Go To: www.beatkangs.com/forum/ Thanks!

I know JTM personally, I've been at his crib when he got the E-mail, and he showed me and we talked about it. He wasn't being a snake. He just got finished with his PT certification and was looking for genuine opportunities. When he got the E-mail, it really didn't seem right to him, and he wanted to call them on it. It's just that simple, so get off the dudes back already.

Me personally, I want to see this THANG come out. I wouldn't mind having an alternative to the MPC.

I was dead serious about wanting to connect with them on a business level. Then I got that email....Sorry, but I am nobodies foot soldier. The whole way they are going about their business is bullshit and for right now they are selling snake oil. I never pre-ordered shit and I have no intentions of supporting these clowns. They want to build an e-street team off of fake hype and get US, the users to push their product. Get real, build a solid team and get people on board by giving them a position and making them feel like they have some kind of ownership or vested interest in the company.

Heres my beef with these clowns:

1)You have to buy a beat thang with your own paper to see how it works.
2)You have to set up a web page on your own time, with your own dime.
3)They dont even have a manual prepared so I could get an idea of the functionality of the product.
4)The multi level marketing scheme is MAD SHIFTY,
5)Even if I did everything the way theyve outlined, there is no way to guarantee that I get paid......

Based on those 5 reasons, I pulled their card. Ive worked for another company with a similar outline and I spent well over a g of my own paper, made the company MAD paper and I havent seen a dime (Ive calculated that they owe me over $5000, not including expenses)...**** the beat kangz and the beat thang! Anyne that supports these dudes is **** nuts.

I defended them, and I sent PM's with some SERIOUS ideas to make their product better, and then after I post the email they sent me, they try and hit me with a diss track (A VERY SHITTY ATTEMPT, BY THE WAY). These dudes will take your paper and run, they dont give a **** about the consumer or the people that are truly interested in helping them to succeed...

I have mad respect for anyone trying to innovate and make the future better. On the other hand, I feel obligated to the forum and its members, as I have been schooled, helped out and generally entertained by the cats that are here trying to build here over the last few years. The Beat Kangz dont give a shit about us, they obviously were using this space as a marketing tool and nothing more. I pulled their card, plain and simple, and it finally got them pissed off enough to show their true colors and get the thread locked.

Mission accomplished.

Peace
JTM

jonestown massacre wrote:I pulled their card, plain and simple, and it finally got them pissed off enough to show their true colors and get the thread locked.

Mission accomplished.

Peace
JTM

The first weekend the Beat Thang was announced I called them out for saying the Beat Thang was a MPC Killa. Aja got so paranoid he was posting between Future Producers and Harmony Central saying I was a Akai employee sent out to attack them. The **** got so deep they finally locked the thread at Harmony Central and banned Aja. Since that weekend I have always felt Aja was a tool. I still think the Beat Thang will be a cool groovebox but, the group of guys running the company need a attitude check.

so i take it the dudes who have this thang on pre-order have cancelled that?

jonestown massacre wrote:I was dead serious about wanting to connect with them on a business level. Then I got that email....Sorry, but I am nobodies foot soldier. The whole way they are going about their business is bullshit and for right now they are selling snake oil. I never pre-ordered shit and I have no intentions of supporting these clowns. They want to build an e-street team off of fake hype and get US, the users to push their product. Get real, build a solid team and get people on board by giving them a position and making them feel like they have some kind of ownership or vested interest in the company.

Heres my beef with these clowns:

1)You have to buy a beat thang with your own paper to see how it works.
2)You have to set up a web page on your own time, with your own dime.
3)They dont even have a manual prepared so I could get an idea of the functionality of the product.
4)The multi level marketing scheme is MAD SHIFTY,
5)Even if I did everything the way theyve outlined, there is no way to guarantee that I get paid......

Based on those 5 reasons, I pulled their card. Ive worked for another company with a similar outline and I spent well over a g of my own paper, made the company MAD paper and I havent seen a dime (Ive calculated that they owe me over $5000, not including expenses)...**** the beat kangz and the beat thang! Anyne that supports these dudes is **** nuts.

I defended them, and I sent PM's with some SERIOUS ideas to make their product better, and then after I post the email they sent me, they try and hit me with a diss track (A VERY SHITTY ATTEMPT, BY THE WAY). These dudes will take your paper and run, they dont give a **** about the consumer or the people that are truly interested in helping them to succeed...

I have mad respect for anyone trying to innovate and make the future better. On the other hand, I feel obligated to the forum and its members, as I have been schooled, helped out and generally entertained by the cats that are here trying to build here over the last few years. The Beat Kangz dont give a shit about us, they obviously were using this space as a marketing tool and nothing more. I pulled their card, plain and simple, and it finally got them pissed off enough to show their true colors and get the thread locked.

Mission accomplished.

Peace
JTM

If anyone supports this product now they are insane... or works for this company.

Where have you all been? They've been consistent with their insanity from day one. What were you expecting from a President who uses profane Ebonics and challenges the Akai C.E.O. to battle. You thought those same people were going to do all other things in a respectable manner?

Still not sure what the problem is with the street reseller program. Can you post a copy of the contract? Lots of online music stores have affiliate programs where you get a % of any sales that went through your unique link. That's what this is, but it's also multi-level where you recruit resellers.

Google AdSense pays you to bring in new advertisers also. Everyone does this kind of stuff now. They can't be expected to give a free hardware unit to everyone who joins the program, what if they don't sell anything? Everyone could just join as a way to get a freebie and not bother doing any work.

