Hi Guys. New to the forum and loving my BB!
I want to be able to synch my BB and and a yet to be purchased Infinity looper. Seems all pretty straight forward just gotta buy the right cables etc. My question is about the signal path. I want to be able to keep my BB sound and guitar sound SEPARATE. So, my looper sits in the effects loop of my guitar amp…the BB signal goes to my PA. I don’t want to hear the BB through my guitar amp and I don’t want to hear my guitar through the PA. Is this possible?
I am currently playing through my guitar rig with a DittoX4 and running the BB completely separate through my PA. Tone is great but of course it goes out of sync. So I need to buy an Infinity looper to get the sync to happen right but I don’t want the drums coming through my guitar amp.
Hope this makes sense. Somebody please help so I don’t waste money on more gear only to not solve my problem. Thanks a heap!
Jon
In your specific case, you will most likely need to have a second amplifier (or a separate stereo system) to plug your BeatBuddy to.
Really appreciate the reply. So I can route one signal to the guitar amp and one to another source without either signal going to the other source. I already have a guitar amp and a PA so I might be all set?
It depends on what you really want.
So you say you have a guitar amp and a PA. This should be enough to make two independent sound circuits:
Guitar -> effect pedals -> guitar amp,
BeatBuddy -> PA.
That way it will sound great, you really achieve your target in BeatBuddy sound will be independent from your guitar. But then you will have two different sound sources!
Is that really what you want? Most users want to be able to use a dirty distortion channel of their guitar amp. But BeatBuddy sounds best using a clean channel amp. You can simply daisy chain those two circuits! Adding a looper between them is best as well. You can change amp settings after you’ve recorded a track, giving you an insane ability to rock clean parts over distorted chords, or play a heavy lead on top of clean melody track.
Guitar -> effect pedals -> guitar amp -> looper -> BeatBuddy -> PA.
I actually use two PA’s myself - a tube Blackstar HT-1R as a guitar amp and a solid state Roland Cube 20x as the ending PA. Tube amps are known to give very pleasant “warm” overdrive tones at extreme gain levels (nothing trashy or “sandy” at all like metal pedals do), and solid states amps usually have a clean channel that is crystal clean.
Totally appreciate the effort and time you are putting in here and I think I feel a bit stupid (midi noob). Midi cannot carry a sound signal can it? So just because the Infinity and the BB are connected via MIDI, it doesn’t also mean the signal path of the SOUND will be affected. My setup…guitar - wah, then drive effects pedals to front of Fender Supersonic with a H9 and the Infinity in the effects loop. Totally separate is the Beatbuddy into a Tonebone PZ deluxe into a Mackie thump 400w. I want the signal paths to stay the same but was thinking if I hooked the midi cable up it would start sending the signal in different directions and I would be forced to run the BB through the guitar amp. I totally love the BB through the Tonebone into the Mackie…you would SWEAR there is a drummer in the room with you, it’s nuts! The Tonebone lets you tweak the EQ, mute the signal etc and send a line level signal to the Mackie. So no, I don’t want the BB into the guitar amp as I know they sound better through a PA. Also, by using the H9 and the looper in the effects loop, I can achieve just what you are describing…lay a clean loop, then go to crunch channel and lay a dirty solo over the top…loop stays clean and amp switches to burn channel, it’s awesome! If I can just get the BB and the Infinity to sync together I will be in heaven! And if I can go one better and midi sync the BB, the Infinity AND the H9 I will quit my job and stay home every day! I have been using a TC X2 and are lashing out on the Infinity tomorrow…just ordered the midi cable from Beatbuddy. Thanks a million Daefecator, you rock! And so does the Beatbuddy!
I think I got your question.
MIDI doesn’t carry sound and if you connect BeatBuddy and Infinity looper with a MIDI cable (just as you described), the overall sound will not change. Your guitar amp will continue to play exclusively the sound from your guitar (pedals and Infinity looper), and your second PA will continue to play exclusively beats from BeatBuddy. Only time synchronization will occur, and this is exactly what you need.
By the way, MIDI chain and sound chain are totally independent.
You can try hook your three things up by doing the following MIDI chain:
BeatBuddy Master (MIDI Out) > (MIDI In) H9 (MIDI Out) > (MIDI In) Infinity
Happy Days!!! Thanks a million 
The Infinity has got only Midi in, but H9 has both. So you have to change last 2 devices… (Instead, you could also use a midi splitter to send BB`s Midi out to other devices Midi in ports…)
Edited my post to reflect that. Thanks for the correction!
I have the infinity looper. It syncs well. Just run your looper to your amp and the beatbuddy to the P.A. They are two seperate entities. The beat buddy provides the beat and the infinity quantizes the loop to keep it in sync. The sound of the beatbuddy doesn’t go through the looper unless you output it there but that would be totally unnecessary if you are looping on the fly.
Hi everybody,
today i made some tests with my new pictronix infinity looper and first of all i have to say the quality for workmanship is very bad for such a price. The usb connector i have to hold in place otherwise i cannot connect to my computer. The in and out jacks would be better located at the back, the same to the usb jack. The manual is bad. But thats not my main problem.
I conneted the looper with my beatbuddy and when i stop a song at the beatbuddy the tempo synchronization remains. So when i want to play a song without any beatbuddy support how can i stop the synchronizing with my looper. When i disconnect the midi connection everybody is fine. After reconnecting again without starting beatbuddy the synchronization starts again. If i cant stop synchronization to the looper i cannot use it!
