Beatbuddy Vs Ditto x2 Jam... (round 3)

BeatBuddy General
1

Hi there!

I am going to continue my (too long) history trying to sync my beatbuddy pedal with something.

How i didnt want to pay 500$ for a looper, some time ago I tried to sync BB with Ditto x2 jam using the BB phones output to ditto jam x2 ext micro input. It works… only for Rock and Blues beats… In other all genres (like jazz, samba, …) the ditto was out of synchronization.

After that, I tried to build a raspberry audio looper synched with BB with a Jack&midi Support hat (pisound). I was able to make the looper in the raspberry, synched with BB, with looper parts synched with the BB parts, fade functionality… but the audio quality was not enought… and the system was not stable at all…

After that… I started thinking about selling my ditto jam X2 and buying a, for example, EHX 1440 looper width midi sync. Searching in internet I saw that the EHX 1440 has pitch problems with midi sync, as we can see in this video, so I gave up on this idea

This morning, I was thinking about sell all my set (BB and ditto X2 Jam) and bought a cheap chinnesse looper+drum pedal all-in-one and I thought about a change of focus. If the problem between Ditto and BB sync are the no regular ryhtms (Salsa, jazz, …)… a MIDI CLOCK to Audio Metronome could it work?

So… I develop a midi clock audio metronome in my raspberry and i explore this option:

It needs more tests… but it could be works.

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Thank you for sharing the travelogue for your journey. As you factor in the costs of this effort, it would be interesting to see how much you’ve spent on hardware (which would probably be pretty easy to calculate); the more difficult cost would be that of calculating your time and effort and the value you place on it. :grinning:

I think @RockDebris was building a Master MIDI clock; if he’s still working on that, perhaps you could join your efforts…

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The costs does not worth it.

Ditto x2 jam pedal (I bought it in thoman for 130€). Now it is more expensive.
Raspberry: 30€?
Raspberry pisound hat: 99$ (I only uses the hat midi interface, so probably it would be possible to make a DIY Midi input interface directly to the raspberry pins).

All the software I was using was Open software… so no additional cost. My time… uncontable… but I learned a lot in the proccess too :D.

If EHX1440 worked fine with MIDI sync then it would be the cheaper solution.

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I love seeing DIY syncing solutions, thanks! I started a journey earlier this year to create a comprehensive master MIDI Clock/Transport Control on steroids and package it for commercial sale. I’m actually waiting for the PCBs to come in. However, it will only service MIDI devices that support MIDI Clock. This is certain a cool effort you’ve made!

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I’m still at it. Actually, I’ve been posting tidbits recently over on my FB music page if you want to follow along. I haven’t revealed all of it yet … but soon. [Redirecting...](Master Clock development)

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Exists another Commercial solution.

The midinome. A tap tempo metronome Midi Clock master.

A good idea, but I think that is too expensive…

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I’m not a big Facebook user so I had no idea that you were sharing your MIDI clock building experience there 🥸. I enjoyed reading about your progress as well as some of the branched experimentation you were doing.

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Agree totally. Would’ve been easier and cheaper just to have bought one of the recommended compatible loopers and be enjoying BB midi sync perfection

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well… the ehx 1440 is a “recommended” compatible looper and seems not to works fine with midi sync…

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Aeros pigtronix or boomerang 111 are the best

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I know… But $$ BB + $$ Boomnerng is too much money to have a drum machine with looper to practice in home…

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I have the 1440 and it syncs most of the time in 4/4. About half of the time in 3/4 or 6/8. Sometimes I can get it to sync by turning the 1440 off and on.

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I have my BB synced via midi into a Ditto x4 (2-track) looper, cost £165. It’s perfect, accurate and stable.
Hoping that Santa brings me a Circuit Tracks next to help build the band up more…

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This is true - you need a midi clock input to do a sync correctly.

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I have been gigging with Beatbuddy & Voicelive3 for about five years. Yes the VL3 is expensive but you get a looper that syncs with Beatbuddy and has vocal harmonies. The guitar modeling and distortion are useless though.

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Small update. I wanted to send it to you personally, but the forum doesn’t allow that. I just created an Instagram account for the clock I’ve been working tirelessly on. CLOCKstep Instagram I’ve actually already completed a batch of the pedal that I’ve named CLOCKstep (the final product shot is the Instagram profile pic), but I’m working on marketing, demos and documentation and back filling the Instagram account a little each day.

This is all I’ll probably say about it here, don’t want to spam someone elses forum. However, it is a complement to Aeros and Aeros is one of the main loopers I’ve been testing with since it’s the one I use in my own rig)

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Does the ditto 4x synchronize reggae beats with the beatbuddy? I’m using the ditto jam x2 in sync for many songs. Sometimes it won’t sync well with reggae and other beats. I like the smaller footprint of the ditto 2x jam vs 4x. But I may consider the 4x.

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In my experience the Beatbuddy sends a steady midi clock to the Ditto 4, according to the time signature and BPM. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of beat it’s playing. One of the best things about the Ditto is its midi-in feature, which not so many looper pedals have… :+1:

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So indeed the Ditto X4 on paper does the midi sync. After trying it for several weeks, it works well as long as you are live. But as soon as I saved, the replay gave me a micro lag that was quite unbearable in the long run and I fell back on the second-hand Aeros. And there, no more lag. Thanks Singular Sound!