Please be honest - will Beatbuddy Manager ever get updated?

[PastorPew]

As someone who has voiced his views in this thread, I feel misrepresented by the last few posters.

I love my beat buddy, and use it weekly. In theory, it’s an excellent solution for my specific needs. In practice, I have made it work, rather than it working for me.

I personally have no intention of hating, bashing, being harsh, critical or abrasive. I would happily say everything I have to say to anyone’s face.

What I want is for Singular Sound to live up to their own expectations of themselves and the commitments they have made. They made specific promises about what this product is (so what we spent our money for in the first place), and what it will be (so what we kept spending our money for). Neither of those things has eventuated - at least not fully. I don’t consider it out of place to hold a company to account to their word.

Has there been hate in this thread? For sure. Has it been warranted? Well, I’m not sure we ever get anywhere with hate, however it’s hard to see how Singular Sound’s behaviour has warranted anything other than a fair amount of contempt. Not a single promise kept.

I would have more respect for them if they simply came out and said: “This product has reached it’s end of life. We will not develop for it any further. Sorry that we won’t keep the promises we made.” - Ideally they would then release all the code they have as open source, and we’d all move on with life.

[b0n3]

PastorPew, I appreciate your comments and I realize that there is a lot of disappointment in Singular Sound by a lot of people, and some of those seem to have taken it quite personally and have gone pretty dark about it.

I suspect a big bunch of the folks that are disappointed (and worse) probably bought the BeatBuddy by itself as a stand alone “drummer in a box” type product, long before Singular Sound had any other products. I imagine there was a lot of hype about how easily customizable the pedal is and probably lots of possible features being floated (autopilot anyone?) on the forums, only to wait and wait while Singular Sound went through several software developers, unsuccessfully trying to force BBM to live up to all of the promise and hype.

I mean the fact that BBM hasn’t been been updated since 2016 really tells the story. And not just that, but also at least one user with some software skills actually created his own version of a BBM for iPhone that seemingly works so well and is so feature rich, that he’s able to charge like $33 for it. There are also midi editors and beat builders, created by users, all through the forums, all in an effort to perform BBM’s editing functions better than BBM can.

I get the frustration and disappointment. If I had bought BeatBuddy as a standalone product several years ago before Aeros and Midi Maestro existed, I would doubtlessly feel the same. Heck, I might have even become a darksider and gotten nasty and personal too. I would like to think that I wouldn’t have, but unfortunately I know me, especially several years ago before my neurodiversity came to light. I am thankful this was not how it went for me.

My first Singular Sound product was an Aeros, followed nearly immediately with a Midi Maestro and then the BeatBuddy, like a month or so later. And really only because it was all designed to work seamlessly together.

I thought for certain that the Aeros was going to be the best and coolest device that I had bought, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out how impressive and functional the BeatBuddy actually is, even standalone. I was also a little disappointed with BBM’s basic feature deprived ineptitude (copy and paste editing, scrolling, last edit positioning, just all the yuck disguised as BBM). Import song and kit work just fine so really just not enough to complain about it much.

Until now lol… I do have several OPB+'s that need to be fixed (wrong key, too many verses, intro too long, and many that I would like to create, etc.). So I’ve begun learning a couple DAW’s and midi editors. (and Persist cheers!) I started on Reaper but Audacity seems a bit easier to navigate.

I just realized that I’m still reading this thread, after vowing abstinence. Oh well, PastorPew, you aren’t a full-fledged darksider anyways. Too much reason and too little anger

[Jim_Jacobson]

The end result for me with no updates is a loss of interest. I have been slowly moving away from activity with the Beatbuddy. I have been moving toward other options that have active development in improvements and innovation. Kind of like BB used to be. It’s not a loyalty thing. It’s not a darkness or hating thing. It IS a natural evolution of disinterest in current users and prospective buyers. Ye reap what you sew. A flagship…a solid foundation of this company has been neglected. It’ll play out accordingly.

[Quad]

What are those?

[Boogieman]

I’m not holding out much hope for a BBM update. It took quite a bit of time and MIDI editing to be able to get the BeatBuddy to function as I need it, and it wasn’t an efficient process.

