Just a quick shoutout to the folks who created, and continue to develop, this thing. The product is truly several notches above a standard drum machine. Ironically, I mostly play bass and occasional drums in my bands and couldn’t stand the sound of all the popular drum machines. The BeatBuddy is everything I’d hoped for. A guitarist friend of mine and I are going to put a duo together and gig with it. Thanks for creating realistic sounds and mapping them together in a fairly simple and easy to use device. Kudos!
Agreed. Thumbs up to what exists so far. I am committed to providing some suggestions to make it better, and I hope the development team continue to make improvements.
I agree. If they can keep this product afloat and keep developments coming, they will all be rich. This is a bigger boon, and more fundamental that loopers. I have a old band mate in Nashville who has spent decades touring with the biggest names down there. He now tests beta model loopers from Boomerang, and properly configured vocal processors, not to mention an incredible wealth of talent. His integration of looping and vocal processors is on a scale that is scary and impossibly smooth. If you ad this product to that capability, it’s staggering. This product has the potential to be HUGE. Every solo artist will want one.
I would like to see more content and resources on the Web page… and regular feature growth, with a commitment to customer service and satisfaction. If they can do all that… they will be rich.
I’m skeptical at best. All we’ve seen from the actual development team so far is buggy beta software for PC. So far the only Mac betat we’ve seen has been from a volunteer here, not the development team.
I think this post is centering on the devepment of the pedal not the software exclusively. Development does not always have to be in the software sense and the way you feel about this issue is very clear, however surely you can’t disagree that the pedal itself is a device is great? I can’t comment on the Mac issues as I am not privy to that information but the windows version runs fine for me and I am willing to help anyone out with who is having issues with it and will make more videos which will hopefully help people out even more.
Lastly we do have a working Mac beta and from what I can tell (from reading comments here) - it is better than the windows version. Personally I don’t care if it is “official” or not - at least Mac users now have a version which works.
Psalm40: The pedal is cool, but so far it’s useless to me as I won’t run Beta software on my computer. The simple fact that you acknowledge that a user’s beta Mac version is better than the software released by the company says it all. The company appears to be focused on sales rather than producing the product they’re selling which includes the software necessary to make it work as intended. I paid for this a year ago and still can’t use it outside of my house. That’s certainly not all I could say, but it’s all I will say for now,.
OK, one more thing. If Daefactor is responsible for developing the Mac software, pay him. He earned it.
While the software has a lot of room for improvement, I think for such an early version in the development process, it does work. As a former programmer and I/T professional for 40 years, I have few complaints and I’m very encouraged by both the pedal and how the software integrates. Much of what I think it lacks are things that should be relatively easy to fix or amend in future versions. I know from experience that changing too many things too fast can lead to disaster. You can never really vet a software package until its been in the hands of users for awhile. Its ALWAYS users that put the final polish on any software… assuming the programmers actually listen. I wish I had been a young man and on the ground floor of this product. As I said, it will be huge if they stay the course.
Maybe it’s fine for a programmer in the IT profession for 40 years, but it’s not user friendly by today’s standards as most should admit. And it took a long time for the software to move beyond beta.
I also don’t agree that this is an early stage in the product development. Some version of the software should have been working before the indigo go camps in to show Tue screen shots and show how it worked. So, it’s taken over a year to get to this.
It is what it is, but it’s disappointing and most programmers I know would have been replaced before now.
I was, indeed, talking mostly about the pedal - the sound in particular and also the way it basically maps the beats to the sounds via midi. I noticed in creating a backup of my SD card the lion’s share of files are of the drumkits. So I’m guessing most of the architecture is simply tying loops together via a broad roadmap that interfaces the user. Cool stuff - clever in its simplicity, at least regarding cramming a lot of different patches/rhythms without gunking up a bunch of memory/space.
I don’t find the software difficult to use at all. And frankly, my expectations weren’t that of a drum machine…that is, creating my own rhythms. I don’t want to work that hard. It’s a tool for playing. I also play drums and have a bunch of mics and recording eq. If I truly wanted to create real-sounding rhythms that are custom made; record them; and then play them back as backing tracks or loops - I certainly could do so. But that’ s a lot of work. I just want to play.
There seems to be enough rhythms built-in to cover a ton of genres. And if one really wants to import an off board midi pattern into it, it seems the capability is there. I truly don’t fault the software too much. Drop and drag will be welcomed once it’s there. But for anyone who’s used even Garageband or any looping device, the concepts are pretty straightforward IMHO.
