Beaterator Impressions
By Gaetano Prestia
Rockstar’s latest offering on the PSP is both ambitious and overly complex, which ultimately helps distance itself from being a simple music game. With the developer teaming up with music producing genius Timbaland to create a large-scale version of the popular online game, Beaterator on PSP is without a doubt one of the most extensive music generators ever released on a mainstream console.
After having played Beaterator for a few hours, one thing is for certain – this isn’t a game. While it has its accessible Live Play mode (which pretty much anyone can master), it is without a doubt a music generator, one that should entertain fanatical music lovers who just love creating their own beats.
Beaterator has two main modes – Live Play and Studio. The Live Play mode is a really cool introduction to the software and what it has on offer. It’s a simple press-and-mix mode that allows you to mix together either the software’s loops or ones you create on your own. You choose a genre and then move through the eight different instrumental or vocal groups seamlessly, each of which have four different loops spread out across the shape buttons.
You can record anything you make in Live Play and while it sounds simple (and it is), you can actually create some pretty cool tracks in this mode. You’ve got several genres to choose from (house, UK garage, rock etc), each of which has their own designated loops.
While there are plenty of loops included, you can import your own from your PC or create your own in the studio, which definitely adds a bit more life to the otherwise simplistic nature of the mode. Because of the quick nature of Live Play, importing your own sounds is actually really worth the effort, because the seamless jumping from one sound to the next using the face-buttons makes for some really efficient music creation. Not every single loop included will sound well when combined with other loops, so a slight sense of rhythm is needed.
If you dare go into the more dedicated and complex depths of Beaterator, the Studio Mode should fulfill most of your requirements as a genuine music generator. While it might take a while to get used to all of the menus and getting accustomed to where everything is, you can definitely create a complete song with Beaterator. While not all of the loops included are all that usable, most if not all of Timbaland’s are fantastic, highlighting his skills as a music producer. You can adjust a song's parameters fairly easily and create your own loops and beats using the Drum Crafter, which is actually quite impressive.
To break away from the loops you can use one of the synth editor, audio loop crafter, drum crafter and sound recorder to add in your own creative juices to a song, all of which work well using the PSP mic and face-buttons.
Beaterator is worth checking out if you’re after a genuine music generator. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is some half-assed, mainstream music mixer. Rockstar seem to have done a wonderful job in essentially fitting a full music generator of PC quality onto the small PSP. While they may have sacrificed some initial accessibility, there is a learning curve and you’ll get used to the games layout if you stick with it. Chances are if you’re checking this out, you’re checking it out to make some tunes, so you should have the patience needed to really master this software.
01/10/2009
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