Frequently Asked Questions

This page is devoted to answering common queries you may encounter when running Keep Ya Beat.

What's all this about comparing hash codes in the downloads?

Both Windows and Mac OS X try to protect the user by the use of digital certificates. They each have their own methods and neither is free. Neither method actually protects you from software errors, or malicious intent by the developer of the software, they simply guarantee you that the software came from who it says it came from and has not been corrupted or tampered with. We're achieving that too, although a little more effort is required on your part. For two files to produce the same hash codes, they have to be identical, so if your generated codes matches ours they must be the same file. (See a full article on SHA-256 one-way cryptographic hashing on Wikipedia SHA-2)

Why is there an option to change the beat that is numbered 1 in a rhythm, surely the first beat should always be number 1?

The beat numbering is usually from 1, but it's actually quite arbitrary. In some instances, like certain Flamenco and Latin American rhythms, it makes sense to change the beat numbering, particularly for consistency and ease of learning.

My rhythm isn't playing smoothly

Normally you should hear very accurate and smooth playback when playing rhythms. If you are currently editing the rhythm though, there is some background work going on which could interfere with playback temporarily. Also check to see if your computer is performing other heavy tasks such as background updates, downloads or system scans, or other programs using most or all available RAM. Any of these can cause minor and even quite severe fluctuations in extreme cases.

I used the Reset Defaults button on the Preferences window and when I restarted the app I saw automatic help on every screen.

This is by design. The question was should Reset Defaults also reset the behaviour of a new install, it could easily be one way or the other and we decided it should. If people tell us it's non-intuitive or annoying, we'll probably change it.

On my Windows PC the Keep Ya Beat icon is poor quality

We've noticed that too, yes it is ugly. The Keep Ya Beat.exe is actually a wrapper for Windows that includes an icon, so far we haven't been able to get this right, no matter what size we make the icon it doesn't seem to improve it. We included a windows icon file with better images and a README file in your download. Please see the instructions for how to apply new icons to your app in the README file.

On my Mac it says the Keep Ya Beat application cannot be opened

If you seeing a message that says Keep Ya Beat is not an authorized application (or similar), you need to open it with a right-click (or ctrl and click) and confirm that you want to open it. Please see the instructions in the README file included in the download.

Note: You may not be able to right-click directly on the app in the Downloads window, open it in Finder to access it, or move it to another location.

On my Mac when I try to open the Keep Ya Beat application nothing happens

Please make sure your OS is up to date. Keep Ya Beat is a Java application and Macs should be able to run it without any problems. If you have an up to date system, please report a problem here, we'll try our best to help you get it working. On older OS X releases (prior to Lion), you can also try checking Java 1.6 is available (under Applications -> Utilities -> Java Preferences, set it to default if 1.5 is selected)

On my Mac how can I use a trackpad instead of a mouse?

There's no problem to use a trackpad. Use the standard 2 finger click gesture to make a right-click instead of holding down the control key though.

On my Windows PC nothing happens when I try to open Keep Ya Beat

On some Windows systems (notably on some Netbooks) when clicking on the Keep Ya Beat.exe file nothing happens, the app doesn't start. To get around this please download the No .exe, just a Java "JAR" file version of the app from the downloads pages here, and follow the instructions for installation.