Korg Announces The Beat Boy Drum Machine

Rhythms, effects, recorder and tuner for guitar practice   05-Sep-13

Korg says that their new Beat Boy enables guitarists or bassists to improve their skills quickly and easily with three practice tools plus a tuner, all in a single unit. They tell us that, in addition to the tuner, Beat Boy contains a rhythm machine covering 100 diverse styles, an effects section for sonic variation when jamming along with the rhythms, plus an onboard recorder that allows for 16-bit/44.1 kHz recording. The compact Beat Boy fits easily into the pocket of a gig bag, for practice both at home or on-the-go. Here's the details in Korg's own words...

Useful for helping to develop a sense of rhythm, the Beat Boy also offers a fun way to jam along with the patterns or use them to refine riff ideas. The onboard rhythm patterns (8-beat, 16-beat, pop, funk, reggae, dance beats, and more) span a wide range of musical styles. The LCD display features a fun and unique visual element-an animated "beat boy" graphic of a drummer striking the drums to the beat. The tempo of each rhythm can be adjusted intuitively by using the tap tempo feature, or it can be specified as a numeric value for more accurate settings. The accompaniment volume can also be adjusted, for mixing the balance accordingly.

Additional performance and practice features include two effects for electric guitar-distortion and overdrive-and an internal mic for tuning acoustic instruments. Beat Boy also makes it easy to record performances (20 minute maximum/up to 100 tracks) and play them back immediately. A specific section of the performance can be looped and played back repeatedly for analysis/practice, via the built-in speaker. The recorded sound can also be loaded as a WAV file via USB into a computer and edited in DAW software. Conversely, audio tracks* created on a computer can be loaded into Beat Boy and used as backing tracks.

* PCM audio format: WAV f files (44.1 kHz/16-bit monaural or stereo) supported.

Pricing and Availability:

The Beat Boy will be available in Fall 2013 for a US street price of $89.99.

More information:

• Korg