This is an incredible product, nice, great sounds, very well made I love it BUT, is NOT recomended to musicians who don’t know how to use midi editing programs. I have been working with ableton live for several nights to make my midi files prior to bring the beatbuddy to a gig, so beware if you don’t want to be frustrated and to pay a lot of money for midi files. I think the beatbuddy team will have create a sort of midi editing software for dummies
The Beatbuddy manager is another story:
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[]I don’t understand why I can’t copy and duplicate songs from the file menu or simply right clicking on the mouse. To do so you will have to export and import the song. I think that is a waste of time.
[]Why I can’t access the default wave sources?
[*]Why do I have to check a box to make a drum set active? That is another thing I consider unnecesary.
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This are the most annoying issues I found and will apreciate the beatbuddy team to take care of them.
I agree Jorge, especially about not being able to copy the songs. I create a lot of songs but it’s mainly just to have the correct tempo preset, they are very similar in terms of midi files used as I have some particular one’s that really suit what I do. But every time I have to go through the process of adding all the same midi & wave files one by one again. It would save me a lot of time if I could just copy & paste an existing song & make the few slight adjustments necessary for the new one. By the way you should be able to access the default wave sources in Documents/BB Workspace/default_lib/wave_sources.
Jorge, you hit the nail on the head with your comments. Anytime someone goes to use software and thinks, how did this ever get released, you know someone dropped the ball. They rushed it out the door well before it was ready so people could use it, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s wasn’t ready to be released on time. It will get better with time.
It’s been about a year now since the beatbuddy has been released and I thought the same thing that fair enough the software wasn’t fully developed but at least it got released. There has only been a small improvement in the software since then. Unfortunately I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for improvements to the software.
They ended up getting one of the forum members Daef to do alot of work on the software. Daef was on the forum every day but has disappeared and hasn’t posted anything since Aug 17.
I think the BB Manager was a guess as to what people would need to use the pedal. I doubt anyone could have envisioned the diversity of the ways people have ended up using this magnificent creation!
My impression is that the BB Manager is going to be split into its various functional components that have arisen. I think this is a good thing, not a bad thing, in that it’s the incredible creativity of the beatbuddy users that is driving this change!
Think about it: the pedal as it is originally intended, who needs bb manager? put all the genre songs on the pedal and pick and choose!
Fortunately for the BB community, many people have figured out things this thing can possibly do, but doesn’t yet, and I can’t wait to see where this all goes.
I’m not a “Midi” person and never have learn to use it. That didn’t stop me from buying the Beat Buddy. I bought it because of it’s ability to play drum beats. I have found no difficulty in arranging my own stuff with the “Beat Builder” that Charles Spenser came up with. I have already modified hundreds of songs using this and had some problems but it’s a learning cycle that everyone has to go through on anything new. I had no original issues with the Beat Buddy and it has always worked great. I did have to build a Tone/Volume Box to antennuate the strong signal output of the Beat Buddy, but you have to do that with just about anything to “Taylor It” to your own needs. Not everything is made perfect. This is not a perfect world, although it would be nice if it was. I have my Beat Buddy permanently mounted on my pedalboard and that’s where it will stay as long as it functions. The Beat Buddy Manager was some what of a headache but I found out how to use it with some trial and error and help from everyone out there. I still have some procedures that I deal with but I am used to it now. It takes a little time to wade through it to get it to work the way you want it to, but like I said, it’s a learning curve. Things will improve with everyone’s suggestions that the Beat Buddy team listens to and tries to improve with every day now. Everyone will have a different need and use for the Beat Buddy with their ideas that come along and most are willing to share with their experiences. The Beat Buddy Pedal is a great idea and a good tool for us musicians to make our music come easier and better. It is fun to create your own music and use our God given talents to make life happier with our music. David Pakouz has given us a wonderful tool to work with to bring our music to a new level. Many thanks David and the rest of the Beat Buddy Team.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
I agree that the BB did what it needed to do to be released as a practice tool but it is miles behind in terms of Bass and midi support so not giving a hall pass. Type 1 midi files were invented to not mix instruments on one track and I spend time on the hacks to put bass/drum on a single track unmixable feed to the PA. The GUI of BBM and song load process is also very tedious and needs a major overhaul. Libraries and Playlists mandatory not complete copies of songs to make sets, to do once, OK, to do all the time? forget it. Professionals use computers to do sequencing and BB could really shine there to be the only non-computer option guitarists can use for a sequencer live. The only reason solo guitar rigs don’t just use a computer is because they are not, yet, paying attention to the foot controlled drummer market and are geared towards keyboard users and are a complete PIA to setup. As said before, if BB doesn’t get it’s midi act together, eventually someone else will come up with a guitarist friendly way control EZDrummer or GarageBand, Logic, Ableton Live with the ability to better switch patterns via foot control and BB will have a hard sell on its’ Drumming sound quality alone.
