OnSong and Beatbuddy MIDI folder / song selection enhancement?

[Phil_Flood]

Is OnSong sending on channel 1? FWIW, in my similar setup, I use an iRig BlueBoard to send the midi start and stop to OnSong. I might try the BB connected to the BT-01 with OnSong alone, bypassing the VL3, to see if BB is sending the midi signal.

[ruairiau]

If I run into issues with MIDI not working how I expect, I debug it with MIDIOX on my PC. I have a cheap USB-MIDI patch lead that I put inline and use MIDIOX to listen/send MIDI commands.
You can get MIDIOX here: http://www.midiox.com/
And a cheap USB-MIDI cable here: https://www.amazon.com/SANOXY-Cable-Converter-Keyboard-Window/dp/B0017H4EBG

[TheRenster]

@TheRenster

Hello,
Given this thread is about OnSong and BB I thought I’d as this question here.
I have the MD-BT01 connected in a MIDI loop with my TC Helicon VoiceLive 3 and the BeatBuddy. Both the VL3 and the BB are receiving program change commands from my iPad via OnSong to change songs and patches. However, I’ve trying to configure OnSong to receive the Start and Stop commands from BB. I know that the BT01 can receive the bluetooth MIDI messages from OnSong (it’s selecting the BB songs and VL3 patches sucessfully) but when I go into the MIDI menu in OnSong to ‘listen’ for MIDI commands from BB, I get nothing. BB is set to MIDI Merge and Channel 1, and the MIDI start and stop settings are set. Anyone have any experience with this? This nice video in this thread is not helpful to me here.

Update: The VL3 does not seem to have a merge mode, or at least doesn’t send on the BB messages. I tried the BT01 with only the BB (i.e., I took the VL3 out of the loop) and it works. (Phil Flood: great minds think alike. I can send AND receive – I got the OnSong app to receive the MIDI messages from BB and can start autoscroll when BB starts. Also, I must have BB as the first unit being sent to from the BT01, and with the BB in midi MERGE it will send Channel 2 messages on thru to the VL3. But VL3 doesn’t send on any BB messages on to the BT01. I need to find out if I can have 2 BT01’s communicating to an iPad and OnSong. If so, I’ll just have two of them, with one each into the BB and the VL3.

[wrkingmuse]

@John Tunstall

This may be of some use in helping to use Onsong midi to select folder and song systematically.
I am using Onsong and I pad connected to Beat Buddy via Yamaha MD-BT01. Midi connection is managed by Midimitter app.
I have set up an indexng system based on a Beat Buddy folder for each letter of the alphabet and a list of songs starting with that letter in a fixed position in each folder.
Folders are numbered in my BB Manager 01-26 (with and empty 00 and 27 folder at each end for testing etc.) All the songs I use are placed in these folders based on their start letter. Any new songs are added at the bottom of the list ( this is essential)
In Onsong I add a midi message to each song via the midi editor as follows:
e.g MIDI 0.20:0 where Bank MSB = 0 Bank LSB = 20 ( the Letter “T” folder) and Program = 0 ( the first song in the list) (( Take it Easy))
The order of songs in the folder initially is irrelevent but once set up must be maintained by adding new songs a the end od the list otherwise the midi index is broken.
Movement of songs within Onsong doesn’t have any effect so gig lists and sets can be altered freely.
It may be that using song ID in Beat Buddy can help to keep the songs in order in the folders but I have not got round to trying this yet.

Hope this is useful as this is my first ever post anywhere…

Hi John. I am so encouraged with your depth of understanding regarding interfacing Beatbuddy with ONsong. I am a true newbie to Beatbuddy, folders, and ONsong, but have very clear ideas about what I need to be able to do. I’m a Mac user and still can’t even load the drumsets into BB manager I bought from the BBlibrary. I will continue to look for guidance from ones, such as you!

[didier_amont]

@persist

I think that’s what it is. According to the change log:

Version 1.6.6
[LIST]
[]Tempo changes: Edit/set/change tempo in MIDI editor to allow for different main parts to have different tempos.
[]MIDI Export: If there are no note-offs in the MIDI, the exporter will add them.
[]Song ID: Song ID is now editable and permanent–no longer changes with position in folder.
[]MIDI Info: Hover over any song part to see MIDI info–Time Signature, Tempo, Length in measures.
[]Additional misc changes:
[LIST]
[]Fix crash if MIDI is corrupt.
[]Added bbmdebug.log.
[]Autoset Workspace.
[]Fix various dialog box sizes.
[]Added Saved/Unsaved label to song.
[*]Added Workspace location to About dialog
[/LIST]
[/LIST]

IS IT POSSIBLE TODAY TO CONTROL ONSONG AND BB WITH ONLY ID SONGS ?

[Phil_Flood]

The B.B. firmware does not recognize song ID, so no. This was partially implemented in one update (it may have been a beta) but was not put in place in the most recent official releases.

[didier_amont]

thank’s for your reply Phil

[Jostan.Murray]

Hi all,

“Song ID” looked promising however, I can’t see any documentation on it.

Any updates or workarounds to dynamically look up songs between OnSong/BB?

A repertoire of 500+ songs because a management nightmare every time a new song is added.

Thanks in advance.

[Phil_Flood]

Song ID was a feature that was experimented with in a beta release. It was not fully implemented due to other issues with that beta.

My method for keeping the OnSong folders under control is to keep them near the top of my folder list. As I finish or fill one, I add a new one beneath it. I have, I believe 70+ folders, but only the first 11 have OnSong ID numbers.