Got home tonight and tried out the long-awaited Beatbuddy. First I plugged in the 4 GB SD card, plugged in a 1/4 cord to the mono output and plugged it into an old Roland MA-8 micro-monitor pair. Then plugged in the power supply and booted up. Tried out a few of the sample songs, just manipulating the switch with my hand: Intro - part 1 - fills 1-3 - transition - part 2 - transition - part 1 - outro fill… Right off the bat: Excellent sound quality. Tap tempo takes a bit of getting used to. Picked up my acoustic and tried out a simple samba - foot coordination wasn’t an issue, so that was cool. The only minor gripe I have is that the fills are a little over the top. Would have preferred starting off pretty subtle (snare fill) with fill 1, then more toms on fill 2, etc. I have yet to download the BeatBuddy Manager or plug in a two-button latching footswitch. But for now, solid build and sound quality, and it meets my expectations so far.
Where in Hawaii are you located? I’m on the Big Island in Waikoloa.
Are you a Mac or a PC?
The new BB Manager program for Mac works like a charm. I’ve found the best thing to do is create your own patterns ( or songs) by auditioning the various beats in the supplied folders and mixing and matching to your taste. There are lots of fills that are not that radical, I use the short ones for fills, and use the longer ones for the transitions between sections. There is even some half time patterns in rock, but they have an open hi hat that I sure would like to change, but I use them anyway.
Are you gigging with the BB? I’m 1/2 of the worship team at my church and create new patterns for songs every week. I also play in a duo on a boat that does a dinner and manta ray sail from the Kailua-Kona pier.
I hope you’re enjoying your Beat Buddy, it’s an awesome addition to my rig.
Aloha Randy. I’m on Oahu in Pearl City. I use a PC with Windows 7. I’ve been playing around with building my own patterns and putting them together in BB Manager. I’ve actually started a project - mostly just to see what the level of difficulty is - to add bass, using @Guitar Stu’s awesome Rock drums and bass kit. When I’m done, I’ll upload and post all the pertinent files.
I haven’t played out with the BB yet but will probably use it when I jam with friends, and yes, in church worship as well. One of the big reason I got it is because I also got a Jamhub for silent jams and rehearsals at home. Good to know a fellow bruddah is here on the forum. Cheers!
Wow, I bought a Jam Hub too, the tour bus model and have taken it on gigs and to church. It’s sweet being able to roll your own monitor mix.
I don’t know if you bought the extra pedal or not, I did and it comes in real handy. I set the left side to pause while playing and song advance while stopped. The right one is accent while playing and previous song while stopped. You can also configure Roland pedals to do the same things and it’s real helpful on the gig.
I’m at New Hope Waikoloa and the worship team is myself, my wife and a keys player who recently came on board. I run the mix through a old Bose tower that just sounds clean and even in response right behind us. We meet in a utility room at a park in Waikoloa.
My first instrument is bass and I really dig playing along with the Beat Buddy. The sounds and patterns sound much more like a drummer than my Roland stuff.
Aloha no from the Big Island.
Randy, I worship and fellowship at First Love church in Momilani - we meet at the elementary school. My cousin, Andy is that pastor there. First Love is a church planted out of New Hope Kapolei. Have a great weekend and God bless!