akai announces $200 analog drum and bassline machine

cooooooooooooooooooooool

Poor Roland.

lol

looks great.

Aye, I just saw the frenzy kicking off about it on gearslutz..... it also seems there is a new APC40, a mini version of that, a mini key PAC combo thing and a 16 pad version of their sample playback thingie. Seems akai are going hog wild.

Still this is all more fuel to the option paralysis fire. Defo no need to rush into buying anything these days, chances are a new and cool alternative is just around the corner anyway.

  On 3/10/2014 at 10:38 PM, Gocab said:

Poor Roland.

this. doesnt get any better than this i guess.

edit: sooo happy that alot of amazing AND cheap gear is coming out these days. f'ck computers anyway, right?

Thanks for posting this, there's no way I'm not getting my hands on this by the end of the year.

Last year we had the Korg Volca series (although I thought the beats was really the only good one of the lot), now this... hardware is becoming cheaper and cheaper my friends.

i hope they make the drums not so similar to the original x0x machines. wonder what they'll sound like.

kinda weird how all of a sudden theres this revival of analog stuff and tons of it hits

but for years there wasnt so much in the way of new analoggins

weird but cool that its happening

supply and demand! Analog has now reached the point where anyone who know any little bit about synths thinks that analog is better. So basically there is just now a market for it. Remember that all these companies that make this gear, Akai, Roland, Korg are all giant corporations and they need some solid evidence that a market exists before they jump in a new direction.

Really you can thank Korg as they basically tested the waters.

Akai just destroyed the competition lol.

Well, let's hear it in action first..

As long as the snare is good I think they're onto a winner although I'm surprised they excluded a clap.

if this sounds good, WILL be buying it. it is exactly what need.

don't *need* analog leads, pads, strings, bells, keys (though they're obviously preferable)

do feel that *need* analog bass, and to a certain degree analog drums. just can't get down with VST bass

we'll see how it sounds first. cant wait

akai , you are now a contestant on the price is right.

yeh the price is so hot that these things are prob going to be snatched right up just based on that, unless it hits and sounds like total ass, which seems unlikely

fair amount of knobs, thing just looks like a serious contender for possibly most affordable, versatile analog drum machine ever

very interested in hearing it and i wasn't in the market for an analog drum machine. volca beats didn't blow me away based on youtube demos, i'm sure its great to use but it just didnt wow me. hoping this does

edit- it's also kinda interesting that this is coming from akai. what was the last analog anything theyve done? this? looks like they only did a couple analog synths back in the 80s

can't wait to hear this

yo imma have to take advantage of this sweet deal too bad it don't come out till summer

another thing that's cool to consider about this, is that if akai, who is known for samplers and only did very few analogs ever, is now stepping into the analog ring, maybe korg just set off a mini revolution, and hopefully this all has some impact on the world of music...

edm style wubs and gurgles done with massive might sound 'cool' the first time you hear them, but it became a gimmick quickly. i guess some analog synths were exploited for a few gimmicky sounds like the hoover, but in general i just think the people who go after an analog synth are more about composing good music with a nice sounding instrument rather than making gimmicky FX garbage (and i'm not saying massive or other vsts cant do good music). hopefully this is a thing happening here. some kind of renaissance. not necessarily of all-analog production, but more discerning taste..

(PS everything i said there is prob kinda dumb but its an attempt to express some kind of more general optimism i'm trying to feel here)

interesting point. It'd be nice to get a bunch of these recently released boxes and crank out some pretty, ambient techno.. That said, I kinda prefer digital drum machines (alesis hr16 ).

  On 3/12/2014 at 2:13 AM, MisterE said:

another thing that's cool to consider about this, is that if akai, who is known for samplers and only did very few analogs ever, is now stepping into the analog ring, maybe korg just set off a mini revolution, and hopefully this all has some impact on the world of music...

 

edm style wubs and gurgles done with massive might sound 'cool' the first time you hear them, but it became a gimmick quickly. i guess some analog synths were exploited for a few gimmicky sounds like the hoover, but in general i just think the people who go after an analog synth are more about composing good music with a nice sounding instrument rather than making gimmicky FX garbage (and i'm not saying massive or other vsts cant do good music). hopefully this is a thing happening here. some kind of renaissance. not necessarily of all-analog production, but more discerning taste..

 

(PS everything i said there is prob kinda dumb but its an attempt to express some kind of more general optimism i'm trying to feel here)

seeing how popular the volca set is and noticing many people who strictly use VST's started using them, i'd have to say the world will be seeing many more affordable analog pieces which is great because yah boy can't afford over half of whats out there. $200 is a steal imo

hear and see it here: http://www.soundonsound.com/news?NewsID=17051

  On 3/11/2014 at 5:44 PM, The Bro said:

As long as the snare is good I think they're onto a winner although I'm surprised they excluded a clap.

Is it even possible to recreate a clap with analogue synthesis? I don't think so...

sure is.. getting quite okay claps out of the A4..

no sound demo :(