Thanks Derek for the reply. I love this app.

This is my 2 cent about your question.

Since there is a plus button, it is nice to have a minus button as well. If threre is a concern about adding to or minus the tool from the current or other measure, then once clicking on the button, there can be a simple panel popping up to give the user the option to select how to do this action. It would be nice if there are options like: current measure, all measure(s), and combox/dropdown-list showing the id of all measures already created so that element(s) (e.g 1, 4) can be selected for the intended action.

Besides, for some reason, it shows 2 identical tools(e.g Mid Tom) after I select the plus button to add a Mid Tom. This is little confusing for me. Thank you.

Khai Lee: Thanks for your kind and quick reply! I'm so glad to hear you're loving the app. It's important that I can build the best drumming tool for you, and your feedback and engagement help to improve the app for everyone. I really appreciate it, thank you!

Regarding removing an instrument: If I understand correctly, you'd like the ability to remove an instrument, and when doing so, you'd like to select from the following options:

I worry that Option #3 (being able to select which measures to remove it from) would be quite difficult and complicated as there isn't any reference point for other measures other than the one you're currently viewing. Also for lengthy compositions, this could be a very long list, and it would be difficult to find the space to display this, particularly on the iPhone. 🤔

If instruments can be deleted from a single measure, then it means that they also need to be able to be added to a single measure. I think this can become quite complicated managing the instruments for each measure.

By the way, are you using an iPhone or an iPad?

Regarding "it shows 2 identical tools(e.g Mid Tom) after I select the plus button to add a Mid Tom" - This sounds like a bug to me, but I've never seen this occur previously. Once an instrument is selected to be added to a beat, it should be removed from the list of available options. Can you please send me a screen recording of this bug showing you recreating it? You can share it here or you can send it to me directly from within the app under Settings > Email Derek. If it's a bug I'll want to get it fixed ASAP! 👍🏻

Thanks Derek. Keeping it simple and functional is great. I like this. I am actually using ipad pro for running this app. I took a screenshoot showing the appearance of the Mid Tom and attached it here. Possible double tab quickly when adding the tool may cause this.

Khai Lee: Thanks for including this information and a screenshot! I've added this bug to my task list and plan to look into it today so I can release a fix ASAP. Thank you for bringing this to my attention! This is a great example of how your feedback helps to improve the app for everyone. I'll update you on the progress on this bug here.

Derek Lee: I have a suggestion regarding this feature request. Before I comment I just want to say this app is amazing as well! It’s clear to me Derrick you are only going to make it better and all the current feature requests are phenomenal and I have a bunch myself! Anyway I do agree with Derrick from the stand point that settings on a measure to measure basis can be unbelievably confusing and overwhelming in the long run. Keeping track would be a pain and honestly looking at the grid measure being different based on the instruments being shown would be very unpleasant as well. With that said I have a great alternative idea. Like Derrick was saying that (+) or (-) an instrument enters dangerous territory because you can do very easily accidentally remove tons of measures you wanted to keep for a certain instrument. So instead of having it add or remove how about just have it make it visible or not? So essentially a show/hide feature!? Same concept just a modification. This would be great because if you want to have all these different instruments you can but if you don’t want them to show at any point or even when you export them you can simply turn them off or more specifically “hide them” without losing your work. This feature is present in lots of softwares out there.

Khai Lee I totally forgot to comment on this with an update on the bug fix, my bad! 😅 A fix for this bug was included in the latest version 2.15.1 on Dec 15th: https://beat-note.canny.io/changelog/v2151-fri-december-15-2023

Please let me know if everything is looking good on your side. Any dups should have been removed and you shouldn't be able to add multiple of the same instrument any longer. 👍🏻 Thanks!

Jesse Rolland: Thanks so much for your feedback on this topic! This is a challenging enhancement and your feedback is super helpful. 👍🏻 Additionally, I really appreciate the kind words! I'm building this app for you and it wouldn't be possible without your feedback or support. Please keep it coming! 🙏🏻

A show/hide feature is an interesting idea and one that I explored previously. I don't quite understand all of the aspects of your proposal, so would you help me by answering some additional questions?

How would show/hide on a measure be different from add/remove on a measure? Or do you mean show/hide an instrument for the entire beat?

If showing/hiding instruments on a per-measure basis, it still seems like it would be confusing to me to see some measures with all of the instruments and some with different instruments. 🤔

I spent some time ideating on this and here are points I think are important to consider:

#1. When editing a measure (using the "grid"): If an instrument is hidden from a measure, then somewhere on the screen I think it would be important to show which instruments are hidden and allow a quick and easy way to show them ("re-add") them to this measure in the grid.

#2. When editing the structure of a beat ("Edit Beat Screen"): If an instrument in hidden from a measure, I think it's important to be able to know (to be able to see somewhere on the screen) if a measure has hidden instruments or not when duplicating a measure.

#3. When editing the structure of a beat ("Edit Beat Screen"): When adding a new empty measure (using the "+" button, or the "Add Measure Before" or "Add Measure After" buttons), it should be clear to the user what instruments would be available. Does it add all instruments by default? If so, then the user would need to "hide" instruments again on this new measure.

#4. When editing a measure (using the "grid"): If you add an instrument to a measure for the first time, does it only get added to the current measure, or does it get added to all measures? Or do you choose whether to add it to just the current measure or all measures? If adding it to just the current measure, does it show up as "hidden" on all other measures?

There are probably still some other threads that need to be explored, but this is quite a bit. Let's start with this!

Some design ideas...

Given a measure is being edited, tapping on an instrument (in this case, the "Hi-Hat") would display a drop-down menu with the following options:

"Hide Instrument" - Hides the instrument from the current measure. Any notes associated with this instrument on other measures would remain. Any notes associated with this instrument in the current measure would be removed. (Marked with yellow to indicate this is a caution action.)

"Delete Instrument" - Deletes the instrument from all measures as well as any notes that were previously added. (Marked in red to indicate this is a destructive action.)

I would expect the "Delete" button to show a confirmation to the user explaining what will happen ("This deletes the instrument and all notes from the entire beat. Are you sure you want to do this? Ok/Cancel") and it might also be important when hiding an instrument to explain to the user how this works.

Screenshots attached for reference:

Design ideas...

If a measure has instruments that are hidden, then I think this information should be displayed on the screen.

In this mockup, I placed all of the hidden instruments at the bottom (below the "+" button) to show which instruments are hidden in the current measure. I was thinking a quick way to re-add it to the current measure would be to tap the hidden instrument name/button.

So this example is like if you have a beat that has measures which are more "groove" (kick, snare, hat) and some measures that are fills, the extra instruments that aren't needed on the "groove" measures are hidden.

If you wanted to show (re-add?) an instrument to this measure, you'd simply tap on the button and it would be shown in the grid. Thoughts?

One more design idea..

When editing a beat, I think it would be important to know:

a) what instruments will be added if I create a new measure, and

b) whether a measure has instruments that are hidden.

This mockup illustrates this by:

I'm not convinced this is a great idea or way to accomplish this - just tossing out some ideas so we can brainstorm and maybe inspire some other ideas.