Norbert, Completely agree with you. I have only looked into midi because of the voicelive thread and with what I have learned in a short time with just the help of google I am astounded midi isn’t better used in the midi buddy. After all the whole workings of beatbuddy are midi based. It has been around for decades in it’s current form and once a bit of knowlege is gained You can do some amazing things with it.
I will have some new midi information soon in a new thread and in the meantime will post a quick video in the voicelive thread.
Any news yet from Daef, about him setting up “Quantized” songs and drum kits to be available for download. Psalm 40 mentioned something about Daef doing this. This would be awesome and fix a lot of timing issues with the “Beats and Fills”. It sure would eliminate a lot of time spent correcting the timing on a lot of the drum sets. Please keep me posted if you hear anything from Daef.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
No! What I am looking for is “Quantized” Default Drumsets. Something was mentioned about running the songs through a midi program and quantizing all or some of the drumsets/songs. I don’t have the equipment to do this. Psalm 40 said that “Daef” had done this so I am trying to make contact with him to see what he has done and see if I can get a download of the quantized songs.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
I’m afraid I have to disagree. BB Manager is pretty darned easy to use, and a little work in BB manager with the stock stuff is serviceable for 90% of what the average person needs for a gig. After purchasing a little bit of the premium content, there is even more flexibility. Every week, I have more of our set ready for the gig.
If you listen close to some of the drum beats and fills, they are way off and they need to be corrected. There are some parts where you want the drums to be a little ahead of the beat like some cymbal ticks and crashes, or some times an accentuated bass or snare beat. This doesn’t happen with the default drumsets. If you start off with a good quantized drum beat, you can put in these little riffs as needed. You can’t do this with “Sloppy Drums”. I have played with some excellent drummers that are “Dead On” with their Rhythm and the sound is tight. It makes it much easier to play with these types of drums where you can put in your “Own Feel” with the lead instrument phrasing and not have to worry about a good Rhythm Beat. There is something to always remember about music. The Bass and Drums have to be “On The Beat” and “Tight”. The other instruments give the “Feel and Phrasing” to the music as well as the “Vocal Phrasing”. You “Can’t Have” a sloppy drummer if you intend to make good music. I have spent 60+ years playing music and there is nothing better than to have a recording come out “Tight and On the Beat” with a perfect blend of Drums and Bass. I am a perfectionist on playing music and I am proud of it. I still try to keep that standard so I am looking for a “Perfect Drummer” in a pedal that I can enjoy and just play music to my heart’s content. That’s what I am asking for. Too much to ask! Maybe!
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
Havn’t read much of the replies to this thread but the OP is literally spot on. I’ve had the Beat Buddy since launch and my complete lack of knowledge on creating midi files means its only now I’m starting to use it.
Kudos to the creator of Beat Builder here by the way, thats what paved the way for me.
It’s been a year now since receiving my BB. It’s never been put on stage and performed with live. It is cumbersome, the software is cumbersome, there definitely is a quantize issue on many of the beats, many of the beats are useless for most situations and trying to edit or create drum beats is difficult at best. I am intimately aware of MIDI and very use to using it for many years… however, this item is not MIDI friendly. This item definitely has never lived up to the hype surrounding it and the reason I paid for it ahead of release.
With that said…as my performance schedule is slowing down for the end of the year I do plan to take another look at this item (4th attempt) and see if there is anything redeeming about it.
I believe the team is collecting ideas about how to make it more MIDI friendly. Can you make a list of specific things you’d like it to do, regarding MIDI functionality? Also, have you updated to the latest firmware? There are some important updates there, esp involving MIDI.
