thanks for adding more MIDI functionality. That will go a long way for me. CC messages to change parts should be very useful in conjunction with preset changes of other pedals, for example.
I understand your point of view and perhaps they should have just called it “Shuffle”. That said, the rise of civilization began with the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic period ~10kya and the evidence suggests that the discovery and enjoyment of alcohol played a key role in the development of farming and settled life. So, try and keep a little perspective!
Lighten-Up Bill
Hi Bill,
Thank you for your long-time BeatBuddy support, but thank you infinitely more for your passion and dedication in helping people with their struggle to fight alcoholism. Even if you take a hammer and smash your BeatBuddy to bits over this update, I appreciate the work you are doing for our society. I have lost friends to addiction and my best friend, currently, is a recovering alcoholic, so this is an issue that hits close to home for me.
Alcoholism is a disease in which one has immense difficulty regulating their intake of alcohol. This is why, I’m told, AA discourages its members from having even a single drink. Most people who drink, though, are not alcoholics. We wanted the BeatBuddy to be able to emulate a common drummer trope, as was requested (probably in jest) by a huge number of our users, but we did not intend for this in any way to make fun of – or even reference – a serious disease.
The “sobriety function” was not intended to make light of alcoholics or alcoholism, and I am sorry if I have caused anyone to take it this way.
I am a customer like you. Not BB staff. I respect your comment Bill. But, having been in a band for 30 plus years and being the drunk one (not the drummer though) for many of the early years, I take no offense, I don’t think it will cause drinking, I don’t think it will put a bad spin on rock and roll, country, Jazz… whichever. Music is what it is. It has its colorful, cultural aspects. Sex Drugs and Rock and roll…as they say. I would venture to say that there are several musicians, who have had their go with drink and other substances, Many of them who are drummers. Double whammy. Personally, I think your reaction, while valid within your frame of reference, is putting the BB team in a tough spot that they really don’t deserve to be. Being that I have a similar back story, I find absolutely no harm in this and tqake no offense. I am in no way affiliated with BB business, so please don’t take my post to be anything other than my view. Regards, Jim
We’ll be releasing a video soon with all the details… stay tuned! 
Thank you very much for this long awaited update 
I’m a happy camper/customer 
Can’t wait to see how I can make BB sit in the middle between a Boss RC-300 Looper and a Pigtronix Infinity Looper - and control all three of them with OnSong for “static” control changes and Livid Guitar Wing for “dynamic” control.
I do understand why Bill is offended by the Sobriety feature, and I think his concerns are validated by his well written post in this thread.
I have also recomended BB to friends who have kids that they would buy a pedal for - to jam along with and to learn how to keep time with real musicians. (Not a drunken drummer!)
I think BB has a much broader potential than just being a “bread & butter” tool for “free spirits & other adults” (my self being one of them) playing gigs in bars around the world.
I am also a teacher for young adults - and I will hesitate to introduce the pedal for them - if I also have to explain what the sobriety feature is all about… - Bad joke also in this context - because my students don’t read english very well - and I would have to translate it for them.
Please be serious about the reputation of the product! Musicians around the world deserves a great drum pedal like BB and BB deserves a good reputation everywhere.
When you get a great musical idea like “randomize tempo and fills” - call it something that reflects what it does for the music - and/or explain why it might be a good thing to use it for training music.
Drop the “bar-humor” around the product and let those who want to have/make fun with the “randomize function” - call it what ever they want…
BB doesn’t deserve a bad reputation - and I think Bill deserves a sober answer in return for his concerns. (pun intended)
Thank you for making BeatBuddy the best and most versatile drum machine in the world today - Full midi control of the unit and the midi merge function really doubles it’s value - and like magic I forgot that I thought it was very expensive when I bought it in the first place
Good job, well done - and thank you very much
Ps: Please remove the “sobriety joke” from the product - If it has musical value, call it something else - or upgrade it so you can set different values for randomizing different things in percent - and get some mileage out of it.
Yours sincerely
Måns Mårtensson - danish guitarist and teacher…
Sorry about that… BeatBuddy insisted we go out for a few beers 
It’s fixed now.
Glad you like the new features! We changed platforms for the forum a while ago and unfortunately a lot of the original posts were lost.
Please post a video or two explaining your setup and what you can do with it – I’d love to see that!
