Kenny and Noel of producer duo NuVintage show some of the real-time capabilities of Native Instruments’ new groove production studio Maschine at NAMM 2009.

An introduction to the Beat Kangz Beat Thang:

Yeah it’s real…. It’s gonna make Real hits too….. Here it is for tha world to see…… The 100% original Beat Thang.

Note: It appears that this video has been yanked for its craptacularness. See comments below.

Note 2: It looks like they reposted it! I updated the embed above.

2009 NAMM Show: Beat Kangz is introducing a new sampling workstation that looks like it could be the sexiest beat box ever – The Beat Thang. 

The Bourne-o-vision video above is pretty bad, but even with the bad video, the interface looks like it will be pretty spectacular. If Beat Kangz can deliver, this could heat up things up in the world of drum machines/MPCs.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Features:

• Sampling with onboard waveform editing
• Over 3000 new sounds designed by The Beat Kangz
• 16 Track MIDI sequencer 
• 500 production ready Platinum beats and loops created by The Beat Kangz
• Sleek design and styling with customizable “Paintz” and “Grillz”
• Convenient, light-weight portable design with internal rechargable battery
• USB In & Out 
• Pitch and Mod Wheels
• On Board FX including Reverb, Delay, Automated Filters and tons of Crazy “Freak FX” including “Chopped and Screwed”!!!!
• On Board “Mo Bang” Mastering with EQ and Limiting
• 256 MB Ram standard
• 2 High Speed SD Card Slots
• Export Beats to a Mac or PC 
• Easy to USE
• And – “More top Secret Features and Surprises that we dont want our sleezy, thieving corporate competitors to know…. but we’ll tell ya soon!”

Specifications:

• 2 Headphone Jacks
•  Carry audio output via USB. USB Connects to any Hard drive, USB keys can also be read and write to
• Read directly off of the SD cards. 2 Slots capbable of 16GB’s each
• 256 MB Ram Stock
•  512 Flash for user content on board. Higher if its a custom order
•  Stereo Mic Line input with Phantom Power
• Sampling, and Resampling of outputs
• Tempo sync Delay, Mastering, Reverb, Filters and tons of other weird FX
• Plans to open FX section to 3rd party developers . Can you say VST (Ed. Very interesting…..)
• Custom Paint. Any Color LED’s, Custom Grillz
• Each pad can have 16 layers with independent pitch, cut off res, pan, velocity, vol and a single pad can be spread across a whole keyboard with Loop points so you can sample synths strings or anything and turn it into multi layered patches.
• PC Drum Kit builder with Drag and Drop capabilities

 
Sequencer Information
 

• 96 PPQ
• 1000 Sequences
• 500 Songs
• Individual Bar Length which can be changed in real time even while recording. (Ed. Excellent!!)
• Quantize and Swing can be changed in real-time.
• All your Songs, Sequences, Beats, Kits, Patches, Samples and settings that are on your SD cards are always there and show up just like the presets.
• 13 Pads with Velocity
• 8 Pad banks per track 
• 16 Tracks 
• Pad and Track mute and Solo 
• Mixer with level control FX send, Pan, Pitch Automation, Filter and EQ Automation per Track including (Low Pass, Band Pass, Hi pass, Low Shelf, High Shelf and Notch, Automated Q control to)
• Dynamic Kit and Patch creator which is easy and to use. Samples can all have categories (Kicks, Snares Hats etc) App for converting your own samples into the categories and the ability to create your own.
• 16 Layers per PAD with velocity, pan, pitch ,cut off, res and volume control
• Can create multilayerd patches that span a keyboard from one pad or multiple. Each bank can have a different patch (keys and bass or drums and synth )

FXpansion has announced the release of version 1.5 of GURU, its creative beat box workstation.

Version 1.5 has over 50 new features and an additional 3GB of exclusive, original audio content covering styles such as hip hop, grime, tech house, and electronica. Major new features include audio rendering and export, creative randomization, sample reverse, full support for note-offs and duration, triplet support, and a new high-accuracy beat slicer with sensitivity and resolution controls.

v1.5 is a free update for existing owners of GURU.

New features include:

• Audio rendering and export of pads, tracks, engines and full loops, with drag and drop to host
• Full support for note-offs and note duration
• Randomizer slider, allowing controlled & creative randomization of almost every aspect of GURU
• Sample reverse in the pad editor, also automatable via the graphs
• Completely overhauled slicing algorithm with sensitivity control and much improved slice results, and support for loops with up to 128 slices
• Per-pattern resolution/multiplier controls, so you can now set each pattern to play triplets, 8th and 32nd-notes, etc.

GURU is available now direct from FXpansion’s online store for $249 / €199 / £129, excluding local taxes where applicable. The GURU 1.5 upgrade is available free of charge to all GURU owners.