With the inew BeatBuddy 2 soon to be released, will the BeatBuddy 1 still be in the product lineup or will it be discontinued (thinking forward if I ever need to replace the BB1 I presently have)? The original has been perfectly adequate for my use and while the new features on the BB2 look great, I could never justify its purchase at it current price point, I just don’t need the improvements the BB2 offers.
3 Likes
Expect them to stop selling the OG once inventory is gone. Firmware updates will be even less than they have been.
I suspect this device will be cheaper to build/assemble (and maybe ship). The loss of the USB saves at least 15 cents. 
2 Likes
I kind of wish they made a new BeatBuddy with an integrated stripped down Aeros looper. That would interest me. The new fangled BB is nice but not compelling at that price point. It was the same for the Aeros too, it is a nice looper but there are many options at a lower price point. I suppose if you need 6 tracks and all that it makes sense, I am just a regular looper type guy for gigging…
Au contraire, I wish they made an Aeros with an integrated Beat Buddy and extra button!
3 Likes
Currently we are planning to continue selling BeatBuddy 1 - however we won’t be updating the firmware to add more features. Future features will be designed for the BeatBuddy 2.
1 Like
Hi David,
Thanks for the update. We’re actually quite satisfied with the latest 4.1x firmware — it’s very stable and bug-free, which is something we truly appreciate. That said, we do remember that AutoPilot had been promised for quite a long time, and it’s a bit of a letdown not to see it fully implemented on the BB1.
Still, we’re happy with what we have now, and the fact that there will be no more updates isn’t really an issue for us — stability is key. At this point, we’re not really inclined to buy a BB2, especially since we don’t need it and feel our current unit still does the job very well.
Visually, the BB2 does look really nice — a fresh and modern design. But personally, I still prefer the compact “small pedal” format of the original BB1. It integrates perfectly into my pedalboard and keeps things simple and streamlined.
Thanks again for all the work that’s gone into the BB1 over the years — it’s been a great companion.
4 Likes
So disappointing you abandoned Autopilot for BB1 so that you could sell BB2. Really sucks and doesn’t make me wanna buy anything else coming from SS in the future.
I wish more companies were like Line6 in how they keep their old hardware alive with never-ending feature updates.
2 Likes
As much I wish SS would support autopilot on BB1, I don’t think it’s malicious or greedy.
My guess is the developers got fed up trying to work with the old code running on the BB1 and once they started a rewrite, they found it hard to work with the older hardware. Yes, that’s not great, perhaps someone else could have done this better, and rightfully people are disappointed.
But it’s probably not a profit thing. Then again, let’s say it is true. This is better than SS going out of business and not being able to fund ongoing development of BBMO etc. YMMV.
3 Likes
Though I’m in no doubt as to the integrity of singular sound, I do find myself chuckling a bit at the BB 2 having come out (near to Hot) on the heels of the 10th Anniversary BB Black & Gold.
i don’t see the original question being answered. i too am a bb1 user, have been for a long time, gig with it often. it works great for my purposes and i do not use aeros, midi, loopers or any thing like that and i do not want to. just me, a guitar, beat buddy and a vocal harmonizer and i am good. i think the question is will beat buddy 1 still be able to download drum sets and songs? i’ve tried to download a few from the forum lately and got an error saying track is designed for beat buddy 2. will the bb1 become useless, will it always be able to do what it does now or will life go on unchanged. ps. i do not even use bbmo. i do not know when i have upgraded my bb1’s i keep reading about people having problems with almost every upgrade and mine work fine so i just use what i’ve got because that is all i need and it is simple and straight forward and i hope i will be able to continue with it. honestly if i had to learn half of the stuff this forum gets into i would probably just retire.you guys have created a wonderful easy to use drum machine and congrats, continue improving on it but please don’t lose the original…it is what’s gotten you this far.
Why not keep updates for BB1? It would be a very nice customer appreciation
. I wouldn’t mind having to pay a small fee to get the updates if need be. Not everyone can afford the new BB2 as it stands at the current price. I’m one of them. If I have trouble with my BB1 I may be forced to bring out the old SR16 Alezis again. It satisfied me before so I’ll suck it up in the future. If or when the BB2 price point drops a bit then and only then will I purchase it. Again a small fee for the BB1 updates would be a nice compliment to your existing BB customers.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
A nice customer appreciation would be not charging fees just to keep a product alive. I fail to see what further updating would be needed on the BB1.0 to make it more (compatible?) and with what.
No I agree there shouldn’t be a fee to keep a product aLive however, like the old saying goes. Singularsound isn’t in this for their health they are in this for the profits. Hence, with the windows 10 attitude they are going to force musicians to buy something most don’t need. So again no new updates is their ammunition.
Considering that they marketed and (I’m assuming) sold a number of the 10th Anniversary Black&Gold Originals very shortly before releasing the BB2. They really should keep the updates going for awhile at least.
Why ? She’s perfect ! Need always AP.
The only incompatibility with BB1 is HD drum sets (because they are more than 100 MB in size, which is the limit of BB1 memory) and autopilot songs (which should still work in non-autopilot mode). All other content will continue to work with BB1, and you can continue making content from BB1 with the BBMO.
As I said earlier, we will continue supporting BB1 with bug fixes, but any major new features will be built for BB2.