I love the BeatBuddy, but the optional footswitch is WAY too LOUD!!! It makes a CLUNK-CLUNK sound that is very distracting. I’ve seen other posts on this forum, suggesting you can quiet it down (some) by stuffing the box with foam packing peanuts. But there’s a much better solution, IMO, if you can do basic soldering, or know someone how can do it for you. (Sorry, not me.)
Replace those noisy on/off toggle switches with momentary contact switches, that are virtually silent. Here’s some I ordered and installed, and they work great. I did have to adjust the footswitch settings in the BB, but after that it works fine.
Here’s a link to my blog, showing the new switches I installed:
I tried to upload photos but this GD forum says they’re too big. Won’t tell me how big is too big, and I won’t play multiple guess. Anyways, it’s a very straightforward modification. If anyone wants to see pictures let em know I we’ll figure out a way…
well, yes you can google all day long and find LOTs of switches. But finding some that are know to work, and are actually quite might be hit or miss. I don’t work for that company or anything like that. Just TRYING to help out my fellow musicians…
But that suggestion is best directed to the team itself! Customers shouldn’t be expecting to solder anything actually.
That feedback was heard (as the team can view the edits), but if you want them to pay extra attention to the issue, you can email contact@mybeatbuddy.com.
By the way, if you still feel your link was incorrectly redacted and the support team is agree with you, it will be pretty easy to restore that. Believe me, it’s pretty hard to tell an advertisement from a legitimate link at times.
well sure, it would be better if the footswitch was delivered with usable switches, but in the mean time, if anyone wants to message me, I can give you the link. They cost like $2 a piece, so this whole policy against posing a link to something is pretty damn ridiculous IMNSHO
customers shouldn’t be expected to make soldering modifications?!? Are you kidding me Daef?!? Customers shouldn’t be expected to be software engineers or midi know-it-alls nor have many other skills to really work with BB in a way that was promised (ease of use AND complete control) yet at every turn, it seems the expectations you and actual company heap onto its customers. Give the guy a break for trying to help out the community.
My opinion on Terms and Rules may be wrong.
My task here is to find out the most problematic places in the product, and suggest the team how to best fix it based on the overall feedback.
I did get the feedback about the footswitch being too loud, and the link will be reviewed by the team.
My opinion the BB footswitch shell needs deadened. Thump the top of it with your finger. I’ve been using the BB footswitch for weeks with momentary switches. I like it better. Quieter, less resistance for improved timing. I’m thinking BB will come out with a momentary footswitch.
Yes Pineears, the momentary switches, are quieter AND more precise timing. I remember back in the summer, getting an email from the dev team saying they decided that latching switches were “better” so they were changing from the previously spec’d momentary ones. I remember thinking at the time that they would be clunky, and when I (finally) got my BB and FS, I wasn’t surprised, but I wasn’t happy either. Now I am, and it only took $4 in parts and about 10 minutes to install.
Now if they could only fix the headphone volume control.
p.s. My BeatBuddy Tempo Expression Pedal is now complete, and I’ll post a blog on that ASAP
I did this. The Roland FS-U (or whatever it’s called) pedals are quite but $$$
The wiring for momentary is totally simple. Latching is more complicated. Virtually all momentary switches are quite. No reason they wouldn’t be so don’t agonize over this. Also, since the BB encolusre is large, virtually all switches will fit, depth wise.
Note: these switches are pretty much standardized, which of course makes life easier.
I think they went for the God awful, racket creating, latch switches, because apparently momentatries can be glitchy. But i’ve yet to see a glitch.
You can buy pre-made (drilled) footswitch boxes on Ebay, which are much smaller. This is what i did. I bought an enclosure and some switches. Didn’t even solder (used tape LOL). Took about a minute. works fine. Only thing that’s an issue is it’s so small the heavy cable will move it around. I solved this with a cable tie. Easy.
I’m going to give this a go, problem is finding a suitable switch in the UK. Decided to get some off eBay, total price was £6, not as cheap as the one in the link - looking forward to a quieter BB footswitch
I’ve worn out the cheap mom switches in the past. You tend to put a side load on them as you step on them, which rubs the button shaft against the shaft housing tube. They didn’t quit, they just got where they kinda hang up some and didn’t depress smoothly.
I’ve just finished testing out my pedal with the new switches and I am confident I would be able to do tap tempo now. Will have to see how they hold up, but they are a lot quieter. My only issue is that they are very sensitive so while playing and trying out different things I quite often hit both switches pausing the BB when all I wanted was the left one which was set to a crash. Otherwise I am looking forward to trying this out live.
