Hello, I am new here, in fact waiting delivery of my new beat buddy to Cambodia where I play solo, duo, and trio on keyboards and bass.
I want to hear the experience of keyboard players with BeatBuddy.
Reading some of the forum, I got worried that several features I expected are not supported - for example playing keyboards, and singing into a mic, I cannot easily see the display on the floor, nor easily bend down to adjust it between songs. So I need display up on the keyboard and the most essential start and stop and fill and transition on the floor - but the external foot pedal cannot be configured for any of these? Er… whyever not?
Recently I use an arranger keyboard, with arrangements switched OFF. I play basslines with my left hand, chords and solos in the right, I just need rhythm with simple piano or piano and bass split, and beat buddy seems ideal so I can dump the bulky array of arrangement controls I never use and go back to a simple quality keyboard without on board rhythm.
Beat Buddy for keyboards, seems obvious, or is it not well designed for keyboard players as some posts here seem to imply? Help me escape the tyrrany of “arranger” keyboards with dodgy intros outros and fills!
Best wishes
Mike Mahalo
Siem Real
Cambodia
Thanks BeatBuddy Support for your email with this message which seems not to be posted here?
We have a variety of musicians who use the BeatBuddy, including keyboardists. If you have a specific question for a keyboardist on how they use the BeatBuddy, I will be more than happy to connect you with one. https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/UXKFCBbpqVHbmE__Xx5Q1BNBaikPEMXMU3VYilZj2qa3nT7CX9qijTRtPbzuinrBDiR9VSa11Fvg152_eZKcrWAPwuc7PvDxUzDF7KdA-hyTE1g=s0-d-e1-ft#http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/styles/default/xenforo/clear.png
YES PLEASE!
My BeatBuddy finally arrived this morning after some delays and confusions at customs
But out of the box BeatBuddy is unusable for keyboards in my view, nothing that could not be fixed by Singular Sound or an army of enthusiastic users in the months ahead.
Everything is too busy in the drum arrangements - drum solo all the damn time. The Fills and Transitions have stops, and are heavy all round the drum kit too much. Intros and outros seem heavy and too showy.
Software crashes and SD card corrupted somewhere between crashing my PC and loading the same card into my MacBook Air.
BeatBuddy is an amazing concept and solid hardware let down by over-passionate drumbeats and software bugs. Probably by 2018 it will be fantastic.
Anyone out there resolved these problems - edited out the over-enthusiasm?
Anyone have BALLADS - I cannot believe, I must have hallucinated a Ballads category and nothing is supplied…
Let It Be, Hey Jude, Alone Again Naturally, Your Song, Just The Way You Are, Without You, Imagine… the songs people ask for when they see a piano!!
ALSO SIMPLE SWING ROCK REGGAE?
Simple old fashioned pop and rock - Beatles Stones… Relaxed Swing Jazz - Sinatra etc. Basic Reggae… basic everything, then a few fancy drumbeats for show.
Check through the forum for the user created beats and you might find some. And it might seem a bit of a challenge but if you can get yourself to learn how to use a midi editor you can create your own beats. It will be worth the effort. I have done this for all the songs I play. The next version of Beatbuddy manager will also contain a midi editor although it won’t be as powerful as using a midi editor in a DAW like Reaper.
Check through Resources for some songs. I’ll link to a couple I made that contain some keys although I am mainly into blues based rock.
[B][B]Billy Joel - Piano Man with Bass
Four Seasons - December 63 with Bass
George Michael - Father Figure with Bass
Queen - Somebody to Love with Bass
Robbie Williams - Angels with Bass
Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars with Bass
Train - Drops of Jupiter with Bass
Winery Dogs / Elvin Bishop - Fooled Around and Fell in Love with Bass
Cheers[/B][/B]
I bought the ballads beats and ballads drum kit off the mybeatbuddy website. Totally worth it and very reasonably priced.
I also added an extension foot pedal so I could put the BB on a stand but still have all the pedals on the floor. Look for a thread about the Norbert Hack to see how this can be done. It’s a DIY.
@Christopher Bell uses the BeatBuddy with a keyboard I believe. You should PM him. 
In response to some comments that beats were too busy, the Singular Sound folks also sell a Gig Basics set of beats.
Here’s a link to the thread on the Norbert Hack to add an extension pedal on the main pedal:
http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/norberts-beatbuddy-hardware-hack.2109/
See the first post with a link to a video and also post #25 on correcting the way Norbert did the wiring.
