I am planning to start using the MIDI capabilities of OnSong and Beatbuddy, and I was wondering if somebody with more experience could tell me which one of these is better? I just ordered both units to compare and I am inclining towards the Yamaha because it runs without batteries, as opposed to the PUC+, but I’ve also read that there are some sync issues with the Yamaha that the PUC does not have.
I am also planning to use it in conjunction with the Blueboard pedal and Quantiloop in the future, so that I need the Bluetooth unit to work with Beatbuddy/Onsong/Quantiloop/Blueboard all together. The onsong would just send the program changes to the Beatbuddy to select the pattern per song, and the Beatbuddy would send tempo and start/stop to the Quantiloop.
You can use either of these to do simple MIDI commands; e.g. selecting the correct drum bank on the Beat Buddy or setting the tempo - anything that’s just a one off instruction. But you will run into problems trying to sync the MIDI clock.
Now for the science bit: A MIDI clock is a stream of pulses (24 per beat) and the tempo is calculated from the time difference between each pulse. If there’s any delay or missed pulses, this will screw up the sync. Wireless is not instantaneous or reliable - lots of factors can influence it; mainly distance and interferance. At faster tempos you will saturate the bandwidth and the sync will be lost.
I use the Yamaha without any issues. MIDI Link Sync (a $1.00 app) corrects any wireless sync issues and works flawlessly. Just open the app, choose connect and your ready to go.
For those interested, I did some testing with the PUC+ (wireless Bluetooth MIDI) vs Wired MIDI connection. The video demonstrates the problems with syncing that you’ll run into.
It’s currently uploading as I type this so may be 30 mins or so before you can watch it:
Guys, I have used the PUC+ for a long time successfully but stepped on and damaged the power plug port and broke it. It sill works with batteries but I discovered this product is no longer being made or available.
I checked with BeatBuddy support and they suggested the Yahmaha BT-01 and I’ve been unable to get it to work. I followed up on all the MIDI settings in this string. The Yahmaha iPad app recognize the dongle and even updated the firmware but it still isn’t communicating but the old PUC+ still works.
What else could I check?
I ONLY have the BT-01 dongle and not the USB dongle they also have so I’m wondering if it requires both to talk back and forth?
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
This app I had not heard of but it connected right away. I have not fully tested everything but initially it sent the patch to the Beatbuddy and connect easily!!
OK, for some reason it immediately found OnSong app and worked beautifully. However, if I try to connect using Forscore app (another favorite pdf music app) it is not seeing it. On the SOURCES page initially it opened and found OnSong and I checked the button and just figured later I could do a new or different session and it would find the other software. I finally got it to work also with Forscore but not sure what I did. I closed the app a few times and turned off things and rebooted etc. then eventually it connected with the app but doesn’t recognize the name of the app but at least it does work so I’m very grateful.
The PIC+ did not require making any changes it just stayed connected even going back and forth between apps.
I loaded it and it’s working for both apps without ANY changing back and forth. It seems to just work the same way the PUC+ app worked! WOW! Thanks again.