TL:DR. - Where has this thing been all my life? Just like all the live drummers in my area. Missing.
While sitting in a dentist’s chair getting thousands of dollars in work done wishing I could spend that money on music gear, I decided I was going to get this Beatbuddy thing that was introduced to me by a guitarist who was interested in jamming with me. I was rather impressed, most beat machines that were a part of an effects pedal or something sounded no where near as good as this thing, and he had so many beats to choose from that were just the defaults. He informed me there was some functionality with a personal computer. So here I am months later waiting on my purchase to show up after driving to GC with a numb face hoping they had it in stock locally.
They didn’t or I’d already be playing with the thing. In the meantime I’ve been reading up and I’m pretty darn excited about it. Have already installed my copy of Reaper, and for the first time started looking into recording midi drum tracks with it. Here’s thank you number one to Beatbuddy - you made me go and find out just how much SIMPLER it is to write a drum beat using a VST within a DAW. My god if I had only known, I’d have never put so much effort into my Zoom RT223, which is highly functional, but as far as I can tell pretty difficult to figure out how to get it to correctly function. I’ve had hours of frustration with the Zoom, as I can’t find any way to undo something if I make a mistake and end up having to start over. As a bass player who just wanted something better than the basic unchangable beats out of digitech pedals or my BOSS RC-3, it just required too much effort for it to be fun and simple enough to write both drums and bass lines. I had a basic beat going that I could’ve kept adding and adding to or deleting unwanted experiments within minutes with a free drum kit VST through reaper. So call me excited, I’m going to be able to write my own midi tracks for the Beatbuddy, and am probably going to end up looking into a couple drum VST’s to play around with via DAW just for more inspiration in that regard.
I think this is probably going to be the best $350 (with tax and foot switch) I ever spent on an electric drum machine and it doesn’t even have little pressure sensitive pads to tap on. I’ll probably be adding an affordable DAW controller and midi controller to my home setup for this purpose…which essentially will make my PC my drum machine… but I’ll be able to put it on this amazing pedal, which could fit on my pedalboard. Of course it won’t live up to playing with live musicians but even without having it yet… I already know I’m going to have so much more fun playing music in the solo setting I’ve been playing in lately.
So here I am thinking of all this functionality in the size of an average effects pedal…SD Memory, user created songs, midi-sync for when I ultimately get myself a much nicer looper than my boss RC-3 (I’m thinking BOSS RC-300, but most likely going to end up with EHX’s lovely looping machine hopefully between now and next year.) And even though there’s plenty I’m leaving out, like foot controls, what seems to add to the excitement is the fact that this product is like… still under development. Potential for PC programs that add new functionality, firm-ware updates that offer new functionality. I mean… I’d LOVE an Rytm, which is way beyond my needs but such an amazing piece of equipment… but for simply getting a drumbeat where I struggled to do for many years… I am so glad this thing didn’t cost near as much as the dental work I mentioned earlier… and I just don’t see a way where it isn’t worth every penny of being an affordable beat machine that fits on your pedal board.
Anyway, I apologize for being so wordy with my first post on these forums and probably not even covering every little detail that has me ecstatic and eyeing my front door like a hawk tomorrow waiting for the delivery man. I know it’s been out for at least a couple of years now… I’m late to the party and man do I wish I’d had this thing for most of my life.
Feel free to poke some fun at the noob here, and make my acquaintance. I’m quite certain this is just a beginning of my involvement in the community.
I just woke up to my cat poking me in the face like “hey when you going to feed me?” and my BB is “out for delivery”… you know what that means… every car that drives by is a potential UPS truck, and I must be at the door when he walks up to catch timid knock that can barely be heard before he puts a sticker on my door. Hopefully he’ll just leave it on the porch… but there have been a few times where I found that sticker despite having spent the entire day at home. It’s a little maddening honestly lol.