I have about 100 songs in my OnSong app. Almost all of them are from Folder #2 on my Beat Buddy. I have been able to get OnSong to change tempo while a song is playing, so I must have the bluetooth connector properly enabled. I have also been able to get OnSong to respond to scroll up and scroll down commands from my Blueboard. But, I can’t seem to get OnSong to change a song.
I have tried with two songs in Folder two on the Beat Buddy. On Song 1, I entered the metadata command MIDI: 0.1:0, on song 2, I entered MIDI : 0.1:1. When I change between the songs in OnSong, nothing happens in the Beat Buddy. The metadata is in the header, immediately after my Artist line. Ex.:
All of Your Love
The Rolling Stones
MIDI: 0.1:1
Key:Am
Time: 4/4
My apologies for being an old noob, but where might I be going wrong? What setting should I check? Does anyone just have a simple walkthrough set-up that goes setting by setting to get me where I need to be?
I also have sent a message to the OnSong folks. Thanks in advance for any help.
You are light-years ahead of me on using this stuff, Phil, as I only got my MIDI interface today. I was able to get my OnSong to change songs and tempos from my iPad by following the instructions in post #10 of this thread:
The only thing I see different with yours is that you haven’t enclosed your meta-tags in the “{ }” brackets. Not sure if that is what is doing it, or not, since I always try to enclose mine in those. I had some trouble getting mine to work when the first meta-tags preceding the MIDI command weren’t exactly right.
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, the bracket idea did not solve the problem. I’ll see what the OnSong folks have to say. I paid the extra $2 for priority support, so let’s see what that gets me.
Here’s what I do:
Hold the title of the song so “midi events” appears
Press the + button
Hit Program selection
Put in a Bank number (MSB and LSB) - (Your example would be MSB = 0, LSB = 1)
Select a Program number (Your example 1)
Click Done.
This video link helps:
I have some commands that I use within the tex but I won’t be able to get to it for a bit. You’re also way beyond what I do with OnSong so you may have already tried it.
I have tried those “press here” to add MIDI commands in OnSong and they seem to work. There is a “Test MIDI command” button you can try them with." The only problem I have with them is they don’t seem to add any text to the file that I can see. Maybe they are there, and I just don’t know where to look. The problem is that if I go back weeks or months later, I have no idea why some MIDI event is happening without paging through those button presses, which is OK but kind of slows things down, versus just looking at a line of MIDI commands.
@Bootsy.Thanks. That’s where I started. I think the problem has to be a setting issue in the BB or in OnSong, as I can set tempo, and I can get an iRig Blueboard to scroll up and down. What I can’t do is change a song. Weird. Still no reply from OnSong. i thought it might be an issue with beta firmware, but I downgraded back to 1.85 and still no luck. Guess I’m getting too old. For now, I’ll just use paper.
I can reliably send tempo changes from OnSong to Beatbuddy (connected via md-bt01). I also have Start, Stop, and Fill working properly (triggered via “Screen Triggers” in OnSong.
However, sending a song change (eg Midi: 0.46:1) in my metadata header, works in some songs but in roughly half of my 100+ songs, results in a change in Beatbuddy but to “Blues 1" in the “Blues” folder (as though I had sent “Midi: 0.1:0” instead.
I am using latest version of Onsong (2020.8), Beatbuddy (Firmware 4.0.1) and Yamaha md-bt01 (V1.0.7).
What was the “Secret setting in some developmental versions of BB firmware”? Did that, perhaps, become part of V1.0.7? If so, can you point me to that setting in Beatbuddy?
Interesting - I’ve just discovered a problem where my midi leads to a song. However, if I choose it from the song list menu, the change doesn’t happen. I now have to pull up the song, swipe to the next song and then back to the song I want to play.
Weird situation that I’m working with OnSong. Maybe that solution will work for you too.
I am using firmware 3.9.3. I have more folders and drum kits that 4.0.1 wants to handle. The main issue for me was that the set lists “feature” took away folders.
Anyhow, here are my settings notes that work for my set-up. I use the BB, the BT-01, and a IK Multimedia BlueBoard.
Thanks for sending the config parameters along - I will check those against mine.
I did want to report back that I stumbled on an “interesting” solution.
I had imported songs I had previously managed in Songbook Chordpro. I did notice that after import, OnSong ended up with some directives (eg {soc}, {eoc}) out of place - I corrected those by deleting them and using Onsong’s Flow: instead. I noticed the title and subtitle lines had preserved the {t: } and {st: } Chordpro notation but thought I had read that Onsong was ok with that.
I removed those Chordpro directives and magically, my Midi: commands in the Onsong header were being sent correctly to Beatbuddy.
Thanks again to you and Bootsy for offering suggestions and I will compare your parms to mine and test to see whether I am experiencing the same anomaly as Bootsy described.
Reporting back…
Bootsy - I can’t replicate your issue (requiring you to go “flick” to another song and back when selecting song from Onsong’s Song dropdown).
Phil_Flood - The only difference between parameter settings you had provided and those in my environment was the Tempo in:
Gear>EditosMidi>Wrench
Midi enable on
Virtual Midi on
Tempo > ch. 5
My setting had been Tempo > All.
I’m thinking that might not have been significant but I could be wrong. I’m still trying to get my head around which “devices” are sending and which listening on specific channels and when “all” the better choice.
I think in your setup, Channel 1 is how your Blueboard is providing Midi signals to Onsong for scrolling to next/previous song and Channel 5 is used to provide tempo info from Beatbuddy to Onsong. Is that correct?
I’m not clear on the use of “All” in Beatbuddy’s Midi In parameters unless that sets the environment in case you add other Midi devices to your setup.
In my setup, OnSong provides the Tempo to Beat Buddy (on midi channel 5). When I select a song from OnSong, OnSong send the BB the info to pull up the song, and to set its tempo. Drum kits are assigned by BB, using the default drumkit on a per song basis, as the song was setup in BB Manager. The BlueBoard sends manual page scrolling info to OnSong via midi over bluetooth.
I don’t recall why I set the BB to “All” on the Midi On. It’s been too long. I do recall having to mess with settings for what seemed like forever to get it to work, and that is why I kept a file with the setup parameters.