BeatBuddy question...

bills10733

Blues Newbie
I get together and jam with some buddies a couple of times a month, and we are perpetually trying to find a drummer. Has anyone tried using the BeatBuddy? Not as good as the real thing, but I thought it might be better than nothing if it works okay.

Bill
 

JN99

Hang Fire
It works great but does require some effort depending on how you want to use it. There are loads of songs available at the BB site, some free from other forum members, some for purchase. It comes down to how you want to use it and how varied you want it to be e.g. with fills, transitions, different parts for verse/chorus/bridge etc. The problem becomes that in order to have all that to match a song structure requires a fair amount of stomping, practice on the timing of the stomps, and memorization of when to stomp during the song. However, for simple jams and practice, it's great and you can make usage of it as simple or complex as you want it to be.
 

TwoNotesSolo

Student Of The Blues
What JN99 said. Say you want to play "I'm Tore Down" following the Clapton arrangement: there are at least two downloadable versions on the user forum.

That song:
- starts on the turnaround
- has breaks on the I in the first verse
- has a "long I" (8 bars of one instead of 4) with breaks in the second verse
- has regular verses for a while and solos
- goes back to the long I after solos
- has a breaks on the ending

you will need to have multiple parts in the song and trigger them at the right time. Not everyone took the same approach on the versions downloadable on the forums. One of them for example decided to have an intro with the turnaround and the 1st verse, then a repeating "main loop" with the regular verse for solos (useful if you don;t know how many progressions you;re going to take), then the ending is the last long I and the outro. That makes it "easy" to follow: click to start the intro, into will automatically go into the repeating loop until you are ready to end solos, then double click to get into the last verse+ outro. you don;t have to click perfectly on the beat like with a looper, the pedal will be smart enough to keep the beat as it transitions from one part to the other.

One of the free versions on the forum uses the ability to play a bass line too. It basically means some of the midi codes are assigned to bass notes instead of drums, and you need to load a "drumset" that has the bass notes built in, again several of them available for free. if you have a bass player, load a drumset without the bass notes in it. That way I can practice at home with the bass, and turn it off with the band. Of course the bass line was in the wrong key, so I had to transpose it using a midi editor (I'm pretty sure I made that version available on the forum). It's not that complicated, but it's not trivial either, free midi editors are not professional quality, and it helps it you learn a little bit about midi.

So for the most benefit, unless you find that someone already made the perfect setup for your song, be prepared to spend time on the computer to get it just like you want it. In a lot of cases you can start with a midi file of the song that has all the instruments, then remove those, then cut paste and repeat in your favorite midi editor.

Of course you can use one of the pre-canned rhythms, click to throw in a fill when you reach the 12th bar, and keep it at that. That doesn;t work for me for "Tore Down", its structure is just too specific to ignore.
 

CaptainMoto

Blues Voyager
The sound quality is very good.
I use it for basic beats.
Using in a real song is more complexity then I want.
 

LLL

Workin' the Blues
I agree with the responses here about the Beat Buddy. I have one and it does what you would want it to do - and is simple to use. It does take some time working with it to understand what you need to do and how you need to do it. It is simple enough but powerful enough to use it at home or on a solo/duo gig. Spend a little time with it and you should be happy.
 

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
I agree with the responses here about the Beat Buddy. I have one and it does what you would want it to do - and is simple to use. It does take some time working with it to understand what you need to do and how you need to do it. It is simple enough but powerful enough to use it at home or on a solo/duo gig. Spend a little time with it and you should be happy.

Do you have the two button footpedal for it?
 

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
Yes I do - works great. There are other aftermarket pedals that work for it too. I bought my BeatBuddy and 2 button pedal as a package off of Craigslist.

I'm looking to try one out as a Preset up/down switch on my Eleven Rack.
 

Mark from Murrieta

Blues Junior
I hear the Beat Buddy sounds better than the Trio. The only reason I got a Trio is for the bass, I love playing with a bass. Granted, it's a bit stilted sounding but, what'ch gonna do, I've had a big issue finding a bass player with groove and creativity that isn't already playing out.
 

LLL

Workin' the Blues
If you want bass and drums for practice only and routinely use a computer as part of your guitar practice (recording or playing backing tracs) you might want to look in to the Band in a Box software.
 

Mark from Murrieta

Blues Junior
Band in the Box is great. I like using the Trio or similar when I'm going places to jam or just want out of my computer room but yes, BINB is a wonderful program. So is garage Band.
 
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