F
Split decision
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.
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.
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JO
Great hardware and sound , let down by flakey software
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.
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.
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