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Beat Buddy Opinion Wanted

#23
most drum machines have Start/Stop foot pedal jacks ... many have jacks for floor pedal/switches for changing from beat A - B with a fill ... most drum machines could also be controlled via a midi floor pedal

but ... the Beat Buddy would definitely be the simplest to deal with .. !
 
#24
DavC said:
most drum machines have Start/Stop foot pedal jacks ... many have jacks for floor pedal/switches for changing from beat A - B with a fill ... most drum machines could also be controlled via a midi floor pedal
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I was kinda thinking the same thing.The Beat buddy seems kinda like a glorified metronome that cost alot.
 
#25
hopsbb said:
I was kinda thinking the same thing.The Beat buddy seems kinda like a glorified metronome that cost alot.
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Well, you're entitled to your opinion. I'm probably going to sound like a fan boy, but considering that 10-15 posts ago you admitted you didn't know anything about the product, this is kind of a silly statement to make. I'm extremely happy with mine, and I'm being perfectly honest when I say that I don't remember anyone complaining about theirs---it seems to have an extremely high customer satisfaction rate. Just watch the demo videos---they accurately represent what the product does, which is way more than a metronome. From there, it's up to each individual to decide if the cost is worth it to them. (And in my case, getting the early bird crowdfunding special, I would pay that price again in a cocaine heartbeat.)
 
#26
Adamixoye said:
Well, you're entitled to your opinion. I'm probably going to sound like a fan boy, but considering that 10-15 posts ago you admitted you didn't know anything about the product, this is kind of a silly statement to make. I'm extremely happy with mine, and I'm being perfectly honest when I say that I don't remember anyone complaining about theirs---it seems to have an extremely high customer satisfaction rate. Just watch the demo videos---they accurately represent what the product does, which is way more than a metronome. From there, it's up to each individual to decide if the cost is worth it to them. (And in my case, getting the early bird crowdfunding special, I would pay that price again in a cocaine heartbeat.)
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I researched and talked to a fellow musician who had one.From what I've been told you have to take almost as many steps getting a Beat Buddy going as you would have to,to get a loop going on a drum machine.This is what I've been told by a former owner of one.Was told it works perfectly if you want a good boom tat going on.
 
#27
Sounds like he was doing it wrong. You plug it in and step on it once, and you literally have a drum beat playing at that point. If there are drum machines that are that easy to use, then great. But the idea that it's complex is pretty ridiculous.
 
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#30
I never seriously considered it because of the price. You can get a digitech or boss phrase sampler pedal for half the cost And program original drums using freeware or spend a little on some decent virtual drums and still pay less than the beat buddy.

Or you can get a drum vst and just do it on your computer. I have reaper ( recording software) and slate drums. It really doesn't take that long to get decent at programming drums. I'm not great at it. Id never want to program drums for my band Because our drummer is much better but it beats the heck out of playing to a metronome and I'm not scrolling through menus, I can make a 2 bar pattern and loop it or copy/paste in minutes to build a full songs worth of drums to jam along with. It's not going to be great but it'll be as good as most drum machines.
 
#31
Nephilymbass said:
I never seriously considered it because of the price. You can get a digitech or boss phrase sampler pedal for half the cost And program original drums using freeware or spend a little on some decent virtual drums and still pay less than the beat buddy.

Or you can get a drum vst and just do it on your computer. I have reaper ( recording software) and slate drums. It really doesn't take that long to get decent at programming drums. I'm not great at it. Id never want to program drums for my band Because our drummer is much better but it beats the heck out of playing to a metronome and I'm not scrolling through menus, I can make a 2 bar pattern and loop it or copy/paste in minutes to build a full songs worth of drums to jam along with. It's not going to be great but it'll be as good as most drum machines.
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Every time someone posts something like this, though...it's just apples and oranges to what the Beat Buddy is and can do. Yes, desktop solutions are potentially cheaper but that's not what it's intended to replace.
 
#32
Adamixoye said:
Every time someone posts something like this, though...it's just apples and oranges to what the Beat Buddy is and can do. Yes, desktop solutions are potentially cheaper but that's not what it's intended to replace.
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But that brings up the question. What does it replace? Because to me no drum machine or any vst can replace a real drummer with a nice Kit. so for me personally it becomes a practicing or song writing tool, kind of like a fancy metronome. That's just my opinion. I'm sure for a lot of people who play more for hobby that want to just sit and jam at home it's great. Not bashing it. I think it's a very cool idea. But I play in a band with a drummer and have drum software already. If I want drums from a pedal I can put them on a jamman.
 
