Watched your youtube explanation video for your setup… Brilliant workaround indeed!
We are four piece band, two acoustics, one bass & one electric, the electric guitarist operates the BB from his pedalboard. The BB signal goes straight to our PA, a Yamaha StagePlas 500, and it all works pretty good, although there are issues hearing it loud enough at times. I’d prefer to use a dedicated drum amp mounted where a real drummer would be, not sure if that would cause feedback or not though.
We mostly play outdoor farmers markets and have been gigging regularly with BB since Dec 2014. The biggest issue was getting our 140+ song list to fit the BB standard bests, which took several weeks. The supplied software then was pretty bad & horrible to use, but its been better the last six months, although I’d say still only 8/10. We have about 200 songs in our BB, 99 in a main file, then two set lists of 50 each. We carry a spare sound card at all times. We don’t do any programming, just the stock beats and tweak the drum kits & timing to suit. The best feature BB added was the 4 beat count in, which we use on everything. Working out which BB best to use on new songs does become quicker with experience/practise.
We practise every week, so with gigs the BB has been well used. No real issues with reliability - the headphone volume knob fell off, easily fixed, and the rod holding the main foot pedal has a tendency to work out of its hole, just needs watching. For us the BB has been great. While it doesn’t have the flexibility & class of a real drummer, for our purposes it adds a beat to our music. As a band our sense of timing has hugely improved through using the BB and the likes of slow blues & ballads sound heaps better.
Jim,
When you are playing a song that requires 3/4 time, how do you set the bb to a 3/4 time sig? everything I have found is 4/4 in the country genre
We use the Waltz section on World a lot, but I have downloaded the new 3/4 time sig on the Library and we have found some really good stuff there.
On the behringer do you just get a good mix on the behringer as a monitor and feed that to 1 channel on the PA. I just got a TC helicon 150 but I see it only has 2 inputs I use 3 like you.
yea i have a powered 15" speaker that i run into from the behringer… if i’m outside, sometimes i use two powered speakers
[quote=“CharlesSpencer, post:9, topic:2795”]
My biggest recommendation is you must have a monitor that is primarily for being able to hear the beat well, particularly if you sing as well as play. I personally use the headphone out as the feed for a small personal dedicated monitor that I have on a stand similar to aashideacon. It’s frustrating if you have to focus on staying in time in a loud room and this helps. My biggest problem with the pedal is there’s no way of having a heads-up display attached to the mic stand. I’d rather not have to look down while singing but I don’t trust myself to stomp on the right thing at the right time and then release it at the right time.
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Great ideia that !and so u have a individual volume for that! Its great! Tanks for the tip
Chip, you know I never think to ask someone to record my performances . I’ll try to remember the next time.
I gig often with a woman singer, just her and I, with the occasional harmonica player on few tunes, see set list (some songs with no drums).
I have a Ditto x4 midi’d to BB, love it! I also use the EH C9, Key9 and Mel 9. I run the BB through a Bose stick.
I also do a set of rock and blues stuff by myself with BB, Hendrix, Muddy and stuff
Our drummer got married on Sat so we were without a drummer for the Sunday service. The BB performed flawlessly in his place.
I will admit it is a bit daunting to play bass, sing harmonies, and operate the BB but I am getting the hang of it.
I’ve been gigging with mine for about a year now in an acoustic-based “trio” – Me on acoustic, my partner on bass, and Waldo on drums. It’s been surprisingly easy to generate excitement with the local pubs about having the full-band sound (not volume, mind you) where they don’t have room for an actual band. The BeatBuddy has given me a real leg up on the competition in this respect.
I sing, play guitar, and run Waldo. I’m not a fan of the one-touch songs, because having the ability to steer the drummer means we can extend or shorten songs as required. It adds to the live feel. Yeah, I double-clutch occasionally or miss the transition point (coming out of the solo in You May Be Right is a particular sore spot for me) but on balance, having that kind of control is well worth it.
Besides, where else can you find a drummer that does exactly what you tell him to – for better or for worse?
Now I’m looking for a backup. Maybe the BeatBuddy guys would like to send me a B-stock in exchange for doing demos in a few of the local music shops…?
Joe
https://www.facebook.com/habitatbrewhaha/videos/1157916264282955/
Used BB on a gig for the first time Thursday. Here is a link it a portion of Black Magic Woman. We have been working more songs with the beat buddy and dropping out the backing tracks. It’s great to have the freedom of not being tied to the track after our singers have had a couple of beers and forget when to sing. Just got the beat buddy a month ago and using it with Onsong. I also use my digitech 3 button pedal as well as an irig blueboard. I am able to keep my beat buddy on my mic stand and do all the controls with 7 buttons on the floor. It’s better than a drummer and I’ve been drumming for 40 years. So easy to throw in fills and cymbal crashes. Gave us a whole new sound to 7 Bridges. Never had drums in it before and now it really rocks. BB IS AWESOME. Saw a lot more people tapping their feet and had more people dancing. We had about 2,000 people in an outdoor setting. Never missed a beat.
Hey JJS! Nice!
Our church praise band uses the Beat Buddy whenever our drummer can’t make it. I use nothing but the stock beats that come with the pedal. I have purchased some of the new content and additional drum sets as they come available. I route the BB signal to an open stereo channel on a Behringer PMP5000 powered mixer (Peavey PVx 15" mains). We have 3 monitor wedges and we keep the BB volume up in those so we can all hear the beat clearly. Band instrumentation is electric guitar, bass, keys, Hammond organ, flute and 4 voices. I play bass and Beat Buddy. I always use the 4 beat rim shot intro and always use the outro. Everyone is very comfortable following the rhythm.
I play every weekend in a duo with my girlfriend and the BeatBuddy has now worked its way into 75% of our songs and we don’t learn a new song without it!, We use a Bose system with the big mass module so the bass drum really sounds great! I just got a Boomerang but have not had time to sync it up or even use it yet - hopefully this weekend. We play music from the last 5 decades mostly in wineries and restaurants. I will find a video to post![ATTACH=full]3991[/ATTACH]
Looking forward to the video.
Great set list there. I use the Bose also.
Finally have a video compilation of my live use of the BeatBuddy:
Small sample of our songs, probably have about 90-95% of our Saturday night gig backed up by the BeatBuddy!
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