Had it for about two days now….all I can say to the team at SS, outstanding bit of kit. Beautifully engineered and very cool to use and look at.
Should re-establish BeatBuddy as the top hardware drum unit!
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Can you give some specifics to support your comments? Many of us are on the fence, so seeing or hearing real facts / features in practice would help.
All I notice so far is an additional switch and new screen display. Which may be great, but real world users versus company marketing hype would be appreciated.
Hopefully, readers know I am asking to see it in use. I depend on BB1 so making a change to BB2 where the gains might not be matured yet matters to me.
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I just got mine today. Currently, the new BBMO isn’t ready, so I can’t test the HD drums or autopilot.
Outside of that, it does have the extra switch and the superswitch. They’re programable buttons. I’ve been using a Morningstar for the longest time to control my BB1, so the extra switches aren’t the biggest deal for me and I use the Morningstar for controlling lots of stuff, so its not going to be replaced by these buttons. It has full-size midi, but I never had an issue with the small, combined cable. It does look like (though I haven’t confirmed) the buttons on the BB2 and superswitch can fire outbound midi notes, which could be useful to those without a sperate midi controller.
It is pretty, but the BB1 wasn’t unattractive. The screen is colorful, has more information, and has labels for the two buttons. There are some more settings to play with for what buttons do, etc. It does seem snappy. Drums on my BB1 take about 5-6 seconds to load, but the BB2 takes 2-3 seconds.
So until I can test the drums and autopilot, right now for what I do, its functionally the same as the BB1 and I suspect after the years, many others have their own workflows. I use the BB for my recordings. I can’t hear a difference for the BB drums using my studio speakers, but I don’t believe the sampling quality has changed, just there’s more space for additional samplings which I don’t have at launch.
I think the new features coming should make it worth it. It allows for bigger drumsets and autoplay which are two things I wouldn’t mind. I’m still a little bitter about the autopilot not coming for BB1 though.
However, bottom line is, I bought one and I’m happy, though I wish I could dig into the new features.
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I received mine yesterday and would echo all of the same feedback as @oktronic on the build quality, sounds, etc. I also wish the new features were ready, as AutoPilot was a primary reason for buying this. Otherwise it’s a great looking pedal and should hopefully work well for my duo (as the original BB has).
One thing to note. I use the BB for live performances. I have my BB mounted on the back row of my PedalTrain Classic pedalboard. I mainly control the BB via a Morningstar midi controller (at the front of my board), but would occasionally have a need to stop a beat via the main BB switch. The new BB2, with the sloped design, places those buttons much lower, and as such they will not be easily accessible on the second row of a pedal board layout. I do hope to simplify my setup and eliminate the Morningstar, at which point I could move the BB2 to the front row.
Looking forward to AutoPilot!
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I have not received mine. @DavidPackouz
Specifics with real world examples are very helpful.
I’m holding off buying BB2 hoping there are settings for the 2 onboard foot buttons to allow scrolling through a single folder. If I play a song that starts with “C” I don’t want to bend over to use the touch pad to get to the next song that starts with “W”. I don’t have a fixed setlist & my performance folder has 100+ songs that I can now rocket through with my foot. It would be so nice to get rid of the Footswitch+.
Hi Paddy, please send an email to support@singularsound.com
If I remember correctly, you sent us an email, and I’ve provided a video showing that you can scroll through a folder using only the BB2, without the Footswitch+.
If that doesn’t address your question, please send an email to support@singularsound.com.
I got mine yesterday and spent several hours with it. I never had the OG BB to compare, but this is a real treat to jam with. I was previously using an Alesis SR-16 and the BB2 is miles ahead in terms of usable beats and ease of use on the fly. I have it synced to my Headrush Prime looper and everything works nice! I have a Pigtronix Infinity 3 on the way I’ll be using it with soon as well.
Plugged in to some decent bookshelf style speakers, these kits sound fantastic. I wouldn’t mind there being some more HD kits. But I’m also stoked to get in on this right away and have many years of community support and feature patches to come.
$500 isn’t cheap for a drum machine but I’m not having any regrets. What a nice piece of kit.
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