BKE Beat Thang by Dallas Austin

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This portable groovebox is an intuitive sequencer/drum machine loaded with phat sounds -- plus an XLR mic input for sampling your own, and MIDI and USB I/O.

The BKE Beat Thang by Dallas Austin is a compact, cutting-edge sample-based hardware and software music production system, designed by two-time Grammy Award-winning producer Dallas Austin. Created by the artist, for the artist, the Beat Thang was built from the ground up to be a powerful, versatile, and totally portable sequencing sampler/drum machine.

With thousands of professional-quality sounds specifically designed for it, Beat Thang is ready to groove as soon as you take it out of the box. You can also add your own samples via one of the two SD card slots or record samples on-the-fly through the 1/4"-XLR combo input. And the best part: Beat Thang comes with an internal rechargeable battery and runs up to four hours of mobile use so you can lay beats at home, in the studio, on the road, or just about anywhere.

Learn more about the Beat Thang in this video by BKE:


Create Beats Anywhere

The Beat Thang is a portable, professional-grade drum machine. Its all-metal chassis is designed to withstand years on the road, so it's great for live performance, studio production, or just about anywhere you can imagine.

The Best of Both Worlds

The Beat Thang takes the tactile bliss of a hardware-based sequencing sampler, and adds computer connectivity so you can adjust settings and fine-tune parameters on your Mac or PC. The software runs as a standalone application, or as a plug-in in a DAW environment.

Explosive Original Sounds

Beat Thang is a true 21st century sampler read more -- loaded with original, modern sounds all designed specifically for it. Its internal library sounds amazing -- and it ought to, since the folks over at BKE spent over three years compiling thousands of original sounds relevant to today's popular genres. Select from thousands of sounds on 168 provided drum kits. House, techno, rock, pop, hip hop, or rap -- you name it -- pick a style and Beat Thang will have the kit to play it.

Features:

- Hardware and software portable beat production workstation
- 13 velocity-sensitive touch pads for triggering samples
- Sequence up to 16 tracks simultaneously
- 20 onboard effects including filters, delay, reverb, phasers, flangers, vibrato, chorus, vinyl simulation, and more
- Adjust volume, pan, and effects on each track independently
- 168 drum kits and thousands of original sounds
- 256 instruments including guitars, basses, synths, pianos, and other instruments
- Adjustable Quantize, Swing, and Bar Length modes
- PPQ (Parts per Quarter note) adjustable for a vintage drum machine feel
- Autochop features for capturing samples
- Edit your samples with Reverse, Timestretch, Trim, Normalize, Amplify, Pitch Shift, and more
- There is no shift key, so every function has its own button
- Supports 16-bit and 24-bit, 44.1 kHz WAV and AIFF samples
- Software works standalone or as a VTS plugin in DAW environments
- Plugins supported as host: VST and AU
- Side-mounted pitch wheel and modulation wheel
- Full-color 3.5 inch LCD for waveform display and track info
- Dual SD card ports (supports up to 32 GB per card)
- USB input and output
- MIDI input and output
- Dual 1/4" headphone jacks with independent volume control
- Combo 1/4"-XLR microphone input with +48V phantom power and level control
- Left and Right 1/4" inputs and outputs
- Internal rechargeable battery for true portability, up to 4 hours of use per charge
- BTV music production software included
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System requirements:

- Mac: OS X 10.4 or later, Intel processor, 1 GB RAM or more, 800 MB free space on OS drive
- PC: Windows XP (SP2 recommended) or Windows Vista (32- or 64-bit), Pentium 4 or later, 1 GB RAM or more, 800 MB free space on OS drive

Hardware specifications:

Mic Preamps
- EIN 20Hz-22kHz: < -115dBu ref 150 Ohms
- THD+N @1kHz, 20Hz-22kHz BW: < 0.008%

Line Input to A/D:
- SNR 20Hz-22kHz: > 99dB A-weighted
- THD+N @1kHz, 20Hz-22kHz BW: < 0.007%
- Frequency Response: -3dB @ 15Hz and 21kHz, +/-0.25dB 100Hz to 15kHz
- Sampling: 16 or 24-bit, 44.1kHz *

D/A to Line Output:
- SNR 20Hz-22kHz: > 105dB A-weighted
- THD+N @1kHz, 20Hz-22kHz BW: <0.007%
- Output Level @ Full Scale: +11.8dBu, -1dBu (selectable)
- Frequency Response: -3dB @ 15Hz and 21kHz, +/-0.25dB 100Hz to 15kHz
- Sampling: 24-bit, 44.1kHz *

D/A to Headphone Output:
- SNR 20Hz-22kHz: > 100dB A-weighted
- THD+N @1kHz, 20Hz-22kHz BW, 300Ohm load: <0.01%
- Output Level @ Full Scale: 90mW @1% THD, 32 Ohm Load
- Frequency Response: -3dB @ 15Hz and 21kHz, +/-0.25dB 100Hz to 15kHz
- Sampling: 24-bit, 44.1kHz *
- *Samples are stored at 16-bit, 44.1kHz

Dimensions:
- 22cm (8.66 inches) x 7.5cm (2.95 inches) x 29.5cm (11.61 inches)
- WEIGHT:
- 2.86 kg (6.31 lbs)

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 615-750-5493

BKE Beat Thang by Dallas Austin

Brought to you by BKE and 2-time Grammy winner Dallas Austin, the Beat Thang is a breakthrough product in the world of sample-based music production. The world's first fully- portable professional workstation, Beat Thang allows you to create your own beats, grooves, and electronic music compositions wherever and whenever you want. Pick from an extensive array of thousands of original, high-quality sounds, upload your own, or plug in a mic and record samples with ease. Designed to feel and play more instrument-like than other workstations, Beat Thang's expressive controls and no-nonsense workflow make laying down tracks quick and surprisingly easy.

