Singular Sound BeatBuddy

First up I nearly sent this back. Nearly. Why?
A/The software is too glitchy, and also quirky, the manuals do not help. They even refer to things that are not in the software, like say "organize". Some of the things you want are there, but not where you expect them.
B/ It is useless for Jazz swing. If you are into "avant garde" (which I suppose means less than 50 years old) then fine, go ahead. If you play standards or traditional swing, forget it. OK so you can download other sounds at reasonable rates, but when listening to the samples on sound cloud there was nothing there which would please our audiences. I know of a lot of bands that could use something useful in that area. This is not it.
OK you can import your own .wav files. Fine. See A/ above. So far we have only managed it by accident.
So why keep it? Because it is very very good at blues, rock, shuffle country and the Latin folder is quite extensive. Sound quality is OK, not too much hiss and once you are used to the software faults easy to make up new songs. If you want to load up a song into another folder with a new name you have to export it. Change the name, so you remember what it is. When you import it back in to a different folder say with a different tempo, the name of the song reverts to the original name. You have to change it again. Sustituting sounds in songs is easy as long as 1/ the sample is already in and 2/ The drum kit you are using has instruments which respond to the import.
After a long evaluation period we decided it would be useful for our duo sets as long as we don't do our Jazz set. We had to stick a volume pedal in the line from it to makes adjustments on the fly, there is no way we could find to alter volume in the software.
Hopefully updates of the software will become useable before singular sound comes out with the MKII version and makes this obsolete.
Lastly while it will pass input straight through to your PA, we didn't like the extra hiss we gained with our setup.
A lot of money for an imperfect product, but we are sticking with it. We have found nothing better, and we have tried quite a few.

I had been looking around for a while for a small, easy to use drum machine. As a guitarist, I needed something I could use in my studio for backing, but also take along to band practise etc. if our drummer didn’t show, or sometimes working on guitar parts with our other guitarist.

I didn’t want to waste time getting into programming drum loops, and a lot of drum machines seemed to be designed for drummers, or people that wanted to spend the time creating loops.

I saw the Beat Buddy, and it is ideal. It’s aimed at musicians who want an easy to use device to provide drum backing. It can sit on the pedal board (put it last in the chain), or can go into a P.A. or monitors, which is what I do (sounds better through FRFR speakers). It’s controlled like a pedal, and if you can dial up a drum style (rock, punk, blues, metal, etc.), put in the tempo and you’re off, so easy to get something quick going, and there are loads of styles, kits and patterns to choose from. There’s a 4Gb SD card included to store the data.

The sounds are real recorded drum kits, so they sound ‘real’ and don’t sound digital or artificially processed.

One touch of the pedal will start the loop, with an intro section followed by the main pattern. Pressing the pedal once will insert a fill, this will synch to the pattern being played so if you hit it a bit early or late it will compensate, so you don’t have to be exact. Press again twice and the outro pattern will play. There’s a colour coded display which will indicate which part is playing.

If you get the additional footswitch you can get another 2 functions, to add additional cymbal crashes, and to pause the drums completely.

This is how I’m using it, but I’m only scratching the surface. There is software included to create drum patterns, or amend any existing ones, the pedal attaches to PC via USB. Also there is an online community who have written drum tracks for many songs, these are available to download and store on the pedal.

So it’s easy to get started with, but you have complete control of the patterns if you need it.

I use mine all the time in various scenarios, it’s very versatile and sounds great.

Bought the pedal to use in a soft rock/blues guitar & bass trio. Previously tried Alesis, Korg, and Digitech devices, but this one works best for me. To get the best out of it I use it with the 3-button footswitch, and run into a small PA with a sub-woofer. The latter is important if you want to get the thump of the kick drum even at low volume. I find the 3-button pedal essential for live use to scroll thru setlist & pause functions, it would be even better if it could control stop/start with a single hit.(that would also allow the BB unit to be kept within hands reach)
PROS:
Very good clear display (important when it's on the floor!)
Great realistic sound
Good rhythms
Easy hands-on control for quick change to tempo etc
CONS:
High price
Editing Software is difficult to manage, esp for Mac, but they are working to improve that I believe
Better integrated 3-fn pedal needed

Great sound and build quality, however the Beat Buddy Manager software is very flakey and needs a complete re-write. Adding extra drum patterns etc from Singular Sound or 3rd party can be very frustrating using the BBM software. Check the forums before you purchase ! I very nearly returned my unit as the software was so awful. I eventually managed to add the extra content after a full morning in the forums, more by luck than skill !

PS: Just found that they have recently released "Beat Buddy Loader Software Ver 1.0 " Extract from the Singular Sound Website.........

"This is not intended as a full replacement for the BeatBuddy Manager. Through our research we have found that 80% of BeatBuddy users only want to add and organize content on their BeatBuddy, rather than edit content. This software has been built for this purpose. We are currently working on a replacement for the BeatBuddy Manager which will have full editing capability as well as additional features currently under development.

This pedal has revolutionised the way I jam and reherse at home. It has also completey changed the way I write and demo songs. Those are all the obvious pro's. The build quality is relatively good and the controls are easy and intuitive. Another crucial pro is that the online community around the pedal is growing and very supportive etc. it will only get better.

As for the Cons:
Its expensive
Its chunky
Its accompanying software is not good...

Given that its the first generation of Beatbuddys its safe to say they will only get better but despite the cost, I'm very happy with my purchase, consider buying an addition footswictch to get more functionality out of it but do your own research on that bit.

(P.S. Check my review on the accompanying footswitch)

I use it playing in a duo (guitar and voice only) to add fills and drums to some of our songs. It is very good. It has a great software to add drum lines and edit them on the SD card and then put them on the BeatBuddy. Sounds are very good and not so fake but it is not perfect. It is really easy to use and I'm happy to have it but I'm not going to use it for every song we play in live venues because the global effect resamble too much to a backing track.

The community is already growing large and it is easy to find songs online to add to the device if you want to use a particular rythm.