Only time I have seen this device actually in use, was in LA and a homeless man was making music on this thing in an alley, I'm not even kidding. Apparently the battery was quite good on it.
@@AudioPilz Could of been a solid unit it did. What Akai and NI is doing now with the software hybrid the beat thang also does where it becomes a full controller for the software.
Yeah they were really ambitious and ahead of their time in many ways. It looks like it was pushing the tech of the day to absolute limits. I wonder where the Beat Kangs are now??
@@ferguswaveforms I think a couple of them are still in the industry in some capacity. I know one of them is working with iCon Pro Audio. Also, as far as I can tell, one of them may be serving time for murdering their boyfriend. 😱
@@scurvyswine that was my first clue...how in the 90s..everyone was obcessed with the 60s..then in the 90s ..70s pants came back...2010s..80s got fashionable
i saw one of these in a used electronics store labelled "As Seen on Bad Gear" and that alone made me probably more tempted than i should have been to get it
@@AudioPilz Great show as always! You have excellent skills and keep the episodes coming. I was at the NAMM show with Dave Smith (he was leaving the Reality software synth company [where I contracted to design some sound packs] and he was starting Dave Smiths Instruments in Northern California, Beat Thang was well received. But in my opinion industry insiders were not very supportive and the new company had immediate difficulty securing reliable supply chains for units to be sold (this explains the high cost for the time). They were planning on a newer version with independent outs, new software, etc. but could not make it work. To me it was a classic little fish up against barracudas and sharks.
What a blast from the past! I remember reading about this Thang way back. Honestly, just from a tech startup point of view, they managed to not only get actual units built and released, but even turn out a pretty legit product. That's better than 95% of tech concepts.
If it was made 5 years later, those LEDs would be fully programmable RGB, but require an app that only works in windows 7 to disable its default rainbow mode.
I owned two of them. To be honest this could have been a true top of the food chain machine. It had disk streaming. Tons of storage capacity with instant access to your entire sound and sample library with zero Load time. The user interface to create simple patterns to complete songs was so easy that my children at ages 4 and 5 were creating on it albeit not great songs. Lol. The one but totally disastrous issue it had was instability. The units were incredibly buggy and I worked with the units creators to resolve the issues and some of them told me that they’d been deliberately sabotaged. I may still have some videos of myself and my kids creating on it. The companion app way back then was already doing what Akai and NI only recently begun. You could also control the hardware wirelessly from the Beat Thang app with an iPad. I had a video of that also that I will try and locate and upload.
@@zwicker5585 From what some of the guys explained they started off with a Zoom and created a hip hop drum machine for that company which led to them developing their very own with backing financially from a real estate developer. From there i guess they attracted attention from some of the giants in the music tech industry but refused to sell their idea and attempted to stay independent. I guess signing over their property angered the financial backer and allegedly the backer cut a side deal to cut off the funding which led to them losing the development technicians, production process and etc… So when the os needed work to fix the constant crashes, freezes etc… they no longer had any funds to hire well versed techs to address the issues. What’s crazy is if they could have remained indie and funded to address the buggy os this company would have leaped frogged over all other competition and stood alone still. I’ve never experienced a product come out the gate in iteration 1 packed with every practical, advanced and future to come features yet simple and practical to use and loaded with so many very incredible samples and sounds.
Bro I remember the Beat Thang at the 2009 NAMM... My friend David and I were laughing at the name so hard, and they had all these "expo girls" walking around with Beat Thang men's t-shirts on, I literally went to every single one of those girls and begged for a shirt, and was rejected... Then at the very last minute, we were leaving the booth and I hear this lady yell at me, "Ey!!!" And she gave me a Beat Thang t-shirt. It was hella big though, I think it ended up in the Salvation Army
The quote from Ian Macolm in Jurassic Park springs to mind... “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” Great video as always 👍
Although I didn't work on it, I know two of the Beat Kang guys. I agree, the story of the BT would make a good documentary. Fun fact #1: I remember one of them saying they actually pitched a prototype to Akai, but they turned it down, fully aware they planned on incorporating many of the concepts and features into Akai products later. The Akai XR20 was the first example (blue neon LED styling, hip-hop oriented presets and patterns). Then of course having a sampling drum machine built around small computer with a color screen, built-in battery, USB midi, etc. sounds an awful like the newer MPCs. Fun fact #2: The Beat Thang runs on Linux and can actually load Linux audio plug-ins. At one point they have to remove stuff because they violated some freeware plugin developers by putting their code in a commercial product. Fun fact #3: It was never meant to be serious 'pro' audio gear. It looked over-the-top and gaudy from the beginning...and that was on purpose. They were trying to tap into the 'rich kid hobbyist' side of the market. That's why it was sold in a consumer electronic store like Best Buy. Trying do for hip-hop fans what Teenage Engineering did for hipsters (lol). For sure it didn't work, but when you look at it from that perspective, all the marketing and online beef kinda makes sense. They were trying to troll their way to success. I could go on and on, but none of this is really my story to tell.
Occam's Razor: they weren't trolling, they just made a garbage product and thought it was amazing (which is why it sold for way too much). They could have easily made it flashier, especially for such an insane price.