Hi @DavidE please email us at support@mybeatbuddy.com and we’ll take care of this issue for you. Thanks for sticking with us
The drunk drummer thing kind of takes away from an otherwise great product because it does not add any musical value,just another menu item that most of us will probably scroll through. Is there a way to get a firmware update that does not have the drunk drummer feature?
Already did shortly after posting.
i bought the bb about 1 year ago.
gave it a few chances but i gave it up and put it on the shelf.
my feet are already busy enough with the voicelive 3, so i couldn’t handle both pedals.
ever since then, i’ve waited patientally for an awesome update (hopefully this is it), after all recognizing the huge potential of the bb.
with this new update, hopefully i’ll be able to use the bb for real.
how i want to use the bb/ what i’m hoping for with this update:
- tap the bb to start a song and it autoplays everything, all the fills and stuff and when the song ends, it autostops.
- a growing library of songs with and without bass (being set up to autoplay all the way through as described above), where you can search for songs/ artists/ genres and you can easily download and import those songs to the bb.
- automatch songs in onsong to the bb (implemented, but i don’t know how to to it).
SOBRIETY FUNCTION:
i don’t think i’ll be able to find any use for this, but it’s a pretty cool idea that i might demo to friends.
SLEEP MODE:
i’ll probably use it sometimes.
nice alternative in the absence of an on/ off switch.
VISUAL METRONOME WHILE STOPPED:
this is a very good idea and it’ll sure come in handy in certain songs where the intros are without drums.
HANDS FREE FOLDER NAVIGATION:
love this.
you say “Please note that this will only work with Momentary (unlocked) type footswitches”…
i still don’t have a footswitch for my bb.
i’ll probably get another footswitch though, since the one for the bb makes those loud clicks…
which alternative footswitches would work with this new feature?
thinking (for example) boss pedals, previously discussed in this forum…
COMPLETE MIDI CONTROL:
thanx a lot for this.
the only device i currently use is the voicelive 3, but if this update is what i’m hoping for, i’ll add the bb and an ipad to my set.
i’m hoping to control both the bb and the voicelive 3 using the onsong app.
AUTOPILOT MODE:
this is by far the feature i’m most excited about.
i’m soo hoping this will turn out as awesome as it could.
everything written about this seems very very nice (except presonally i have no interest in improvising).
INSTANT SONG SELECT/ PROGRAM CHANGE:
awesome feature and as i said before “i’m hoping to control both the bb and the voicelive 3 using the onsong app”.
MIDI MERGE:
not sure what this is, but does this mean there could be a bb app for the ipad under development…?
this update sure seems awesome and i really hope it is, so i can start using it.
i’m hoping for videos about (showing off/ explaining) all the new features very soon.
thanx a lot for your hard work guys!
Hello, could someone tell me how exactly the autopilot?
I think the functions you have added all have value except the sobriety function. To be able to relax the tempo “a little” would be okay for some music styles, but to the level this will do is really just unusable. It would have made a pretty excellent April Fools joke, actually. lol
A better use of this technology would be to randomize the loose-ness (ahead of the beat or behind, just a tad) of the timing, to make it even more human. I wouldn’t go to extreme with it though.
-Chris
rather than “sobriety” why not call it “Human” the more human the less rigid the beat! I do not see myself using this function either.
whew …that was an interesting thread …I can’t wait to upgrade ! 
Thank you for the update. I didn’t get a “No SD-Card” error anymore.
Most of the new features are useful, especially total MIDI association that’s inherent for any drum machine.
Reading the announcement of the “sobriety” option I was almost sure it controls quantizing from hard 100% to random swing, as a quantize function was being asked for a lot. No, this’s based on swift bpm floating within extreme values. The whole idea is great. If autopilot is just being flurried on fills and transistions, if he’s accelerating through a chorus and then going down entering verse, for example, but within adequate values, so there could be a nice playable fun. Anyway the autopilot has inspired me and I hope we will listen him sober for playing with;)
Strange how this joke mode came out on 4/1. I saw the email, and thought it was a fairly lame April fools gag, but, it’s not?
I don’t particularly see eye to eye with some of these posters, but I agree you should probably lose the gag, as it’s a bit over the top. Just call it what it is: a ‘humanization setting’. After all, the the drummer could just suck
Having said all that, the update is fantastic, really. Thanks!
Why is this drunk feature not a swing feature? The rest of the release sound terrific (yay for midi!) But clearly a drum machine needs a swing function not a randomizer. We could free up all that memory storing redundant swing versions of tunes and buy more songs. Missed opportunity. Plus, yes, stupid joke.