Hi… I’m starting a deep dive of Beat Buddy (BB) to see if I can use it to replace the Alessis SR-18 in my solo/duo setup that I use with a looper. The workflow of the SR-18 is decent but as another user pointed out the sounds suck. So far I’ve been able to do nearly everything I want except with BB for one thing, which is causing me a major issue. I looked through the forums and don’t see this covered.
I’m not using any of the stock songs in the BB. The ones I’m setting up are either simple a single pattern 4 or 8 bar beat with some fills (no problem with those) or more complex songs that might have an A section , B sections, C sections, go back to the A, etc… (part 1, 2, 3 in the BB). Yes I can set that all up as a song, use the transition feature etc… but since I’m using a looper and running the drum machine through it at times I need to shut the drum machine off. Yes i’m aware of the pause feature but that has limitations. Let’s say I play the A section (part 1) on the BB, loop it, then pause the BB since the looper is playing drums. When I want the BB to come back in I want to pick it up at the B section (part 2). There is no way that I can see to pause on the A section, then shift the BB to the B section and start from there. The only thing I’ve come up with is making sure to do a transition right at the end of A section before I pause, then when I unpause it will be at the B section. In the heat of a gig, trying to play my instrument, ducking beer bottles, etc… I will eventually forget to do the transition. Now what do I do? I’m paused on A (part 1) and there is no way to get to (part 2) without restarting BB for at least one measure of part 1. And lets just say I screw up and transitions to part 4 early. It looks like there is no way to get back to that part without player through all the parts in the BB.
As an alternative I’ve looked at setting up the sections as seperate songs, but there is no way to transitions from one to the next with them playing.
So regarding features that I’m missing or possible new features is there any way to do the following:
- STOP the BB vs pausing from the foot pedal, so that I can advance forward and back between songs. I would reconfigure my accent button as a stop button if possible.
- Is there any way to advance forward and back through the parts within a song? Even if I had to reach down and twist a knob, that would be OK.
When I play, I’m going to screw up, and I need to be able to deal with it if I do. Currently I can with the SR-18 but it sounds like crap. I’d rather not have to add a sound module just for better sounds. The BB is a very very cool pedal and does 90% of what I need. The software all makes sense for setting up patterns, songs, drum kits, etc… I’d just like to get over the hurdle of these couple issues so start using BB for everything and send my SR-18 to the graveyard.
Thoughts?
Thanks, and congrats on making a great pedal, even if we don’t figure out a way to address my issues.