Beat Thang's innovative controls and rugged, portable design makes this standalone sampling studio all you need to make beats and grooves on the go. Every control surface, from the velocity-sensitive chromatic pads to the side-mounted pitch and modulation wheels, was engineered to give you greater artistic control over your samples and manipulating effects. With function-dedicated buttons, a useful file-filtering system, and multi-purpose scroll knobs, navigating Beat Thang's menus and directories is a cinch.

Great music starts with great sounds. That's why BKE paired up with the best producers and players to bring you a massive, all-original sound library packed with over 3000 premium electronica, dance, hip hop, funk, R&B, rock, pop, and world samples, chops, and loops. Also included with Beat Thang is an impressive collection of over 1000 premium samples from the private collection of Grammy-winning super-producer Dallas Austin.

This is just the beginning, as the Beat Thang allows you to edit and manipulate just about every aspect of your samples through advanced waveform editing, non-destructive autochop, timestretch, and pitch-shifting features, as well as over 60 studio-quality effects. This state-of- the-art beat machine gives you all of the layering, slicing, sampling, and sound-creation tools you need to make fully polished tracks, while over 300 pre-constructed kits, patterns, and acoustic and electronic instruments give you loads of content to hit the ground running.

While Beat Thang is a fully independent production workstation, it's extensive I/O lets you seamlessly connect to your other gear. Plug in your external controller, keyboards, or sound modules with MIDI In/Out and multi-functional USB A and B ports, and quickly load your samples and projects through USB keys, external hard drives, or through one of two (2) 32 GB SD card slots. An XLR combo jack with Phantom Power lets you record mics or guitars directly on the Beat Thang, and BKE's AU/VST plug-in software, aptly named Beat Thang Virtual, offers file sharing, drag/drop functionality, and DAW integration rarely seen in a true hardware device.

The team at BKE is fully committed to being there for you. You will receive free, lifetime live technical support from trained engineers and producers, as well as access to tons of online training and tutorial video content. And because the Beat Thang operating system is capable of future online upgrades via USB, BKE offers lifetime free upgrades so you can enjoy software and firmware enhancements for years to come.

With excellent build-quality, an impressive workflow, and a vast feature and all-original sound set, Beat Thang is quickly emerging as one of the most popular options in the world for sample- based production, groove-making, and live performance.

Features:

- Powerful standalone sampling groove machine that lets you create electronic music anywhere
- Onboard 16-track real-time sequencer with playable mute and solo functions lets you create
patterns and preform remixes on the fly
- One octave pad layout with 8 banks lets you lay down beats and play keys over 8 octaves
- 16 layers of velocity sensitivity per pad lets you create expressive performances
- Onboard effects include filters, delays, reverb, chorus, Disintegrator, overdrive, distortion,
phaser, chorus/flanger, pitch shifter, vibrato, vinyl effects, and much more.
- FX open-source LADSPA plug-ins allow future expandability
- Onboard mastering lets you add power and impact to your tracks
- Integrates seamlessly with Beat Thang Virtual plug-in software
- Export WAV or AIFF files of your songs and loops for easy import to your DAW
- Import WAV or AIFF to use as loops or samples
- Record your own samples directly via the built-in XLR/stereo TRS combo jack
- Fully editable samples with clear waveform view
- Edit start and end points
- Normalize, Reverse and Resample to customize your sounds
- Autochop function allows you to quickly create mash up parts and custom kits from your
samples
- Realtime and post-recording quantization
- Swing control lets you add shuffle to your patterns
- Song mode lets you string patterns together
- Virtually no load time when you switch beats and kits
- 32gb Secure Digital memory card formats (not included)
- 24-bit or 16bit/44.1kHz sampling, playback, and audio export
- USB and MIDI interfaces
- 3.5" color TFT display allows for quick and easy navigation of menus
- Fully illuminating controls for increased visibility in low-light situations
- Mod and pitch wheels for simple sound adjustments
- Foot switch control through MIDI or 3-button 1/4" jack for simple operation
- K-Lock security slot

Includes:
- Beat Thang Music Production Workstation
- Beat Thang Virtual Secure Download
- Dallas Austin Signature Series Expansion Sound Pack
- Getting Started Guide
- One (1) A/C Power Adapter
- 1-Year Manufacturer's Warranty
- Free Lifetime Technical Support

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 3 out of 5 stars. (8 ratings)
Submitted February 10, 2014 by kevin k in Johnson creek, WI

"Not great, just a nice piece of hardware."

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
First off let me tell you that I have 0 musical ability! After playing with this for about an hour, I had my first decent sounding track! Some of the samples are downright horrible while others are top notch! I Love my Thang, The only bad thing about this is the software!! Save often as it will crash on a regular basis guaranteed. I was just playing a track that I just made and halfway through a pitch bent note, it froze even with the new OS.. It is very well constructed with a readable screen even in sunlight. Pads feel nice but after mashing on them for an hour, your fingers begin to hurt :D All in all a fun piece of hardware!

Musical Background:

Newbie

Musical Style:

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