Beaterator

Beaterator

It’s important to note that, despite Beaterator’s gaming pedigree courtesy of developer RockStar Leeds, this is very much a piece of software rather than a game. There are no high-scores to chase, stories to unravel or puzzles to solve and, while there is some ‘play’ to be had in the game’s ‘Live Play’ mode, Beaterator is a sequencer tool through and through: a well-featured musical sketchpad for composition across multiple musical genres.

It’s not without precedent either. Codemasters’ Music for the original PlayStation had similar aspirations to bring music sequencing software to console owners, and, to one extent or another, was responsible for launching the careers of young British artists such as Dizee Rascal and The Streets. While Beaterator is no replacement for more serious PC/ Mac-based sequencer tools, such as Propellerheads’ Reason, it’s an excellent introduction to the art of digital music creation, and many of the basic and advanced techniques you’ll learn here will stand any would-be producer in good stead.

Beaterator is essentially an 8-track sequencer, allowing its user to create pieces of music with up to eight instruments playing simultaneously. The real meat of the package is to be found in the ‘Song Crafter’ area, which is laid out very much like a professional sequencer package. Here, time is measured along the X-axis, broken up into beats and bars, while the rows on the y-axis list the current instruments you have lined up. By selecting a track on the sequencer you can add loops to the song area, a 4-bar hip-hop drumbeat, or a 1-bar flute flourish and, layer by layer, build up your song.

Produced in conjunction with producer Timabland, Beaterator comes packed with all manner of pre-made loops for you to pick from – thus building songs is easy enough, even for non-musicians. But for the more ambitious, you can create loops from scratch, writing in, say, an acoustic guitar line or a House beat using the on-board Midi sequencer. This is a powerful tool, allowing you to edit the pitch, fade-in and fade-out points of each loop and even reverse samples. With thousands of instrument samples to edit and mash-up, those with time and dedication will be able to make unique-sounding songs relatively quickly.

While the impressive collection of acoustic instrument samples mean it’s theoretically possible to create music in different genres, the package’s reliance on loops means it’s undeniably geared towards electronic dance music. But features such as being able to save out Midi files and share songs via RockStar’s Social Club site ensure that a new generation of young producers and musicians have more than enough tools at their disposal to develop their craft. Indeed, we wouldn’t be surprised if the package is responsible for launching a few careers in the next year or two.