I don't thnik Akai stolen or borrowed anyting, there's nothing on Beat Thang that wasn't on MPCs already and akai was doing bright LEDs way before 2010-11. I mean, I get why they would like to think that but, like, come on xD
@@miastobojstwo Your timeline is way off. The BT was originally announced in 2009 and they pitched it to various manufacturers before getting investment money and starting their own company. I actually went to the release block party that year and saw some early run units. they had been working on it for years, The Akai XR20 was definitely ripped from those meetings and in concept very similar to what the Beat Thang developers had done with earlier with the Zoom Streetboxx.
2006-2012 in a box is pretty wild when you say it out loud. It truly was a little moment though. Tons of Korg Triton-esque string sounds, strange virtual analog "retro 80s," synth leads and basses, rappers/MCs being featured on pop tracks in the equivalent of a bridge section, aggressive sidechaining, etc on everything. It's funny how when you're a silly 8 year old you dismiss it all but end up missing it as an adult lol. Great video once again!
I've said it before. This dude does his homework. Period. No other instrument has a channel that goes the extra mile to diss stuff. Not accordions. Not tubas. No one else. They got a lot of catching up to do.
Holy god. Classic bad gear episode. That banger track is sublime and the video edits were great. Truly legendary bad gear. That RZA video is also classic.
I own two of those and had a lot of fun with them, making dozens of tunes sitting in cafés, trains and parks. Compared to a modern device it now seems awkward to use, but back in 2012, the Beat Thang had many features that no other sampler offered, such as two SD card slots, USB, two headphone sockets etc. Underrated gear imho, but of course nowadays it makes more sense to go for an MPC Live II or SP-404 MkII.
Wow! I was always curious about this device! It was very promising on the launch, but soon suddenly vanished from everywhere and nobody seems to have it, so I've never had a chance to put my hands on it. Thanks for this episode.
You are many levels of awesome. Thank you for being alive. I saw a beat thang last year on kijiji for $400. I had to pass. Looked like a promising machine when it first came out but it was an unproven company and technology which made me and probably a lot of other buyers hesitant. Hard to compete with mpcs. I live in Toronto and have access to a huge used gear market. I've seen almost everything on kijiji and Facebook. If you want me to keep an eye out for anything let me know. I can ship it over to you.
So glad to see this monstrosity on here!! I was given a Beat Thang in December by one of my studio clients. I had heard the Bad Gear Legend of this machine for years. When I powered it on I was surprised at how easy it was to navigate & honestly FUN to make beats on. What is not fun however, is that I can't get more than 3-4 tracks into a pattern before the unit makes a stuttering dubstep sound & then shuts itself off LOL. I am told a firmware reinstall will fix the issue, but I have searched the internet far & wide & cannot find a valid download link for the Firmware yet. The search continues...
@@AudioPilz i have recently come into possession of one of these and this is not quite the case - it appears that the downloads on internet archive rely on a server to download additional data which is no longer available, unless i am mistaken
OH MY GOD HE DID IT the Beat Thang!!!! this is gonna be hard to top for real very interesting to learn the history here. Fascinating; IMO it's unfortunate that it wasn't successful, would have been cool to have another company out there making bad gear.
The Beat Thang was the first stand alone sampler that I purchased. It’s not very stable, but still cool in it’s on way. I think that all of the current stand alone samplers took something from this machine and added on it. Like always, good video!
@@cl1xor Yea, I think so too. The SP-16, the Force (both of which I have), The Mpc Live series; seem to all have been inspired by the IN's/ OUTs and Storage ability of the Beat Thang. I am happy that I never sold it!
I used to want one of these so bad. I used to have the software, but wanted the hardware. The creators were good guys, very approachable, and it was ahead of it's time without the proper backing to make develop it to it's full potential.
I only recently found this channel, this series is amazing! Your production quality and the consistency and effort of every video is criminally underrated! Should be so many more subs.
"That was less fun..." Damn this guy is too funny and entertaining, just discovered this morning at 1am and now it's 4am, so I guess I'm addicted. Honesty is reviews is so rare....
you featured a couple pieces of gear that i own but for some reason i was compelled to comment about the BEAT THANG i had the software version. think i paid about $100 bucks...i havent used it in years, but i definitely made some hot joints on it....i loved the fact that i could import my drums into it...didnt realize the hardware version was so small, i thought it would be bigger....anyway...big ups from america ...im huge fan of the channel
I'm so glad you decided to feature this Thang. This toy has always spoken to me but never louder than $200 has. After this reveal I think even $150 is 3.5db louder.
I've been waiting for this for a while, actually. You've been saying you wanted to review a BeatThang for over a year now, and I've always wondered how the unit would stack up when used by someone without gold teeth. I'm glad I waited, with countless opportunities to pull the trigger. Cheers! Once again, great video.
Y'all should check out Wuh Had Happened Was. The channel gives the history of synth gear and the guy that does the channel is cool as hell. He does a video on this Thang.
And if anyone is doing a search, they should probably add the name of the channel which is Dyreck Productions... It'll make it a lot easier to find it.
