VIDEO: THE ZRO HOUR: Interview with THE BEAT KANGZ and Preview of THE BEAT THANG Sampling Drum Machine

THE ZRO HOUR: Interview with THE BEAT KANGZ and Preview of THE BEAT THANG Sampling Drum Machine from EDAYE on Vimeo.

When beatboxer Chesney Snow told me about a drum machine he was working on (Chesney provided human beat box sounds for the drum machine) with Tennessee production crew THE BEAT KANGZ, I combed the net for more info as I picked their brain. I had posted a couple of articles on THE BEAT THANG- synthesizer, sampler, sequencer- and connected with their publicist for the interview above. It was suggested that we do it through Skype, which was a great idea. It was my first time using Skype and though I had a bit of technical difficulties during set up, I was able to record our great conversation about THE BEAT THANG, the desktop version THE BEAT THANG VIRTUAL and the iphone app THE PLAYA THANG! Below are demo videos of THE BEAT THANG and THE BEAT THANG VIRTUAL.





For more info: http://www.beatkangz.com/

MUSIC TECH: AKAI Blows It Out With New MPC 5000

AKAI's MPC drum machine/sequencer/sampler is known as one of the key instruments that have revolutionized music and Hip Hop production specifically. AKAI introduced the Midi Production Center with the ROGER LINN designed MPC 60. Through the years, improvements have been made to the kit and we have seen the MPC morph from the 60 to the 60II to the 3000, 2000, 4000, 1000, 2500 and the portable battery operated MPC 500. Now in 2008, AKAI has introduced the MPC 5000. It feels like it is in direct response to ROLAND's MV-8800 sampling workstation. The MV-8800 was seen as a potential MPC killer due to its inclusion of a built in analogue synth and flexible sequencing capabilities. Well AKAI has answered the call and has introduced a slew of new features including a built in synthesizer, arpeggiator and larger screen. Below is a great video outlining all the new features and capabilities of this new beast-