Were the differences in drum set volumes ever resolved to a single volume? (Do I have to have a live sound man to constantly adjust drums volume from song to song?)
Can you set more than two style beats of one drum set within one song?
In a worship song a lot of times the drums will stop a regular beat and begin tom rolls that continue for quite a while. Can i set more than two styles of a drum set within one song?
If your device does this I’m sold and ordering one.
No, but I don’t see it as an issue. How many drummers use multiple kits during a performance? You can adjust the individual instruments of a drum kit (snare, hihat, toms etc…)
Yes, you can have as many song sections as you require this is shown in the Singular Sound video tutorial on how to use the manager
software; which you will need to use to edit the “songs” within the Beatbuddy. However they loop, so with a Verse, Chorus you can easily transition between them but if you have a Verse Chorus Bridge, it will play it in that order and after the Bridge it will go back to the Verse, so you may have to create all the different parts in the order you would want them to play and then the Beatbuddy becomes quite linear - great for a gig but maybe not so much in a worship context.
Personally I try and use what is provided as much as possible and only create extra parts when it’s essential. The creating of parts is not as easy as it could be unless you are using a Mac, I suggest downloading the Beatbuddy manager software and the data which will allow you to “test drive” the Beatbuddy - Have a look here and read the tutorial sticky. http://mybeatbuddy.com/forum/index.php?threads/beatbuddy-manager-version-1-33.1524/
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to this question. Now I totally understand. I actually prayed I would have you specifically respond to my question. You’re right about not being very effective for worship. Unless a church worship song is pretty much one or two overall beats with a few fills , then you have to build the song in the order you want it played. Then you have to play the song in the exact order like karaoke. At that point you’ve lost real time control and are playing to accompaniment tracks. I could build that already in Logic Pro X, or buy one for .99 online.
The only other workaround I can fathom is to make the transition itself the tom fills/worship part and just hold it down and hang on for dear life. lol. Dance lose your balance in those swells, hehehe.
Well wait - just ONE MORE QUESTION - could I…assign a third drum beat to one of the knobs on the footswtich? From what I can find in the forums the answer is no at this time. Please confirm.
I want to thank you so much for your real honesty here. It has actually steered me in the right direction which I’m afraid is away from the beat buddy unless the footswitch can can be enabled with a third and even fourth beat.
Let anyone reading this post understand the positive statement this makes about the Beat Buddy company as a whole. Honesty with your customers beats a quick sale any day. My church and I would have been disappointed and returned the unit. I still want one however and this is high on the wish list for quick and convenient song writing tool. So no-eth customer lost-eth. Will post a recommendation in the appropriate forum.
Thank you again and God bless you for your help. - Chris
I don’t feel the analogy between BeatBuddy and backing tracks is quite right, because you can definitely do backing tracks with like Logic Pro X, but with the BeatBuddy you control the beat with your feet on the fly!
Sometimes you want to squeeze in another one or two bars to end your awesome solo, so you just hold the pedal for transition just when you are ready. You don’t have this freedom playing with backing track - you just need to be in time every time, leaving you no ways for creativity.
By the way, can you please be more elaborate on what kind of ‘third beat’ do you wish?
A BeatBuddy song consists of one or more song parts (each with its own set of fills), and you transition between them via pedal hold. So yes, you can have three or four different beats packed inside a single BeatBuddy song.
@ChrisGomezMusic you can always send me a private message (conversation), but thank you for the kind comments. The Beatbuddy is not for everyone at the moment, many would be better off with an MP3 player or backing tracks, but if you want the ability to have full control of a drum beat with your foot then I don’t know of anything else that can do that… Personally I think the Beatbuddy is perfect in a Church service context where you need the ability to be spontaneous. People here I think want to be able to recreate the beats of various songs almost exactly but as that is not required in a church context I can use any beat and style and thereby breathe new life into songs. I have done the old song “I will end enter His gates” using a Latin beat and it worked great… I would never be able to do that without the BB.
After discussing with the Pastor, we really want to stick to live capabilities. Please correct me here, but from what I understand you can make as many beat styles in one song under one drum set - but can only play them back to back example VERSE PRE CHORUS CHORUS? If you can make say 4 beat styles
VERSE
PRE CHORUS
CHORUS
BRIDGE
can you switch between them or do they have to be played in order that you program them in via Manager software?
I’m thinking ok, I need to jump from verse to bridge and back to verse kinda thing
Yes my friend, what I mean is if I program 4 different beat styes
VERSE - straight beat
PRE-CHORUS - straight beat with open hi hat
CHORUS - still 4/4 but slightly shuffled
BRIDGE - tom/kick/snare rolls only
could i switch between these four different styles and skip around between them or would the pedal simply take me to the next eone in line when i transition?
also, could the CHORUS and BRIDGE styles be assigned to the foot switch knobs?
To keep things really short, in order to do what you want with the current BeatBuddy capabilities, you are better off making 2 real song parts VERSE (main part 1) and CHORUS (main part 2). Then just make PRE-CHORUS a transition fill for VERSE.
You will use this in a live setting like the following:
Press BB once to start the beat. Your VERSE main part 1 will play for as long as you wish.
Press BB pedal and keep holding it. Your PRE-CHORUS transition part will play for as long as you are holding the pedal.
Release the BB pedal hold. Your CHORUS main part 2 will play for as long as you wish.
Hold the BB pedal for a little while. You are now back to point 1, and your VERSE main part 1 is now played.
Now adding the BRIDGE into the mix is a just a little bit more difficult, but if you know for sure you are intending to use it sometimes after the chorus only, you can make it into a transition back from CHORUS to VERSE. Having it that way, you can either play BRIDGE for some time while holding the transition between CHORUS back to BRIDGE, or release the hold almost immediately, playing no BRIDGE at all.
If you need to play something like CHORUS - BRIDGE - CHORUS, you can try making your BRIDGE a fill for the CHORUS instead.
The most amazing thing in the BeatBuddy is that even with all its current implementation’s limitations and tricky parts, it still allows for almost complete freedom when controlling your beat! Sometimes you just need to open your mind for solving tasks in a non traditional way, and not just being pigeonholed into standard songs parts division, trying to replicate that structure in the BeatBuddy song.
