BeatBuddy Mini: Personal Drummer

I’ve been playing/practicing guitar for about 3 years and got the Beat Buddy Mini a few months ago, so my perspective is that of a student.This is such a great tool for practicing. It’s very easy to set up and use and it has such a huge benefit in terms of keeping you honest with your timing and tempo. And it’s a ton more fun than using a regular metronome. If you do just want a metronome this does that too and is a fantastic metronome. But it’s so much more fun to use & listen than a metronome that I end up wanting to use it a lot more. I’ll leave it on the majority of the time I’m practicing.The user interface on this is great. It’s really simple to use and really simple to navigate through the large list of tracks that are in it.The BBM is very flexible in terms of setup, it can be used with a stereo system or other speaker instead of as part of your guitar input chain. That’s my favorite way to use it. You can also plug it into the AUX input on an amp if you have that. This is preferable for me as I the drum sounds won’t be affected by an overdriven amp or adjustments to the tone stack on the amp.In terms of sound it depends on your goals and perspective. I think it sounds pretty good, but you can tell you’d probably not be happy trying to record a track and using this. It’s not marketed for that anyway. What I find is if you alter the tempo of a song by too much you’re going to hear an artifact every few bars. If you keep the tempo around the suggested default for a track it sounds better.If I could only have one guitar pedal/effect I might choose this considering I’m mostly playing alone.

The sound was great, but then, all of a sudden, it stopped working!!!!!!

I wanted a compact metronome/drum machine for my writing/living room setup, something that would give me a variety of grooves to practice with and work out parts. The BeatBuddy Mini does exactly what I needed. No fuss, no muss, the drums sound decent, and it's pretty easy to use.This pedal doesn't allow you to create or edit beats, but it has plenty of them onboard in a variety of genres, with intro, outro and transition fills...even B-section beats.I don't have the additional footswitch (yet), so some of the pedal functions require a little tap-dancing using the single swithc, but it gets easier with time.Folks who are looking for a more full-featured drum machine that allows them to create or edit rhythms should go for the regular BeatBuddy. This pedal is good for practicing or writing at home, when you don't really want or need to fiddle with editing. That's all I wanted and I'm very happy with this purchase.

My husband has been playing and teaching guitar for over 20 years, and we decided to buy this pedal. I'm an amateur guitarist myself, and absolutely love the BeatBuddy Mini! I myself use it to practice, and he uses it to teach—his students really like learning with an actual drum beat instead of a tick-tock metronome, and it helps them "solidify" the rhythm more, especially for tricky rock guitar solos and for syncopated rhythms. We got the optional footswitch as well, which I think makes the pedal more fun. It's not necessary (the pedal still works great without it), but it is definitely worth paying a little extra for, in my opinion. The two work seamlessly together and compliment one another.Awesome pedal: the guys over at BeatBuddy are doing something right. My only regret is that we didn't buy the full version…but maybe we'll have to check it out!

I really enjoy using this BB mini, I first plugged it in my regular practice amp and the sound quality was not that great, I have an acoustic amp also and tried using on that one and what a difference, great sound. I use both amps when I play electric guitar and when I use my acoustic guitar I just use the one amp with the BB.This BB mini is easy to use, no batteries, have to plug it in to house current. Can't load any new beats, can't download like the higher priced BB, but that's ok, I am still a beginner so I only use the the beats loaded in the mini. It does help me keep in time and really fun to play with.

I would love to have given this five stars, but there is no way to turn it off. What is up with that. Now I have to have it on a separate wall strip. It works, its simple to operate. Good for a practice room, I personally wouldn't want to gig with it. But come on.......no way to turn it off without unplugging it? Just what we need, more chords, plugs and switches hooked up to our pedal boards. Frankly I wouldn't have bought it if I had known about the power issue.

I had hoped this would be better but I was disappointed. The drum sounds are thin and cheap sounding. Also the on/off button didn't always stop the beat with just 2 taps. I really hoped it would be better so I returned it.I needed a simple "drum machine" type device so I could play along with my bass to help me learn. The BeatBuddy mini didn't give me the sounds or beats i wanted.I purchased a Korg KR mini and I find it better for me than the BBmini. The Korg is cheaper and has more realistic drum sounds and a lot of nice basic rock, pop, r&b type beats, simple.Pros:Easy to usewide assortment of rythymsComes with a power adapterBuilt goodCons:A lot of rhythms but too many silly or useless ones. Not enough basic rock or pop beats.Being an ex drummer, the drum sounds are thin and toy sounding. Not heavy enough.The packaging is quite nice, but how much $ does that nice presentation and box add to the price?The fixed intros and fills are stupid sounding.Not realistic at all

this product stopped working in less than a month .... unfortunately for me i waited 40 days to try to return and the 30 day return policy had passed for me to get an exchange and there is no way to contact anyone about this problem ..... so i am stuck with a pedal that does not work .... doubt that i will risk buying this again