Unlike b0n3 the BeatBuddy was my first (and only, other than a footswitch and MIDI cable) Singular Sound product. After getting used to the BeatBuddy I decided I needed a looper, and my experience (and others’ experience) took Aeros out of the running. I was, and would still be, concerned that Singular Sound might come up with a “shiny new thing” and then start Providing Aeros users with limited/non-support similar to what BeatBuddy users currently receive. I wound up with a Boomerang, which works beautifully with the BeatBuddy. The Boomerang has some limitations, but it’s manufacturer provides great customer service, and based on my experience I’d make the same choice again.

I don’t have any ill feelings toward Singular Sound, and I appreciate these forums and moderator support. But it seems clear that an updated BBM version is long overdue, and I agree with PastorPew’s comment that the BBM code should be made open source (ideally with the qualification that anything developed using it also be open source) if Singular Sound can’t or won’t provide any updates in the foreseeable future.

[andrew13]

The wait is over
For all of you holding out for an update, I’ve got something to share.
I have just released an alternative editor to the BeatBuddy Manager—BBFF Editor
It does almost everything that you have all been asking for for three years (and more) and I’d love to hear what else you’d need in an editor.
You no longer need to switch between BBM and your DAW because BBFF includes a full MIDI editor with everything you’d need like copy/paste, drag 'n drop, velocity control, time signature change, beat doubling, and more.

Please give it a try and let me know what you think. Feel free to comment on the announcement post and let this thread die

[guifreitas]

It is possible to listen a opb of any part i want on this editor??

[andrew13]

If you have the kit loaded, then yes, you should have no problem listening to any part of any song. Happy to help if you have any trouble getting it to work.

[guifreitas]

As far as I know, it’s necessary to have the kit loaded otherwise you can’t even hear the music. At least in BBm it’s like that

[andrew13]

This is especially true for “musical” kits. The OPB type kits map musical notes as instruments that the song is then mapped to.
The BBFF editor will show you those “instruments” as unknown if the kit is not correctly mapped.

[guifreitas]

Its no problem to me

[mlmarciano]

I cannot seem to get the editor to open my project file, its sees it and stopsatr 94%, or 99%… I have tried a few different ones but it gets to 90 percent very quickly and will sit at 99, overnight in my case.
I have saved a new one to a new location, swithced cards, and launched it with beat buddy manager runningand not running…
What gives? Thanks for this softweare. It will really be a game changer for me.

[LeeMo]

I have the same problem. Also, I just played a song that was having problems with tempo being erratic. I have a project with 16 gigs that stops at 63%. My guess is that the server has a bandwidth logjam when enough folks try using it at once.

[Phil_Flood]

What do you mean by “not correctly mapped?” If the kit is built with notes from other instruments, those instruments are named in the kit. Does you app pull the names from the loaded drum kit, or does it jus5 use pre-set general midi labels? If the latter, this is not really ideal for anyone using custom-built drumkits. The app should pick up the names from the instrument name in the BB drum kit.

[andrew13]

Thanks for giving it a try. I have found with some other customers that small inconsistencies in the project are causing an error that stops the project from loading. I am working to fix that.

[andrew13]

There is probably a bug in the editor reading your project. I’m working on a fix and will let you know.

[andrew13]

Hi Phil

The app pulls the names from the selected kit. If you have a song with the correct kit, then it will show and play all the instruments.
If you don’t have the correct drumset installed/loaded, then it still shows the “lanes” for the instruments but indicates that it is unknown (or, in the screenshot, plays the “shaker” from the loaded drumset)

[b0n3]

Dear Singular Sound,

Please purchase this software from this man outright, and release it for free to your customers. This seems to be an opportunity. That is all.

[MarkF48]

But…SS has been working on the latest, greatest BBM for 7 years and its release is imminent . How will we know how great it will be if they take the suggested alternate path and don’t release their own work? It’s good to have choice, but I really want to see what SS is capable of.

[keithlm]

You got my money. I even ponied up for the bbff app.

Do you plan to eventually plan to create an editor app that may plug into the current bbff app? It would be nice to be able to be able to edit then almost instantly get the actual bb hardware to use the edit. I would even pay for it separate from a subscription.