Product idea: The Beat Buddy i

BeatBuddy Feature Requests
1

I recently picked up a Zivix Jamstik + and am loving it.
They market it as a learning tool; but for me it has become a “spend a few quick minutes making music” tool. Super fast to setup and use.

Normally when I play guitar or bass I:

  1. get the instrument and cables
  2. plug everything in
  3. tune the instrument
  4. dial in the effects/tone
    While the process is similar (without the tuning) it takes under a minute to be making music with the jamstik.

Those not familiar with the jamstik it’s basically a guitar shaped midi controller.

What does this have to do with a Beat Buddy?

The “Beat Buddy i” would essentially be a bluetooth controller shaped like a thinner BB pedal, but with no connections outside of USB for charging. It would have a screen with the same info as a traditional BB. The pedal would control software on a mobile device, software that would use the same files/samples as the traditional BB pedal because I’ve tried alot of other iOS drum apps and they suck. Suck hard and not in the fun way.
Ideally the app would work like most other high end iOS music apps and be routable through either garageband or Audiobus.
What market would the Beat Buddy i serve?
The mobile musician. The person who is always either traveling, student, or super pressed for time and needs something that is super fast to setup (takes me about a minute to get my Jamstik+ making music).
This product would not interfere with the traditional BB market as a gigging musician would not want to rely on bluetooth wireless device for a performance .
It should also (hopefully) be at a lower price point since it’s lacking that audio engine.
Essentially the BBi would be a case with controls, bluetooth transmitter, battery and same screen as the regular BB showing the same info.
While I’m not a software engineer I think that a BB player app (creating new SNG files should probably still be done on desktop and then transferred to mobile) would not consume too much in resources to keep it from running concurrently with say garageband and some software instrument app.
I’ve got dibs on the first one. Thoughts?

2

For reference here is a track I created with the Garageband drummer during lunch breaks at work. Notice how much the drums suck.
https://soundcloud.com/ravens-echo/masteringapp-my-soul-to-take

3

You could connect a bluetooth midi transmitter / receiver to the BB and effectively send the midi notes wirelessly to a drum app on the iPad. You may need to use another app to translate some of the notes to the drum app’s midi standard but this would work. I have the Yamaha MD-BT01 (https://www.thomann.de/ie/yamaha_md_bt01_wireless_midi_adapter.htm) which works really well and there is also the Quicco Sound mi.1 (https://www.thomann.de/ie/quicco_sound_mi.1_wireless_midi_adapter.htm?ref=prod_rel_379857_4) which does the same thing.

4

My thoughts on the purpose of the Beat Buddy i is quick setup AND great sound. With your solution I have neither. It’s not something I can quickly setup during my lunch break and still have a significant amount of playing time.
For my Jamstik+ I power it up, open up the app, link and I can play music within that app or any I choose.
My desire for the BBi is that ease of setup WITH that magnificent Goran Grooves drums.