right switch Not detected

This is now what I get when I open the BB Manager software

Error while parsing song Blues 1 experiment in folder Worship

The song was recovered and a copy of the faulty song was created at:

/var/folders/53/m2wy9kns2txgxjk0k27y2gw40000gn/T/{6e38337f-50ac-41fc-97ea-b268d922bb74}/36BC6685.BBS

The error log is:

1 - Unable to read file

Psalm40, I really need some help here. So does Theom. I’m so disappointed in this mess. I’ve spent days trying to figure it out. I have no sound on files from the Beat Maker. My left foot switch is not recognized. Then it started working. Now it’s gone again. I’m already over this unit and haven’t played a single song on it.

I need to be able to customize beats - or make them in Beat Maker - and use them in worship. My church is looking to me to figure this out and start using it right away. Right now I’m pulling my hair out with it and I’m upset. There must be some kind of tech support here. Am I the only one with all of these issues?

Chris…Yesterday I repacked and sent it back to Sweetwater. This is crazy trying to fix this. I have tried everything, except the Manager and yesterday I said ENOUGH of this…going back for an exchange and if it happens again…going back for a refund. Thanks for all you have communicated…appreciate it. Keep you posted when I get the replacement. Just an FYI…everything I have done verifies that the problem is NOT the footswitch.

Theom I am struggling too my friend. After the fix above for the foot switch it became unrecognized again. Now, it’s working ONCE AGAIN. I’m stumped.

One thing I noticed from the tutorial vids is that they are all shot in Windows. The windows beat manager software is different from the Mac in several regards including the “generating .wavs” it does when saving a drum set. Also the tick marks next to the drum sets won’t stay ticked. They literally uncheck themselves constantly right before your eyes!!!

I too am frustrated. We are close to sending it back as well. I’ve made some progress in it but man I have seriously spent ALL WEEK trying to figure this out. I’m basically looking to take a beat stored on the card and modify it for timing sake. I picked an off time song to start with right away to see if this is going to work. I don’t have time to browse through 100 drum beats to find one that works. I’d rather use the Beat Maker software to modify a pre existing beat and save it. Wow what a can of worms that opened up!!! I’ve been tryin to get a shaker or tambourine sound to work for days. I’m at the point of buying their percussion drum set download to see if at least THOSE .wavs/.mid files will work.

SO - here’s what i’m going to try today. I’ve installed Windows 10 on my Mac and I’m going to try everything in windows instead of iOS. Will keep you updated.

Once you get the hang of the BB it is quite simple, I made videos to help with the process - however making beats is another matter and can really try the best of us. Personally I make small changes to the supplied beats using beatbuilder e.g changing an open hi hat to closed or removing every other snare to get a half time feel etc…
But there appears to be some occasions when things don’t seem to work at all as they are supposed to, this could be because of a bug a fault in the hardware or user error - more often than not it is user error. People just don’t get it, don’t follow instructions or read the manual. Some seem to think they don’t need to and try and figure things out by themselves. However in the case of @Theom[/USER] i suspect there is some hardware issue going on. In your case [USER=3479]@ChrisGomezMusic i think a chat and help from BB Support would be best and it appears that you have managed to make contact.

Theom, thanks for the reply. Please keep me posted on the exchange. I spoke to a tech at Beat Buddy today and we went through all of my problems. He thinks I have a faulty TRS cable. It sounds to me like you received your unit around the same time I did…possibly indicating a bad batch of TRS cables that were manufactured for this unit. I don’t have any other TRS cables on hand to try it out. They are sending me a replacement. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Okay join the club I guess… all of a sudden my right foot switch has stopped working and is not detected. Is this a FS issue or the Pedal?

I had the same problem with mine , however was the right switch. Found I had a mono cable plugged in to it. Plugged in by mistake as it looked Identical to the beat buddy cable. Anyway, both switches now work. HOWEVER , Can’t get either switch to go inot “latching mode” Defaults back to Momentary… Have you had this issue ?

Don’t know if the problem is related however, take a look at the issues others have reported; seems to happen for both Mac and Win users: <http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/is-losing-footswitch-settings-when-updating-sd-via-reader-a-mac-thing.4421/#post-16571>

Thanks, I had the wrong cable in… Now have another issue. the foot switch is stuck in "momentary mode. Not able to set it to latching. When running footswitch detect, detects as Momentatry switch.

