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That was the DarkStar for me. Sounds okay but that user interface is horrible. It looks like it would be pretty straight-forward but once you own it, you realize the lack of consistency makes it confusing as hell.
@Hydorah. I love my Tomcat. I playing many different styles and music. I'm knowing nears good as John 5, but I'm a bit like him. I think I'll edit this later lol. What a mess
The Rhythm Wolf is as uncompromisingly oldschool, as it gets. I still wonder how it ended up being released at all. It's raw and dirty and doesn't even try to stay in tune, and for that reason I love it 😍
Supposedly, according to a guy I know who worked at Akai during the Rhythm Wolf development cycle, it started out as a running joke in the testing department about who could think of the worst name for a new product, but within a few months the engineering deparment had picked up on it, didn't understand the joke, and actually made it. Obviously I can't substantiate this but, I mean, it checks out.
That’s the sneaky thing about it! Every time I see one of his videos it makes me go back and try being creative… for a while until I realise I’m a bit rubbish 😂
Every single piece of gear that actually generates a waveform that I own has been featured on Bad Gear at some point or another. Regardless of the actual capabilities and quality of a particular synth/drum machine/groovebox/sampler/ROMpler/etc., as long as people are quick to hate on things for the smallest of reasons, Florian will never run out of stuff to review.
@Donal Finn I honestly think AKAI planned that shit. I mean most of their stuff now is spot on (minus the Force and AKAI Fire) but I give them cool points over current day Roland.
There are no bad instruments, just untalented musicians. A lot of the stuff that is considered obsolete now, used to be high-end desireable equipment in the 80s and 90s. Still, musicians back then used the same gear to write tracks that are still unsurpassed up until now.
I dipped out of being a synth fanatic around the time these came out, didn't seem like I missed much over that time, but I'm darn glad you've made this channel. Get to see them in action.
Good price! It's real analog gear, I think it is hated by people who was expecting 808 909 sounds, but it's not! Indeed has a very unique character and was built as a tank!
As a former Timbre Wolf, but present day Ryhthm Wolf and Tom Cat owner, I'd like to say they are other ways to warm up the Akai Drum Machines (I traded the TW for a Midi'd Monotribe). Some candidates are the Walforf 2 Pole, the Vermona Retroverb, and my favorite, running the Tom Cat or RW through a Monotribe as a filter box. Wait a second, you'd say, wouldn't you hear the Monotribe as well????? No, 5 of my 6 Monotribes are modded with VCO mute (for running as an acid filter) and also have external CV control of the filter (mod). Right now both the Tom Cat and RW are in storage, but I run a more vintage 1980s Tama TS-305 through a Monotribe. It's no Simmons, but does well to please my 57 year old ears!
2:09 Man thats why I thought "damn the kick on this machine is so deep it's too deep !" if I remember correctly the decay of this kick was too long as well, even when complitely closed
I am a former RW owner, it was one of the first drum machines I had on my channel. I loved the look (it reminded me of an NES) and it had great connectivity and sequencing. With some careful tweaks, a few pedals they can sound cool but still very limited. There are some cool mods out there for it though.
it's just BECAUSE OF YOU and your damn channel that I bought (for a pittance) an Akai Rhythm Wolf and even a Yamaha DJX-IIb!!! And I don't regret it at all! TANKS! 😁
Thanks for videos. I only recently discovered your channel and I laugh because everytime I see your videos, it's about gear I mostly have. Lol. Anyway, from now on whenever I'm interested in retro gear, I search you and if it's featured, I'll throw my wallet as far as possible. Cheers and keep making viewers laugh or cry. 👍🏾
I love my rhythm wolf. It's weak in a lot of places, but the sequencer is fantastic in my opinion. I'm sure it's actually terrible, but it suits my warped brain like a glove. It's perfect when hooked up to my diy raspberry pi based sampler. It's delightful on its own on the go, just to noodle around. As soon as I've cleaned up my electricronics bench I will put in discrete outputs for the drums. The kick is too anemic to be useful as is, but put through a eq pedal and added amplification it will be much better. Limitations breed innovation.
