Who would you say the BB is for?
I’m thinking about returning mine the starter beats are ok…but the programming process seems to be alot harder than it needs to be…
It’s not designed to be a straight playback device – although people have bent it to that use with OPs (a testament to its flexibility). I use it that way sometimes, but that’s not where it shines. It is eminently flexible and programmable, but to get the most out of it, you have you be willing to work with it (which can be onerous, I grant you).
So, to answer your question, if all you need is playback, the BB is not be the simplest solution; if you want to be able to react to crowd response, it’s a far better solution for that, but you’re not just going to fire it up out of the box and gig with it if you’re picky about the drummer playing exactly what you want it to play.
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The programming is about as much effort as programming a standard drum machine. It’s the options you have while programming that both give you a lot more flexibility and suck up a lot of time if you take advantage of them.
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Makes sense…thanks
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I dont seen any good r&b soul or Motown type songs…so it looks like I’ll have to piece them together myself.
I guess this topic is pretty well played out by now, but when I saw the original post I said “Amen Brother.”
I’ve had my Beatbuddy since shortly after they came out, but I bailed when people started only providing user files with bass added. I get the OP thing, although - as expressed in the original post - I really just wanted a good sounding drum foot pedal. The beats offered through Singular Sounds are pretty stiff, so I looked forward to the user-created programs. They frequently did a better job with syncopation.
Anyway, I am glad to hear the song-matching tool is still available. As I said, I bailed on my BB a while back. When I came back to it this year, everything had changed and I thought the song matching (as well as the old user uploads) were lost. Thanks for the link Fenderman!
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Hey JoeinOttawa, you saved me the time to write my point of view as I totally concur with yours (except for the wife bit, as mine has an “ex” in front, hehe)
Glad to find somebody else who is as devoted as I am in creating faithful beats to the songs we perform -even if the audience is oblivious of the work involved. Cheers!
LuisInMontreal 
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There is no one-size-fits-all way to use BeatBuddy. Some people want to do interactive stuff with it, which is cool. In my duo, I am playing bass, foot synthesizer, harmonica, kazobo, or singing, and when I have all that stuff going on, the drums are the last thing I want to have to worry about. Also, my duo plays fairly complicated songs, and I’ve found that if I accidentally miss triggering a BeatBuddy transition, it can throw the whole song off.
Finally, I’ve found that the crowd honestly doesn’t care if we’re just using BeatBuddy as a drum machine. We are doing so much other stuff during our act that no one even notices the BeatBuddy. It’s just there, reliably doing its job.
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Thanks for all the replies guys, I really didnt know what to expect when I purchased the BB. I guess I wanted something interactive on the drum side(I play bass) but the beats contained and other patterns produced by the BB are uninspiring as well can the content produced by BB. I have yet to start making my own beats. Doesnt anyone have any clue besides BB and say looploft and groove monkey that makes beats and drum sets for the BB?
If you’re not feeling the built in beats or the Premium stuff, check out Groove Monkee… They have some cool stuff, fair prices and alot of their packages come with Beatbuddy compatible files as well as the individual MIDI files… I have the full Premium set from Singular that I use but I often jam to their Blues Classic and Blues Rock packs… I never did much switching around with all the individual pieces… I just imported the included PBF and started playing.
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I’m new what does OP mean? I waiting for mine BB to arrive. I too am a perfectionist to a certain degree want it to sound how I want it to. So I too will try ( I mean try) since I have know idea how to yet.
I forgot what they mean by OP Songs but the heart of the matter is, I think, that whether you use the Beatbuddy in “auto pilot” mode (something Singular Sound hasn’t delivered yet but there’s a work around to play a song from start to end) or “full control” mode (manually changing the parts of a song) is up to you. The fact that this is optional makes any ‘versus’ discussion futile, in my opinion.
Post your questions here after you’ve tried your BB, the members if this forum are always willing to help (count me in).
Cheers!
PS: I use both methods, 98% of the time in full-control mode. The other 2% refers to songs that demand me stepping on the BB, the Voicelive 3 and the Roland GR-55 simultaneously…and I only have two feet 
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OP means One Press. These are files where the entire song is a single part, so you step on the pedal once and the whole song plays, rather than having to transition between parts.
Make sense?
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A couple of useful posts:
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While you’re waiting for the BB you can load the BB Manager onto your computer along with the default beats and drum content. This will give you an opportunity preview what the the BB pedal is capable and allow you edit some of the songs, as well load up some OP (one press) content.
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Thanks! I use the OP method too, on a few songs -as I say in my post. I just didn’t remember that “OP” meant “One Press”
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That’s called “a senior moment.”
Hehe. Actually, the reason is that I don’t use that term or abbreviation (hence the “what they mean…” bit on my post) so it’s not in my Beatbu-cabulary.
I’ve had other senior moments, though
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I have only used the Beat buddy in the studio and to jam with a bass player. But I do a one man show. And I have played in bands 90% of my life that used arrangements. And a one step sounds like it must be an arrangement of the song your going to do. If that is the case I suggest that it is easier to use the beat buddy to lay down drums in a home studio and render your finished tracks to an MP3 and use a tablet or a phone to run that track into the PA instead of putting arrangements on foot pedal and Do the same thing using something that is more involved than laying out a set list. I found the Beat buddy works nice with my DAW using input quantize, and once I find the right beats that I want to use. I like to change songs, I.E If I did AC/DC I would do it the way I play instead of the way they do it. I don’t think much of there guitar player anyway. Now it seems that you could use the BB as a song loop controller by putting parts of a song in order in the styles of a song and in the drum files of a song, bass and keys and backup vocals mix them and master that recording and put it into the pedal as a part of the song. So you could use the verse you have recorded and the Chorus and set it up so that it has an ending and you step through the song by parts, What I have been doing is not using the BB on gigs it is one more thing to take with me and hook up. So I do all the improvising by leaving space in my arrangements and remember the arrangements and there is no problem, for me to improvise over the arrangement . It is easy to use the BB to jam with a bass live as long as you can play the song to a drum beat that is not exact like the record but close. But I find that people like my version of a song rather than an exact copy of a radio song. I’m not a jukebox and it is offensive to me for anyone to think that I should try and sound just like a recording? There is nothing easier to do, but sounding like your self and playing the song well your own way people notice. And you get a lot more respect from the crowd if you have your own sound that works. That may take a while but it does not happen if you never try. I find that the BB is a cool tool that can be used in a number of creative ways. if people using it in ways that it was not intended shakes you into feeling not sure. I wouldn’t worry about it. Just do it. I have the top 3 drum machines on the market for less than a thousand dollars and I use the BB 99% of the time. I loaded all my Groove monkey loops into the pedal and that is the same thing I was using in plugins in my DAW except that using midi I can play a song and get a rough drum track on the fly, than I can go back and correct the drums later. but I have a structure for the bass and keys and guitars to follow. then I can go back choose the right settings and plan the drums more with the BB and go back and lay down another track into the DAW using the BB with fills and breaks and endings, and my friends ask who is that playing drums? They can not tell that it is not a good drummer. I don’t think that the BB has reached the point yet of all the things that you can do with it. I like the idea of using it like a pre-programmed looper, putting into, verse, chorus set them up repeating as many times as you need, then you can hit the pedal and go to a verse when ever you want and then to a chorus when ever you like and it can seem spontaneous. with a full band sound coming from the samples you created and put into BB? Or do same in the studio and bounce to MP3 and do the same thing. Have fun.
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