Hmm. If you haven’t already done this, you might want to try the next steps:

  • make sure that both ends of the TRS (stereo, has two black insulator rings) cable plugs are fully seated (remove and reinsert)
  • restore default pedal settings by pressing Drum Set and Tempo dials; select and press Restore Default Settings
  • then press Drum Set and Tempo dials again; press Footswitch, select and run thru Footswitch Detector process (observe the polarity setting after you’ve clicked on the right foot switch)
  • go thru the dials again and check the Footswitch Type
  • if still not correct, check that Footswitch Polarity matches what you observed above; if not same, change it

Psalm 40 suggested that you open the footswitch and check that your solder and wire connections are still good.

If none of this gets you back in business, you might want to contact the support folks. They may or not suggest that you a) install or reinstall latest firmware or b) try a new SD Card.

We had a second foot switch and additional cables shipped to us. Still had the same problem. Sweetwater shipped us a new main pedal which I am going to pick up today at the church. Hopefully this will solve the left foot switch not being recognized.

You will also want to try the “footswitch detector” function to ensure the switches are set up correctly.

Thanks Psalm. As it turns out, you guys replaced the TRS which didn’t solve it. Sweetwater shipped us a new foot switch. That wasn’t it either. They had to ship us a new main pedal which is working fine now. Too bad it took two weeks but at least it’s solved. I was still able to use it for worship with the right as a pause.

Looks like this left switch problem has become a common issue because I’m having the same problem. When I first set it up it worked, then it stopped working … so it can’t be that I’m using the incorrect cable. Besides the cable came with the unit, and IT IS a stereo cable with the beat buddy printed on it. I unplugged it and plugged it in several times with no change. So now what? Do I send this back to Amazon? Please advise. Thanks.

If you used multiple TRS cables and they don’t work, just make sure that under the footswitch settings, and none of the settings are set to ‘no action’ (one of the options), then yes, get it replaced.

This very much sounds like the issue when users remove their SD card to update it on their computer, the remote foot switch does not retain it’s configuration settings. It also sounds like you may have already tried the steps in my post above but just in case you haven’t, please do so and let us know how it works out for you. That pesky left foot switch doesn’t work for me whenever I remove the SD card and update it on my Mac–I have to run thru the set up every time “- then press Drum Set and Tempo dials; press Footswitch, select and run thru Footswitch Detector process (observe the polarity setting after you’ve clicked on the right foot switch)”

Has anyone tried doing a clean rebuild of their SD card? You will have to redo your BB settings after doing this.

OK, I found out one very curious thing while messing around with it.
The first thing I did was replaced the cable, still nothing. Then I removed the SD card and updated the software from 1.2 to the 1.4 current version. When I put it back into the Beatbuddy … it worked, then it stopped (hmmm?)

Since one of the first things I did when I first got the unit was to duplicate the SD card ( I had another 4 GB sd card, a camera card laying around). I thought maybe it’s because I was using the duplicate card. So I removed it and inserted the original card. Bingo … it worked … but then … it stopped when I changed songs.

The bottom line? It depends on the song, because it works on some songs but not on others. So, at this point I’m thinking … that it’s none of the units, but rather dependent on which songs are being used. And the reason it works whenever I changed cards is because it changed songs … back to it’s default song? Maybe it’s because some songs uses Cymbals and Crashes while others do not and the left foot switch is dependent on the song configuration?

OK, while looking at some songs with the Beat Buddy Manager, I discovered that some songs DO NOT include accent hits.
Therefore, I’m assuming that the left foot switch is programmed to pick up the accent hits in this area?
Will do further checking on this when I have more time.

THAT’S IT! I was just playing around with the Beat Buddy Manager and yes, indeed the left foot switch of the FOOT SWITCH is programmed to pick up the accent hits ( the last column) of each song or drum beats. If this column has an accent hit in it, the left foot switch will pick up this sound when depressed.

Most people won’t have this problem because the original songs that came with the Beat Buddy has accent hits programmed into them. It’s when you import in other songs ie: Gig Basic Beats or from the members in the Forum that this comes into affect.