¿Qué es BeatBuddy?
BeatBuddy Overview #
BeatBuddy is a drum machine in guitar pedal form that was developed and is manufactured by Singular Sound.
It allows users to play drum grooves, trigger drum fills, and change sections on the fly, hands-free. Users can edit loops, songs, and drumsets using software and create playlists of their content directly on the BeatBuddy. They can also create content from scratch by loading MIDI loops and .wav files.
BeatBuddy has a guitar input, a stereo output, and a headphone output. The MIDI in/out connector provides full MIDI functionality and makes the unit extremely versatile, enabling it to interface with various hardware. An external footswitch allows for additional hand-free functionalities, such as pause/unpause and triggering of accent hits.
How Are The Drum Beats Generated? #
The unit is sample-based and consists of two main components for producing the sound:
- Sequencer (the drummer)
- Sound module (drumsets)
The sequencer utilizes MIDI drum loops and acts as a “drummer” in that it carries a performance.
On the other hand, the sound module acts as a virtual drum instrument that the sequencer triggers to produce sounds.
All content that BeatBuddy utilizes to produce drum and percussion performances is stored on a removable SD card. Because of this, the BeatBuddy is not limited to how many drumsets or loops it can hold, as that depends on the size of an SD card.
You can find additional drumsets for BeatBuddy here and additional song packs here.
The “Sound ” Of BeatBuddy #
Unlike regular desktop drum machines, which either synthesize or have sounds built into them, the BeatBuddy does not. It assimulates any sounds or MIDI loops loaded into it via an SD card. Depending on the samples and MIDI loops loaded, it can morph into any acoustic or synth-sounding drum.
On the other hand, BeatBuddy’s younger sibling, the BeatBuddy Mini 2, has the sounds and loops built into it, which can not be changed or more content added.
The realism of drum and percussion kits that users generally refer to when talking about the BeatBuddy “sound” stems from the GoranGrooves Default Content produced by Goran Rista and licensed to Singular Sound for distribution with BeatBuddy units since its launch in 2014. It includes ten drum and percussion sets along with 2000 MIDI loops (beats and fills), covering a broad spectrum of music genres and styles.
The BeatBuddy Mini 2 has the same content built into it but in mono.
If you are looking for this sound in a plugin format for DAW, check out GoranGrooves Handy Drums.
The Content Format #
While the formats used to generate the BeatBuddy content are .wav and .midi files, they are arranged and stored in BeatBuddy’s proprietary formats.
The formats are:
- .BBP -> BeatBuddy project
- .BBS -> BeatBuddy song
- .PBF -> BeatBuddy portable folder
- .DRM -> BeatBuddy drumset
The “BeatBuddy project” is at the top of the hierarchy and holds all content: folders with BeatBuddy songs, drumsets, and playlists.
MIDI loops can not be used as they are by copying them directly onto the SD card. Instead, “BeatBuddy songs” are created by importing MIDI drum loops using the dedicated software BeatBuddy Manager or BeatBuddy Manager Online. The songs are then placed into folders, which represent a way of organizing them and refer to genres, artists, bands, or similar.
The “BeatBuddy drumset” is compiled by importing existing stereo or mono .wav files (samples) using the software mentioned before. Due to BeatBuddy’s RAM limitation, a drumset’s maximum size is 100MB, most commonly utilizing 16-bit samples despite the supported 24-bit depth. Internally, the samples are processed in a 32-bit float point, then dithered to a 24-bit output.
BeatBuddy Background #
BeatBuddy is the world’s first pedal drum machine. This brilliant, patented invention was conceived by the entrepreneur David Packouz. An amateur musician, he got frustrated with the complexity of drum machine options available on the market and set out to design something simpler for an average performer.
He successfully launched a crowd-funding campaign, raising nearly $350K, making it the most successful crowd-funding campaign in the music tech category at the time.
The BeatBuddy has since taken the world by storm and is used by over 100,000 musicians worldwide.