I saw the 'jam' with RZA once , thought they were trolling. I have the streetboxx sb246 from zoom btw , also a good piece of bad gear to review I would say ;)
This was my primary beat machine, when I first started as a young’n and I made some bangers on it. I even had a beat website all produced with the beat thang. The first one I got came with malfunction so I had to send it back but they had a live Skype customer service anytime you needed help and once you got the hang of it you could really make some solid music
I always love watching your videos. Great job. Keep em coming. Love the humour mixed with a technical overview of the product. You should do a spoof episode on a fisher price toy that would be ironically funny and entertaining 😄
To quote the Cenobite from Hellraiser: We have such sights (and sounds) to show you. As clearly this is, a working replica of the Lament Configuration.
Had one. Wasn't terrible. Made many tracks with it. Sampled sounds. Used my own drums eventually. Only thing that was bad about it was the price... really was ahead of its time if you compare it to the stand-alone mpc/maschine that took a looooong time to come out.
@@AudioPilz the version of mpc that had built in synths, effects and sound packs? No. You can't compare this device to an mpc that only samples and sequences. You can't even compare it to the Renaissance or studio since they weren't standalone 🤷🏾♂️
@@beatsmith ASR-X Pro or ASR-10 was ahead of its time, but not this thing. I own both ASRs and wanted badly to have beat thang be a successor, but it seemed too gimmicky.
@@Vlfkfnejisjejrjtjrie Yeah, I had an ASR-X too... I can tell you.. they arent the same. I agree though, the ASR line was ahead of its time. But these are two different products from two different eras. End of the day, whatever gets you the result you need can't really be a "gimmick" can it? 🖖✌👌
I actually own one of these. Still have the box, all the paperwork, everything. I also have the software version on one of my laptops still. The design of the physical unit is very, very good. Made of good, solid materials. The biggest issue on my book, is the name. It was never taken seriously because of the name. With a different name and some later revisions, this could have been a super awesome tool. I have no plan to ever get rid of mine. Which is still mint…
The three things that killed beat Thang were: 1. The "ghettofied" marketing. They were insulting their prospective customers when they should have been presenting a pro musician's tool. It was a big turnoff. You always felt stupid calling it by it's name. A simple model number would have done wonders for its perception. 2. Styling and labeling. If it looks like a toy to a musician - it might as well be one. Nobody ever asked for a sampler with a removable/upgradable grill. 3. It had nipples. By the time they realized that they were making asses of themselves in the forums all respect was lost and it was too late. The Beat Thang was officially a joke. Pretty sad actually.
It was always supposed to be ridiculous - they put it on a goddamned neck-chain fer fuck sake Larry Fishborne intones: _Did the Beat Kang really fail us...or did we fail it?_
It actually wasn't that at all. Like everything that is new people were bashing it before giving it a chance. Making fun of the name before even understanding what it did. What made people mock it is that it did so much at a time when current Samplers didn't do hardly any of the stuff the beat Thang did so ignorant people thought it was a joke and didn't take it seriously. On the forums it became a running joke because it kept getting delayed and people who were interested in it had their orders pushed back. It never got released at any real music retailers. Only store that had it for sale was "BestBuy" of all places and that was years after the manufacturing pushbacks. On the front end the creators were mostly apologizing for the delays publicly and even visited popular forums to talk about the product and keep people updated. Of course people are a-holes and all they did was give those guys crap about their machine. I remember them talking about how larger companies they had showed the product too (Akai and Roland ) in hopes they'd pick it up instead just stole ideas from it. They weren't lying because literally other companies did steal ideas from the beat that that this box did FIRST. This was literally a stand alone portable music production center like the "MPC Live" back in 2007 when Akai hadn't even thought to unplug their MPC's from the wall yet and Native Instruments didn't even announce the Machine. This really was a next gen sampler that basically never got the support it should have because bigger companies took advantage of the creators. Lot of features on the Beathang can be found in the samplers/drum machines to come in the later years. That's no coincidence.
Hiphop producers wanted a stand alone unit, that didn't require PC /mac to operate. The beat thang kinda achieved this ambition, and delivered it. Akai has, only recently, released a true stand alone unit that doesn't need a pc to operate, thats over ten years later! So , well done to beat thang for being so forward thinking.
@@AudioPilz yes exactly, ahaha. They stopped doing standalone units after the mpc2500, mpc5000 era ,started doing those units that need a laptop to operate...they did ok, but everyone wanted them to go back and do the standalone units and after so much pressure, they did. It's hilarious
@audiopilz I liked the reflection of your "Jam Face" Dance Moves from the screen, on the first jam. If only there was a way to capture that and display that in a window, without you knowing, on every video ;-)
Another great episode! With my style of music and aversion to MPC's (nothing against them, just find them a bit boring) The Beat Thang was something I had my eye on but it just got way too many bad reviews. Btw that's a great beat by Rockwilder on that 50 Cent record.
I think this was the first time I ever saw "wha had happened wuuuuuz" it made me feel like an explorer of arcane music artifacts , and helped me discover my first "bad gear" episode (after wich , I had to see all of the audiopilz badgear ).
Lovely! 😍 I remember well when it drops, wanted to give it a shot but the price tag plus the aesthetic choices made me pass ... Maybe this is why it generally bombed, who knows! Very cool and entertaining video, thanks Florian!
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Audiopilz: *slaps roof of YT channel*
Full Tracks, Extended Jams, Sample Packs: www.patreon.com/audiopilz
😆😆 thanks @jovanka probably slightly more 'almost sexual' than whatever the simpson dudes were looking at and this hunk of junk xx
This was truly a gift. Thank you! I remember that marketing and it was... something.
