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OFFICIAL FORUMS : http://www.beatkangz.com/forum/

Unoffical forums at : http://beatthangz.ning.com/forum

Sign up and post some threads if you have any actual interest in the Beat thang.


Let's keep this going. Peace to everyone.

If you want real info, you'll have to wait until someone like me gets a hardware unit in possession, because a lot of what is floating around the net is disinformation.

Your touchscreen request, it sounds nice in theory, in practice it wouldn't work very well. Touchscreens needs calibration. Trying to get any precision on a 3.5" display would be tough. Their software doesn't even do anything with mouse input yet, only the wheels. They have so many other things they need to develop, and you want them to add all the necessary stuff for touchscreen just for you, and maybe a few others? Now when you want an update, your OS is different than the regular, because yours needs touchscreen drivers and code for handling interactive inputs. If they add that to everyone else's OS it bloats it, but they can't maintain separate OS' just for you.

Aja was probably in the heat of the moment, and talking the talk. If he told the developers, "We're gonna give this dude a touchscreen for $200", they should be responding with, "Bad idea".

I just watched a video interview with the Kangz. The amount of disinformation is unbelievable. It's basically like some rich kids paid some engineers to build them a fighter jet. They've got it in their backyard, with really bad-ass looking decals. It's got their logo, and a crazy paint job. They have a cockpit that automatically lifts open with the touch of a button on their remote control. They get inside and show all these buttons explaining all the stuff it can do. It's got missles, and laser beams. They push a button and loud music comes pounding out massive subs, with crazy EQs dancing on the dash. They have some people in the back smoking a blunt. They're getting lost in all these crazy stories about how they'll fly around the world, twice, then land in Egypt and discover lost treasure, and then shoot some bad guys and then aliens will chase them so they have a turbo boost to escape.

But they don't even have their pilot's license, and the jet, although looking hot with lights and working lasers, doesn't even have fully functional engines yet. They just make loud noises.

Using ning.com isn't a good idea. They should've had their own forums setup months ago. They could set them up in 1 day if they wanted.

I hate to sound trite but they should have come up with another name. It sounds like they smoked some weed and angel dust and then thought of the first thing that came to mind.

Hey, Hey, How about Beat Thang.

Everything you can say about the name and their attitude has already been said. They're not going to change, so get over it. Mooger Fooger is a retarded ass name from someone like Bob Moog, but it gets by just okay. Or even something like Mo'Phatt from Emu. But that supposedly has some sick sounds.

And you saying that they're a buncha rich kids who hired a engineers, well duh. How else do you build a product?

And for musicians to build a jet would be stupid. But they're not building a jet, are they? No, they're building a musical instrument.

As far as touchscreen, I'll let them figure it out because that's their job. I don't need a $200 touchscreen, just include support for touchscreen tablets to work with the beat thang in real time via usb or something.

Jamon wrote:
But they don't even have their pilot's license

Using ning.com isn't a good idea. They should've had their own forums setup months ago.

No pilots license? Aja supposedly worked as a product specialist for Samsung before designing the SB-246 with zoom. And they have Bob Erzin onboard (there is a video of him in the studio briefly hyping up the beat thang). They have more of a "license" than most the members on this forum combined.

As far ning.com, you gotta use what you got at the moment. No one else but you is complaining about not having "official" forums, because as you can see, the MPC doesnt even have an "official" forum.

He didn't design anything with Zoom, he recorded some sounds.

The stupidity surrounding this product comes from all sides.

And without the sounds, what would the sb-246 be?

and you;re right. most of the stupidity comes from people pre-ordering a product and then criticizing that product before they even have it.

You're right. Without some sound files, anyone can make by pressing a record/stop button, a complex electronic device would be nothing.

I'm scared for our future.

Jamon wrote:He didn't design anything with Zoom, he recorded some sounds.

The stupidity surrounding this product comes from all sides.

Yep. The box was already made. Just add sounds and a silver paint job.

have to laugh at dude pre-ording the hardware then bitching and dissing the product also the dude that found out about the affiliate scheme then came on-line and posted the private mail and dissed it that was some snake shit forreal.

but yeah dudes took the beat thang too personal it is great marketing by the kangz getting peeps talking about they product.

valid point about the mo phat and mooger fooger but peeps still reap the mo phatt, not everyone needs multiple outs i think the feature set on the thang is perfect.

from what i see the fact that dude did the sounds for streetbox is what made it successful so it seems like a good background to come from to make this product.

have to laugh at dude pre-ording the hardware then bitching and dissing the product also the dude that found out about the affiliate scheme then came on-line and posted the private mail and dissed it that was some snake shit forreal.

so he's a snake for exposing the truth?? don't get it twisted, man. i just thought it was funny that jonestown went from dissing me for calling out the beatkangz on viral marketing to getting dissed by them himself and then doing a full 180 on his stance. guess some ppl gotta learn the hard way.

but yeah dudes took the beat thang too personal it is great marketing by the kangz getting peeps talking about they product.

spamming the mpc boards with fake accounts, bribing ppl with your products, shitting on your potential customers... you call that good marketing? what would you call bad marketing? i'm real curious...

valid point about the mo phat and mooger fooger but peeps still reap the mo phatt, not everyone needs multiple outs i think the feature set on the thang is perfect.

you do realize that the planet phatt flopped terribly because of it's name and tacky colorful design, right? the only reason those sell now is because they can be found for cheap. and mainly because people will tell you "you can get one for cheap because no one wants to own a piece of gear called that".

from what i see the fact that dude did the sounds for streetbox is what made it successful so it seems like a good background to come from to make this product.

no, man... the streetboxx didn't even start selling 'til they dropped the price on it. that's all it had going for it. it was the cheapest drum machine available for aspiring entry level beatmakers. it has nothing to do with the beatkangz being some geniuses or anything. once i finally heard the stock sounds on the streetboxx, i couldn't believe how overhyped that thing is. and judging from the kangz' actions on this board i'm beginning to think that they probably wrote any positive review it ever got themselves.

