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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Music Developer: Rockstar Leeds Publisher: Rockstar Games |
Rockstar Games, the company that has brought such games as “Grand Theft Auto” has decided that it is time to branch out again. This
time they teamed up with producer Timbaland in the hopes of creating a full-featured music creation program that both musicians and
music fans can enjoy, “Beaterator.” Those who are looking for a music game will have to look elsewhere, but for those that want to
create music and have a little patience, “Beaterator” will do the trick.
There are two sides to “Beaterator,” Live Play and the Studio. Live Play is a performance tool that lets players mix Beaterator’s or their
own loops together. A session consists of several tracks represented by speakers in the corners of the screen, and each track can
contain four loops that are triggered with the face buttons. One loop from each track can play at a time and players can move from one
loop to the next in real time. Using this mode to perform compositions of their own loops seems to be the best application for the
game. Playing with the templates and loops is fun for a little while, but creating material or loading personal samples is a lot more fun
and rewarding.
Players are able to replace loops as a song plays, allowing players to transition to another song during a performance. “Beaterator”
can also record a performance and dump the loops players play into the timeline of their Song Crafter, saving them the trouble of laying
it all out. Once captured, players can edit the clips in the timeline as they like.
The Studio is where things start to get a little bogged down with menus. To add a loop players jump into a loop menu to browse loops.
They can preview any loop in the library, but it takes a while to load. A drum hit that is less than a second long may take several
seconds to load, making the task a chore. Also, “Beaterator” stretches loops as players adjust the tempo, but the time stretch isn’t
great so altering the tempo will result in audio breakdown. There is a large library of sounds to work with, but not all of them are
usable. Some sounds just don’t sound right. The sounds provided by Timbaland are great and are kept in their own folder, able to be
sorted by instrument, genre, or length. Also, the synth editor, a built-in synthesizer for creating your own sounds, is fairly impressive,
although it does require some knowledge of synthesis to use. Players are also able to import your own samples and recordings,
opening up Beaterator's possibilities. It's possible to make a song with all original samples, loops, and recordings, which is a pretty
cool feature for a little PSP game.
For each track in a song players can adjust different parameters, ranging from volume to pitch and more, accessed by pulling the
analog down to enter the knobs and buttons area. This is where players will begin to realize that maybe the PSP isn’t necessarily the
best system for this kind of a music studio because something as simple as a single mouse click on a computer translates to a lot
more work on the PSP. The cursor is on one side of the screen and in order to get to a knob on the other side of the screen players will
have to click through everything in between. Though it isn’t fair to compare the PSP software to that of a PC, it is in the best interest of
the developer to create something that is easy to use, no matter what platform it is being presented on. If the PSP offer a touch screen,
the program would be run a lot easier.
For anyone considered to be a musician, looking for new portable solutions for capturing musical inspiration on the go can be a
concern. The ideal software would be easy to use, making it quick to save songs that are in their head. Sadly, this is where
“Beaterator” stumbles because of the confusing interface. Of course not all of the blame can be put on Rockstar Game because the
PSP button interface slows down the process dramatically. Musicians are used to using music software on computers with a mouse
which allows for quick input, but they aren’t able to take those tools with them on the go, which may be what some of them are looking
for in a music software.
With “Beaterator,” players are able to complete songs, but it just isn’t as easy as software on a PC would be. It is a portable music
studio with many of the same features that can be found in expensive PC software for a fraction of the price. However, the portable
music studio needs to be a lot easier than in is in this game. Although the game has an impressive feature set, it isn’t really competing
with the high end music software. It offers a simple live performance tool and a way of capturing ideas on the go so the real thing can
be recorded at a later time. Rockstar Games and Timbaland have a great idea going here, but it just seems that either the menus and
controls need to be created around the PSP controls, or “Beaterator” needs to be released on a more friendly system.
time they teamed up with producer Timbaland in the hopes of creating a full-featured music creation program that both musicians and
music fans can enjoy, “Beaterator.” Those who are looking for a music game will have to look elsewhere, but for those that want to
create music and have a little patience, “Beaterator” will do the trick.
There are two sides to “Beaterator,” Live Play and the Studio. Live Play is a performance tool that lets players mix Beaterator’s or their
own loops together. A session consists of several tracks represented by speakers in the corners of the screen, and each track can
contain four loops that are triggered with the face buttons. One loop from each track can play at a time and players can move from one
loop to the next in real time. Using this mode to perform compositions of their own loops seems to be the best application for the
game. Playing with the templates and loops is fun for a little while, but creating material or loading personal samples is a lot more fun
and rewarding.
Players are able to replace loops as a song plays, allowing players to transition to another song during a performance. “Beaterator”
can also record a performance and dump the loops players play into the timeline of their Song Crafter, saving them the trouble of laying
it all out. Once captured, players can edit the clips in the timeline as they like.
The Studio is where things start to get a little bogged down with menus. To add a loop players jump into a loop menu to browse loops.
They can preview any loop in the library, but it takes a while to load. A drum hit that is less than a second long may take several
seconds to load, making the task a chore. Also, “Beaterator” stretches loops as players adjust the tempo, but the time stretch isn’t
great so altering the tempo will result in audio breakdown. There is a large library of sounds to work with, but not all of them are
usable. Some sounds just don’t sound right. The sounds provided by Timbaland are great and are kept in their own folder, able to be
sorted by instrument, genre, or length. Also, the synth editor, a built-in synthesizer for creating your own sounds, is fairly impressive,
although it does require some knowledge of synthesis to use. Players are also able to import your own samples and recordings,
opening up Beaterator's possibilities. It's possible to make a song with all original samples, loops, and recordings, which is a pretty
cool feature for a little PSP game.
For each track in a song players can adjust different parameters, ranging from volume to pitch and more, accessed by pulling the
analog down to enter the knobs and buttons area. This is where players will begin to realize that maybe the PSP isn’t necessarily the
best system for this kind of a music studio because something as simple as a single mouse click on a computer translates to a lot
more work on the PSP. The cursor is on one side of the screen and in order to get to a knob on the other side of the screen players will
have to click through everything in between. Though it isn’t fair to compare the PSP software to that of a PC, it is in the best interest of
the developer to create something that is easy to use, no matter what platform it is being presented on. If the PSP offer a touch screen,
the program would be run a lot easier.
For anyone considered to be a musician, looking for new portable solutions for capturing musical inspiration on the go can be a
concern. The ideal software would be easy to use, making it quick to save songs that are in their head. Sadly, this is where
“Beaterator” stumbles because of the confusing interface. Of course not all of the blame can be put on Rockstar Game because the
PSP button interface slows down the process dramatically. Musicians are used to using music software on computers with a mouse
which allows for quick input, but they aren’t able to take those tools with them on the go, which may be what some of them are looking
for in a music software.
With “Beaterator,” players are able to complete songs, but it just isn’t as easy as software on a PC would be. It is a portable music
studio with many of the same features that can be found in expensive PC software for a fraction of the price. However, the portable
music studio needs to be a lot easier than in is in this game. Although the game has an impressive feature set, it isn’t really competing
with the high end music software. It offers a simple live performance tool and a way of capturing ideas on the go so the real thing can
be recorded at a later time. Rockstar Games and Timbaland have a great idea going here, but it just seems that either the menus and
controls need to be created around the PSP controls, or “Beaterator” needs to be released on a more friendly system.
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