DavidE: Serious question - why would you not run beta on your computer? I can understand being frustrated by the pedal if you can’t move the fills/intros/outros around. A for instance - ‘Little Sister’ is in our little group’s songlist and ‘Oldies Beats 7 & 8’ work really well for it, but the intro and fills didn’t cover the crescendo that is both the intro and then ends abruptly several times throughout the song before the lyric “Little Sister” starts up again. After rooting around a short bit, I came across ‘Oldies Fill 15’, which works beautifully. So I plugged it in as both the intro and the lone fill for part 1, and use the pause button on the footswitch to give me the break I need just prior to singing “Little Sister”. It wasn’t all that hard to figure out and come up with - and I changed absolutely nothing on the rhythms themselves. I think I stumbled across ‘Fill 15’ in less than 5 minutes and had the whole song arranged within a couple minutes after that.
One thing I’ll probably need to do some day is spend a lot of time listening to every default midi and make some notes of where I think fills, in particular, will work in various places of our songlist.
And FWIW - I’m using both the Windows version and the Mac version across two laptops. I’ve not really encountered any hiccups.
But I can see why you’re unhappy - if you are limiting/imposing upon yourself to just what’s on the pedal. Venturing into BBMgr opens up a whole new world of versatility.
I’m not a Beta tester. I’m an end user. I don’t have time to test somebody’s product that I paid for. And I shouldn’t have to. Plus, I won’t risk my computer to beta software that had been untested.
Ok. I just don’t view it that way. I don’t feel like I’m ‘testing’ anything - but will definitely give them feedback if they want it (and it seems they do).
As far as risk goes - you either trust your source or you don’t. ‘Beta’ doesn’t necessarily mean it’s less secure or problematic than final versions. At least not to the point it puts your computer at risk. If you’re that worried, you can buy a sacrificial laptop at any wholesale club or off Ebay for far less than you paid for the pedal. It might be worth a $150-$200 investment if your main computer is simply that valuable? Just a thought. But I back up continually through Time Machine on my Mac and my employer has virtually everything I need backed up on a server for any SNAFUs that may occur on their PC. Food for thought.
Meanwhile, I’d rather enjoy the fruits of being an early adopter versus cowering like a rabbit in a hole of ‘safety’. Ben Franklin is one of my personal heroes and one of his more famous quotes would apply here…even though he was talking about liberties v. safety.
JMHO - yours is likely entirely different. And that’s OK, obviously. I love what the developers have provided thus far and think their openness to adapt future developments based on customer input is more than fairly noble. We’ll agree to disagree, I’m sure.
Cheers.
DavidE I would have thought that the Mac beta is getting more of a real world testing than most other software would as the end users are putting it through its paces rather than a handful of software testers trying to break the software and find bugs, and so far i am not aware of anyone raising any concerns on security etc…, but you are entitled to your opinion and viewpoint.
Looking forward to it getting 'better" 
I agree. I feel the release of this product was premature.
Where do I start? Trust the source. Daefactor is one guy working on home PC. No offence to him, but why would I trust his computer is virus free? That’s insane. The company’s software didn’t test the software and that company made it available. That just doesn’t fly in today’s world. I’m glad nobody has had a problem I’ve seen reported, but I’m not foolish enough to take the risk.
Your suggestion that I buy a sacrificial laptop to test the software is absurd. I’m being nice. And a laptop for under $199? Where can a buy a Mac compatible laptop at that price?
I back up my Mac nightly using Time Machine. But I don’t want to screw up my computer in the first place. My work laptop is absolutely off limits. High security. I can’t even put a cloud app on my work iPhone. And I’d violate all kinds of policies if I put BB manager software on it. No.
Hell yes I tried to enjoy the fruits of being an early adopter by buying from the Indigogo campaign.
Cowering like a rabbit? Expletives deleted.
The pedal is cool. I want to use it. I need the company to deliver what I bought. Hopefully soon.
Yes, the Beta programmed by a user, not the software development team as promised. Do you not see the issue with that? I’ll load it once others have found the issues, fixes are implemented and the actual development team tests the software, aprooves it and it’s an official release.
It’s not an opinion or viewpoint. It’s a decision based on knowledge and experience. Some things are not worth the risk.
Well, an untested beta from an end user is by definition premature. Especially after David said they wouldn’t release any more Beta software. But by all accounts, Daefactor, a self admitted Mac hater, delivered a better Beta than the company’s long overdue PC version…
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