Review: Beaterator (PSP)

If you think about it, the most effective method of conveying Beaterator's virtues would be to upload my most euphonious creation for you to then consume at your whim. That way, with the fruits of my labour dancing around in your auditory canals, you could effortlessly gauge what the tool is capable of in terms of raw creativity. Frankly, the graceful synergy I have created between a rumbling baseline, backing choir and funk guitar is something even Timbaland himself would likely aspire to, but unfortunately I've misplaced my USB cable, trapping my heavenly sound within the confines of the hardware. He's going to be so disappointed.

For a portable application, Beaterator provides the player with a solid foundation for inventiveness and customisation. Though a large percentage of it revolves around the meticulous placement of the 3000 available loops made by both Timbaland and Rockstar, those with loftier ambitions can create their own melodies, drum beats, effects and even import custom-made audio into their tracks and eventually export the finished article to .wav or Midi.

Session

The game (as we'll call it) has three main modes – Live Play, Studio Session and Song Crafter, each of which builds upon the last in terms of depth and customisation, ensuring the player can create something whether they've got a spare five minutes or five hours. Live Play, being the obvious introductory mode, demonstrates the Beaterator concept by allowing the player to assign loops to any of the four face buttons for all of the eight available tracks. Each track can only play one loop at a time, but it's all played in real-time, started and stopped by the press of a button, and gradually layered to your desired effect. It's remarkably easy to grasp and yields instantly impressive results, planting the seed of interest that the more advanced modes so generously water.

Studio Session builds on the concept a little, allowing greater management of loops, but Song Crafter is where the magic really occurs. With the consistent 8-track setup across a horizontal timeline, songs are created by selecting loops – either pre-made or your own – from the vast library and dropping their representative blocks into position. The division of the timeline into bars visually allows a greater understanding of how your song will play out and where to tweak it to add diversity and flare to the finished piece. You need only moments to get down a basic beat, but it's not uncommon to lose hours in the pursuit of a single perfect layer.

Break Down

That is, once you've spent a couple mastering the interface. Though everything eventually makes sense, first laying eyes on the crowded screen is somewhat confusing, remedied only slightly by the tutorials which tell you what everything is but not how to use them to any pleasing effect. For that reason there's an element of guesswork and experimentation about Beaterator's creation tools if music software isn't your forte - something which is a little off-putting if you've just had a blast with Live Play. A full manual detailing how to use all of Beaterator's features is available online, but such a thing seems almost counter-intuitive when dealing with what is primarily a portable game. This is really a blessing in disguise, given that the amount of options speaks volumes about what Rockstar has achieved on a handheld.

The console does sweat, though, requiring short but flow-breaking loading times whenever previewing a loop. Of course, this is by no means Rockstar's fault, the blame lying entirely on the hardware limitations of the platform, but it's a small annoyance when you're conducting a particularly lengthy search. The save file and exported tracks also require a fairly large portion of your memory card, but, again, Rockstar is free from guilt.

Sound Off

What it is guilty of, however, is creating an unprecedented music creation tool for the portable generation. It's a foundational package, far from threatening the professional music development studios, but it's a gateway piece of software, bound to inspire aspiring musicians to pursue the real deal. Mastery of the software won't equip you for the big leagues. However, as far as learning the fundamentals of sequencing and composition are concerned, it's an incredibly useful tool.