Agree with most of what i read here. We never use the intros nor the closing segments. Those are the first to go - then, most of the fills. Every song we play starts with 4 clicks or a high hat to sink us up.
I suspect we use about 1/4 (or less) of the fills available for all the mixes we work with. They are simply too busy - too much - they just do not fit. We use Logic Pro X to delete / edit the fill segments when we really need more fill elements, in order to use what is there, but it is very time consuming.
Please keep improving the product ! Thanks for asking !!
Ditto to all the above…!!! I find myself scouring other “songs” for simpler fills and intros. I use the “count-in” usually feature as well because the intros are hard to grasp enough to enter on the correct beat…!!! Also the outros often because a lot of songs don’t end on the “one” beat… Thank you for listen to everyone’s suggestions…!!
Thank you all for your suggestions!! I take it all to heart and very much appreciate your input and passion to make the BeatBuddy better
I know that some of the fills are better than others… but to be honest, I am personally more of a guitarist than a drummer (which is why I created the BeatBuddy in the first place), so my ear isn’t as in tune to beats as some of you guys, and it’s always better to have a more objective opinion than from people who might be ‘too close’ to the product.
Does anyone want to volunteer to create a default content collection that has only useful fills included in it? We can make that available to everyone to download on our site, and we may even make it the standard SD card that comes shipped with the BeatBuddy!
Thanks again to everyone for expressing your opinion – please keep the feedback coming!
Cheers Persist…always willing to work with the good folks from Singular Sound. We have plenty of “straight forward” content because that’s the focus at Groove Monkee. We’re just looking to lay down the groove so others can shine.
As a former drummer I find 99% of the fills to overplayed. Sounds like Buddy Rich doing a solo on almost very fill and they do not match the beats. I have begun deleting the stock fills and programming my own for each song I create. I also find myself tweaking quite a bit of the main beats. I am a acoustic guitar player doing classic rock from the sixties and seventies. I would recommend that your drum programmer should listen to the drummer for Toby Keith, his name is Dave McAfee, a good solid player with timeless, tasteful licks. I had mention him before on the forum but never got any response.
Ditto for Country Waltzes needed. The “Gig Ready” waltz is anything but… I ended up adding a simple “bass drum-HH-side stick” beat to make do.
Couple of examples (I’m showing my age here): She Looks So Good In Love - George Strait, and Don’t We All Have The Right - Ricky Van Shelton. I’m sure there are plenty of others.
I agree with others and think live use (solo/duo at bar/church/busking) needs to not be a distraction, least amount of tap dancing while playing guitar/singing. For standard content consistent song layouts (12bar main, 1bar fill, 3 parts), versatile selection of natural sounding loops with unique random hits every 4th measure and modest fill at end so it could just play if that was all needed without sounding repetitive. A Charlie Watts style drummer that can make any cover good without needing note for note sequencing for known quantities like rock/country/waltz/blues/latin/reggae with suitable fills and simple intro, outro. Beats, song patterns and libraries named as drummers reference them basic 4/4 8ths, open HH. Ride, cross stick etc. no custom drum kits for cowbell, maraca etc.
In an attempt to make a versatile standard library I made a 500 song project from tons of add on packs from ToonTrack, GrooveMonkee and BB content and found that it’s the main beats that need to hold their own so that fills are less needed. Kit compatibility is also not good to fix afterwards so deciding on standard GM or other is needed. Trying to match fills to patterns using Ezdrummer2 was ok but I’d not say as natural sounding as if a chill drummer with a good groove played it and then it was cut to make segments for songs. Organizing libraries to less than 20 songs per was also needed to avoid lag when loading.
Hadn’t visited much and read this thread so please forgive my rant, it’s with good intention. As Phil Flood says this has been a point of discussion for years. However, I think the crash of the old forum exposed far more serious problems for the longevity of the BB. I used to visit the old forum almost daily and tried to contribute as much as possible. Now I rarely visit either of the two because as nice as it is for a company to listen to its customers, customers like me start looking for alternatives when our needs are not met.
I still love the concept of the BeatBuddy, the flexibility and musical freedom it gives me, and I love that I can mix songs with parts with OPx songs. However, just like I had to edit/write my own beats due to default ones being too busy, I have also had to deal with the deficiencies of the BBM (Win10), which btw has also been discussed at great length. I’ve been waiting for an update because to this day I still can’t export full OPx songs, only short midi clips. Absolutely nothing has been done. Then I go to singularsound.com today to see if the promised update has come out, well, I’m redirected to the old forum for the same update that came out years ago. I then got curious about the Maestro since I had been looking forward to its release when it was announced a while back, well, I see that all I can do is pre-order it just like the last time I looked.
