60 Cycle Hum - DigiTech Trio VS. BeatBuddy 

I bought the trio plus and a day ive had its bloody excellent and loads of fun but also more playability than I could have imagined,,,,, absolutely love it

Nice review. Thanks for the demo!

I have both and the trio is a great tool for practicing lead guitar especially if you need to nail a lick on a passage of a song. I wouldn't call it a song creator but you can definitely lay down chords as verses and chorus etc then work out vocal lines or riffs and solos. The BB is s different beast to me. I use it every time our drummer misses a rehearsal. It keeps us gelled.

They both have their pros and cons... I ended up buying a Dr. Beat DR-880 by Boss/Roland. It's way more versatile if you don't mind spending some time w/ the manual.

Sound wise yeah the Beat Buddy does sound abit more real but I guess i'm one of the few who actually like the Trio, when you get into abit more it's actually really really flipping useful and sounds abit more full when you finally hit it just right.

The Trio doesn't even come close to what the BeatBuddy does imo.. with the premium card & footswitch I find it one of the best inventions ever made for the guitarist..

Trio firmware update adds features such as toggling simple bass on/off on the original Trio without a looper. Also can connect the FX3S pedal to control mute for bass/drum or both and toggle thru several other functions. Pretty amazing a 7 year old Trio pedal is still holding it's value and then some. Amazing technology.

Hello, tell me please. Is it possible to download the finished drum track for the whole song in wav format. ??? and play a concert without a drummer, only through this pedal. thanks

Great review. I have a BB and learned a few things about it I didn't know from your review! Wish there were a Bass Buddy!!

I'm a old school Recording Engineer, Drummer, Guitarist and Bass player and one might think why would you want either of these. Just got the Trio + and love the thing for creating and practice on the fly or in travel I can see it a great tool with a looper and other features added this thing rocks although it you have already a creation in mind and know how you want the other parts the machine may change your train of thought. I will borrow my friends Beat Buddy would and be checking it out this week. I think for live and studio it may have a slight upper hand but to put something together quick especially those ideas on in travel and with the 3 switch pedal your able to jump around to different parts that you have looped so you can actually use it live. Trio + sounds much better thru a PA. best to split the guitars to your guitar amp or amps and send the bass and drums into your PA. Both are Great tools and offer different things...

Looks like the best would be to have both and turn of the drums on the Trio

I sold my BeatBuddy a few months after purchase. I bought an Alesis SR18 instead, with a footswitch (and saved a lot of $$). Now I can get any sound I want. I could not justify the price of the BeatBuddy for any reason, personally. Cool video, Ryan!

I have the trio plus looper it is really awesome

I have the Beat-Buddy but wish I also had Bass as well. I love the beatbuddy playability options and simple functions. Question : Can you tether them together & play the beat buddy for drums and the trio for the bass ( turn the drums down on the trio ) ?

I'm guessing you can upload pro backing tracks to the BeatBuddy as well. Since simply a .wav file format.

I got my BBC today and it's awesome. Software is kinda hard in the beginning but a couple of RU-vid video tutorials you'll learn right away.

The manual let's you know that there are two sets of styles per genre, they are grouped by time signature, the right-most three are for 3/4 time, the rest for 4/4 time.

how about using both? the bass sounds great on the trio.. I guess you could sync

I'm considering buying either the Trio+ or the BB for playing live. I already have a looper and whammy octave pedal so which do you reckon?

I laughed when you said "that sounds phat!!" :-D

Sick surf setting!