Does anyone know where to get the o.s. or firmware to get one of these working(PC, not Mac)? Mine won't boot after a system reset.
@Polo Polo close;) Austrian born and raised...
I'm in.
Only time I have seen this device actually in use, was in LA and a homeless man was making music on this thing in an alley, I'm not even kidding. Apparently the battery was quite good on it.
Wow! The one in mine still holds for 3 h
LMAO
@@AudioPilz I wish I could say the same about my iPad from 2014
Ahh I see the backstory of hustle and flow
Should have bought it of him
This thing looks like it should've been part of every single pimp my ride car if it was released 10 years prior.
I want a low rider with this thing on the dashboard
🤣😂🤣👌🏼
Interestingly they planned to released grillz you could buy for the device. Yeah that was a thing.
@@apoclypse Yes, true fact. I remember that.
I really admire the Beat Thang crew, they were nobodies who just went for it and didn't quite get there.
Same here. Big respect!!!
@@AudioPilz Could of been a solid unit it did. What Akai and NI is doing now with the software hybrid the beat thang also does where it becomes a full controller for the software.
Yeah they were really ambitious and ahead of their time in many ways. It looks like it was pushing the tech of the day to absolute limits. I wonder where the Beat Kangs are now??
i followed that story so closely at the time...it was awesome to watch it unfold
@@ferguswaveforms I think a couple of them are still in the industry in some capacity. I know one of them is working with iCon Pro Audio. Also, as far as I can tell, one of them may be serving time for murdering their boyfriend. 😱
I've got a theory that the more dated a device's patches sound, the more likely that it's going to pop off 30 years later.
A sample pack of it would be enough;)
I agree with this theory.. 30 years exact
Same with clothes
@@scurvyswine that was my first clue...how in the 90s..everyone was obcessed with the 60s..then in the 90s ..70s pants came back...2010s..80s got fashionable
I remember around 2005 buying a Korg DW-8000 for cheap and it arrived DOA. Now they're even more expensive to find because of the synthwave craze.
i saw one of these in a used electronics store labelled "As Seen on Bad Gear" and that alone made me probably more tempted than i should have been to get it
What an amazing piece of early 2000s PC stuffed into a TRON-esque box. Wow. So glad you were able to get a hold of one.
Yeah, that was quite a challenge...
@@AudioPilz i found a VST version last year and have played around with that a bit. might be easier for some folks.
Should have been Sam or Kevin Flynn's breast plate
@@eugenecanady5452 Can you still get the VST version? I’d love to get it back.
@@AudioPilz Great show as always! You have excellent skills and keep the episodes coming. I was at the NAMM show with Dave Smith (he was leaving the Reality software synth company [where I contracted to design some sound packs] and he was starting Dave Smiths Instruments in Northern California, Beat Thang was well received. But in my opinion industry insiders were not very supportive and the new company had immediate difficulty securing reliable supply chains for units to be sold (this explains the high cost for the time). They were planning on a newer version with independent outs, new software, etc. but could not make it work. To me it was a classic little fish up against barracudas and sharks.
Thanks for covering this! I had almost forgotten it existed.
Not sure if it was meant to be rediscovered;)
Can't tell if that was sarcasm!!!
What a blast from the past! I remember reading about this Thang way back.
Honestly, just from a tech startup point of view, they managed to not only get actual units built and released, but even turn out a pretty legit product. That's better than 95% of tech concepts.
Agreed! Not bad in acquiring capital too;)
They put mid-2000's rap cliches into a box and wondered why no one really wanted it.
Well, I wanted it;)
You could say the same about the Akai XR-20, but people still bought that!
If it was made 5 years later, those LEDs would be fully programmable RGB, but require an app that only works in windows 7 to disable its default rainbow mode.
😂😂😂
hey, my new logitech keyboard has a mac control app! I'm actually a bit shocked, since Corsair does not have a Mac control app for that.
I see you too bought a cheap keyboard from Wal-Mart.
@@kevinwhite6176 I use Linux so I had to program my own keyboard control app. :D
My god, I remember a sales rep coming into our store to try to get us to stock this. He was trying his best, bless him.
I assume you stock piled a bunch;)
Wow this is pretty obscure. I’ve never seen this device before. Interesting design for sure. Looks like it designed by people who make gaming PC’s.
Yeah, it's got Alienware all over it
I owned two of them. To be honest this could have been a true top of the food chain machine. It had disk streaming. Tons of storage capacity with instant access to your entire sound and sample library with zero Load time. The user interface to create simple patterns to complete songs was so easy that my children at ages 4 and 5 were creating on it albeit not great songs. Lol. The one but totally disastrous issue it had was instability. The units were incredibly buggy and I worked with the units creators to resolve the issues and some of them told me that they’d been deliberately sabotaged. I may still have some videos of myself and my kids creating on it. The companion app way back then was already doing what Akai and NI only recently begun. You could also control the hardware wirelessly from the Beat Thang app with an iPad. I had a video of that also that I will try and locate and upload.
I got so many ads for this when I wanted to first “how to make rap beats” ahahahs
@@WarrenWortham could you explain how they were sabotaging them?