Again I love the footprint of how the original concept is implemented in the BB but as I already alluded to, when I need something now, I will look for a way to address it. To date I am seeing that my work-arounds will soon get me away from exclusively relying on the BB but I really do hope to continue to rely on it for years to come. Please find the funding to do what I think many of us already know is necessary.
I decided almost as soon as I got the pedal that I wouldn’t be able to use it with the default fills included with it, because like a lot of people who are using this pedal, I play pop/rock/country songs from the last 50 years that have a pretty strict verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure, and he fills just sound wildly out of place.
I started writing my own midi loops, and filling the pedal with them, and then I wondered why I was doing any of that work when I could just use a single midi file per song that was already lined up the way I wanted it, and play it right on the pedal.
Then I grabbed my old midi sequencer and set the pedal to midi channel 10, and now it just plays the drum sounds on the pedal as it responds to incoming MIDI messages.
This isn’t how I intended to use the pedal when I bought it, but it’s how it has worked out.
Neat device, but it needs some work to make it great…
I haven’ been using my beat buddy for live performances because of the intros and fills and I am not knowledgeable enough to change anything on beat buddy so it’s sitting on the shelf
I agree with everyone’s input here. I don’t even use the included fills anymore… i always build my own while building each song’s beat (I rarely use the stock beats anymore either). The fact that they are full-bar fills means that if you play it too early you either get too much happening, or a different feel in the song, or you have a change in flow due to perceived notes dropping out (due to the pattern in the fill).
One thing I would like to see added to the content is to have slightly open hi-hats added to drum kits. For that steady hi-hat beat that occurs during choruses. The only way to sort of achieve that sound is to use Open hi-hats and drop the volume low enough that it’s not annoying. It works, but isn’t totally realistic. I also would like to see updates to current drum kits. I bought my BB when it was still in development and have had to add .wav files to drum kits to fill gaps (i.e. tambourine, cabasa, finger snaps, extra handclaps - that aren’t just a one person clap, etc.). It would be nice if these instruments were added to the existing kits and we could download and replace the kit we currently use free of charge… or for a reasonable fee if the samples are good (I’m not talking about premium content here).
I agree with you on this. I used to upload every song I built drum beats for to share with the rest of the BB community. But once the data was all deleted/lost, it kind of stifled my excitement and willingness to contribute. I’ve created many song files since then and haven’t bothered uploading any of them simply due to the fact that they didn’t care enough to have backup redundancy for our work… so I’m not going through all that work again. Now I only upload if someone has requested something that I have.
Not to mention there’s been talk of improvements in functionality and features for years with nothing being delivered, so when it’s mentioned that users are being heard… it’s hard to see that reflected anywhere.
I truly like the BB and it’s capabilities. It’s changed the sound of my music for sure, but I really wish that the development would continue.
Cheers.
There seem to be two different audiences for beats. The digital crowd that Ableton and other short clips serve and the analog crowd that wants a continuous song and minimal fuss. Compare libraries from Groove Monkee/Toontrack/Logic etc. to sites like SongGalaxy.com or Karaoke-version.com which are fully searchable, full song, customizable per song purchases, but not in BB or standard midi format. If a partership were done to professionally provide this kind of per .sng file content with full track on level on and some fills etc. for variations I think BB would be killing it as the box to take out for basic backing tracks. That’s really also the only way a bass line will be usable since there is no independent control of it and needs to be setup meticulously instead of on the fly like a Trio or SR box does.
There are plenty of midi sites out there that produce new content regularly. Most have a per song purchase option. Some have a subscription model, but with options for very short subscriptions. I currently use Supreme Midi. www.supreme-network.com, but I also have used Bandtrax. Beyond those, there are a good number of free sites, especially good for 60s through 90s stuff. Just search for “song name” midi. The files take a little work get turned into a Beat Buddy ready .sng, but it’s really pretty easy to do once you’ve done a couple.
My personal feeling is that there is not yet a large enough market to support a midi site to develop .sng files. It is still a niche product. The old Forum had slightly less than 11,000 members. When you combine that with the amount of free content that has already been made available, the potential for making any money drops precipitously. But, yes, I can see where an existing midi site could make a BB ready drum and bass track from its existing files, and have a chance to increase their sales. Since one would presume they already have a license from the publishers as it relates to their midi files, selling a second stripped down midi file might not present them any problems. But making a ready to go .sng file might make a publisher demand a second license fee for the new derivative product.
I try and match the BB songs to pop rock blues songs. I like the idea of the Ballads with 3 different sections…The PROBLEM is the transition fills are Super busy. Some are just crazy.
Imagine playing along with Rolling Stones Soul Survivor. Using Ballads 1 or so. 1st verse cruising along, get to chorus, hit transition and woah!!
My only real gripe with the fills are that the low toms are overmixed and way too live/resonant, forcing me to make huge EQ cuts at a very narrow band to keep them from taking over the mix. It’d be nice to see the Standard kit’s low toms toned down.
