{"id":11254,"date":"2024-06-01T08:05:48","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T08:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=11254"},"modified":"2024-06-01T08:05:48","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T08:05:48","slug":"blipblox-mytracks-review-a-beatmaking-pad-for-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=11254","title":{"rendered":"Blipblox myTracks Review: A Beatmaking Pad for Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Playtime Engineering launched<\/span> the $199 Blipblox synthesizer<\/a> about five years ago. It didn\u2019t come anywhere close to toppling the undeniable king of the budget synth market, Korg\u2019s Volcas<\/a>. Then again, that wasn\u2019t the point. Blipblox isn\u2019t a tiny, cheap keyboard designed to infect synth dads with a bad case of gear acquisition syndrome. It\u2019s a children\u2019s toy\u2014a bulky piece of shiny plastic with the goal of teaching the basics of synthesis.<\/p>\n

Now the company has just wrapped up a successful Kickstarter campaign for its second instrument, the Blipblox myTracks. MyTracks basically tries to answer one question: What if an Ableton Push and a Leapfrog toddler laptop had a baby? It\u2019s a stand-alone sampler and groovebox that lets kids create their own songs from start to finish. It tries to simplify things as much as possible while still delivering a decent amount of fun sound mangling.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: The myTracks is still in preorder and will begin shipping later this year. We were granted early access to a preproduction model as the company finishes up the device for estimated delivery in November.<\/em><\/p>\n

A New Musical Toy<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s start by clearing up what the myTracks is not: It\u2019s not a fully-fledged MPC<\/a>. You can\u2019t chop up samples on it. The pads are not velocity sensitive (or particularly sensitive at all, really). It\u2019s also not a synthesizer. While it has melodic tracks, they\u2019re just single-shot samples that get pitched up and down by playing them back slower or faster. It has a certain lo-fi vibe that can be charming on the right sound, but this is not going to be the device for your kids to learn sound design or finger drumming on.<\/p>\n

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