I just feel like there is an overwhelming amount of songs on the beat buddy and you would need to really play around with it to find your sounds. It would be annoying for me to scroll through all of the song folders to find a rock sound to fit my guitar if I'm making music. On the other hand it would be amazing to jam to once I find the right song type and use the transition tools such as fills, outro, intro. Plus I could probably make use of importing some midi drums, "I'm not sure how tedious that process is but it is still cool." I could always just use my laptop and play my midi drums through there as well though so it may not be really enticing to go through that process. The Trio is amazing as well because it can pick up a beat that you make very quickly but doesn't have the live type of versatility that the beat buddy does with the transition tools and I think that is its major downfall. The complimentary bass line is an outstanding technological feature but to be honest it wouldn't be all that useful. The Trio being about $100, and the Beat Buddy being near $400 says it all about the quality of each one, but it boils down to what you rare really looking for. Are you going to play live? Do you just want to Jam? Personally I'm leaning toward the Trio at the moment and will maybe get a Beat Buddy later on because its way cheaper and easy to use. I might get the Beat Buddy later on if I feel it is necessary. I hope this helps.

The Trio is a machine that will put bass and drums to your song. It will learn your chords and put bass to them, that's why you buy a Trio. My Trio Plus is amazing. The BeatBuddy is a drum machine, no bass. Don't get me wrong its a great drum machine but comparing it to what the Trio does is comparing apples to oranges.

Ciao come faccio a sincronizzare il beat buddy con il trio band creator in modo da far partire il tutto sincronizzato. Come devo mettere i cavi?

What about SDRUM and the TRIO+ models?????????????? VS the BeatBuddy

Sir, thank you for the amazing video, please tell me one thing,for live performances how to you find beatbuddy,because mostly drum machines are very robotic sounding, please suggest if it sounds like a genuine live drummer

Very good review and video now I will buy a beatbuddy.

Is it possible to get rid of the intro fill? If it is, I'm buying it.

I have a trio+looper and it has a bit more option on beats and drum patterns also. And you can do sequences for a whole song. But it is TUFF to say gave an intro first part and a chorus without it having the same beat throughout. I’ll just say for me it has been REALLY HARD to use live other than like I said one beat through the whole song. The bass on the trio is cool. But I wish I had the beat buddy now. Or also

The trio is VERY useful as a time saving nutshell demo. i.e. using this to submit your ideas to a real drummer & bassist suggesting "What's your take on this?" The artists that they are, I'm sure they'll nail it. You had them coupled but, can they be used simultaneously? That is, the Trio bass only with drums at zero, input drums using the BB.

Well, I mean, yeah, both products seem to be OK to jam along with (but I agree the Beat Buddy has a bit more depth). But I fail to see how either pedal is superior to firing up the DAW in your PC and loading a drum sampler like Toontrack's EZ-Drummer or the very excellent Addictive Drums 2. Sure, it's a bit more work to set up the track, but really, 75% of it is just dragging-and-dropping MIDI patterns onto a MIDI track. I don't think I'd have a practical application for either product, although they might be fun to fiddle around with.

I'm sure this has already been said many times, but I just came across this video. You do not need a footswitch to change parts with the TRIO. Just push the LEDs.

They have a update for the Trio that gives you a simple bass mode & many fixes of bugs….

I think you can turn the bass off on the trio and use it as a drum machine as well.

I have beatbuddy but i dont know how to use buddy manager

Thank you!

The Trio+ drums are more digital to my ears! The Buddy sounds far more natural.

I hear the Jaco Bass Player was tuned down in a V2. On $ale models are leftover Jaco. Good loop idea though.

I’d be cool if you could refresh this product review with the new options

Nice comparison!

The BeatBuddy rocks!

I've got the Trio, the SDRUM and BeatBuddy pedals. I was really impressed with the Digitech stuff at first, but after getting ahold of the BeatBuddy, to me, the Digitech stuff sounds very weak. I'm a songwriter, and while great to write with, none of these pedals can replace a live drummer for performance or tracking. Ive tried! Lol They do sound more human than most drum machines that I've heard, but at the end of the day, they still have that robotic machine feel. Im annoyed that you can't adjust the mix of the kit in the BeatBuddy as well. The hats to me are way too overbearing. Just my take. I've got mixed emotions about all 3 pedals.

Any observations about using these with keyboards. My son is investigating electronic metronomes; he is a jazz pianist. I immediately thought he should look into an electronic beat pedal, instead. More fun, and might be more productive.

