Hi everyone,
Full disclosure first: I’m the developer of iDoctor MusicBand PRO, an iPad/iPhone app for gigging bands (lyrics and chords on stage, setlists, multitrack backing tracks, MIDI control). I’m also a working musician, and my BeatBuddy has been on stage with my band for years. So I built the integration I wanted for myself, and I’d love feedback from people who use the pedal every week.
The problem I wanted to solve
A lot of our songs start without drums: an acoustic intro, a verse to the click, then the band comes in. Getting the BeatBuddy to enter exactly on the bar, in time with the click and the backing tracks, meant counting and hoping. Stopping it clean at the end was the same story.
What the app does now
Drums enter on the next “1”. You play the intro to the app’s click. Hold a foot switch (MIDI foot controller or AirTurn), and the BeatBuddy starts exactly on the next downbeat. No counting.
Hold again to stop. Either dead on the bar, or with the pedal’s own outro.
Tight sync, no drift. Start and the 24 ppqn MIDI clock go out from the same clock that plays the click and the backing tracks, with an adjustable lead of a few ms to compensate for the cable.
Tempo per song, automatically. When you change song, the app sends the BPM to the pedal (CC 106/107). No dialing tempos between songs.
All eleven commands ready to use: intro, outro, fill, transition, pause, accent, mute, half time, double time, tap tempo and main pedal. Put them on a foot switch or an on-screen pad.
Three modes, one setting: pedal on its own, pedal following the app’s metronome, or pedal as the leader (its Start/Stop starts and stops the backing tracks).
What you need
A MIDI interface with DIN out → BeatBuddy MIDI IN (this one is required).
Recommended: BeatBuddy MIDI OUT → interface MIDI IN, so the app knows whether the beat is actually playing.
On the pedal: Settings → Main Pedal → MIDI Settings → MIDI IN: Sync ON, Start ON, Stop ON.
If you want the “stop with outro” option, make sure the pedal’s MIDI outro command is enabled. That one caught me out while testing.
Honest notes
Over a DIN cable it’s tight. Over Bluetooth MIDI (WIDI etc.) the start moves a few ms, and the app tells you so.
The app is free to download with a free trial, then it’s a subscription. It’s not a BeatBuddy-only app: the pedal part is one module of a bigger live-show tool, and everything above works without any other hardware.
iDoctor MusicBand Pro in App Store
If you try it, I’d really like to hear how it behaves with your setup, especially on other interfaces or with Bluetooth. And if there’s a BeatBuddy workflow you’ve always wanted from an app, tell me here. That’s how the “enter on the 1” feature came about: from my own guitarist asking for it.
Thanks, and thanks to Singular Sound for a pedal that’s been part of our show for years.
Juan