Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Singular Sound BeatBuddy the First Guitar Pedal Drum Machine

Top positive review

39 people found this helpful

FINALLY! A drum machine done right!!!

ByJason DeFrankon March 24, 2015

This pedal is truly amazing. I've always had trouble with drum machines and the BeatBuddy is finally a drum machine done right. It is super easy to use, sounds amazing and gives you very powerful hands free control of the beat with very little effort.

I'm a singer/songwriter and play acoustic guitar. And when I write songs at home or perform solo in coffee houses, I need a beat to work with. Music without a beat is... weak. So I tried it all -- the Alesis SR16, Boss Dr. Rhythm, etc. but they were so complicated I just gave up after getting really frustrated. And they sounded mediocre if not terrible. But the BeatBuddy is FINALLY a drum machine done RIGHT!!!

This is what I like:

Super duper easy to use: Seriously my grandma can use this thing. And she has! I've never seen her jam so hard, she was having so much fun I was laughing so hard I cried. You just press the pedal and a fill gets thrown in perfectly in time, no matter where in the measure you press the pedal. Holding down does a transition which ends when you let go -- really intuitive!

Beautiful display: When have you seen a full color LCD screen on a stompbox? Never. The visual interface is really genius and is a large part of why the BeatBuddy is so easy to use. It changes color depending on what type beat is playing (red is intro/outro, green is main drum beat, yellow is fill, white transition, black is paused). So just by glancing down, you know what the beat is doing. But the real genius in the interface is the visual metronome. It's a dark bar that moves across the screen in time to the beat. So if the time signature is 4/4 it takes 4 bars to move across the screen, or if it's 5/4 it takes 5 bars, etc. So you know just by looking at the screen when the fill or transition is going to end and you can time yourself to the visual cue -- THIS. IS. HUGE.

It made me better at guitar: I have seriously gotten better at my timing within a day of getting the BeatBuddy. My guitar teacher even said he noticed a big difference since I started playing with my BeatBuddy. So now he's getting one too! He's really excited to use it to teach his students.

It inspired me to write awesome songs: It's so much easier to write music when you have a beat to work off - it gives you something to play to. And since the BeatBuddy comes with over 200 beats in over 22 different styles, I've started experimenting with playing to different styles of beats which has made me write very original tunes and different to what I usually do. It's making me grow as an artist.

It sounds amazing: When I was first jamming with it, one of my musician friends came over and he was like "how did you fit a drum set in your room?!!" he couldn't believe it was a drum machine, it sounded so real. Though word of warning: If you have it plugged into an electric guitar amp it will sound muffled - those amps cut the high frequencies. The best is to plug it into a PA. If you have a digital amp with the 'Aux in' jack, then it's ok. You just plug the BeatBuddy's 3.5mm heaphones jack into the amp's aux in jack. I personally have the BeatBuddy's headphones jack plugged into my home stereo's AUX IN jack and it sounds amazing, especially because it's in stereo!

It saved me (a lot) of money: I play lots of small coffee house type gigs. And they don't pay that much. So it really hurts when I have to split the money with a percussionist (have I mentioned that music without a beat is weak?). Now don't get me wrong - I love percussionists and drummers and I think they fully deserve getting paid like the rest of us musicians. But my particular percussionist tended to drink as the night went on and would start getting sloppy. And then he wouldn't show up to some gigs at all without bothering to cancel. Been looking for a replacement, but no luck... until I got my BeatBuddy! Now I have a drummer who keeps perfect time ALWAYS, and I keep all the gig money! I paid for my BeatBuddy within 4 gigs, and now I make double the money!

In short, this is best investment I've made in my musical career. Other than learning to play guitar in the first place, of course.

Top critical review

See all 16 critical reviews›

One person found this helpful

I like how I can control the beat with my foot

ByCarrie Allwineon December 28, 2016

I like how I can control the beat with my foot; however, having to bend down to change the settings between songs defeats the purpose. A tablet or phone app or hand remote would be a great solution. The inventor should take this feedback into consideration and improve the product. The Beat Buddy is fun to play with, but not particularly practical for church use or gigging because of the need to bend down to change the settings.

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Showing 21-30 of 62 reviews(Verified Purchases). See all 84 reviews

Excellent product I have skill improvement 100%

ByJaneon December 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

Excellent product I have skill improvement 100%! Timing is everything the sound quality is 99% must have addition if your writing, playing or producing. Impressive library of sounds. You must have the correct amp setup to achieve the live sound of a drummer....do your homework.

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awesome sound, love it

ByTim T.on June 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

awesome sound, love it. our band is moving forward and sounding better! and there will be one less cut come pay day

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Five Stars

ByRainon December 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

Took a bit to figure out but loves it now!

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... new at using it however its straight forward and easy to use

ByJohn Bellaceraon October 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

Still fairly new at using it however its straight forward and easy to use.

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Four Stars

Bymark casqueiroon November 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

Really cool inovation. Reasonably priced for the function.

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The drum pedal is amazing, it is the most inventive thing I have ...

ByAmazon Customeron January 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

The drum pedal is amazing, it is the most inventive thing I have ever seen , and I know I have only just scratched the surface of what it can do , I highly recommend it

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Five Stars

ByAmazon Customeron October 31, 2016

Verified Purchase

Versetile great little units.

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What I love: -Very well built

ByDesign Dudeon September 1, 2015

Verified Purchase

What I love:

-Very well built.
- Lots of inputs/output options.
- Simple to use.
- Great sound quality.
- Fun for inspiration while playing guitar.
- The ability to use your foot to trigger a drum beat rather than having to use a computer.
- The ability for the BeatBuddy to get future upgrades because it's more like a mini computer rather.

What I Don't Like:

- The inability to just play full songs without having to trigger all of the transitions, fills, and so on. This seems like a very stupid omission to me. Apparently I'm not alone, as there are dozens of requests in the forums for this very feature.
- To me the software gets confusing. I never know if I'm suppose to be saving a project or a song, and I don't really understand where I'm suppose to be saving anything to. The instructions are meant to be clear, but I still don't get it.
- I wish it was easier to find full drum tracks to songs. I spent hours trying to find midi drum tracks to some of my favorite tunes and was unable to find anything. Not a fault of BeatBuddy, but I find it a huge limitation.
- The only way to get this pedal to "midi-synch" is to buy a $400 midi-sync looper (there are only a handful of them on the market). It doesn't sync with normal loopers like the Ditto looper. The workaround (while not optimal) is to record the drum track along with the guitar. This might not be a fault of the Beat Buddy, but a negative worth mentioning.

Summary: fun device, though I wish I could use it to play along to some of my favorite songs. I also wish it was the software was more intuitive. I hope they add the capability to use the pedal as a trigger to play complete songs rather than having to trigger every transition.