BM3 ((( BeatMaker III ))) ... 'Observations' - 'Bugs' - 'Improvements'... ❤️ n ✌

edited July 2017 in General

Posted a copy of an email I sent to Intua earlier today. Just received a reply, so gonna read it..

(I have deleted the long mail for now)

Love the app so far.

King

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Comments

  • Tldr keep making it more awesome :p
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  • Ok, I just asked if you guys wanted me to re-post it. Haha

    Don't know where that comment went (the one asking you guys).

    Anyway I'll post it again. May just add it back to the original post, ^ but with Vincent's replies too.

    King

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  • edited July 2017

    Original email sent..

    "Hi BM3 Support/Mathieu,

    Excellent stuff and I'm excited. :-))

    First of all, cheers for coming through with BM3! :-)
    I see great things ahead.
    Takes a little time and patience, but then it starts to grow and open up.

    Have been using BM2 since the iPhone 4 was new :)

    Spoke to you be regarding some issue back then, it was resolved. Been a member of the forum since then (2011) also. Hope it's back up soon, so we (customers) have a place to talk. And for support etc..
    Anyway Love what's happening so far!

    However, I must report my findings, issues and request. You may be aware of many (I don't know) but here they are (so far).
    -Also, I wrote them as I found them, so no particular category sections."


    (Vincent's answers were in bold, but not on the forum so I have put a * before them.)

    "Hello there, thanks for your kind words and help raising issues.
    Mathieu has brought back the forum to life:
    https://intua.net/forums/

    1, Crashed after saving a session with Harmon8 on it. Would not load after, it said corrupt file or something. Looking at the session file after, there was no data, 0kb or something like that.
    BM3 has crashed around 3 times for different reasons.

    *We'll dig into that

    2, Need vertical zoom in song view. I just found it is possible on the left hand side, but should be done with the sequencer. At the moment the moment vertical pinch zoom action does nothing. Also we should be able to zoom and see only 1 track full height. At the moment it's 4 tracks minimum.

    *It was a design decision, I still feel having vertical zoom can be cumbersome while just wanting to zoom horizontally
    You still have it on the tracks as you figured already.
    You can ask for it as a feature request on the forum, other may share your opinion and change our mind about it.

    3, Need Solo and Mute visible when side bar is closed in song view.

    *Surely helpful, we'll figure something out.

    4, Mixer indicators don't fall to bottom. Sometimes the little white level thingies don't fall all the way down, they freeze.

    *We know ...

    5, When soloing tracks in the mixer we don't hear send fx, without having to solo fx too.

    *I think it's logical behaviour but could be wrong..

    6, What does the 'Save Preset' do? Can't load any so..?

    *Save preset will save the bank presets so you can reload them.
    They are saved in your FILES / Bank Presets/ folder
    And can also be found and tagged in the library.

    7, All solo off on mixer. Also a Mono button on master channel.

    *Can be useful.

    8, Renaming wav files doesn't change until restart of BM3.

    *Seems to work here, can you give a context where it happens?

    9, Double layer keyboard layout option. We have it in BM2, it's one of the great features, please bring it back.

    *Will do in a future update

    10, Ability to move audio regions to other tracks. (Up n down).

    *You can do that already using the Pattern panel, drag n dropping patterns on tracks of the same type.
    I admit it's not ideal yet.

    11, DSP Display. Cpu.. readout on all pages, not just in setting. In the transport area.

    *Useful yes.

    12, Switched over to AUM whilst in Ableton Link, and the bpm changed to AUMs 120, without any questions.

    *We'll try with various apps.

    13, Need to be able to bypass plugins. AUv3s.

    *You can unload the plugin or mute the pad already, do you need more?

    14, Horizontal flashing play lines in Pattern are too bright, also need option to disable. They are/can be very distracting.

    *We can lower the brightness yes, we'll see about an option to disable it.

    15, Mute and Solo in various/all pages. Keyboard/Au. Piano roll. Edit page..

    *We'll think about it

    16, Ability to reorder tracks. In the mixer and in the sequencer. This is one thing I always wanted in BM2.

    *Yes we want that too

    17, Track layers/group. Again we have this in BM2, we can add '+' a sub track.