@@zwicker5585 From what some of the guys explained they started off with a Zoom and created a hip hop drum machine for that company which led to them developing their very own with backing financially from a real estate developer. From there i guess they attracted attention from some of the giants in the music tech industry but refused to sell their idea and attempted to stay independent. I guess signing over their property angered the financial backer and allegedly the backer cut a side deal to cut off the funding which led to them losing the development technicians, production process and etc… So when the os needed work to fix the constant crashes, freezes etc… they no longer had any funds to hire well versed techs to address the issues. What’s crazy is if they could have remained indie and funded to address the buggy os this company would have leaped frogged over all other competition and stood alone still. I’ve never experienced a product come out the gate in iteration 1 packed with every practical, advanced and future to come features yet simple and practical to use and loaded with so many very incredible samples and sounds.
Love how you made the DVD hit both corners!
OCD triggered;)
Bro I remember the Beat Thang at the 2009 NAMM... My friend David and I were laughing at the name so hard, and they had all these "expo girls" walking around with Beat Thang men's t-shirts on, I literally went to every single one of those girls and begged for a shirt, and was rejected... Then at the very last minute, we were leaving the booth and I hear this lady yell at me, "Ey!!!" And she gave me a Beat Thang t-shirt. It was hella big though, I think it ended up in the Salvation Army
Damn, I want a Beat Thang shirt!!!
I remember playing with this thing at guitar center as a tween, and even then being like "yeah something is off about this" lol
Yeah, this thing is weird!!!
@@AudioPilz The name is the first clue :P
The quote from Ian Macolm in Jurassic Park springs to mind... “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
Great video as always 👍
Thank you!!! Wise words!!!
Never allowed myself to dream about this one. Awesome bad gear find
Yeah, that was quite a lucky find
Although I didn't work on it, I know two of the Beat Kang guys. I agree, the story of the BT would make a good documentary.
Fun fact #1: I remember one of them saying they actually pitched a prototype to Akai, but they turned it down, fully aware they planned on incorporating many of the concepts and features into Akai products later. The Akai XR20 was the first example (blue neon LED styling, hip-hop oriented presets and patterns). Then of course having a sampling drum machine built around small computer with a color screen, built-in battery, USB midi, etc. sounds an awful like the newer MPCs.
Fun fact #2: The Beat Thang runs on Linux and can actually load Linux audio plug-ins. At one point they have to remove stuff because they violated some freeware plugin developers by putting their code in a commercial product.
Fun fact #3: It was never meant to be serious 'pro' audio gear. It looked over-the-top and gaudy from the beginning...and that was on purpose. They were trying to tap into the 'rich kid hobbyist' side of the market. That's why it was sold in a consumer electronic store like Best Buy. Trying do for hip-hop fans what Teenage Engineering did for hipsters (lol). For sure it didn't work, but when you look at it from that perspective, all the marketing and online beef kinda makes sense. They were trying to troll their way to success.
I could go on and on, but none of this is really my story to tell.
Occam's Razor: they weren't trolling, they just made a garbage product and thought it was amazing (which is why it sold for way too much). They could have easily made it flashier, especially for such an insane price.
I don't thnik Akai stolen or borrowed anyting, there's nothing on Beat Thang that wasn't on MPCs already and akai was doing bright LEDs way before 2010-11. I mean, I get why they would like to think that but, like, come on xD
Hmm...this piece of gear is too expensive as a "musical toy from the consumer electronics store", imho
@@Farmatique Indeed. OP is just coping.
@@miastobojstwo Your timeline is way off. The BT was originally announced in 2009 and they pitched it to various manufacturers before getting investment money and starting their own company. I actually went to the release block party that year and saw some early run units. they had been working on it for years, The Akai XR20 was definitely ripped from those meetings and in concept very similar to what the Beat Thang developers had done with earlier with the Zoom Streetboxx.
Okay, but that intro tune sounds rad AF with this
Also I need a super cut of every time you use a "tiiiiiime strrrrech"
Yeah, we had two time stretches back to back;)
The only synthtuber out there whos videos make me feel like what I own is just enough, thanks Pilz
❤️❤️❤️
You finally did it! The Beat Thang! You absolute mad lad.
Conceptually, I think this thing was ahead of its time, just a shame about the execution
I would really want one of these that was actually great;)
2006-2012 in a box is pretty wild when you say it out loud. It truly was a little moment though. Tons of Korg Triton-esque string sounds, strange virtual analog "retro 80s," synth leads and basses, rappers/MCs being featured on pop tracks in the equivalent of a bridge section, aggressive sidechaining, etc on everything. It's funny how when you're a silly 8 year old you dismiss it all but end up missing it as an adult lol. Great video once again!
Thank you!!!
I've said it before. This dude does his homework. Period. No other instrument has a channel that goes the extra mile to diss stuff. Not accordions. Not tubas. No one else. They got a lot of catching up to do.
Word!!! (Thanks;)
This thing has a definite punchiness and presence to it that I was NOT EXPECTING. That you for being pertinacious enough to find one of these finally!
It definitely punches but leaves little room for further treatment
Holy god. Classic bad gear episode. That banger track is sublime and the video edits were great. Truly legendary bad gear. That RZA video is also classic.
Thank you!!!
Omg! I was thinking about this machine the other day! And wondered if you would make a vid on it! 🤯🤯🤯🤯
It was about time!!!
Ah yes I love how the genres that you make up always some how go along with what you actually made
Thank you!!!
