Beatbuddy & TC Helicon Harmonizer Demo (Knocking on Heaven's Door)

schembre
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 1:28 am

Finally got some time to play with my new ... well almost new ... toys - a BeatBuddy and a TC Helicon Harmonizer. This is a quick demo I threw together for a friend who was interested in them, so I figured maybe some of your are too. I have about maybe an hour of play time on them when I recorded this, and maybe 15 minutes of it standing up. I will say you don't master these out of the box like the manufacturer’s demos might suggest, and it does take some degree of athletic ability to keep stomping on both boxes when needed (and I picked an easy song). I met the designer of Beatbuddy at NAMM, and the only advise he gave me was "PRACTICE" like it's your guitar. Everything is plugged into my amp - a Roland KC-550 and I didn't do any sound/EQ check, just wanted to get the toys working together. Anyway, I'd be happy to answer any questions for those how might be thinking of getting these.

Enjoy,
Bob



kelemenj
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 7:52 am

Hey Bob,
First of all, nice job on the song.
Secondly, nice use of the effects. The beat buddy seems pretty nice. I sometimes really enjoy watching guitarists/singers utilize harmonizers, loopers, and other pedals to create something. I have a digitech harmonizer that I play with sometimes but it would seem that the TC is probably a better product.


I have really been on the fence about the beat buddy. I definitely think it could add that little something extra. Let me ask you this, Do you program the beats, use a preprogrammed template, or a combo for both. I usually have about 60-70 tunes ready to go at any one time, can the beat buddy memory accomodate a sizable playlist. I actually do think I will get one and see how it goes.

Oh and nice use of the TC. I generally use either the 3rd above or unison setting and use it sparingly.

Thanks for posting,
John


BobR
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 9:29 am

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the demo. Sounds really cool. And as John pointed out nice job on the song. I liked the harmonica too.

Bob


crieniecat
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 10:42 am

Very enjoyable to listen too.
Really nice post Bob :-)

Cheers
Corina


sandysue
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 12:15 pm

Nice Bob, you sound great. All of those gigs that you've been going to are really paying off, and the equipment that you are using makes it sound really professional. I especially like the harmonizer. It would be really nice to have a system like that. Hope you post us some more videos.

Sandy


schembre
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 12:30 pm

Thanks John,
As I said, I haven't been using the Beatbuddy very long, but I have put some time into using tha application for creating beats. I've been an engineer for the past 35 years, and I can tell you, it isn't as simple as it should be. BeatBuddy come with a lot of preloaded beats, so if you know the BPM of your songs, you should be able to find a plausible pattern and set the BPM very quickly. So with that said, you would think that all you have to do is copy the patterns you like and tweak accordingly; however, the application doesn't cut & paste, you have to export, then import (and remember where you exported to). Like anything else, once you invest the time into learning something, it starts to seem easy ... I haven't invested that time yet. The Beatbuddy website has a user area where owners post the beats they created; that's where I got Knocking on Heaven's Door. The big selling point of the Beatbuddy for me is that I can create a play-list and cycle through it via the foot-switch, so I don't have to fumble between songs. So, I have created a folder called "Bob's Gig" and have about a dozen songs in there right now, but if you're like me and play on your own, you don't stick to a set list.

A friend of mine turned me on to Trio by Digitech, its a drummer and Bass player (you can shut the bass off), the thing it does that I like is it learns the song you're playing, but it can only learn 3 parts (I think); anyway, it's not well suited for live gigs if you want to go from one song right into another; but I am hoping that the Beatbuddy people take a cue from digitech and release a firmware update that allows Beatbuddy to create a beat on the fly, based on the guitar input, like the trio does.

As far as Harmonizer goes ... yes, I heed your point about not letting it dominate. I have a low voice, so I don't plan on using the intervals below my voice, although I see demos where above and below sound great ... I'm not there yet. I think for most applications a third above will work; and if I need help hitting a high note, I can switch on a 5th and cheat. What I really like about the TC pedal is that it has a tone processor that can be used independent of the harmony or reverb; so you can actually get a nice mic sound by plugging into an amp for a small job.

Anyway, all this stuff is an instrument in itself and requires constant use to master ... I only started really using it all yesterday ...


schembre
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 12:34 pm

Thanks Bob, Corina, & Sandy - the harmonizer is fairly cheap if you keep your eyes open - they're $200, but you can find used ones a lot cheaper.


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neverfoundthetime
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 2:08 pm

Many thanks for the show and tell Bob. The harmoniser sounds pretty good.
I'm just starting to spend time with my new Roland AC60 amp and I see it has a foot switch input for looping ... may investigate that at some point but I have to say, it is pretty uncomfortable playing with all the gear and concentrating on so much, its going to take some practice to get comfy with any plugged in gear.


schembre
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Sun Apr 19, 2015 9:27 pm

You got that right, Chris. At NAMM in Jan, I met the guy who designed the BeatBuddy; I asked him a bunch of questions concerning ease of use, and he said, "you have to learn to play it like you learned any other instrument". At least we don't have to relearn the guitar every 5 years!

Bob


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