Review: Aeros Looper and BeatBuddy + jam download

Hi - I hope you're well! 

This week's video is a double feature - a review of Aeros and BeatBuddy by Singular Sound.

I've been interested in Aeros Loop Studio ever since it was announced.  The combination of multiple layers and multiple parts, along with visual feedback as to what's going on showed promise for a better looping experience, and Aeros didn't disappoint.

It's not cheap, and not perfect, but many of its firmware imperfections are promised as feature updates (not to me personally, but in the actual manual...), so if you're interested in loopers and have the budget for it, it's worth a look.

Obviously, there are cheaper solutions and I'm sure iPad apps will imitate its user interface, which, with a MIDI controller and audio interface might be an interesting alternative.

And then there's BeatBuddy - a different approach to the drum machine genre that prioritizes performance over programmability - with a clearly stated goal to replace a drummer...

While you can expand its controls with a footswitch or MIDI controller, all its material performance functions can be executed with a single button (pedal) press, and it sounds great thanks to very well programmed factory beats and kits with extensive multisampling support, which supports multiple samples per velocity level, played at random, to give a more natural feel.

You can't program beats using the device itself - you'll need to use the companion software, which has an editor and can also import MIDI files. In terms of capabilities for fills, intros, outros and transitions it's one of the more powerful drum machines I've seen, but you'll need to use the software to create and edit beats.

In case you're interested, the full jam is included as a download attached to this post.

So... that's it for now - I have a ton of things in the pipeline - I've got the new Keystep Pro in for review (awaiting a final firmware), and a few other exciting surprises on the way so stay tuned!

All my best,

Ziv (finally actually looping on a youtube channel called "Loopop"...)