I just bought logic pro, and I am new to recording, so here are some options I have seen so far, there is Drum loops, Drum samples inside Logic, and then there are the midi files from inside the BB Library also can be inserted into the Logic, but all have to be programmed before you play the guitar, with places preset with the drums rolls, fills and accents, on a more programmed style.
So I am wondering if any of you plug your beat buddy into an interface, and record like you play the BB, recording the BB and the guitar at the same time? I have in my mind that this way it becomes a more natural feel to the music than a pre-programmed version punched in the DAW?
I assume the drawback of this technic would be that the recording becomes more difficult to edit with the DAW?
Should I do it in stereo? any advice are welcome 
If you have enough input channels in your interface, sure, you can record the BB, your guitar, etc, in real time. Otherwise, with most budget interface you build your arrangement up a track at a time. Record your BB, then record your guitar playing to the BB, then vocals, etc. My best advice is to look up some audio editing in Logic videos on YouTube. You can manipulate quite a bit of your audio after recording to make it sound “tight.” Search for “flex pitch” and “flex time.”
I’ve been using both the Mini and the Beat Buddy for recording, you can go stereo with the Beat Buddy using 2 channels, Mono works fine for the level I’m at as I record demos of my original music, at times I may get a live drummer to do the drum tracks but still using the BB as a reference as to what I want.
Here is a tip and a bit headache saver, once you pick the tempo/speed of your song, match the setting on the tempo of your recording software, most of all the DAWs work in a similar way, I prefer Reaper out of the ones I have and tried. So if you decide to set BB at 100bp, set the bpm on your Logic to 100.
The lines will match the beats and are a great visual aid as well as if you decide to bring your tracks to someone who has a studio or someone who has higher knowledge, he or she can drop it right into their DAW with good reference.
Speaking from experience and many headaches.
Hello Jeremias - Dr. Flood has a wealth of experience recording with a variety of resources. Turning my attention more to filling out my original music I’ll post two different ideas here. Typically I have run all parts live through a mixer (3 guitars including electric lead, bass, 2 vocals and BB) and have an idea of how to balance the gain and set the mix from years of doing this so everything goes live direct in stereo to a recorder (the link We’ll Carry On was done just before the shout down the beginning of March in rehearsal).
Now doing originals alone I’m tinkering with either A) recording guitar, vocal and BB that way with set levels (and FX) then dropping that as a stereo file into REAPER to add synth layers and additional vocals (see link for Bridges Burned) or B) working to a click track to align parts individually. I’ve done B) in the past and its just not as emotionally exciting but at least timing is there.
As was posted - use the same bpm - I can set a click track intro in the DAW for alignment later and either play or just lay in BB (fills, etc) in ‘real time’ with BB as stereo drums-only output to REAPER.
FWIW - I sometimes find the click on the BB vs. the click on the DAW are off by 1 BPM. Weird. Your mileage may vary, but it’s something to keep in mind. If you find the two track are out of sync, set the DAW BPM 1 beat higher or lower, as the case may be. And this wasn’t a BB flaw. I found the same issue with Roland and Alesis drum machines. I think the DAW and the drum machine makers operate on different clocks.
Always interesting insights. That could drive a person crazy looking for hidden latency issues. I haven’t gotten to the click track hand-off in REAPER idea yet. I just direct recorded the additional parts on ‘Bridges’ in Audacity after learning how to correct for latency.
BTW - side note…Phil actually provided the name ‘We’ll Carry On’ which was (as many of my originals are at the outset) just ‘new song’.
Hi Jeremias. I have been doing this for some time in the “live feel” way that you mentioned. I don´t know if this is the more efficient way, but I will give you my experience.
Important #1: DAW’s tempo (eg: 90 BPM) must match BB’s tempo. With this you can edit after any part very efficiently.
Signal flow:
BB (stereo output) --> M-Audio Fast Track Ultra (stereo inputs)
M-Audio Fast Track Ultra into Macbook Pro.
I am using Garageband as DAW.
In parallel, I am recording the guitar into audio interface while drums are being recorded. This is just to have a reference. (I would record the final guitars after having drums recorded)
Important #2: it is inevitable that there will be tempo mis-match according to when you press record button on DAW and when doing the same on your BB. Even if this can be mostly unnoticeable to your ear, doing it as closer as you can to the tempo on DAW, will make things A LOT easier when editing after recording BB/guitar. I mean cut, copy/paste, etc.
Probably there is a easier way to accomplish this through Midi like pressing a button that starts recording DAW and BB at the same time. Don´t know if latency issues will appear doing so. I have not figured any of this out yet. (Maybe someone in the forum can help with this topic?)
So, what I do is:
- Press the record button on DAW with it´s metronome on, so you can hear the beat.
- Then press start on the BB just in time with DAW´s metronome. Record 1 or 2 measures and stop recording.
3)Then check visually how close are the wave sounds on the drum beats to the divisory lines in DAW´s measure. Make zoom-in to make this as close to “correctly” aligned as you can. Probably this will take some iterations until you get it right.
Hint: it is helpful to set intro`s in BB as just the click instead of a drum fill. (Settings–>“Mainpedal”–>Intro). With this enabled, it will be easy to check if BB beats matches DAW measure beat-divisions. (making editing easier after recording as said before)
- This will be your track that contains your first couple measures which will be very right aligned to DAW divisory-beat lines.
- Mute this track and create another tracks (BB, guitar, etc) to just record without any of the previous mentioned concerns.
- Record the entire song (BB and guitar and whatever you want) on DAW. No concerns here. Why is this? Because after recording the entire song, you can just do some cut/copy/paste of the “perfect” start previously described (steps 1-4) and insert it at the beginning of the entire song track. Adjust to taste.
Other idea would be to record every part/fills/transitions/intro/outro of the BB song you like and then cut each one and paste on different DAW´s tracks. After that, you can copy/paste and put them in the order and times you imagine for the song and finally record guitar. This is less “live feel”, but can be useful if you want to mix different sections (or even different time signatures) of different BB` songs.
I think this is it. It can seem to be complicated at first, but you will see it is not.
Hope that someone can tell us something about a Midi setting to start recording DAW and BB at the same time 
Cheers,
Vicente from Santiago, Chile