I need to put up a SmugMug gallery of all the screenshots of all the genres so that people can read and understand the magnificence of Bad Gear :D
That Blockbuster DVD segment at the end was absolutely EPIC :-)
Thank you!!!
I own two of those and had a lot of fun with them, making dozens of tunes sitting in cafés, trains and parks. Compared to a modern device it now seems awkward to use, but back in 2012, the Beat Thang had many features that no other sampler offered, such as two SD card slots, USB, two headphone sockets etc. Underrated gear imho, but of course nowadays it makes more sense to go for an MPC Live II or SP-404 MkII.
The feature set was indeed impressive!
I can't get over how outdated it looks. It's like all late 90's/early 2000's boomboxes distilled into one device. At least it's sturdy!
You can't kill that thang;)
If it was glowing lime green it could have been a Roland box =D
By "outdated" you mean "cool tron-ish".
I agree. The unit has a out of date look.
Outdated? It still looks cool as hell.
Exercising to your vids is where its at. Always gets me mad hype, never breaks my rhythm!
Nice!!! Happy to hear that!!!
Wow! I was always curious about this device! It was very promising on the launch, but soon suddenly vanished from everywhere and nobody seems to have it, so I've never had a chance to put my hands on it. Thanks for this episode.
Thanks for watching!!!
RZA's demo of this is a timeless classic
I'd rap to this;)
You are many levels of awesome. Thank you for being alive.
I saw a beat thang last year on kijiji for $400. I had to pass. Looked like a promising machine when it first came out but it was an unproven company and technology which made me and probably a lot of other buyers hesitant. Hard to compete with mpcs.
I live in Toronto and have access to a huge used gear market. I've seen almost everything on kijiji and Facebook. If you want me to keep an eye out for anything let me know. I can ship it over to you.
Thank you so much!!! Highly appreciated!!!
So glad to see this monstrosity on here!! I was given a Beat Thang in December by one of my studio clients. I had heard the Bad Gear Legend of this machine for years. When I powered it on I was surprised at how easy it was to navigate & honestly FUN to make beats on. What is not fun however, is that I can't get more than 3-4 tracks into a pattern before the unit makes a stuttering dubstep sound & then shuts itself off LOL. I am told a firmware reinstall will fix the issue, but I have searched the internet far & wide & cannot find a valid download link for the Firmware yet. The search continues...
It's rather easy to use but you run into limitations so quickly. There's a link on archive.org
@@AudioPilz i have recently come into possession of one of these and this is not quite the case - it appears that the downloads on internet archive rely on a server to download additional data which is no longer available, unless i am mistaken
OH MY GOD HE DID IT
the Beat Thang!!!! this is gonna be hard to top for real
very interesting to learn the history here. Fascinating; IMO it's unfortunate that it wasn't successful, would have been cool to have another company out there making bad gear.
The epitome of Bad Gear
my god that train clip at 2:17 just instantly brought me back to early youtube, i still remember that video damm
Vintage memes;)
The Beat Thang was the first stand alone sampler that I purchased. It’s not very stable, but still cool in it’s on way. I think that all of the current stand alone samplers took something from this machine and added on it. Like always, good video!
Thank you!!!
I was just about to say i see a lot of the BT features in the SP-16. Even the display looks kinda similar
@@cl1xor Yea, I think so too. The SP-16, the Force (both of which I have), The Mpc Live series; seem to all have been inspired by the IN's/ OUTs and Storage ability of the Beat Thang. I am happy that I never sold it!
I just saw a picture of this machine on my fb feed a few days ago. And you made this vdo!
Yeah, that one's a weird piece of gear
I used to want one of these so bad. I used to have the software, but wanted the hardware. The creators were good guys, very approachable, and it was ahead of it's time without the proper backing to make develop it to it's full potential.
I would have loved to see a more finished version of it too!
I love Audiopilz on hangover, hillarious!
Cheers!!!
It was so mega-hyped
Yeah, simpler times!
I only recently found this channel, this series is amazing! Your production quality and the consistency and effort of every video is criminally underrated! Should be so many more subs.
Thank you so much!!! Working on it!!!
You must have been pretty stoked to get your hands on one of these for the show lol
Hot damn yes!!!
"That was less fun..." Damn this guy is too funny and entertaining, just discovered this morning at 1am and now it's 4am, so I guess I'm addicted. Honesty is reviews is so rare....
Thank you so much!!!
Wicked Show mate. I downloaded a free sample pack from their website. The samples banged, they made my MPC glow neon blue whenever I used them. 😉
My Digitakt needs no power supply when I use these samples;)
No. That's actually the Cesium making it glow blue. You should see a doctor. :(
Loved today's finale! Always great videos!
Thank you!!!
I scored one for $260cad last winter and love the Thang. I'm using it for more downtempo, psuedo-industrial stuff like SCORN.
Certainly works great in these genres
Want to sell your beat Thang
you featured a couple pieces of gear that i own but for some reason i was compelled to comment about the BEAT THANG i had the software version. think i paid about $100 bucks...i havent used it in years, but i definitely made some hot joints on it....i loved the fact that i could import my drums into it...didnt realize the hardware version was so small, i thought it would be bigger....anyway...big ups from america ...im huge fan of the channel
Thanks!!! I've yet to try the software version, got a "backup copy" here;)
Finally some actual bad gear.