Both have their strong points....lean towards the drums from a guitarist point of view, but need a looper too.

does the beatbuddy not have a looper?

The ultimate would be the quality and functions of the Beat Buddy with the added functionality of the Trio eh ?

are yu locked into a certain chord progression with the bass ?

Hey What's up 50 Cycle hum here, question, how do you get rid of the hum?

Cheesy nursery music bass lines on the trio,

The Drum sounds on the Trio are Beat box &10 Years Behind ..where as the Beat Buddy sounds Like a Drum Kit

the beatbuddy sounds too clean, too clinical, too "muso" -- for lo-tech, real drum machine feel but with fills and with bass -- the trio plus is IT

Beat Buddy should win this comparison - it's double the price of the Trio. ;)

Bought a Trio on sale. After 2 weeks it started creating an awful screech when activated. Sent it back and they can't repair it since it's End of Life and even Digitech wouldn't fix it. Got a refund but am skittish about trying the upgraded Plus model.

Thanks

Dang near impossible to use trio and expect the same groove every time. Drums sound so digi. Returned it in 1 day. Am going to try a beat bud most no for my solo loop gigs. Sadly,no midi sync so I will have to record by into my ehx 22500 and have drums on 1 looper track,not ideal. Otherwise it will fall out of sync. But the drum sounds are much better.

more cowbell !

Stephen Malkmus wanted to call his first solo LP “Swedish Reggae”, but decided against it. Probably because he and his label(s) wanted it to be clear it was alt-rock not an alternative to rock. 😁

Comparing these things is a little wrong because they function so differently. I cannot see how the Trio can be used live (easily) Beatbuddy has problems on the set-up side but the window lets you see what's going on. I wouldn't want to perform with Trio but for practicing and writing...why not?

You actually can change the parts on the Trio without the optional FSX3 controller.

You said nothing about a 60 hz hum

I never liked the weird bass lines. Drove me crazy and sold it...

Boss RC3+Trio,powerful combination for writing and live performance if your brave.

Easier it would be to, connect via USB to your PC and make your own songs with Digitech trio and then go on stage and play yourself a whole songs xD

@ 7:50 sounded like the Drum intro on Institutionalized for a second or two.I have both and neither one motivates me enough to take them off the shelf.Thanks for the review. I remember 5-6 years back there were people raising hell about the Creator of this Beat off Buddy being a War Criminal in some Eastern European war ravaged rape station. Kosovo, or Croatia or some Butter Cup Milk Toast B.S. Anyone hear about that and/or have knowledge of or verification of such said atrocities ? These aligations stated that profits were used to finance weapons used to kill and oppress a certain group of opposition which included women and children. I still bought the M.F.'er. I don't pay much attention to shit of political nature from the internet or any network news Oakie-Doke two step propaganda. For all I know it could have been a scorned ex-Girlfriend or conservative liberal Nazi gangsterJew Hillbilly heroine junkie hogwash.Happy Trails and L-25 for life.

My only dislike with the Trio, is that "I have to play first, I have to teach it". What if I want to start a live song with drums first? = ( Beat buddy + foot switch, here I come.

well do i look for a better drummer, or a worst drummer because i have a bass?

Metal was wicked guitar scary good.

Beat buddy is clearly a better drum machine, but no bass, and no looping. You could turn down the drums on the the trio, and use the beat buddy for that. Otherwise you have to buy a looper and an octave pedal to match the functionality of the trio. Honestly that's the method I would use. That way you can customize bass lines, and loops independently.

This the guitar equivalent of a "Fleshlight' or a vibrator

Have you ever tried using both at the same time?

Thoughts on whether or not the TRIO + is better than the Beat Buddy?

No Blues settings demo? WTF?

I have the Beat Buddy and a Boomerang looper a fantastic combination , I got turned off Digitech after the iPB10 saga , Digitech takes your money then leaves you stranded , they were full of promises about new updates then NOTHING

at 1:40 the closed captioning spontaneously says 'no'... I don't think google liked your song.

