Wow… this is special. I purchased the BB on pre-order last year for $349 and now it sells for $299 and I’ve still never been able to use it live! Now I can’t even sell it for what I paid for it. Nice!!!
Hmmm… electronic gadgets should be able to be resold for their original price and manufacturers should never drop prices… Wow what a great investment opportunity music gear could be! Manufacturer guarantees of 100% refunds!
Why can’t you use it live?
Hm. Got to love that argument. My Yamaha 01V 96 cost me $4000 back in 2004. These sell for $800 today on ebay…
I should say, why can’t you use it live, cause I use if live every week, even though I do have issues with it.
I know what you mean, for a gigging musician is a little bit frustrating having to program hundreds of songs prior to bring the beatbuddy to a gig… I got mine a few days ago and unfortunately sold my Alesis SR18 in which I had the 100 songs stored… Stupid move 
Although the beatbuddy is a great product at the moment you recieve it will only help you to jam and practice untill you program all the midi files you’ll need for a gig. The SR18 is very limited but very easy to use and to program. I think the beatbuddy team should be more clear about the uses and what can and can’t do with it as you recieve it. This product is not recomended for musicians who don’t know how to use midi editing software. That’s the truth, the only way they will be able to use the beatbuddy’s advantages is to purchase the midi files or pay someone to arrange them. Anyway I’m happy with the beatbuddy, it gives me infinite posibilities but I will have to work for several nights on it.
I don’t use midi to any extent but I bought the Beat Buddy anyway. It does have the “Beat Builder” where I can build, create, edit all the things that have to be done. That helps a whole lot. I have already constructed about 150 songs that I can use on a daily basis besides building special ones like for a few songs that require different types of beats all in the same song. Not a problem as long as I have the Beat Builder to work with. I know I could probably do a lot more with it if I knew how to work midi. I use looper pedals all the time to create backing tracks so I can play lead along with them. The Beat Buddy creates natural drum sounds as I need them. Sure, I have to edit some of the fills and beats to get the timing right but that’s not a problem for me because I used to do step writing in Voyetra and Cakewalk, & Sonar. The only thing that disturbed me a little was having to build a Tone/Volume box to control the high output of the Beat Buddy Pedal to a decent level for a good recording. The sounds I get now are nice and smooth and quiet. The pedal now is a very nice piece of equipment to have on my pedalboard. The price was a little steep at $350 but now that I have worked with it for a while, it was well worth the price. There is no other pedal out there that comes close to what this one does. The software has caused some problems but there were plenty of people out there besides the support team that helped a lot to get through the problems and make a better operating system. There is still a lot of room for improvement but that will come in due time. I am overall happy to own the Beat Buddy and would not hesitate one minute to buy another one. I want to thank everyone for participating in making this a better product for all of us working musicians. Thanks for your contribution and hard work to make an outstanding Pedal.
Sincerely, Fingerstylepicker.
This thread is ridiculous. Nobody should expect to sell something a year later for what they paid for it, especially something electronic when technology is advancing so quickly. Lots of musicians don’t know how to use MIDI editing software and they use the BB every day, even live, just fine. I don’t understand vacuum tubes, but I use my amp every day. The BB doesn’t require the editing of MIDI files to use, but there is nothing stopping the user from learning how to edit MIDI files and using them with the BB. User ability and hardware capability are very different things. The BB is about as user friendly as it gets. You plug it in, step on the pedal and it starts playing drums. It also has some completely optional and more advanced capabilities which may require a little time and effort for the user to take advantage of, which is really no different than a lot of other gear out there. In terms of useability, functionality and capability, I don’t believe the BB or it’s creators are making any false claims.
I totally agree with Scudd. I don’t use MIDI but have been enjoying the BB and even used it live. Every hardware/software has its own learning curve, and some may find it more challenging then others. Though I’m not usually good in such stuff, I found the BB quite usual friendly. In fact, it’s good that it does not have many complicated features and functions, otherwise many people will have stayed away from it. As in most products, some may find it not so useful after buying it. We all have ‘useless’ stuff in our storerooms that someone else would have a good use for.
The BB is almost a ground breaking invention but it surely has room for improvement. In fact, all the potential and possibilities for a better BB would not even be contemplated, had there not been a BB in the first place.
It seems to hold value well, there is one on ebay right now with 6 days to go and it’s already at $155. That’s good resale value for a pedal.
Absolutely. I’ve not even upgraded my firmware and use it very frequently.
It seems to hold value well, there is one on ebay right now with 6 days to go and it’s already at $155. That’s good resale value for a pedal.
I’ve used mine for well over 100 gigs, LIVE. If it broke tomorrow, I’ve got more than my money’s worth, and would be online ordering a new one as soon as I could! One of my best gear purchases ever.
Anyone want to buy my vintage Roland VS-1680? I paid $3000 for it new. I’ll sell it for $2999. Gotcha a dollar! 
my BB is amazing!!! I really like this product!!
I can’t use midi editing software but still use my BB live!! I have used the resources here and created a couple of sets to play live and in the mean time I am trying to learn to create and edit beats and also add bass. I am at the moment laying all my beat BB content to my Jammann looper so I only have to press a button to start and a button to stop it at the end. This simplifies things live. Using the looper I can lay down my drum beat and add bass guitar as a layer and then some backing vocals as a layer and that makes a great quality backing track.
Some songs we do in our set have to played off of the pedal so they can be as long or as short as needed but others I found we played the same all the time e.g. Money can’t buy me love and Proud Mary hence adding them to a looper.
Once you get the next version with the 500 note limit gone will make a big difference. I have been through all the songs I regularly play and simplified them with the 500 note limit gone. Life is alot easier with the beatbuddy now. Once the firmware is officially released I will update the songs in resources.
Sounds great!! Can’t wait.
Was wondering, im just learning how to use midi editing and am pretty new to the beat buddy and am not to keen on the pc but I figured out how to load the songs you guys made on here (thanks a bunch by the way, guys!!)when are they planning on getting rid of the 500 note limit and what does that mean? Will you be able to put more detail in to the songs im guessing,
With the 500 note limit you can only put so much of a song into a part. Fine if the song is simple but for more complex songs you are going to be using a lot of fills and transitions. With 500 note limit gone you can program in a whole song to play without having to trigger fills or transitions or even just longer loops.
Awsome! cant wait,