I read all the reviews and some were good. I then saw and heard one in the flesh and I thought it was great. It's just so easy to operate, although simply setting the velocity is probably the most difficult thing. They are also rather unique, there is nothing quite like them. Most drum machines don't come with a nice little bass synth. The sequencer is particularly good. That Kick is a lot deeper than it sounds on RU-vid. When played through a nice amplifier, it's a real house shaker.I don't see anything wrong with the HH or snare either, it's very easy to get classic analogue sounds. Percussion makes some interesting sounds. Turning up the 'Howl' makes the whole sound dirtier. It has exactly what I need. I don't like too many drums or sounds, especially 'handclaps' :-) The synth is definitely basic but it does have fun factor too. It's very 'quirky' and has some nice sounds but lacks any resonance, the Wolf certainly doesn't have any bite when you tweak it even playing the highest notes. I play bass guitar or synth along with it. I even write basslines with it, like a note pad. I particularly like being able to write across several patterns and join them seamlessly and I've found some interesting ways of linking it to other equipment. I also think that even with its 'plastic wood' sides everyone must surely agree that it certainly appears well made.
this thing is a little b**ch. I love this thing and it has everything you need from this kind of a drum machine, but if you need more, i want the akay to play along with a yamaha RX5 to mix the analog sound with some digital sound. Cranking the mixer , gated reverb on the toms and lets go. It is not the easiest thing to play and the bass have some issues to keep the tuning and i guess that is something, why people blame this thing. they are just two kind of peoples. one loves the, the others hates them. And never talk about the howl. A mod, where the howl just gets to the bass synth, that would be great, but in the otherhand... nehhh.... And yes, that is a a drum mashine, where you should try some fx. I use the drums with a digital yamaha r100 reverb and a Ibanez harmonizer, thats some fun. If you go around youtube, you would see some descent pice of music
@@AudioPilz Die Roland MC 09 wär vielleicht auch interessant www.amazona.de/test-roland-mc-09-phrase-lab-groovebox/ relativ unbekannt glaub ich. Drumcomputer, 303-Simulation und Live-Looper (sogar syncron zur MIDI-Clock) und noch einige Features mehr. Klingt eigentlich ganz geil - aber die Bedienung war aber unterirdisch. 2 Wochen nicht benutzt und man hatte alles vergessen.
@@AudioPilz Ja ich weiß bei Ebay sind die auch viel zu teuer. Du kommst aus Österreich oder? Hast du Kontakt zu vertrauenswürdigen Menschen im DACH-Bereich (Komme aus Hannover) die Synth/Grooveboxen überholen können. Ich hätte ne MC 303 wo Buttons ausgetauscht werden müssten. Ne Quaimidi Raveolution 309 die nicht startet und ne MAM MB33 Retro die ich mit nem falschen Netzteil "gegrillt" hab. Kennst du jemanden? Bisher hatte ich mir Google-Recherche kein Glück :(
This vid made me buy one. And a Tom Cat. Can't help but love an underdog (or wolf in this case). Should be fun sampling them into the V-Synth and getting to work on mangling them, even if I decide I'm not too keen on them as standalone units. So far, they are a lot better than the Internet would have had me believe though.
I want one of these. Awesome sounds. The hat and snare are cute but full at the same time. Super warm. The bad thing is all the shops around here have stopped selling them. Guess it's off to ebay to dig one up. Awesome acid bit too. Long live the Wolf!
At a local music tech shop in my area I remember them being on sale after Xmas, I got it for £40 and I was asked if I wanted the whole set for 125, so I ended up with a timbrewolf a tomcat and a rhythm wolf, I sold them all for over 1000, nice investment for some serious junk
This video convinced me to buy the rhythm wolf. If you want nice, clean, prices sounds this isn't for you. But if you want distorted/off kilter sounds, then this is it.
