In a brand-new video from Akai Pro, sound designer Richard Devine takes the new Rhythm Wolf drum machine through its paces.
Akai has also released an accompanying short interview with Devine about analog and his first impressions of the Rhythm Wolf:
I think this guy is using more than just the Wolf
Wouldn’t you too? I don’t care how good a drum machine sounds, I’m not creating a song that is just drum machine for 4 minutes.
http://youtu.be/bAq8vJJT3cM
Neat. zzZZZzz
It only takes tens of thousands worth of modular gear to make it sound good 🙂
That’s an amazing demo of a $250,000 modular rig. It’s a terrible demo of $300 drum synth and sequencer.
actually – supposed to be a $200 drum machine.
agreed
horrible demo
Richard Devine demos his effects.
unfortunately the Rhythm Wolf only has one out for the drums, and one out for the synth. The first thing a sound guy might ask is “can we separate the kick?”…..no, sorry.
That’s why he has two of them, one is just for the kick, lol
What do you mean, soundguy? Playing live I get my own mixer and only master l/r is out. The only way to have a good sound at the show. 🙂
im referring to bigger situations than solo shows. I certainly keep it simple by myself, but in a band setting or a studio tracking, those kinds of basic output flexibilities are desired by many. It lets you treat the kick for the venue, because maybe that awesome snare sound at home is screaming loud on a festival stage. A lot of the small box synths out have frustrating limits for pro applications, but i suppose that would change the price point.
That bit in the middle that goes ‘bip’, is that the rhythm wolf?
This is a bit disingenuous on AKAI’s part. Nice sounds though.
I wish Akai would just let an experienced drum machine programmer/performer play the Rhythm Wolf dry. We don’t even need video – a few SoundCloud tracks in different styles will suffice. This performance is interesting but useless as a product demo.
That video came out a few days ago, plus its on soundcloud.
The video posted yesterday was four minutes of amateur noodling, not a solid demo.
it only takes 10 seconds of any user to grok the horribleness of the snare on this unit. dont think anyone anywhere would be satisfied with this box unless it was purely as a secondary source for toms or something?? the hi hats, snare, kick, all sound tinny and terrible, the worst of analog with little not no shaping ability. look at the MFB drum machines for comparison of a sound that is at least *sometimes* pleasing
Close your eyes and imagine the Soundcloud logo. Instant YouTube to Soundcloud conversion!
I like it a Lot not as product demo but musicaly it is quite a peace
I think you mean: Piece (as in P.O.S.)
yes I do you are really nice to point that out thanks.
agreed great track…
crap demo of the drum machine…
this is entitled “Richard Devine Rhythm Wolf Demo”
you could have featured the drum machine at least
.
Richard Devine “Rhythm Wolf” Demo
fixed it for you
WTF….
Richard (AFX Autechre Clone #23453) Devine.. does what he does best bleep bleep bleep .. step aside Mr Jordan Rudless.. Richard Devine is the new go to man for over exposure & bleeped out demos which ahem all sound the same…. `sorry Richard, I know your a nice dude n all .. but your a bit over exposed, and would be good to see demos from people actually using the unit ..
Boring glitchy soup…
With all that gear, I highly doubt you’d be able to tell the difference between the Wolf and a contact mics on pots and pans.
First thing I heard from Richard where I got the buzz. I understand the accolades now.. There was some lovely sound design in there, nice movement, very cinematic. To all the haters… Shut the f&%k up and do something better.
Talk about missing the point….
Whenever I see a guy use this much gear to make music like this, it feels like watching someone use all the technology at NASA to build a two-wheel scooter to run down the the grocery store on.
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/81109-aaa-ask-autechre-anything-sean-and-rob-on-watmm/?p=2086525 😉
This is a great demo. This is what most electronic musicians do, run their drum machines in conjunction with a ton of other gear… I think all the hate for this box come from people wanting an all in one machine to make boring acid tracks with, not something useful in real production. This video shows you can do that. I haven’t seen videos of the beats that can say the same. Why would anyone want to rely only on the stock sounds of any machine? This box is going to be great for people doing more creative things than 4 on the floor dance tracks…
Therein lies the problem: This is not a demo of the Rhythm Wolf. This is a demo of Richard Devine’s modular rig with 2 Rhythm Wolfs added to it. Very different. I’m not hating on RD. I’m hating on the concept of the video as somehow displaying anything about the Rhythm Wolf other than that (like most any drum machine including the much hated MC-303 groovebox) it can sound good if you run it through enough efx
The thing is that this would sound just as interesting with some toy kid’s keyboard or a squeaky toy and a microphone – it tells you very little about the 2 drum machines he’s playing with.
‘Why would anyone want to rely only on the stock sounds of any machine?’
Why do people like the sound of acoustic guitars or any other musical instrument? Sometimes I run stuff through long effect chains, sometimes I pick up a Monotron or 303 and play it for an hour without any processing at all. I sort of like the RW (see my other comments here if you don’t believe me) and think it’s gonna be a nice little machine at the price, but this video isn’t helpful for anyone getting started with synthesizers, which is who the device is aimed at.
Shame you cant actually hear the RW. Very poor product demo.
And the Rhythm Wolf demos continue to disappoint….
The Ryhthm Wolf demonstrated as part of the most ridiculous modular speghetti imaginable.
Jesus Christ, considering the gear probably cost more than my house this track is pretty beige.
Beautiful evolving sounds by Richard Devine. The machine got so much visceral hate I feel I want one now.
Gtfohwtbs
Why am I the only one who likes this? We finally get a demo by a talented professional, and everyone shoves it in the trash.
I like what he’s doing, but I don’t like it as a Rhythm Wolf demo when Akai hasn’t put out any good sounding examples yet. If anything, this is an advertisement for Richard Devine and getting a modular system as I bet he could’ve run any other drum machine on the market with CV through that rig and gotten similar results.
In short, Devine is great. The Rhythm Wolf? Who knows because we can’t really hear it through all the processing. It’s a poor demo to convince me to buy a Rhythm Wolf, but a great demo to convince me to buy a gigantic modular rig (and have the skills of Richard Devine).
I personally thought it was a lovely patch, more like one artists approach to how they would use the RW. I am sure Akai will be making more solo demos of the RW.
What the hell was that! Can akai not make a good demo of this machine? Wtf! Buy a volca beats, at least you know what it sounds like
well, it is difficult to know what comes from the Wolf than from the rest. So, it’s not a Wolf demo. it’s a R.Devine set, with incidentally, 2 Wolfs.
All that gear and he doesn’t even have a chair. Nice sounds, bad demo. As others have said, this really just increases my desire to by a modular system.
Garbage
i didn’t listen to it, but i know this demo is accurate from the comments. you’re going to sound like you no matter what gear you use. read the manual, if you like the features and the price, use it to make tracks. people that ended up with cheap 808s and 303s in the 80s didn’t listen to gear demos.
They should have had Richard demo the Renaissance too