Anybody here who can help me?
Werner
Don’t blame the looper for listening to the BB clock signal, that’s what it’s designed to do. Having the option to stop the BB from sending the clock signal when it’s stopped has been discussed on other threads and will hopefully be implemented soon. For the record, my USB socket is rock solid and the input/output jack location is very convenient for me. Not liking something does not always equate to poor quality. Had you done some research prior to buying it, you would have known that the USB port was on the front and the input jacks were on the side, this is a Pigtronix after all and different is what they do best.
sorry about my words but i was very excited when i wrote my thread because this is the second looper i got from my dealer because the first one did not synchronize by midi connection. Now i have the second looper and usb connector does not stay in place so i have to hold him in the jack. But my biggest problem is the functionality when beatbuddy and the pigtronix looper work together. I dont want to start the looper when i start the beatbuddy and the same when i stop the beatbuddy. When this is not possible that beatbuddy only gives a sync signal than i cannot use the looper.
Another problem was coming up. After playing with beatbuddy the sync sygnal triggers the looper continously. How can i make the looper work (do not listen to the sync signal) in case when i want to play a song using the looper with a different tempo?
Is there any chance to realize my wishes with setup in beatbuddy or looper?
Werner
If you are experiencing physical issues with your Pigtronix Inifinity (like a loose USB connector), you should probably contact the vendor you bought it from (or Pigtronix if there is a warranty on it). There shouldn’t be any loose parts on it, as the Pigtronix Infinity is known to be a very high quality looper. There is a possibility that you received a defective unit (or not defective at all, but it is not in new condition).
For all other software based issues, we suggest that you update the looper’s firmware to the latest version. There is a strong possibility that this may be the solution.
yesterday i got a new one from my dealer and now synchronizing ist working. After this i made the latest firmware update. Now i test the looper and i found out 2 other problems with working together from this 2 devices:
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when i record a phrase to the infinity looper with beatbuddy tempo for example 80 beats and i play back, the recorded phrase of the looper is much more slow then i playd. This behavior is on all songs of the beatbuddy.
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after playing with beatbuddy the sync sygnal triggers the looper continously. How can i make the looper work (do not listen to the sync signal) in case when i want to play a song using the looper with a different tempo?
If i cannot solve this problems i think the looper is not to use for me.
Werner
I cannot say for sure (as I’ve never got my hands on those shiny Infinity Pigtronix looper :(), but looks like it uses really advanced sampling techniques and rocks a ton (and even a little bit more) settings that may be hard to setup properly. As far as I know, they have a support phone number, so you can try get some help from them.
I use Boomerang III - and it is pretty simple and it’s behaviour is very consistent. You record the loop and it will play exactly as you’ve recorded it. Neither tempo changes are supported nor there are any advanced settings necessary to enable that.
Boomerang III is a pretty simple and a very reliable tool when it comes to sound recording and looping.
Hi Daefecator,
please tell me more about Boomerang III!
- when i want to record a phrase without beatbuddy how about the syncing. I know beatbuddy always sends a sync signal even when hes not in action. That means with infinity looper i have to unplug the sync cable for record another tempo or adjust the tempo on the beatbuddy knob!!!
- can i stop a phrase when beatbuddy is still in action? Does Boomerang sync again when i start the stopped phrase again?
- The footswitches for recording etc. looks very small. Are they good to turn?
- when i start a synced phras how precise in time i have to hit the footswitch?
- how is the manufacturing of the looper?
Werner
Boomerang III is also affected with the BeatBuddy always sending MIDI quarter notes, so you will need to unplug the MIDI cord currently in order not to use the BeatBuddy.
But to be honest, this is like the only minus of the looper, and by the way, I hope to have this fixed soon enough.
You can also look at my only video (in the signature) - please bear in mind, that I didn’t use any prepared backing track! When I start playing, nothing is stored on the looper. You can pay attention to when I am pressing the buttons on the looper as well - as you can see, it allows for very very convenient and relaxed loops changing!
When you record loop number 3 first, it becomes a “master loop”, and all other loops are automatically resized to its length. When using this mode with MIDI sync from BeatBuddy, the time synchronization “double dips” and is kept very tight throughout all the song. No matter you play for several minutes or several hours straght - your looped tracks will be flawlessly kept with the beats!
By the way, this master loop feature allows you to record really complex things you play. Imagine the situation you are playing a really really fast and hard part, and simply cannot time your pedal press to close the loop. Record the master loop of the same length beforehand (you can record complete silence, as you can later delete it), now you can close the loop at any time while you are playing your part, as your press will get queued and the loop will actually be closed right when master track ends!
Just wanted to update my post here and say that I now have my BeatBuddy hooked up via MIDI to my H9 then through to my Infinity looper. All I can say is WOW!!! I am just so impressed. The BB sound is through a Mackie Thump and like I said before…better than a drummer in the room :-). Could not be happier with my BeatBuddy or the Infinity looper…and the H9 is in a class all of its own. Incredible how they all ‘talk’ to each other to make music happen. Love it!!!
Seeing as how Infinity is part of this thread name, it’s worth mentioning that the Infinity will do that as well. There is also an option to double, triple, quadruple… (not sure what comes after that), the length of the second loop so that it can be that much longer than the first, and it will still stop recording on it’s own when it reaches that length.