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As a bass guitarist, practicing at home can be boring, but this small pedal makes it fun again. It's loaded with rhythms from marching band to jazz all with adjustable bpm's, volume and drum fills. I've even taken it to band practice when the drummer couldn't make it. The drum sounds are authentic, the pedal is built well, it's compact and there's more beer left in the fridge after practice ;)

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I was on the waiting list before this was released, and I wanted to wait a bit before commenting. This unit is really great. It's extremely easy to operate. There is a great selection of many, many beats that all sound so real it's almost impossible to believe. Having had both an Alesis SR-16 and SR-18, this thing blows them away. Since it's so easy to change drum kits, I've been playing around with selecting beats I wouldn't normally use as-is, such as some of the hip-hop beats, and assigning them different kits such as "brushes" or "ethereal", and the results are amazing. The timing of the pedal stomps for transitions was a little hard to get the hang of, but I'm to the point now where I can basically "write a song" on the fly and not make any transition mistakes, and I barely glanced at the manual, so it's really not hard. I also have the external footswitch, the official one. I was pleased to see when I plugged it in and configured it, that it did an auto-detection to see if the switch plugged in was latching or non-latching, so in theory you should be able to use any dual footswitch. I play with a "looper" for my guitar, and the stomp-stop/stomp-start is very handy to get back in sync when the looper starts creeping off the drum beat. I have it plugged straight into my studio PA via stereo, and it sounds AMAZING. Can't speak to plugging it inline between guitar and guitar amp. Haven't even begun to play with the software/programming aspect yet, but if it works as advertised I can see how it would be incredibly easy to pre-program your entire set list. The external footswitch, when no beat is playing, is used to cycle through the current group of songs, so it's very easy to advance to the next song in your set list. Also finally realized that, when no beat is playing, the Internal pedal can be used to set bpm by stomping... works really great to set the bpm to whatever i'm feeling, before firing up the song. Love the intros and outros too, makes it very truly "song-like" when I'm performing on the fly. And the 3 randomized fill patterns keep it incredibly "fresh" and not boring. In short: What are you waiting for? If you're looking for a versatile drum machine, this is really the one!!!

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I had my eye on this for quite sometime and now that I started plating with it, I dont know why I waited so long. This is a great tool that any musician should have if they can afford it ( thanks to zZounds I was able to). It's very easy to use. I was able to figure it out and start jamming within 10 minutes of opening the package. I was drummer and I must say I was very pleased with the sound quality. It doesnt sound artificial or MIDI like. Although nothing beats having a real drummer on hand, the BeatBuddy comes pretty close. The reason I say is because of the control it gives you (fills, accents, stop start). Some have rated this device low and to be honest I cant see why. At the very least, still device would still rate above average as it pretty much delivers on all it's promises. The only knock is the price otherwise if you are reading this review, there is no reason not to buy it. Very fun to use.

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The Beat Buddy drum pedal for guitarists is simply fantastic. Right out of the box it is easy and intuitive to set up and use. I was up and running in minutes. With an array of different drum kit styles and musical patterns you can have your own personal drummer at your feet (don't tell the drummers). The resources for setting up playlists to use at a gig are excellent. You can hook the drum buddy up to your computer and program a list of songs that can be gone through by simply tapping on the footswitch you can purchase along with the drum buddy. A must have accessory. You can control the tempo by foot tapping, switch between sections of a song that have different feels and fills, intro a song, outro a song, pause for dramatic effect, all just using your feet while you play and sing. A really great addition for the performing singer/guitarist. I have a Bose L1 compact PA that really allows the beat buddy to shine with great bass for the kick drum and clear, crystalline highs for cymbals and hi-hat sounds. I can't say enough good things about this great product. Super for practice as well, a metronome on steroids, that sounds natural. You'll probably want to give yours a name.... Ringo works for me.

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I love it. Sounds awesome. Not a digital drummer. Sounds like a real drummer because it is!

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This is very cool. Easy to use and so much help with timing !!! Love it !!!

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So far, it works well. I'm impressed with it so far. It has a multitude of rhythms, and styles to aid in writing and/or live performance.

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This thing is Great! Should have had one years ago. Beats almost any drum machine out there. Sounds Great and easy to use. Would recommend it to anyone.i hat

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However... it has several "glitches" that make it impractical to use in a playing situation. First, the "songs" all start with a drum solo... incredibly hard to deal with when most songs started by a drummer will have the customary "click off" to begin. Second, pressing the "change from rhythm A to rhythm B button can be an odd experience as the transitional fill will be forced into whatever beats are left, sometimes really making for an odd sound. Third, the midi interface works strangely when coupled with another drum machine in as much as the counts tend to drift apart (i.e. 108 beats per minute is NOT the same from machine to machine and becomes very noticeable several minutes into a song when the two beats are off). Fourth, the "remote" pedal is almost useless (cymbal crash - start/stop the "song") and is not re-programmable as I was told it would be. While it is handy to stop a song with, rather than go though the "drum solo" at the end of each song, it's not really very functional. Sixth, so far I cannot make the updating software work correctly, and the updated songs I was told would be available, so far aren't (to my knowledge - or then again, maybe I simply can't make the updating software work correctly). Whatever the problem with the update software, or a bad user interface, or a bad user (I'm a guitar player not a computer programmer), I would like to see a bit more user friendly an update mechanism be built. Last, it's a pedal, which means you have to bend over to fiddle with it to get to the next "song"... which with a guitar is not all that easy to do... the answer to this would be a pedal driven BOARD with the board on a stand and a bank of pedals to control the board, that way between songs simply reach over and change settings rather than trying to keep from banging the neck of the guitar on... anything. I reiterate that the sound is great (except for the drum solo INTO each "song" and out of each "song") and sounds most like a drum set than any other drum device I've used (I have half a dozen different machine/trigger pads from Roland to Simmons and BOSS and back), but the way the Beat Buddy starts, ends, and performs transitions leaves a little to be desired, especially considering the price.

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Is this an overpriced metronome? Yup, but it's a lot of fun also. Has very good sounding drum loops, as well as being able to customize anything you want. Very versatile.

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Nice idea in theory, but this thing just doesn't have tight, professional grooves for jazz, latin, funk, sambas, etc. It's ok for rock, pop, and country. But it is clunky and sounds like Gene Krupa on jazz beats. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the Groove Monkee jazz beats with the kick coming down on all for beats?? The kick in jazz grooves is used for accents only. The reason I purchased the Groove Monkee beats is the native jazz beats aren't that great either: Clunky overall. Very disappointing. I guess I'll be selling this thing to a rock musician on Reverb.

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it may be ok for the pros, but to normal players its to complex . sound is ok but too much like a fake . the downloads suck and the program is too timley. I personally didn't like it and I have been recording as a hobby for years.

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