Mobile Music Production System

I purchased one with a blank screen, thinking I might be able to revive it, but realizing this thing had already died in the marketplace so stayed real. I have technical expertise and have repaired/restored many electronics devices. Here's what I found......one of the most substantially built-completely unusable pieces of musical equipment I've purchased. I completely disassembled it to see what made it tick-sand found out. There is one removable IC board that apparently must have the OS in it (or used to)-with connections similar to a computer laptop memory chip but deeper in dimension. when I removed it, the BKE was completely dead-thinking removing/reseating this card might work. It didn't. I have pics showing the internal Samsung chips-looks like one small CPU (maybe) and attendant memory chips. Was maddening because it was perfectly intact inside but the screen remains black-apparently there are many of these out there exactly like mine. and here is the worst part-in addition to the company being belly-up....nobody has the necessary firmware/software files this thing might need to restore its OS-any links that might have it, are dead. even an FTP search turned up nothing-archived pages-nothing. and this probably why so many of these went dead. Lights go on, there is a small LED in this internal plug-in board that lights up too. but still a blank, black screen. At least the screen matches the color of the metal body...I have never in decades, had an electronic music device that could not be salvaged somehow until now. No user groups, nothing. I have resurrected other machines with no manufacturer support, managed to find solutions somewhere-this....unbelievably is completely useless now. Might as well melt it down to salvage the metal and make something useful-maybe a tombstone with its name on it. if I'm wrong, please send a reply. or the firmware files. Here. Thank you.Some updates...this has an ARM CPU running just shy of 600Mhz, now you know why it can crash. I have a 2nd working one with OS 1.3.1-the last OS, and it works very well with additional samples which I obtained from a very knowledgeable seller on another auction website who also sent me the entire OS-which is Linux based. the shame of it-I believe it can only be completely re-installed through a proprietary 24-pin header I found inside-I cannot boot this into its Linux OS from the SD cards, USB port or USB thumb drive port. It is without a doubt a very usable music device-if these guys had any ability to get back into the market with this-with their support, it could still be a killing machine. Its a shame, music companies that have put out some of the best keybords/modules did not have enough business background to survive in what is a rather limited market, compared to many other industries-why Yamaha makes motorcycles and etc., Roland makes industrial printers!

I really don't hate the Beat Thang but I would never recommend anyone actually buy it. If I would have done a little more research I definitely would not have purchased it. The hardware itself is sturdy and has given me no problems. It is the software that is extremely flawed and it does not seem like any fixes will be coming from the small tech support that is left of a company that does not seem to really be in business anymore. Tech support for this device is whole other story. I have been "woking" with them regarding my super glitchy BeatThang for over a year now. I even sent it to them, they held on to it for 3 months, sent it back and all I got out of it was no BeatThang for three months. If only they would put some solid thought and man hours into the software this device could be a 4 if not 5 star buy.

Has a great sound and would recommend them to anyone. I have the ones that sync with my Bluetooth nn rechargeable

This product was a great investment,the beat thang is the best invention in music productions. My only problem was not with the product, but with the shipping speed. I placed my order on the 1st of July and it left the seller facility on the second of July, it was in los angles CA. for 15 days. this is because FedEx is a terrible shipping company! people save money with them but lose quality with their service, i'm not impressed at all with the seller facility ability to get the product to people in the amount of time needed to get it to them. so i give the product a perfect five but the shipping quality get's a well deserved ZERO!

I initially loved the product. It glitches a little at first, but then stopped. I brought it a little before christmas, started producing, finished a mixtape and midway through the album that I was producing the glitching occurred again. I called BKE, and they helped me get the problem resolved, and everything was great for another week then it glitched and quit loading the kits, exporting songs, and also began to delete data off of the SD card on accident or the files were saved as corrupted files. A single that I was in mid music video production crashed, and I had to return the item and wait for a new way to re-produce the instrumental for the music video.The virtual BKE is kind of sloppy as well. With all of this said, I now understand why the price dropped from 1,400 dollars to 700 dollars. The capabilities of the machine, and what it promises would be worth at least 2,000 dollars if the hardware wasn't lacking the sophistication needed to process the data, and function properly. Maybe if apple made the product, then it would be a better product, but the hardware and software used can not be trusted. When it comes to functionality of the machine, it is pretty poor in comparison. I'm waiting on another one to be sent to me, and maybe I will change my mind, but my first experience with BKE was piss poor.I've seen other reviews that had issues with the functionality of the machine as well as other customers have experienced glitching as well. I also, met the ex president of BKE, and his name was on the credits. I was so excited when he told me Jay-Z used the machine for a beat in his last album, that I brought it and over looked other drum machines. Especially, since I saw the machine had a huge price drop. I began to think, "I found a deal on a great machine",but it's a sales tactic. I'm sure Jay-Z did not pay for the machine, so it was a great business move for him, free machine, quick beat, and ect, but for anyone that's trying to get things started or add to their production this machine is great if you don't mind the lack of reliability.With all of this written, I will be waiting for my second Beat Thang and if it doesn't work again, I will know that it's a bonafide problem with the software, and I didn't just receive a dysfunctional piece of equipment at first. Wish me luck, and if my second one doesn't work I will write another review to update other potential clients.P.S. The representative at BKE are great to talk with, will help you out, and stay on the phone with you for hours trying to resolve a problem. They are great, but the problem is the machine, not the people. Maybe the product was slightly rushed into production.