    *We've planned this also

    18, Sessions and files should have dates and times on them. And maybe a few snapshots. Not just Auto-Saved version.

    *Can be useful for sure

    19, Choose colour for individual patterns in the same track. Or even better colour code the time line and/or be able to label it. So we know at a glance where we are in a session.

    *We thought about song markers also.

    20, Missing files in loading sessions should have the option to Auto-search or manually search before the session is fully loaded. BM3 should be able to locate them and give you the option to load (individually).

    *We can add a "relocate missing files" option when there are missing samples.

    21, Snap in the audio editor. No seeing it working.

    *We have snap to "zero crossing", and snap to grid aka "beat divisions"
    Let me know if I'm missing something

    22, Panic button, Addictive Pro was in a loop. Then mood, until I clicked on its name in the mixer. Stop button wasn't effective.

    *Some plugin don't respond to all note off messages, we have to find a way to silence them anyways.

    23, ’+' magnifier not doing anything. Sequencer or Edit page.

    *It's refocusing/zooming the current selection.

    24, Can't move/scroll/drag playhead whilst the session is playing. Odd.

    *We'll put back our quantized position change from BM2

    25, Need Auto-Return for play curser. 'Option' that when I press stop, it goes back to where it was before I pressed play.

    *We use the loop for that but we'll think about it

    26, Follow song needs to be smoother. Right now it jump to the next page.

    *What would you recommend ? following the cursor with a continuous scroll?

    27, More options for metronome. Volume, type of sound.

    *Could be good

    28, Mute for patterns in song view. Individual Pattern mutes.

    *Pretty advanced but why not (maybe not needed if we put back multiple tracks per Bank)

    29, Audition files for import, from AudioShare etc..

    *Will look into it

    30, Play and use m4a, and possibly mp3.

    *We'll look into that too


    Continued in next post..

  • 31, Full info on selected file or session in the browser. Right now depending on the length of the title, we can not see the info at the end of the file. So files with similar names can not be identified clearly/quickly. Selected file could have a separate readout.

    *Like an inspector window

    32, Fonts could be thicker/larger especially in the song view on the patterns.

    *It's a bit small now that you mention it

    33, Why is the record button white and not red? Even when recording.

    *Could be yes

    34, Sample organisation. Where do I start..

    *By tagging your samples and using filters ? :)

    35, Display file size for potential packs for download. And a full list of what's included.

    *Yes

    36, Play and stop transport buttons whilst I'm the browser. (Maybe)

    *That seems logical but doesn't work with our actual layout

    37, Moved sessions should know where their samples are, even when they are not saved with the session.
    Also because of this, settings were lost, choke groups etc, when having to reload the samples.

    *That's complicated/long action to process considering you can move folder containing sessions..
    But with the option to relocate missing samples, we should also keep the settings

    38, The info about the samples that comes up once you press the 'Edit' button in the browser, could stay on. User could make the choice.
    Or add the words '& Info' or something, below the word 'Edit'. So people are aware that some extra info is available.

    *I feel the info may be disturbing, and I guess you can get used to the way it works.

    39, Curser in the browser search is at the beginning of the current letter/character not the end. Example; can't see the letter i.

    *I know ...

    40, If your in the middle of a browser list, say (Samples) and you leave BM3 for a moment, (home screen) when you return, the list auto scrolls to the top again.

    *Oh really ? sounds like an easy fix

    41, In BM2 I was able to have all my song files in the same folder. I opened the song folder and created sub folders eg; Audio or Mixed or Samples or Vocals or Midifiles etc..
    This way I was able to access everything in the same area. And they were unique to the session. (Also keeps it organised and tidy)
    BM3 looks like if I have tracks call 'Lead Vox' in various sessions, they will all be listed in the Samples folder in the Sessions screen.

    *BM3 tend to that also, when looking at your files within the FILE browser (icon folders), under your session there will be your edited samples etc ..
    When you look at your Library (first icon), under SAMPLES are listed all of your unique samples (some can have the same name)

    42, When changing the bpm of a sample with Live Stretch on, you don't hear the changes until you come out of the BPM Tab/splash. Real time would be nice.

