In a press release issued on Friday, October 10, Singular Sound announced that their new product, BeatBuddy (more information can be found by clicking HERE), is the world’s first guitar pedal/drum machine hybrid, has completed shipping its sold out first production run and has almost completely sold out its second production run, to be delivered later this month.
From the company:
“The response from the musician community has been staggering, inspiring and humbling,” said BeatBuddy’s inventor, guitarist David Packouz, “we literally cannot produce units fast enough to meet demand.”
Musicians flooded BeatBuddy’s Facebook page with praise after receiving their units. “Great product, well worth the wait,” said Keith Barrowcliff, “every guitarist of any genre and any ability should have one.”
“The sound shocked my wife,” said Robby Felix, “she says that it doesn’t sound ‘electronic’. The sounds are original and resemble the real thing. Love it. Just love it.”
BeatBuddy is the perfect accessory for guitarists, bassists and keyboard players, or anyone who wants live control of a beat with the hands-free ease of a pedal. Unlike traditional drum machines, BeatBuddy is a small, single pedal that offers real-time creative control, making it ideal for solo players, singer/songwriters and music educators.
“Any musician can attest that good drummers are hard to come by, many venues don’t have the space for a drum kit, and drum machines aren’t practical for jamming or live gigging,” said Packouz. “BeatBuddy solves these issues by giving guitarists, bass players and even keyboard players something they never had before: the power of a drum machine with the hands-free simplicity of a pedal. Complete creative control.”
The BeatBuddy enables musicians to effortlessly insert fills, transition from verse to chorus, add accent hits such as cymbal crashes or hand claps, and throw in drum breaks to create an unprecedented live drummer effect.
In addition to being a powerful performance tool, the BeatBuddy visually displays the beat, which makes it an invaluable educational device for improving rhythm and learning new time signatures. “The next generation of musicians will have much more solidly innate rhythmic chops. Using a fun device like the BeatBuddy encourages music students to explore and challenge themselves musically,” said Cleaveland Jones, musical director of the Miami School of Rock. “I see it becoming standard in every classroom and in every practice space.”
With non-quantized MIDI recordings of real studio session drummers, multi-layered dynamic samples and advanced loop transition algorithms, BeatBuddy accomplishes another first: a drum machine that doesn’t sound like a machine.
BeatBuddy comes pre-loaded with 10 unique drum kits and includes more than 200 songs in a wide variety of styles. Beyond the pre-loaded content, musicians can also create any song or drum set with the included BeatBuddy Manager PC/Mac software, download new content from the ever-expanding BeatBuddy Online Library, and share their creations or discover user-generated content on BeatBuddy’s Community Forum. “BeatBuddy is not just a device, it’s a platform for the world’s beats,” said Goran Rista, Singular Sound’s Director of Content.
Other features include tempo adjustment via a knob or tap tempo, hands-free song advance and tap tempo control, MIDI sync for integration with MIDI-based devices, a headphone jack, SD card slot, mini USB connection, full stereo sound and more.
Packouz created the unique hybrid guitar pedal/drum machine out of the frustration he and other musicians encountered using drum machines, which were either complicated table-top devices that were very difficult, if not impossible, to control while jamming, or only really offered a single repetitive beat loop.
“BeatBuddy puts the power of a live drummer literally at your feet,” said Packouz.
Because of how revolutionary it is, there’s been a big buzz in the music community about the BeatBuddy drum machine since December 2013, when its Indigogo campaign achieved full funding of its target within a mere 20 hours, and proceeded to become the most successful crowdfunding campaign for any musical product.
Singular Sound is currently taking reservations for up to 5,000 units (shipping Oct 28), of which more than 4,900 units have already been reserved. Once these 5,000 units are completely sold out, the next available stock will be ready on November 20, 2014.
For more information or to order, visit http://mybeatbuddy.com