The problem with these affiliate programs is, they are basically outsourcing Internet spamming. One time I did a search for affiliate URLs used by a music group's street team, and found countless posts all over, in forums, newgroups, comments, and it was all spammy stuff that polluted the sites.

But the companies doing this stuff make money. If you don't want to, and hold yourself to some higher ideals, you'll never be rich. Did you really think the Beat Kangz are in this for the art? They're clearly not part of the community, doing it for the love, they're businessmen, showmen.

Akai isn't any better. It's just that the companies that own Akai now are old school. This viral cultural marketing is newish. It's been the growing standard for like 10 years now. Akai is a faceless corporation. Beat Kangz use social media, the web, modern fashion, etc. to hype their wares.

I don't care much, I just wanted a replacement for my MPC500 because Akai kept ignoring me, and it took them years to fix fundamental flaws in the firmware, and the pads were way too stiff, and the specs seem really outdated. I thought the Beat Thang was trying to solve all those problems.

That's why some of us were saying, look past the image and focus on the tool. I don't care if it's pink with pictures of unicorns, if it blows the MPC away in terms of functionality, no one is going to hear the unicorns. If they'll listen to us, and add features we want, then it's a better experience.

Except now we're seeing how the image itself is part of the tool. They aren't separate. You can't look past the image to the machine because they are merged. The image influenced the design decisions. If you're down with their image, then that's great for you. Not for me though.

16 tracks for instance, this isn't a MIDI sequencer, it's not much different than their Zoom drum machine. With a PC, there should be unlimited MIDI tracks, there's no reason to limit it. There's not even any MIDI sequencing functions yet. MPC is Midi Production Center, Beat Thang is not.

That's a good thing for the people who don't use their MPC like you would a program like Cubase. For people just wanting to tap out beats as fast as possible, with the least amount of getting into it, the MIDI stuff just gets in the way. That's why Aja makes a big deal about muting the pads.

You're not supposed to get too into it. Just hit the pads, watch them light up, scroll through included sounds, and you've got a beat. It's a drum machine. It isn't a MIDI sequencer / sampler first, which can also be used for drums. It's a drum machine first, with MIDI / sampling as a side dish.

The Beat Kangz said they built it for them, the way they do things. That's cool, but listen to their stuff. Is that you? If it is, you're set. That's not how I do things though. The first thing I do when I get a machine is delete all premade sounds and patterns. That's other people's dirty laundry.

Jamon wrote:The first thing I do when I get a machine is delete all premade sounds and patterns. That's other people's dirty laundry.

that is exactly my point right there.


3 gigs of sounds I dont want.... because everyone's shit will sound the same.

and those sounds are half of what you're paying for. How come we never see a video of a beat kang sampling from vinyl?

mr_debauch wrote:

Jamon wrote:The first thing I do when I get a machine is delete all premade sounds and patterns. That's other people's dirty laundry.

that is exactly my point right there.


3 gigs of sounds I dont want.... because everyone's **** will sound the same.

and those sounds are half of what you're paying for. How come we never see a video of a beat kang sampling from vinyl?

for real, thats what i use my mpc for, sampling, and im not talking about sampling vocals and instruments,(not that that is bad); im talkin about sampling vinyl, like dj premier, dilla,9th wonder, or hitek do. Hooking up a turntable to the sampler, listening for samples, droppin the needle, sampling loops/hits/section and chopping the samples, pitching the samples up/down, timestreching,pitchshifting,adjusting start and end points, slicing, extracting sections, etc. up all on the mpc.

i would like to see a vinyl/sampling/chopping video all inside BT. not an mp3 download, external editor chop, import into BT video.............. ya know!

if this is gonna compete with the mpc, the sampling/chopping workflow has to be as good if not better than mpc otherwise you eleminated all the dj premier/dilla/9th/hitek influenced producers. non vinyl sample based producer probably dont know whats up with that workflow.............

Hey fellas, guess what? I have a MPC1000 with JJOS2, a Korg Micro X, a Yamaha AN200, and a Yamaha DX200....oh and the Beat Thang Virtual. Guess what's getting the most play in my studio lately? That's right the Beat Thang Virtual........

Thanks for letting us know at least one person likes it, but it really means nothing. There's another story about how it crashes within minutes of trying to do anything and is completely useless. Everyone's experience is different.

If you can tell us more about how you work, and why you'd use Beat Thang over your other gear, then that'd mean a lot more. For all we know, you bought the other gear, don't understand it, and make repetitive loops with very little involvement.

Also, what do you mean by 'studio'? Studio apartment? Professional recording studio? Or your computer desk in your bedroom?

I have the VBT and all my other VST's on this, my studio.....






As far as making "repetitive beats", then I'm sure you've never heard of some of my classic beats with the Icy Hot Stuntaz: http://www.geocities.com/icyhotstuntazz/

dj illustrious and the icey hot stuntaz get mad props... dudes been on the forums longer than me, has 60 something posts, and over half of em are in the beat thang threads!!!


now thats stuntin!!!

fobedafied wrote:dj illustrious and the icey hot stuntaz get mad props... dudes been on the forums longer than me, has 60 something posts, and over half of em are in the beat thang threads!!!


now thats stuntin!!!

Yeah man, Icy Hot Stuntaz droppin' their new album this Fall, be on the lookout for alot more stuntin' and all-around ballin' out of control.

this thread is wack also, i wish this forum would grow a pair of ballz and stop the lameness!!