I heart Hobnox – free beat making online
Hobnox “is an online entertainment and publishing platform, a network for creatives and their fans. We unite broadcast-quality web media with cutting edge community-enabling technology.”
Which is great.
But even better is their daringly named “Audiotool”. It’s basically a web app that allows you to interchange bits of virtual gear and create beats.
There’s a couple of drum machines (Roland TR 808 and 909 emulations), a bass synth (Roland TB 303 emulation), a single sound/single mode Tenori-On clone and several effects packaged up to look like Boss compact pedals. They all sound pretty good.
You connect all the bits of gear up visually, not unlike Propellerhead’s “Reason”, and program it all in the same way you would in real life. Which is where it becomes a bit limiting. Unlike Reason, there are no sequencing facilities beyond that on the equipment meaning that if you want to make an ambitious tune, you’d better be good at making on-the-fly changes.
Still, it’s free and could be really good for creating some short loops ready to be dropped into another piece of software.
