Beat Buddy, Loopers, Midi Sync

BeatBuddy General
#1

I’d like to hear people’s experiences with their Beat Buddy’s and Loopers via midi sync. I have a Boss RC-50 looper and have hooked it up to my Beat Buddy via the midi sync. I’m noticing that the looper gets out of sync after a while when I loop with the looper’s guide beats on. I love my RC-50’s guide beats and would love to be able to incorporate them with the Beat Buddy too, but they keep getting out of sync after a few minutes.

I’m know the Boss loopers are known for having shoddy midi sync capabilities, but perhaps others are having better luck. Does anyone know if the RC-300 has better midi syncing? I’ve been experimenting with using the AUTO, INTERNAL, and REMOTE midi settings, but I don’t know much about midi at all.

I would also love to hear about others experiences using their Beat Buddies with other midi sync loopers such as the Boomerang III and Pigtronix Inifinity Looper since that is what they recommended when I posted on their facebook page.

#2

Omg, are you serious about BeatBuddy & Boomerang III combo?! It is amazing, man!

You should definitely check my video in the signature below! I’ve just fixed on-screen help text to show what’s going on here.

P.s.: My friend once had Boss RC-300, and he throw it away for Rang and never looked back!

1 Like
#3

I use Boomerang looper as well, awesome!

Plus Bigsky reverb, timeline delay and pitchfactor Pog2 etc. Great sound.

I currently use Alesis drum machine sync with Boomerang, once get Beatbuddy, I will ditch it. Or use it as backup. Do I really need a backup? Beatbuddy is solid!

#4

I’ve seen your Boomerang III/Beat Buddy video. Very nice. It’s what has me thinking about ditching my RC-50 and going with a Boomerang.

#5

I have the “rang” too! Thanks for posting the video and notes!!! Great job!

#6

So you guys with the Boomerang III can confirm that the BB and Boomerang do in fact play nice together in terms of the MIDI sync?

Are there any other loopers out there that will work well with the BB? Seems like MIDI sync is just starting to catch on so it’s great that the BB will be ready when the other devices finally catch up.

#7

Seriously, you are just kidding me, am I right? :slight_smile:

Check the video in my signature just about a line below! :slight_smile: It is exactly about the tight MIDI sync of BeatBuddy and Rang.

#8

I’ve seen internet videos of cat’s playing guitar and cell phones popping corn, so while I sincerely appreciate the video, you can understand my skepticism. It’s hard to believe everything you see and hear now-a-days, especially when you see published specs on certain devices and you know for a fact they are bogus. Boss loopers that fail miserably at midi sync and the TC Electronic Flashback X4 boasting how it too syncs, both come to mind.

The Boomerang III with the latest firmware apparently is the bees-knees and works as advertised.

I suspect the Pigtronix Infinity Looper does as well, and for that amount of coin, it damn well better.

As the BB grows in popularity, it would be nice to maintain a list of devices that actually work well with it.

#9

Well, I’m actually very surprised, as what I played is so damn simple, it can be played by totally anyone. I can actually make another video for you to show how looped tracks are played individually etc. The biggest problem I have - is my spoken english is beyond any critics, lol :slight_smile:

#10

I’m going to test the BB syncing with Apple iOS soon, using the app loopy HD.

It has midi sync function. (You need a USB midi cable and iPad USB adapter. Also a midi cable that will work with the BB (IT looks like a Ps2 port or something. Actually, i don’t even want to think about this :smiley:

Just an idea for a test, without spending quite a bit on a hardware looper.

#11

Does anyone have experience using the BB with an Infiniti looper? I have them hooked up via Midi cable and the BB cable. I start the beat then make a loop. Usually there is a measure of empty space before the loop repeats. I have been using a looper successfully for years, so I do not think it is a timing thing. I tried making a loop first and then turning the BB on, but that did not seem to be synched and gradually it drifted. Is there a technique or protocol here I could use? The Infiniti only has a Midi in input, so I have the Midi cable hooked to the “out” part of the BB cable. Plugging into the “in” part of the BB cable did not seem to work. Any help, tips, or advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

#12

Try follow these steps.

