So I haven’t seen a real review on the Beatbuddy pedal on here and although it’s an older piece of kit I thought I’d do one.
I saw one for sale on BC and started to look into it as I practice normally with a click or iPhone drum app but they were a little flat sounding and boring.
I’m not and will never be a drummer so a drum machine was out of the question I’m sure they have inbuilt rhythms, but the chances of me programming Pearl Jam’s ‘Even Flow’ are zero.
I bit the bullet and picked up the Beatbuddy (not the mini,) plus it came with the extra 2019 premium pack included off ‘Allaboutthebass’ ( thanks Neil)
I did a bit of research into how best to amp it up and all directions pointed to a full frequency keyboard combo, although you can plug it in line with your pedals or into a spare input in your normal amp.
I was lucky to be working in Manchester and Monday picked up a Roland KC350 locally off gumtree in mint condition for the princely sum of £150.
Beatbuddy is great, as soon as I plugged it in it was super easy to navigate around its presets without looking at any instructions ( yes I’m one of those.)
I’ll let singular sound tell you what it has going for it as standard.
200 Editable song settings
10 Drum kits
Many different music styles
Tap tempo
Provides musical sequence with intros, fills, and a second style during the song and outro
Stereo in- and outputs (can be integrated into a pedalboard)
Headphone output
Mini USB connector
Incl. 9V Power supply and SD card with drum settings
Individual settings with use of free software, downloadable at mybeatbuddy.
It can be hooked up to a midi and has extra capabilities with a 2 button foot switch with stereo cable. (One on the way)
With the 2019 premium pack that came with it theres an extra “800+ songs, 1000’s of beats, 23 drum sets, and 30+ genres.”
The one downside I’ve found is the preset drum pattens by bands can’t be played through with one press of the switch and still have to be queued into the next section by the user and foot stomp. I’ve read the pedal is limited to 500 ‘events’ so transferring parts of a track to a midi, splicing them together and downloading them back to the SD card isn’t an option. Then again the pedal wasn’t designed to be a backing track and controlling the fills and section play makes it feel somehow more like an immersion in the song chosen.
Artists included in the 2019 edition are
Dire Straits
Fleetwood Mac
Queen
Chicago
The Beatles
The Doors
Black Sabbath
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Nirvana
The Rolling Stones
The Eagles
Chris Tomlin
AC/DC
Pink Floyd
Eric Clapton
Led Zeppelin
The Police
Sting
Coldplay
Jimi Hendrix
John Mayer
Soundgarden
Pearl Jam
Metallica
Elton John
Tom Petty
Billy Joel
Steely Dan
Prince
Neil Young
Michael Jackson
Santana
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stevie Wonder
Guns N’ Roses
U2
Creedence Clearwater Revival
ZZ Top
So there’s a good mix of genres. You can also change the tempo and drum kit sounds from jazz, percussion, rock, human voice beatbox and many more styles.
There are also different colours on the screen that tell you what’s going on as well as counting the measure of the beat during a track, which I’ve found very handy in the ‘odd time’ folder (what can I say I’m a progressive rock man too)
How’s it work though you ask, well, ‘we've meticulously recorded professional drummers and paired their samples with an algorithm’ says singular sounds. So I guess that explains it in a nutshell!
As a practice aid I’m hooked, I’m not a person who can sit for hours running through scales and licks, I like to be able to learn and play something that sounds like music, however I’ve found myself walking past the amps picking up the guitar stomping on the pedal and yes playing scales and licks... 🤔
I’m sure someone with more skills than me and a looper could get a lot more from it, what more can I say it’s a great bit of kit.
If you don’t have a lot of equipment, home studio and neither the skills or inclination to learn how to use drum machines or midi programming but want something that is plug and play check the Beatbuddy out.
Oh the Roland KC 350? I walked into it in the night fetching a glass of water (that wasn’t there yesterday!) it’s a solid piece of kit as my shins can attest to but that’s a a different review.