To be honest I’ve used both and find The drums on both units sound like a Casio organ backing rhythm from the 1980s From my experience trio the better of the to. PS: no offence but that was a fucking terrible demo 😂

Is it Quantized? When something is quantized it takes the human feel out of it like playing with a machine that keeps perfect time. Too perfect and rigid. I have a Boss 880 Drum machine and you don't have to quantize it and it almost feels like your playing with a real drummer. The only think the 880's bass generator seems impossible to learn to use and the directions are worthless. That's why I'm considering a Trio.

Uhh....is this some kind of mistake? I clicked this video thinking it was a video on how to tell the difference between trout and smallmouth bass? Instead he's doing a demo on two cool guitar pedals?

Hola

The Trio was a great invention but unfortunately with one big issue: there´s no MIDI control possibility. And the same goes for Trio+ as well. Other ways it could be perfectly paired with the BeatBuddy. Digitech should really consider MIDI controls, the same goes for their - other ways great - looper serie (Solo). Without MIDI, you can not speak about any pairing of loopers, drum machines, etc. I own both Trio, Beatbuddy and a Digitech Solo looper, but the final solution was Beatbuddy + Boss RC300 Loop station in the end, connected via MIDI, of course. And that´s great!

..you really need to have great timing, there's no human element here..

The beatbuddy sounds awesome hooked up to a cheap peavey vypr vip amp..Then pick the bass amp button.. So for a extra 150 bucks you have a dedicated amp for the beatbuddy and can adjust all your treble bass and mids to the drums and cymbals..

Beatbuddy...or a computer.

TRIO+ coming soon $299

No competition... The Beat Buddy wins hands down. The Trio being advertised as an performance tool is kind of a joke really...

That beatbuddy ...the drum beats are too high tech & advanced imo ......I want a simple oldschool Metal beat, like old 1983 Tommy Lee, or Lars or old Slayer, etc etc ....no big swing shuffle snazzy modern metal stuff ...... Dont think that pedal has a beat like kick-2-3-4-snare-2-3-4-kick-2-3-4-snare-2-3-4 ....or kick kick kick kick snare kick kick kick Kick kick kick kick Snare kick kick kick & so on ....... instead its all Modern with crazy pro Percussion styles to it. I want old school simple Thrash or power metal 80s feel.

I bought a Trio after all the hullabaloo after Namm named it "best of show". I don't know what they were on at NAMM but it kind of sucks!

Tune that guitar

I don't like the Beat Buddy at all , it sounds really awful !!!! I owned one , but after 2 months , sold !!!! In 2021 I bought the band trio + , and .... despite the fact it still is a drumcomputer that needs a few updates (??) , I just love the very joyful band trio plus pedal , and that's because it always creates .... you don't know what's coming just after you have recorded your lines !!!!

the problem with the trio band creator is the bass lines suck . I ve had generation 1 & 2 . How about a easy normal bass line for us old guys

Beat buddy for writer? I don't think so. Its so bias judgement.

This is not the ( trio + )

no serbian ethno? forget it, man.....not buying it :)

I think the Trio was better than the beat buddy. beat buddy has all this processed crap. trio would be great for those times when you get an idea for a song. you can loop the main riff an instantly have your song filled out with what should go there. good way to see if the song is as good as we imagined it in our heads.

this guy can not play!

too bass heavy

Your review is dumb. The trio gives you bass and drums based on a chord progression u play, beatbuddy is just a static preprogrammed drum machine.

Problem is you can't play guitar yet

thanks great comparison, what is about the Trio plus that is out now? Also, I lean towards the BB, but would there be anything or variety for Blues genre like I play? if I do a 12 bar or 8, is there anything to go with that?thanks I appreciate the feedback

Stephen Malkmus wanted to call his first solo LP “Swedish Reggae”, but decided against it. Probably because he and his label(s) wanted it to be clear it was alt-rock not an alternative to rock. 😁