Maybe the sounds are what made the streetboxx successful. I never heard of it until researching the Beat Kangz background. In the interview, Aja made it clear he's applying that same strategy to the Beat Thang.

That's fine. But let's all be perfectly clear that the Beat Thang is a groovebox marketed for people who do not understand music technology. Its internal project name might be, "My first beatmachine". They even give the software to school children as a marketing gimmick.

When I saw the first hints of specifications for the hardware, and heard all the false claims from the Kangz, I was under the impression this would be an advanced tool in the same class as the MPC. It is not.

The Beat Thang does not even have basic MIDI sequencing features yet. It's more like something you'd buy at Toys R Us, except it costs $1,000. It looks stylish, can be custom modified by the manufacturer, and has premade sounds.

The Beat Thang is designed by and for people who don't display even a modest understanding of tools like the MPC. That might be just what this market is looking for, and it might be a huge success. Afterall, many people who post to forums like this show a 1st grade reading/writing ability, and can't even figure out basic tasks explained on the first pages of the manual.

For those types of people, this Thang might be a dream come true. But not everyone is like that. Some people hear all the hype about this being a MPC-killer, see some specs, and let their imagination fill in the rest. They're thinking maybe this really is MPC competition. But they don't yet realize what kind of competition.

There seems to be 2 main groups of MPC users. 1 is into it because the MPC has some fashionable legacy in the hip-hop world. They record a few snippets of records, press a few pads to trigger the recordings, and overlay some kick/snare they downloaded. This makes them a "producer" or "beatmaker" and gives them access to the hip-hop club, where they walk, talk, and dress exactly like all the others.

The other group are people who are truly into music and music-making technology. They know there's nothing magical about a MPC, it's just one of the only remaining MIDI sequencers/samplers on the market today. They tend to own more capable models, like the 4000, or 1000/2500 with JJ OS. Some are still part of the hip-hop club, but they get in depth with it. They have MIDI modules, understand sequencing, and really tweak the sounds.

One is artist, the other is poser.

The reason why the Beat Thang is competition for the MPC, is because the poser-market hasn't been specifically targeted. The new Akai is partially doing it. They've mostly abandoned the hardcore aspects of sampling, and the modern models are really aimed more at the poser crowd. But they still keep a lot of the functions so both groups can purchase without feeling too alienated.

The Beat Thang really takes wackness to the next level. They specifically target that niche, building a device from scratch aimed solely at posers. Why even bother to dig records anymore, it comes with sounds! Why even bother to purchase paints at the hobby shop when they'll do it for you! It's a custom shop for group 1, taking the hip-hop culture around the MPC and fully commercializing it.

That is intended to split the market, and move a lot of group 1 over to the Thang. The thing is though, all this hip-hop marketing may also have an unintended effect. Before it was easy to get sucked into the hipness of hip-hop culture. But now that it's being defined and packaged by commercial businesses, sold by old men like the Kangz who look and act ridiculous, it may help shatter that illusion.

Sorry but I'm deleting my comment. Too low a blow and not really relevant. Gonna listen to Lampdog's advice and try to spread a little more love. Done with the BK threads....

im saying dude acted like a snake by pretending to be all buddy buddy in interested when really he was just fishing for info to use to flame the beat kangz.

far as i know anyone who got dissed was becos they was being disrespectful, there is no point tryna kiss a haterz ass, just market to the peeps who are interested. but getting peeps talking about your product is the aim of marketing even if they saying bad stuff u gotta keep the product in the minds of the people. (raising awareness) and also all the negatives can be used to develop the product better like initally it was plastic then becam metal.


dont know about planet phat but mophat peeps copped it but mooger fooger peeps buy that cos the sounds are there and it inspires peeps to create so regardless if thang does the thing its all good.

but long as they learned from streetbox and stepped the game up it was still a valid experince as far as learning how to put a machine together and put it out there and having a pules on what peeps want.

now here it gets interesting seems like ur ego is stopping u liking this machine cos u want a machine that looks like and advanced calculator so that u can feel that ur clever by being able to use it, hence the reason u hate the beat thang cos the machine is very accessible and very powerful.

this is the same thing peeps said about fruity loops that its cheating purley on the basis that the interface was transparent and not overly technical.

Again why not encourage peeps to get into beat who are not too deep into the tech aspects? why not simplfy the method so u can get ur ideas out in a siple manor.

seems like u wanna keep beat making in an elite core only for peeps who wanna spend hours/years learning but the world has moved on and moves quicker.

so cant be threatened by the fact that someone can get a beat thang and in a month could be making better beats than u have been in the past 5 years.

not everyone wants to make a long term hobby/career out of it but if they can get in with this and make hot shit why not? some peeps that are advanced may feel lost in the technicalities of other needlessly complex gear and want to simply and get back to they root ideas/creativity.

so all in all ur own perceptions and things u dont like about how the production game has become to accessible are being channeled at the beat kangz which is why u so strongly oppose the product.

but u should focus on is the opportunities /new ways of working this will make avaioable and the increase productivity it will bring and support dudes and help them to make it a more useful product instead of shooting cats down.

them guys is late 20's they having fun and starting they own company gotta respect the enthusiam and the willingness to be themselves in the spotlight

Check out "So hard they locked my thread" by Aja

http://www.myspace.com/ajahits



That is to funny.