Doggiebox Drum Machine Coming to Mac OS X
 July 10, 2002
Ben Kennedy, chief magician of Zygoat
Softwerks, unveiled a new software product aimed at Mac OS X music
makers: Doggiebox, a new percussion sequencer for musicians
who don't always have enough human drummers at hand.
"Our goal with Doggiebox is to produce a tool for home-recording
musicians and hobbyists that complements a human drummer for a variety of
situations," explained Kennedy. "Whether you want to quickly produce a
demo without taking the time to set up and record real drums, or just
need a click track for doing a guitar, Doggiebox will be your solution."
In addition to sequencing drums, Doggiebox provides full control over
customization and setup of drum kits, from the sounds they produce right
down to the icons used within the program.
Doggiebox is currently in a preliminary development phase, and current
builds are available for download immediately at www.zygoat.ca/products/doggiebox. Early adopters and audio enthusiasts are all invited.
Here's a sampling of some things the user can do with Doggiebox today:
- Create and modify drum tracks of unlimited length, with zoomable granularity from one beat per bar down to 64th notes, using a flexible yet intuitive interface
- Specify tempo and time signature changes (including compound time) over arbitrary bars in a song
- Create and modify drum kits, including an unlimited range of instrument types and variants (e.g. drums, cymbals and accessories) including their actual sound and visual representation
- Seamlessly copy groups of bars between song files, even if those songs each use a different drum kit
- Play back a song using different drum kits with the simplicity of automated drum kit matching (compare the included "real drum kit" with the "voice simulated drums")
- Mark off song sections, such as verses and choruses, in a separate scrolling list for easy navigation and management
Many more features are planned and currently underway.
"I'm really excited to be able to share emerging fruits of personal
labour," Kennedy said. "Other beat-box and accompaniment software exists
for the Mac, but none has proven good enough to satisfy our needs. My
belief is that the Mac should remain the platform of choice for recording
and post-production among computer-using musicians, big and small.
Doggiebox represents our first step in bringing more such tools to the
end user, tools which serve a particular niche and that are also fun to use."
Included with the Doggiebox distribution is a full user's guide, and
users are encouraged to join the public Doggiebox e-mail discussion list
to connect with other users and stay updated on news and subsequent releases.
Doggiebox is expected to be released as an affordable commercial package
sometime in late 2002.
For more information, visit their web site at www.zygoat.ca. |
