Earlier today, a friend of mine introduced me to the music of the famous Brazilian poet, political activist and singer/songwriter, Caetano Veloso. Since then, I’ve had Latin music floating around my brain, and I needed to track something…
So this evening, while practicing with my new BeatBuddy, I set it on a Bossa Nova patch, then started playing around. Within a few minutes, I came up with a cool, jazzy chord progression in Gmaj7 that I laid down on top of the drum track. Plus, I was experimenting with the BeatBuddy’s MIDI sync, so I thought it would be perfect way to get the Latin music tracked, and properly use the BeatBuddy in a recording by synching it with Logic. Here’s the song entitled B-B-B-Bossa Nova Veloso:
The incredible thing about that track was that the drums were recorded live with the BeatBuddy while I played along. Moreover, Logic, my DAW software was keeping time, and sending timing signals to the BeatBuddy, so all the beats were in sync with the measures of the song! Furthermore, all the fills and the transitions were done WHILE I WAS RECORDING!!! I didn’t stop to add another loop segment and “build” the drum track like I normally do. It was all in the BeatBuddy pedal, where I could trigger fills, transitions, and even accents while I played along. Freakin’ incredible!
Yeah, the BeatBuddy is defintely a game-changer. Having a drummer in a box totally sparks my creativity. I don’t have to spend time assembling drum tracks any longer, which takes time, and sometimes kills my creative spark. But with the BeatBuddy, I just listen to a patch, and if it works for me, I just start playing and see where it takes me.
Even if you’re not a gigging musician or don’t record, the BeatBuddy is an incredible tool for practicing. Not only can you practice staying in time, but you can practice your expression as you trigger fills and transitions. This thing’ll help you learn to perform, not just keep you in time! Check it out at mybeatbuddy.com! (and no, I’m not affiliated with the company)
Guitar Gear 
How does one use Logic to keep time and send timing signals to the device?
The BeatBuddy has a MIDI port and can be set up as a master and slave. I don’t know – at least yet – how to set it up as a master. In any case, setting up MTC signals in Logic is easy. In my version of Logic, it’s in the File | Project Settings | MIDI tab. There’s an option to send the time clock signal out. You can specify where in the drop-down. I choose my digital audio interface (MBox2). Then whenever I play or record a song, the BeatBuddy will receive the MTC signal.
Note that with the BeatBuddy hooked up, as soon as I hit record, the BeatBuddy started the intro loop, so I had to disable count in. That’s also in the Project Settings dialog box.