    *It's realtime enough I feel

    43, Maybe the ability to choose chords within the keyboard page. Also chord notes could indicated/shown/displayed.

    *I agree about showing chords on pads if any
    We'll think about all the enhancements for the keyboard view

    44, Keyboard Velocity switches back to 'on' if you leave the screen and return.

    *Good catch

    45, If zoomed it to pattern, and notes are close together, and you delete one, the note to the left also gets deleted.

    *Using the finger tool, you set/unset the step, so if anything is in the step it will be deleted.

    Thank you for that detailed report, helps a lot !
    Cheers,
    Vincent."


    Helpful stuff!

    I said I would do some more experimenting and get back to him.

    King

  • edited July 2017

    Seems the forum is having a few issues.

    Also was not able to edit my original post any more time. (Time limit) that might become an issue, especially when something has been resolved, and a title needs editing..
    The title should include the words 'improvements and observations'.

    However, Love the new look and feel.

    Loving BM3 too..

    King

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • edited July 2017

    @triton100 said:

    @KING said:
    Seems the forum is having a few issues.

    Also was not able to edit my original post any more time. (Time limit) that might become an issue, especially when something has been resolved, and a title needs editing..
    The title should include the words 'improvements and observations'.

    However, Love the new look and feel.

    Loving BM3 too..

    King

    Mr king great work. And what an awesome app developer.
    You should repost this with a more appropriate title as you mentioned since the timeout kicked in.
    Users will appreciate your post and the answers.

    Cheers!

    Yeah, the original had those words in, as you know, but changed it when I went to read the email reply.

    Hopefully the forum admin guys can change this feature?
    Or I may, as you say, repost..

    I'll check back tomorrow n c..

    King

  • I feel very reassured by @mathieugarcia responses. Nice balance between listening to what you said, but also not being willing to sacrifice design goals.

  • Yep, balanced and understanding, also flexible and professional.

    King

  • @cianoc said:
    ...but also not being willing to sacrifice design goals.

    Can you elaborate here, not sure exactly what your mean?

    King

  • Thanks for all the feedback, bug reports and suggestions. We take this very seriously.

    Cheers!

  • @mathieugarcia said:
    Thanks for all the feedback, bug reports and suggestions. We take this very seriously.

    Cheers!

    Most welcome!

    I want to see this thing become as great as it WILL be, as quick as possible. :-))

    I will add when needed also..

    BM2 was great, but BM3 is greaterer ;)

    King

  • @LucidMusicInc said:
    32. +1

    I like how we can just use numbers in this thread.

    Excellent :-)

    King

  • @KING said:

    @cianoc said:
    ...but also not being willing to sacrifice design goals.

    Can you elaborate here, not sure exactly what your mean?

    King

    I just mean they clearly have a clearly defined idea as to the kind of app that they want BM3 to be, and they're not willing to compromise on that. So they're not necessarily going to implement the exact thing that people suggest here on the forum, but look for ways to accommodate those needs that make sense for the kind of product they want to make.

  • edited July 2017

    @cianoc said:

    @KING said:

    @cianoc said:
    ...but also not being willing to sacrifice design goals.

    Can you elaborate here, not sure exactly what your mean?

    King

    I just mean they clearly have a clearly defined idea as to the kind of app that they want BM3 to be, and they're not willing to compromise on that. So they're not necessarily going to implement the exact thing that people suggest here on the forum, but look for ways to accommodate those needs that make sense for the kind of product they want to make.

    True, but this could be said about most developers. (Obviously)

    I see straight away that they are 'Willing' especially if what is suggested helps the end user customer, you and I. Without us, and the forfillment of our needs there is no point. If you were a beta tester (I was not) then you would have a different thought process, and see that they are willing. But seeing suggestions after testing has been done, and the app released, seems like the customer is not as influential. They/we are!

    Whether or not they implement "the exact thing that people suggest" is there prerogative. People should be encouraged to suggest. Your statement sounded a little off putting (not to me). I speak my mind.
    Especially after 45 point, you spoke about their vision, not about any of the points made or if any of them or the answers received were of any use to you.

