m doing a “program change” in OnSong, why does it show “control107#107” ??? Shouldn’t it show like PRG22 or something like that since I’m doing program changes? Either way, I changed the two songs back to what they were. I used the “send” option since just typing: MIDI: 0.22:0 or even MIDI: 0.22:1 doesn’t seem to make the BB change everything automatically without the “test” thing.

Thanks guys for your continued help. I appreciate you all!!

54

Hi A_J,

You said you created a ‘space’ after the song name and then entered the MIDI code? Just to clarify, I always put the song name and the MIDI code on separate lines (see one of my screenshots from April 11 post above).

So in your instance, this is how your coding should appear:

50 Ways
MIDI: 0.22:0

…and for the second song:

Ho Hey
MIDI: 0.22:1

If that’s what you already tried, and there is NO other MIDI data/commands in OnSong (the 2 songs in this test), your BBM has the correct tempo and drumsets, and your SD card is sync’d with BBM…and it’s still not working…then I’m totally at a loss! Sorry. I would suggest, as others have already mentioned in this discussion, that you maybe need to talk to the OnSong support folks. I know you have already contacted them. But to me, if there are still issues, this is perhaps an OnSong problem and not a BB one.

55

@Aaron_Johns - if it helps, i have exactly the same issue! Beat select and tempo work fine via onsong midi but kit gets stuck on the wrong one.

My gut tells me its something to do with the BB not knowing you have a kit available for that beat selection and it somehow gives you a default kit instead. It doesn’t help. I’m the same as you - when I test it, everything is fine, but when I swipe something is missing.

Unfortunately I have resorted to the fact I need to disable the kits an just use a default. I’m them going to have to bend down and change the kit if I need too.

Pleeeeease let me know if you figure this one out.

56

Hey Ryan,

Sorry to hear that you’re having the same issues!!

I will ask this question. How old is the tablet you’re using now? Why do I ask?

Well…lately I experienced an issue wherein the “test” work-around method stopped working all of a sudden! I couldn’t understand why when just a couple of days ago it worked fine!

Well, since I have OnSong on all of my devices, I decided to use my iPhone to test the midi connection because I started thinking that maybe it was my Bluetooth BT-01 went bad, or my midi cable from the BB went bad.

Well, the moment I connected my iPhone to my rig instead of the iPad I was using, everything worked perfectly!!!

So I then tried a smaller iPad I have and everything worked and connected properly using the small iPad also!!!

Long story short, the iPad I was using is old. It’s the first iPad Pro (12.9) screen that Apple came out with. Yes it works fine, but I believe between the all of the software updates from Singular Sound, and OnSong, and Apple, and the age of that iPad, the iPad can’t handle it anymore. Maybe the updates have programming that only work with newer devices. I don’t know, but try using your phone or another device that has OnSong on it also. If you make sure you backup your OnSong songs and then import to your phone or other tablet, your settings will be the same. If everything works perfectly after using your phone or different tablets, then it’s probably the current device you’re using. At least that was my experience. 🤷🏽‍♂️ 🤦🏽‍♂️ Hope this helps!!

57

thanks @Aaron_Johns . ahhh im using an ipad pro 11 inch (2018) - maybe its too old!!!

58

Well, I can’t say for sure that your’s is too old. I bought my iPad Pro back in 2011. :rofl:
So that’s why I believe my problem is my iPad. It still works great, and it’s in pristine condition because it’s been in an OtterBox case since I bought it.
At least try a different device to see if the age of your iPad is the problem. The fact that it’s a 2018 doesn’t sound like it’s the same issue as mine. At least try what I suggested to eliminate the thought that it could be your iPad, which I doubt that it’s the problem.