MIAMI
BEACH (August 26,
2014)— Singular Sound announced today that BeatBuddy
(www.mybeatbuddy.com),
the world's first guitar pedal/drum machine, has begun shipping its
sold out first production run and is now taking reservations for its
second production run.
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 BeatBuddy’s
inventor, guitarist David 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 Sept 26), of which more than 4,500 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.