#33
Nephilymbass said:
But that brings up the question. What does it replace? Because to me no drum machine or any vst can replace a real drummer with a nice Kit. so for me personally it becomes a practicing or song writing tool, kind of like a fancy metronome. That's just my opinion. I'm sure for a lot of people who play more for hobby that want to just sit and jam at home it's great. Not bashing it. I think it's a very cool idea. But I play in a band with a drummer and have drum software already. If I want drums from a pedal I can put them on a jamman.
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With the Jamman how does that work though? Can you do fills, accent hits, intros, endings, transitions, flexible lengths of verses and choruses, etc.? The Beat Buddy has basically three selling points:
  • Compact pedal format (as opposed to tabletop drum machine or computer)
  • Live playability and flexibility with the main pedal and aux footswitches (I know some drum machines have footswitch extensions)
  • High-quality sounding drums (non-quantized, hi-fi, variable hit impacts for a live "feel")
I don't think there is an equivalent product out there that hits on all three points at the same time.
 
#34
Adamixoye said:
With the Jamman how does that work though? Can you do fills, accent hits, intros, endings, transitions, flexible lengths of verses and choruses, etc.? The Beat Buddy has basically three selling points:
  • Compact pedal format (as opposed to tabletop drum machine or computer)
  • Live playability and flexibility with the main pedal and aux footswitches (I know some drum machines have footswitch extensions)
  • High-quality sounding drums (non-quantized, hi-fi, variable hit impacts for a live "feel")
I don't think there is an equivalent product out there that hits on all three points at the same time.
Click to expand...

Using a jamman you can make multiple phrase samples and go from one to the next. people tend to think of it as a looper that can only loop and overdub and so on. But the models with memory cards can save any audio you want. So for example you can make multiple samples 1 Verse without fill, 2 verse with fill, 3 chorus, 4 bridge. Jammans have "one shot" and looping playback,


I can even put my drummers tracks from the studio on the jamman, in fact I've also done that in the past with some layered guitar parts as I play in a one guitar band. Drum plugins nearly all come with some type of "humanizer" function these days. That's nothing new. As for drums in various styles, there's midi files available for free all over the Internet for that sorta stuff. You can even get midi files for specific songs and make samples that are an entire song without having to program any drums. My slate drums has Metallica drums, Deftones drums, led Zeppelin drums all kinds of artist specific sounds.

I understand what the beat buddy can do. And I think its cool. I'm just saying there are cheaper alternatives of you think outside the box a little.
 
#35
Well I'll concede I'm totally out of my depth with talking about what is available through software or even most tabletop drum machines. But I guess my primary point is, at some point, "thinking outside the box" and going with a completely different form factor and class of product means they're not competing products. "It's just a fancy metronome" or "you can do the same thing with a regular drum machine" completely and utterly miss the point (in addition to, IMO, being incorrect).

If you've found a solution that works for you, that's great, and no one's knocking that. It sounds like you have created a poor man's Beat Buddy with your Jamman, and I don't use that figure of speech to be inflammatory, I mean it somewhat literally - you've MacGyvered a system that does what you need it to, but based on my understanding of the Jamman and my first-hand experience with the Beat Buddy, I can only conclude they don't do the same things in the same way. For example, if you want to do the same song using a completely different drumset, you would have to go to your computer and create that and load it into your unit. With the Beat Buddy, you can do it on the fly (and that's just the tip of the iceberg of how I presume they are different). Also, none of the smaller Jammans have MIDI that I'm aware of, and that's a huge thing for how I use my Beat Buddy with my Pigtronix Infinity.

Also, as I mentioned before, I only paid $179 (earliest crowdfunding level) for my Beat Buddy. I would pay full price for a new one if I had to, but for me it was more than worth it at $179, and cheaper than the higher-end Jammans, which I assume you must be using in order to have the SD function slot (e.g., not the Jamman Express).

I'm sure this comes across as defensive, but the OP from a month ago described a situation that he thought the Beat Buddy would be perfect for and he was willing to pay the price. How he described his requirements really ruled out a lot of these other options that people have brought up. I just don't totally get why people who haven't owned a Beat Buddy are so eager to dump on it and claim it's overpriced. It fills a niche that didn't exist, I think that's undeniable. Whether that's worth the price to each individual person, well, YMMV. But discussions of it being "overpriced" start to lose meaning when the alternatives are a different animal, for better or worse.
 
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#36
Hey everyone.....I'm the originator of this thread and really thank everyone for your input. I've had my Beat Buddy a few weeks and really haven't used it that extensively, but I can tell you I'm very happy with it based upon the limited time I've spent with it. I like the way it sounds played through the PA mains. I think if you were standing on the other side of the door listening to it behind a band, you would swear it was a real drummer. It is expensive, but drummers are hard to get in and out for a jam. I bought it primarily for jams at my house. I love the simplicity of it. I owned an Alesis that I never could figure out how to use, nor did I have the inclination to learn.
 
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#37
Thanks for weighing in, BluesBass99.


:::::::::::::::::

I think too many detractors of the BeatBuddy forget that it is just another tool to use. Some people know how to operate a backhoe, while most only know how to use a shovel — yet both tools dig holes.

