so the Beat thang is actually at my local bestbuy

[EpikureeR]

well the beat thang is going back to best buy in the morning, would have been today but decided to give it another go just for the fun of it.

It's a remarkable idea in that it's like a neko but smaller and ultra portable, unlike a neko it doesn't run third party software yet.

it's build is very good and very unique with pitch /mod wheels, 2 sd slots, ability to save and import audio and sequences to an external drive, even thumb drive, and decent battery life. I think it's great that it comes with a nice rom of sounds and 256mb of ram out of the box as well as the battery is a rechargeable that you don't have to change it's like a laptop. they really made it so that you don't need anything else it's really ready to go right out of the box. oh yeah the screen is great too.

unfortunately it's far from ready at this time imho, who knows maybe tomorrow they'll upgrade the software and it will be the greatest thing but as of right now it is not.
for something that runs on software and just came out today they have developed the machine with the mindset of yesterday when it comes to the heart of the machine which are it's capabilities.

to much global going on, the fx section is awful, and the fx are awful, some of them didn't even change the sound when used, plus the fx are global and each track or pad can send whatever amount you determine to the fx but if you've pressed an effect button the whole machine is using that effect and that can't be changed. coming out with something like this at this date and time is un-acceptable to say the least.

the swing and quantize are global as well, also unacceptable in this day and age

the software is glitchy, sometimes my patterns would slow down for know reason. the buffer settings go from 256 up to 2048 but it improved things very little when adjusting these settings.

the layering on this machine is what you wish your layering was, no matter what kind of hardware or software you're using now, it boggles my mind how they could make it so good and the rest not even in the same ball park. it's the story of an operating system at odds with itself.

well like I said I'm disappointed, this machine has all the hardware in place for something magical but the capability of it's software falls extremely short. It was a frustrating experience. If you have any specific questions about it post it up and I'll try to answer them.
oddly enough this thread reminded me of this movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVtsvIpJFTw

surprise?

[Tone Deft]

I stand corrected. a google image search on "Best Buy music instruments" shows some cool setups (who needs to leave the house to see things <sarcasm>?!?) given that this is a Beat Thang AND a Starving Student thread I took it as some shark jumping. one of the BBs in SF has some musical instruments, it's a sad site.

the ones near me have 'Magnolia' sections in their stores, which is their high end audio section, maybe they're opting for that instead of instruments around here.

no worries mate, you weren't that far off from the truth, there's allot of sharks talking shit in this thread but as usual I'm not one of them. but just so you know in the future, It's not possible for me to give bad info on samplers, it's not in my dna.

when you return the Thang, get yourself a $150 bass guitar.

gotta say, you crazy man. you actually went and picked one of these things up?

funny that the guys from Beat Kangzs' posts have been taken down, that guy was an ass.

[regretfullySaid]

I would've loved to seen it but, you know, you can't have some immature and unprofessional action going on if you're trying to be a spokesperson.
It seems like this thing was made because of a friend of the family favor or something.

Hope the restocking fee isn't a rip off! At least he tried it before he knocked it.

[Tone Deft]

I would've loved to seen it. You can't have some immature and unprofessional action going on if you're trying to be a businessman, though.

victims of the hip hop tough guy persona. total posers, yo.

[jimmynitcher]

people starving in Sudan

[regretfullySaid]

people starving everywhere, cheeky nonce
Bono doesn't hang here.

[starving student]

what's this you say tone, someone from the beat kangz posted in this thread?
or you talking about over at mpc forums.

just got back from bestbuy, no restocking fee, 30 day return policy, lucky for them or I would not have even tried it. I really wanted to keep it, it's just not up to snuff right now., I stayed up for 3days with that thing and probably can use it better than the kangz at this point. I wish them success because so much potential is there, they need to let peter from create digital music have one for a few months and he'll find someone to sort that shit out.

waitin on roger linn now

[Tone Deft]

when this Thang was in early development one of the guys in charge was posting here drumming up support. he made a complete ass of himself. it was a year or two ago.

[starving student]

when this Thang was in early development one of the guys in charge was posting here drumming up support. he made a complete ass of himself. it was a year or two ago.

oh I had forgotten about that, seems like they did that on other forums as well, shame really as they've got some serious hardware on their hands, I'd love to see roger linns face if someone asked him to put mod and pitch wheels on a drumsampler he'd be like ...........ummm i don't think soooo

[H20nly]

^ ha! i remember that. brutal.

more props to ya for trying it before you knock it student.

arctic ranger asked a question that you never answered though: does it go above 103 bmp?

i wonder if Dallas Austin's parents are from Texas and if his middle name is Houston??

[starving student]

^ ha! i remember that. brutal.

more props to ya for trying it before you knock it student.

arctic ranger asked a question that you never answered though: does it go above 103 bmp?

i wonder if Dallas Austin's parents are from Texas and if his middle name is Houston??

you know you're right, I never did answer that one did I, , .. 'hey Arctic the beat thang only has one bpm setting and it's 104

[nuxnamon]

Whats with the 103 bpm thang?

Good that you were able to return it. Now do us a favor and try Spark and give us a full report! I'd be more interested in that.

[starving student]

Whats with the 103 bpm thang?

Good that you were able to return it. Now do us a favor and try Spark and give us a full report! I'd be more interested in that.

if it didn't need a computer to run it I would have already tried it but a drum machine really? there might be a reason they called it spark and not fire cause it's not a sampler, I did glance over the specs though, I think I'm good with maschine in that catagory.

[H20nly]

Whats with the 103 bpm thang?

^ there's not much hip-hop or RnB that goes beyond 103 bpm. i think that's what arctic ranger was getting at. that's how i took it when i LOL'd... and i seriously doubt you'll see too many hard house producers or death metal composers using one of them. YOMV

[arctic ranger]

Whats with the 103 bpm thang?

^ there's not much hip-hop or RnB that goes beyond 103 bpm. i think that's what arctic ranger was getting at. that's how i took it when i LOL'd... and i seriously doubt you'll see too many hard house producers or death metal composers using one of them. YOMV

That's kinda what I was joking about...

I really think that in the future you are gonna see some creative dudes using this thang to create some wicked breaks/house/dnb type of thing - kinda what it's not really marketed to do. Of course I'm only saying this when you see these things turn up on craigslist for a couple of hundred....