Francisco Arana It’s all about creativity you use what you have to sound different. Certain kit is irrelevant it’s how you use it. For me it has to be fun anyone can layer and 808 kick and 909 snare 😀
btw quite happy with it using as a center of industrial-punk kind of setup not surprised why people who trying to get some cleaner sorts of sound from it might be getting so frustrated :3
I use it for the hi hats, plain and simple white noise. And for some sub sounds with the bass synth. I actually like the snare sometimes. The percussion part is strange but you can make it sound... fun I guess? But the kick is a real problem when you make techno.
Missed out on the RW, but I bought a brand new Tomcat on eBay for $99 dollars and Ilove how simple it is. Weird decay on the snare makes no sense, but otherwise, its a delight.
Das Video von Faxi Nadu habe ich so gefeiert! Ich konnte es kaum glauben, als ich den Rhythm Wolf im Laden angespielt habe. Hatte der nicht zwei Hihat Pads für ein und den selben Sound oder so?
I really appreciate your positive take on hated gear and I agree there’s always something to love - if you know how to use it. But sweet lord not with this piece of garbage!
I picked one up recently but can't get it to play my drum sequence. The display has EHt and I can't seem to set a tempo. Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Yup own it. Got it for some stupidly low price brand new. The store owner tried to sell me two of them. Best used as an analogue drum tracker that you progress using a trigger on the gate in. Fun to get the synth to hang while it waits for the next nudge.
I think you'll find the eBay advert you showed says $1,250. In Japan, they are highly sought after. Akai used to be solely a Japanese company but the Akai Professional range is American and they weren't sold in Japan. I really like this machine. It suits my needs, and I particularly like to sync it with other equipment, like a Korg Monologue and the synth notes are played using my patches. The kick drum is very deep and the snare is really nice and snappy. The bass synth doesn't have a great range but it's definitely usable. The fact you can play 4 patterns of 16 notes per programme is handy.
@@AudioPilz When I first saw how much they fetch in Japan I thought of getting a free holiday too. I was wondering if there was a 'drum machine' allowance :-)
I personally payed $2000 for my Rhythm Wolf on a trip to Japan. Now I'm looking for someone to swap my Waldorf Quantum with for a Timbre Wolf. The Tom Cat seems the rarest piece in this animal range, I'm still building up the courage to buy one of those.. may have to sell the car first.. but I bet it'll be worth it
oh my god... Bad Gear has become part of my weekend, i've watched for ages now, but having just found this episode... look how far its come today, i think this is the oldest one ive watched, still loved the jams in it though and i don't really do hip hop but this one was alright
Man I love your videos, subscribed. I love shitty gear that’s unfashionable and hated by main streamers. Of course I I have the Wolfpack, the Rhythm and the Timbre, and yes I run them through lots of pedals and trigger other drum machines like the Korg DD-5 (now that’s a hated machine) the ER-1 and DR-660.
Most of the 'bad gear' you show I don't mind the sound of or can see where it'd be useful, but when you had the rhythm wolf playing on its own something about it felt so weird and icky, I genuinely hated the sound of it
I like the Strawberry Jam vinyl, didn’t realize you liked Animal Collective. So when are you going to have a late 2000s Avant Neo psychedelic experimental pop jam in a video?
It's one of my favorite underated drum machine, it's really old school sounding, the sounds are like an organ rhythm section, of course the bass drum is not that punchy, it's a question of taste, the synth part is poor and hard to tune, but overall you can make some quite good stuffs with it. I got mine for 90€. :)
My biggest gripe with this range of products was that the knobs didn't seem to do very much in terms of useful changes to the sound. Just disappointing overall.
Those flimsy Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators with their poor quality components, horrible user interface and lo-fi output could do with some hate.
bruh i got a demo unit for 70 bucks from guitar center as my first drum machine, and I gotta say.. will not sell it just bc of how weird it is. would be cool if somebody would circuit bend it or something.
People don't realize the Wolf is for Native American electronic ritual music. Too many people are trying to use it for the wrong genre such as Techno, House, Acid House, Hip Hop....but it's not for those genres.
No Composer in this World likes Sequencers that dont reset after stop. Thats one of the Wolf`s unique Functions that makes that Drummachine entirely useless.