I hope it was worth the wait;)
Loved this video AudioPilz, I laughed the whole way through.
Thank you!!!
Shameful you don’t have 100K yet. Such quality content.
Thank you so much!!!
i always get a good larf from yer videos bro and nice choons as well!
Thank you!!!
Just grabbed one of these, it's actually a pretty fun machine!
WooHoo, it's FRIDAY!!!
I think this thing looks Cool AF.
Of course I love Tron. It would look great on my shelf, or on top of my gear rack at a show.
TGIF!!!
I'd love to hear it with a set of soft, hipster samples loaded into it. Lo-Fi Thang Beats to relax/study to.
The sampling section is actually really powerful!!!
I'm so glad you decided to feature this Thang. This toy has always spoken to me but never louder than $200 has. After this reveal I think even $150 is 3.5db louder.
Money speaks louder than gear (sometimes;)
I've never seen a thumbnail and thought "what the fuck?" before.
Edit: End track totally gave me windows xp cereal box CD ROM game vibes
Plenty of WTF with this one
I've been waiting for this for a while, actually. You've been saying you wanted to review a BeatThang for over a year now, and I've always wondered how the unit would stack up when used by someone without gold teeth. I'm glad I waited, with countless opportunities to pull the trigger. Cheers! Once again, great video.
Thank you!!!
7:22 was awesome. Great show!
Thank you!!!
This was the centre of discussion on MPC forums for a good while when I was shopping for what ended up being a 2000XL, best choice I’ve ever made.
Wise choice!!!
great job keep it up you are the best may god bless you and your family
Thank you!!!
You finally did it!! I’ve been waiting on this one. I think I may have commented on you doing this in the past! 👍
Thank you!!!
Y'all should check out Wuh Had Happened Was. The channel gives the history of synth gear and the guy that does the channel is cool as hell. He does a video on this Thang.
Love his channel!!!
And if anyone is doing a search, they should probably add the name of the channel which is Dyreck Productions... It'll make it a lot easier to find it.
recommended!
that guy is the man
Wow, what a blast from the past. I haven't even thought about this thing in such a long time. It is WAY smaller than I expected.
It's massive tho!!!
I saw the 'jam' with RZA once , thought they were trolling. I have the streetboxx sb246 from zoom btw , also a good piece of bad gear to review I would say ;)
I'd love to have that Zoom thing but no one actually hates it;)
Googling this little box now - I'm intrigued
@@AudioPilz people actually like it?
@@AudioPilz SB-246 Streetboxx is good gear.
@@AudioPilz Maybe you could do a good gear or a over-hyped gear episode? I'd surely like that!
This was my primary beat machine, when I first started as a young’n and I made some bangers on it. I even had a beat website all produced with the beat thang. The first one I got came with malfunction so I had to send it back but they had a live Skype customer service anytime you needed help and once you got the hang of it you could really make some solid music
The lower back tattoo line killed me. I almost spit my coffee out.
There's another term for it;)
@@AudioPilz Tramp stamp?
Another great vid! second jam slapped. Killing it Florian
Thanks!!!
Jam 2 is really good... it's my favorite thing you've made on this show
Thanks!!!
I always love watching your videos. Great job. Keep em coming. Love the humour mixed with a technical overview of the product. You should do a spoof episode on a fisher price toy that would be ironically funny and entertaining 😄
Thank you so much!!! Have you seen the Casio Rapman episode?
When you're a producer but you're still trapped in the Matrix.
Wouldn't all my analog synths be VA then?
I think this might be the first Bad Gear episode about a pair of trainers that somebody glued together and put in the box upside down.
The box is super sturdy tho
To quote the Cenobite from Hellraiser:
We have such sights (and sounds) to show you.
As clearly this is, a working replica of the Lament Configuration.
It defo hurts af
I’ve lived in Nashville for 10 years, now I want one 👌
Nice!
@@AudioPilz despite being garish as it is. Great video 🙏
3:43 that 'r r r r roll, hold, metronome' flow is crazyyy
Thanks!
@@AudioPilz kein Problem :)
I definitely saw this particular beat thang listed on Reverb 😆 I'm glad you made a video
❤️❤️❤️
Had one. Wasn't terrible. Made many tracks with it. Sampled sounds. Used my own drums eventually. Only thing that was bad about it was the price... really was ahead of its time if you compare it to the stand-alone mpc/maschine that took a looooong time to come out.
Didn't the first standalone MPC come out in 1988?
@@AudioPilz the version of mpc that had built in synths, effects and sound packs? No. You can't compare this device to an mpc that only samples and sequences. You can't even compare it to the Renaissance or studio since they weren't standalone 🤷🏾♂️
@@beatsmith ASR-X Pro or ASR-10 was ahead of its time, but not this thing. I own both ASRs and wanted badly to have beat thang be a successor, but it seemed too gimmicky.
@@Vlfkfnejisjejrjtjrie Yeah, I had an ASR-X too... I can tell you.. they arent the same. I agree though, the ASR line was ahead of its time. But these are two different products from two different eras. End of the day, whatever gets you the result you need can't really be a "gimmick" can it? 🖖✌👌
Good one. I hate to admit at one point in my life, I actually wanted one of these. Thank god I held out.