  1. Connect MIDI Out of BeatBuddy to your Infinity MIDI In (you were absolutely correct in doing that).
  2. Start the beats from BeatBuddy.
  3. Just try to record the loop track.
  4. If you simply can not record a track correctly no matter how you try, then the BB song you are using is affected by a MIDI-sync bug. While I definitely have a list of these songs at hand, and I’ve fixed them for myself personally, I have not been granted an explicit permission to either publish the fixed content or list the affected songs.
  5. Either way, select Metal 8 (any Metal song will do actually) and repeat from step 2.
  6. If this didn’t help, carefully unplug your Infinity from BeatBuddy, power source and other cables, and throw it from a window / put it into a trash can / sell from e-bay. And go grab some real looper (like the one I’m using). I will definitely do a video today, as there was a concern expressed, that my video (in my signature) may be fake or simply a marketing move that differs from reality.

Note, while it may seem that I am pretty heavily advertising a side product here (my looper), I care only about having my own playing sessions as comfortable as possible and merely sharing my experience. I am heavily biased towards having only the best gear possible. BeatBuddy and Boomerang III is the way to go atm. This will definitely change when there is a BeatBuddy looper, as it will have a much closer MIDI sync.

And to be completely honest, without the BeatBuddy, Boomerang III is actually not convenient at all. When BeatBuddy is actively MIDI sync’ing Rang, it allows for very convenient queuing of recording, playing and stopping looped tracks.

#13

I have the boomerang 3 looper and just got my BB and the synch works perfectly. I am kinda new to Midi. Can I now add a midi digital delay or midi effects pedal to my chain BB/Looper/Effects pedal so my delays will also synch with the temp. If so how would that chain work in order for BB to stay the master.

#14

In order to make that, you will need to connect Boomerang III MIDI Out to MIDI In of your desired device.
I totally have no idea of what should (and what would) happen, but I think it’s gonna work. Neither did I check MIDI Out port of Boomerang III (but I doubt it fails) nor did I ever use any other MIDI-enabled effects.

#15

Thanks I will give this a try to achieve tempo synch with the boomerang 3 and also temp synching the delay in a multi effects pedal at the same time with MyBeatBuddy.

Just curious if anyone can recommend a good guitar multi-effects pedal that accepts midi for midi synching the delays and effects. Since I am a one man band with the boomerang 3 it would be great if this unit also had a good octover for my bass lines that I lay down with my guitar. I am trying to keep my footprint on this multi effects pedal as small as possible.

#16
  1. If you simply can not record a track correctly no matter how you try, then the BB song you are using is affected by a MIDI-sync bug. While I definitely have a list of these songs at hand, and I’ve fixed them for myself personally, I have not been granted an explicit permission to either publish the fixed content or list the affected songs.

Is there a MIDI-sync bug for “Rock 1”? I spent all night testing out my brand new looper that I bought specifically to use with the Beat Buddy and was extremely disappointed with the results. Thought it might be an issue with the looper, but then I tried “Metal 8” like you suggested and had no problems.

If I’m going to throw a pedal out the window, it won’t be the looper. :evil:

#17

Hi,

useful video, thanks, but the Boomerang III is mainly for live performance: one can not save the loop. In my case when I am creating a piece of music I need to save my loops and go back to them later. It would be a shame not to be able to use the BB (such a good tool for musicians!) with a looper that can save the loops. So I hope the midi sync bugs will be fixed as soon as possible before buying an expensive looper. I do not know the RC300 nor the Pigtronix infinite looper but they seem quite suitable for this purpose. I own at the moment a Jamman solo XT for basic work / drafts but it has no midi sync, so I 'll have to buy a midi sync looper and would like to be sure the two devices work well together before spending my money ;), hence this post.

#18

What looper did you buy?

#19

What looper did you buy?

The Pigtronix Infinity Looper.

#20

Unfortunately, yes. Rock 1 is affected :frowning:

In this case, I would actually wait before throwing anything out of the window. Aside from Rock 13 all other Rock songs are perfectly ok for sync’ing.

If you want Rock 1 no matter what, I can upload it for you - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9LXvRHhc7bHQTlDX0gtNThnTlE/view.

Move the downloaded file to SONGS\977B149C\ folder, and you are good to go.