    Don't misunderstand me, I'm cool, just your comment didn't feel like we're all on the same team.

    But I believe we are. :)

    I'd like to hear if any of these point had any use to you, highlight them.

    Cheers,

    King

    Added:
    Point number 2:

    "*It was a design decision, I still feel having vertical zoom can be cumbersome while just wanting to zoom horizontally
    You still have it on the tracks as you figured already.
    You can ask for it as a feature request on the forum, other may share your opinion and change our mind about it."

    This sounds like willingness to me.

    All is well.

  • Most encouraging comment so far from the developers...
    "We have no interest in that at all, post it on the forum and let users persuade us"

    That is a great attitude ;)
  • @5pinlink said:
    Most encouraging comment so far from the developers...
    "We have no interest in that at all, post it on the forum and let users persuade us"

    That is a great attitude ;)

    Hey man, glad you see this attitude in them too.

    P.S; Liking your vids. Cool runnings.

    King

  • edited July 2017

    Oh and @cianoc please don't take it the wrong way, was just pointing out the fact that they are flexible.
    No developer in their right mind would implement something unnecessary to their product, we know this..

    Peace!

    King

  • @5pinlink said:
    Most encouraging comment so far from the developers...
    "We have no interest in that at all, post it on the forum and let users persuade us"

    That is a great attitude ;)

    Right, that's all I was getting at.

  • @KING said:
    No developer in their right mind would implement something unnecessary to their product, we know this..

    Well it tends to be more that they try to placate all users, regardless of whether it fits the core purpose of the application. I encounter this all the time in my day job as a UX consultant unfortunately.

  • edited July 2017

    @cianoc said:

    @KING said:
    No developer in their right mind would implement something unnecessary to their product, we know this..

    Well it tends to be more that they try to placate all users, regardless of whether it fits the core purpose of the application. I encounter this all the time in my day job as a UX consultant unfortunately.

    Yeah, those users and developers aye :)

    All is well.

    Looking forward to the fixes and the future features of this wonderful thing.

    It brings a smile to my face, and it is an environment I enjoy being in.

    Here's to Intua and BM3 - Cheers!

    King

  • While I'm here, let me add a few more things I mailed out.


    46, If you zoom out the little screens (mini displays) zoom out too, but when you zoom back in, the little screen stay the same. Had to close BM3 and restart to get them back.
    (They shrink but don't expand, and stay that way even if I load a different session)

    47, Crashes after adding a modulation envelope, deleting it and pressing undo. When there is a saved preset added.

    • Add new modulation lane.
    • Click on this lane and load a user saved preset.
    • Now press X to delete the lane.
    • Now press undo to bring it back... Crash!
      You may have to press undo/redo a couple times to crash it.

    48, AU synths play a delayed type of arpeggio when playing a 2 or more note chord.
    Effect can be heard more easily if the change the chords (C Dm E etc..)

    King

  • edited July 2017

    Hey King!

    46 • That's a known issue that is pretty hard to "trigger". It can happen in the sample editor and in the pattern editor as well. Hopefully we'll catch this one soon enough. [Always happen when the device is not connected to Xcode, ah!]
    47 • Tried reproducing the steps with no luck. When I load a new preset, the old selected lane/modulator is not selected anymore? Does this happen with a specific modulator? Any extra info welcome :-)
    48 • You mean sending the same MIDI data on two difference AUv3 instances?

  • edited July 2017

    Hey @mathieugarcia

    47,

    Hopefully the screen shot above will assist. :)
    I did try again before writing this, and it crashed. The second time I tried it wouldn't crash.

    48, Nah, just one single instance of a synth plugin (AUv3).

    I'll start a new session and see what takes place..

    King

  • edited July 2017

    Today an update for Phasemaker by @brambos came to the AppStore. When I tried the first couple times to update, I got a message saying it couldn't at this time etc..

    When I finally updated and opened it in BM3 it was fine until I press the logo that takes you to the keyboard and UI, then it (BM3) crashed.
    Since I restarted BM3 it has been fine.

    (BM3 was open/running during the update etc..)

    ..........

    Finding it hard to close BM3 :-))

    King

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