Nothing to be ashamed of;)
Funny thing is as a gearfreak, i never heard of this thing or thang untill some 2years ago.
Yeah, it's super obscure
I literally watch these all day!!!
❤️❤️❤️❤️Thank you!!!
Damn, that really was a bad gear for once
thanks !
Thanks for watching!!!
I actually own one of these. Still have the box, all the paperwork, everything. I also have the software version on one of my laptops still. The design of the physical unit is very, very good. Made of good, solid materials. The biggest issue on my book, is the name. It was never taken seriously because of the name. With a different name and some later revisions, this could have been a super awesome tool. I have no plan to ever get rid of mine. Which is still mint…
Yeah, so much potential!!!
The three things that killed beat Thang were:
1. The "ghettofied" marketing. They were insulting their prospective customers when they should have been presenting a pro musician's tool. It was a big turnoff. You always felt stupid calling it by it's name. A simple model number would have done wonders for its perception.
2. Styling and labeling. If it looks like a toy to a musician - it might as well be one. Nobody ever asked for a sampler with a removable/upgradable grill.
3. It had nipples.
By the time they realized that they were making asses of themselves in the forums all respect was lost and it was too late. The Beat Thang was officially a joke.
Pretty sad actually.
That sums it up pretty nicely
It was always supposed to be ridiculous - they put it on a goddamned neck-chain fer fuck sake
Larry Fishborne intones: _Did the Beat Kang really fail us...or did we fail it?_
Sad gear episode ;)
It actually wasn't that at all. Like everything that is new people were bashing it before giving it a chance. Making fun of the name before even understanding what it did. What made people mock it is that it did so much at a time when current Samplers didn't do hardly any of the stuff the beat Thang did so ignorant people thought it was a joke and didn't take it seriously. On the forums it became a running joke because it kept getting delayed and people who were interested in it had their orders pushed back. It never got released at any real music retailers.
Only store that had it for sale was "BestBuy" of all places and that was years after the manufacturing pushbacks. On the front end the creators were mostly apologizing for the delays publicly and even visited popular forums to talk about the product and keep people updated. Of course people are a-holes and all they did was give those guys crap about their machine. I remember them talking about how larger companies they had showed the product too (Akai and Roland ) in hopes they'd pick it up instead just stole ideas from it. They weren't lying because literally other companies did steal ideas from the beat that that this box did FIRST. This was literally a stand alone portable music production center like the "MPC Live" back in 2007 when Akai hadn't even thought to unplug their MPC's from the wall yet and Native Instruments didn't even announce the Machine. This really was a next gen sampler that basically never got the support it should have because bigger companies took advantage of the creators. Lot of features on the Beathang can be found in the samplers/drum machines to come in the later years. That's no coincidence.
It came and went so quickly! I completely forgot about it’s existence until now.
Yeah, it's a mysterious artefact!!!
The RZA video with him making a beat with this thing made me so sad the first time I seen it…lol
I found it pretty funny. He obviously didn't give a damn
Hiphop producers wanted a stand alone unit, that didn't require PC /mac to operate.
The beat thang kinda achieved this ambition, and delivered it.
Akai has, only recently, released a true stand alone unit that doesn't need a pc to operate, thats over ten years later!
So , well done to beat thang for being so forward thinking.
Didn't they release the MPC60 in 1988?
@@AudioPilz yes exactly, ahaha. They stopped doing standalone units after the mpc2500, mpc5000 era ,started doing those units that need a laptop to operate...they did ok, but everyone wanted them to go back and do the standalone units and after so much pressure, they did. It's hilarious
shout out to everyone who sat thru the RZA's demo video for this thang back in the day LMAO!!!
I still think it was art
I have been waiting for this day for so long........
Same here!!!
excelente video colega saludos desde tijuana
¡Gracias!
@audiopilz I liked the reflection of your "Jam Face" Dance Moves from the screen, on the first jam. If only there was a way to capture that and display that in a window, without you knowing, on every video ;-)
Thanks!!! I didn't see that on the camera screen while filming but thought it would be quite fitting
Another great episode! With my style of music and aversion to MPC's (nothing against them, just find them a bit boring) The Beat Thang was something I had my eye on but it just got way too many bad reviews. Btw that's a great beat by Rockwilder on that 50 Cent record.
Thank you!!!
I think this was the first time I ever saw "wha had happened wuuuuuz" it made me feel like an explorer of arcane music artifacts , and helped me discover my first "bad gear" episode (after wich , I had to see all of the audiopilz badgear ).
Love DyReck's channel!!! Thanks!
0:29 - Who on earth wears a jumper like that?
Them synth nerdZ!!!
I don't think he lives on earth at all...
Heinbach!
I only need to see those rolands and i know it s that friend from that pron king.
I enjoyed AudioPilz's face pasted on the movie screens. Classic! 🤣
Thank you!!!
Lovely! 😍
I remember well when it drops, wanted to give it a shot but the price tag plus the aesthetic choices made me pass ...
Maybe this is why it generally bombed, who knows!
Very cool and entertaining video, thanks Florian!
Thank you!!!
Excellent as usual
2nd and 3rd tunes very good
Thanks!!!
I don't want one! Finally. Am I cured? 🧡
No one wants it;)
Finally! An actual bad gear!
All gear is bad;)