THE ZRO HOUR: Interview with THE BEAT KANGZ and Preview of THE BEAT THANG Sampling Drum Machine from EDAYE on Vimeo.
"When beatboxer Chesney Snow told me about a drum machine he was working on (Chesney provided human beat box sounds for the drum machine) with Tennessee production crew THE BEAT KANGZ, I combed the net for more info as I picked their brain. I had posted a couple of articles on THE BEAT THANG- synthesizer, sampler, sequencer- and connected with their publicist for the interview above. It was suggested that we do it through Skype, which was a great idea. It was my first time using Skype and though I had a bit of technical difficulties during set up, I was able to record our great conversation about THE BEAT THANG, the desktop version THE BEAT THANG VIRTUAL and the iphone app THE PLAYA THANG!"
Update: finally had the time to watch this a bit more. It's a great interview.
You might remember the Zoom Streat Box they mention from this previous post back in 2006.
It's a trip to see these guys got from there to here. I can't help but see them as underdogs in a corporate synth world. Just before 12:00 the interviewer mentions the ability to trigger vids with the pads. Made me think of this vid with the monome doing just that.
Update: iPhone app at around 21 minutes in.
You can find videos of the virtual version here. Apparently you get the software free with the hardware or if you buy the software for $149 , you get that as a credit on the hardware. http://www.beatkangz.com/
Thank you for posting my interview with the Beat Kangz! I am very excited about this release and I wanted to share with all the gearheads. I will keep your site as one to watch. Great posts on here...
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome EDAYE. It's a great interview.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see the team behind this product speaking in a clear, lucid, intelligent, and detailed way about it - and not reinforcing negative stereotypes and pushing empty hype and aggressive bravado as they initially did when they announced their product.
ReplyDeleteI'm 100% with Gustavo! Thumbs up. Very nice & informative intelligen interview.
ReplyDeleteThe Beat Thang will be a well needed enema for the competition to get their specs up-to date, to the least.
I've owned and used several Akai MPCs and right now on a Roland Fantom G and when I look at the specs on this little monster, I'm just wondering wtf Roland, Akai and Yamaha are up to.
The connectivity is exactly as it should be, the software/hardware integration is phenomenal, the workflow looks excellent, the software itself looks _very_ promising and I have high hopes of the hardware.
I did see some pad double triggering on a video, but when it looped back, I could hear no phasing so that must be taken care of by the software, which is nice.
I was a bit dissappointed not to find a DEMO version of the software on the beat kings website. Did I miss something, or isn't there one?
it was a great interview, and I'm glad they put it up. Edaye came through on that one.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the demo, I've been told they are working on one, as well as a downloadable purchase for those that don't want/need the usb drive and packaging.
I will say the software is very fun to use, a few updates and workflow enhancements and it will be the software to beat.
Sure it doesn't do everything ableton live or something can, but I have live for that.
This software really feels more like an instrument, and I have fun just getting the tech stuff out of the way and making music.
I'm with Jesse J, it makes you wonder how Roland, Akai, Korg, emu, whoever...how they dropped the ball lol.
But who cares! We're getting what we want so let's go!
I'm ready for the hardware personally
http://BeatKangzBeatThang.com