Akai Pro Tom Cat Analog Drum Machine First Look

At the 2015 NAMM Show, Akai Pro introduced the Tom Cat analog drum machine.

In the video, Akai Professional Product Manager Dan Gill gives a quick overview of the Tom Cat and what it can do. 

The Tom Cat is a true analog drum machine, with five built-in percussion voices, including Kick, Snare, and Clap sounds with chromatically tunable Disco Toms.

The Akai Tom Cat analog drum machine is expected to be priced at US $200 and to be available in July.

 

30 thoughts on “Akai Pro Tom Cat Analog Drum Machine First Look”

    1. why all the hate, to my ears it sounds better than the Volca Beats and it’s only £50 more expensive for a better machine.

    2. @ synth-doctor

      If you posted in Jan it’s highly unlikely that you own one or have heard it live. I picked one up and it’s a great piece of gear….very much an analogue punchy sound and fun to play with…metal chassis….must be heard in person not on compressed video.

  2. With the current Rhythm Wolf there are several problems (tuning, MIDI polyphony, etc);
    it is hoped that with this version, these problems are solved, rather, should be resolved before the problems of Rhythm Wolf !!!

    1. Instead of fixing the first, they make another product you have to buy. Perhaps you should be allowed to trade in your RW for a TC. That is, if they’ve even bothered fixing those issues.

  3. Again people are quick to write these off straight away. At it’s price point there is no reason that hardware like this can’t be used to create the next generation of dance music. 808 and 303 are not realistic prices for young musicians. This and the microbrute should be informing a new school of sound. The possibilities are there, about time we came full circle and used analog to try make digital type sounds

    1. Yep, interested to hear more of the kick. Might just be poor demoing. I don’t imagine the pitch envelope rate will be adjustable either. Only the amount/depth.

      1. Most of us thought the RW was just poorly demoed over and over and over… But at some point you gotta think it’s the product, not the video. Frankly, they’ve done so much damage to their rep with analogue, they don’t deserve anyone’s money till they’ve had a solid rethink, let alone just for repainting the same dog in different colours.

  5. for 200$ that is some hela thick snare kick and hats that’s all i’m sayin. I don’t know of a softsynth with such nice grungy snarly sound, or another cheap drum synth that is laid out well like this.

    1. Then you haven’t heard the Jomox MBase_11, sure it’s just for kicks but oh boy what sounds!!
      Same price as this and a powerful sound that you just can’t beat.
      But then again Jomox’ marketing is almost non existing and that’s all that counts, right?

      1. “or another cheap drum synth that is laid out well like this.”

        Paying $200 for a whole drum machine with a sequencer vs. paying $329 for a module that synthesizes a kick sound with no included sequencer . . . Both certainly have their own pros and cons, but it’s really apples and oranges here between the Rhythm Wolf and MBase.

        Sorry, it’s just a pet peeve of mine when someone says, “This budget item has drawbacks, you should go with this premium instrument which is much more expensive instead!” We all know that lower-priced units are going to have more feature restrictions – it’s all about utilizing what you have and what you can afford.

  6. The kick and snare is ok, but that clap just sounds like utter shite. Ithe advantage of analog is no longer just in its sound, it’s in the real time manipulation you can do with two hands, if a synth has parameters which sound like shit, it’s unlikely you’re going to want to change. Parameters at all, rendering this almost useless and obsolete by a good plug in.

    A real drum machine is a machine drum or tempest, two hands full on performance and constant little changes which sound good!

    Buy a good sample pack and create a cool drum rack, automate parameters and save 150$

  8. It seems like people are missing the point of these. They are simple drum machines. That is all. Comparing them to Machinedrum, Tempest or TR-8 doesn’t make any sense. If you need more than what these do then there are plenty of other options.

    1. Actually they compare badly to any piece of gear I’ve owned, they have knobs which do nothing, that’s just bad engineering. Never mind bad sound engineering. The Volca bass sounds amazing, and everything works as it should for a comparable price point. The RW tries to do too much for too little cash and ends up being useless musically.

  11. I haven’t yet played the Rhythm Wolf… but I think these are all interesting products (even the Timbre Wolf, which incidentally, it’s really neat that you can have different filter settings per voice). People quickly discard things that “aren’t as good” as another product, but sometimes it’s the entire package that might help you produce something you might not have otherwise. I bought an MC-303 a year and a half ago despite everyone saying how crappy it was… One of the most fun experiences messing around with that. It was awesome and… well, sometimes these odd devices just have something that, years later, you look back and and really like. Might seem desperate, but SOMEONE is going to appreciate these and write great music, or they’ll write shit music, but had fun in the process and I think that’s critical. If it’s priced poorly, it’ll come down in price accordingly.

  14. To each their own but I really enjoy my rhythm wolf. Is it better than the Volca? No. But, I don’t see how you can compare, it is a different box with different sound. I will probably be using this over my volca from now on, but this is all about personal preference. I look forward to picking up the tom cat as well. Love those toms… As for the timbre wolf, if they sell it as is now, it is definitely not worth 500… More like 300.

  15. I’ve never owned an analog drum machine before, and I like this one. £150 is nothing these days and although i don’t particularly want “disco toms”, the other parts all sound great.

    I watched videos of this guy doing his same demonstration from Thursday to Sunday.. he got increasingly more depressed as the show went on 🙁 poor guy clearly received some criticism!
    Shame he never demoed any actual full beats

    I’d like to know what pattern storage/transitioning it has – perhaps expecting too much, but no matter

  17. This is awesome! NOT everything has to sound like an 808 or 909. Seriously, people this drum machine rocks and for such a low price. The disco toms alone are worth it! If you dont like this drum machine you dont know what your talking about. Great work AKAI!

  18. I have a vermona drm1 mk3, acidlab miami, mfb tanbar and tr 606. Trust me This drum machine is awesome. The price, the disco toms, snare and kick, Thanks akai! Keep up the great work!

  19. Back in the day, some resourceful 3rd party would by now have announced replacement chips, so you can swap out the sounds. I wonder if that is still possble?

    Chances are the answer is no, as most things these days are surface mounted. If Akai were forward thinking, they would have this potential built in as standard, after all that’s what they’ve done with this Tom Cat.

    Uploadable base sounds. Is this too much to expect?

  20. I’m thinking of buying one but the Tom Cat is getting just as bad reviews as the Wolf .. I’m at the point now of saving up and getting a Vermona DRM1 MkIII Drum Machine and a sequencer maybe a korg or just forget it and get a korg beats and Mod it
    I like the Alesis 18 but want a sequencer style on the bottom for on the fly stuff… anyway

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