Get the tool that fits your needs, no need to come in to a thread about shovels and tell people how much better a backhoe is when everyone knows that's tiddly-winks compared to a TBM. You want to dig a hole? Stop messing around and go whole hog:



So on that note, I've decided that my BeatBuddy simply cannot replace a real live drummer. So I'm hiring a live-in drummer (we've got a spare room) who will be at my beck and call 24-7. Well, not really 24-7, 'cause I'm hiring a sub-drummer for the live-in-drummer. She'll come in once a week so he can have one day off and then she'll also cover for him during his two-weeks holiday per year.

A real-live live-in drummer is expensive, but sooooo worth it.
 
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#38
Feral Feline said:
So on that note, I've decided that my BeatBuddy simply cannot replace a real live drummer. So I'm hiring a live-in drummer (we've got a spare room) who will be at my beck and call 24-7. Well, not really 24-7, 'cause I'm hiring a sub-drummer for the live-in-drummer. She'll come in once a week so he can have one day off and then she'll also cover for him during his two-weeks holiday per year.

A real-live live-in drummer is expensive, but sooooo worth it.
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Well played, sir.
 
#39
hopsbb said:
I was kinda thinking the same thing.The Beat buddy seems kinda like a glorified metronome that cost alot.
Click to expand...

Not close, and I'd guess that was nothing more than an assumption. I play drums well and have become a "fair" bass player. The Beatbuddy gives me the ability to actually play music with a "drummer substitute" that can be fluid, and adjust on the fly to changes or mistakes in a song's structure. No drum machine or software I've seen can do that. If our singer decides to sing and extra chorus or verse, come in late or early, or my guitard wants an extra measure or twelve for solo, no problem...Of course it's not as good as a "good" drummer. But it is a solid second in my opinion.

That said there is a learning curve you have to overcome before it becomes intuitive. With my background, it seemed to be easier for me than my guitar player friend.

I got in early and cheap. I liked the concept and figured if it was a bust, for what I paid it was no big deal to me. At full price I would be concerned the "manager software" is still only in beta form and isn't straight out simple, so having some computer knowledge is a must. I get the feeling that this start-up company is all web based with no "brick and mortar" being. From what I've read on their site there is no real phone number or physical address.(Now I'm assuming...lol") I've had to deal with their "support" for a very minor thing. While I will say they seemed to want to rectify the problem for sure, it took me 8 emails and three pics to get the guy to understand that in addition to the problem I had, the set screw on the volume knob on top of my beat buddy must have vibrated out and was gone. I inquired that if he had one, could he send it with the other part i needed. If not, could he tell me the size to make replacing it easier. Throughout these exchanges my two guesses were the support guy either didn't speak English as a first language or was dealing with my problem through his phone or Ipad, while he was on a mountain bike trip...LOL His final suggestion was for me to take the knob to the hardware store and match it up. Fair enough, but 8 emails later???

All in all, it's a fun little tool we use practicing and playing parties for fun. When the software hopefully gets finalized I'm thinking it'd be good for acoustic and small "middle of the week" gigs. I don't expect it to be replacing live drummers, as the creator has been saying since the beginning. I'm very happy with my purchase and would definitely miss it if something happened to it.
 
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#40
pasmithy said:
Not close, and I'd guess that was nothing more than an assumption. I play drums well and have become a "fair" bass player. The Beatbuddy gives me the ability to actually play music with a "drummer substitute" that can be fluid, and adjust on the fly to changes or mistakes in a song's structure. No drum machine or software I've seen can do that. If our singer decides to sing and extra chorus or verse, come in late or early, or my guitard wants an extra measure or twelve for solo, no problem...Of course it's not as good as a "good" drummer. But it is a solid second in my opinion.

That said there is a learning curve you have to overcome before it becomes intuitive. With my background, it seemed to be easier for me than my guitar player friend.

I got in early and cheap. I liked the concept and figured if it was a bust, for what I paid it was no big deal to me. At full price I would be concerned the "manager software" is still only in beta form and isn't straight out simple, so having some computer knowledge is a must. I get the feeling that this start-up company is all web based with no "brick and mortar" being. From what I've read on their site there is no real phone number or physical address.(Now I'm assuming...lol") I've had to deal with their "support" for a very minor thing. While I will say they seemed to want to rectify the problem for sure, it took me 8 emails and three pics to get the guy to understand that in addition to the problem I had, the set screw on the volume knob on top of my beat buddy must have vibrated out and was gone. I inquired that if he had one, could he send it with the other part i needed. If not, could he tell me the size to make replacing it easier. Throughout these exchanges my two guesses were the support guy either didn't speak English as a first language or was dealing with my problem through his phone or Ipad, while he was on a mountain bike trip...LOL His final suggestion was for me to take the knob to the hardware store and match it up. Fair enough, but 8 emails later???

All in all, it's a fun little tool we use practicing and playing parties for fun. When the software hopefully gets finalized I'm thinking it'd be good for acoustic and small "middle of the week" gigs. I don't expect it to be replacing live drummers, as the creator has been saying since the beginning. I'm very happy with my purchase and would definitely miss it if something happened to it.
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Nailed-It.png
 
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