Beaterator is separated into three main areas, Live Play is usually the first option most will choose and is a simple interface that allows you to choose a certain set of loops that you can then drop in at anytime to make beats on the fly. You can record your sessions and save them on to your PSP and even use it again later in the most robust editing packages. Each loop library has plenty of different loops, drums, vocals, synth, you name it there is enough here for anyone to get started. It’s a great little entry tool into what Beaterator can really do and it will entertain you only for a few minutes. I found it to be a useful tool when you want to quickly see if samples actually work together or not.

The studio mode is more structured and resembles some of Sony’s music creation programs like ACID and Sound forge. For those that aren’t familiar with such things, you’re going to have to put in a little work to get these programs up and running like a true pro. The studio mode in Beaterator is very similar to an electric 8 track recording studio. You can get various samples, place them where you want the sound to appear, select modes and BPM (Beats per minutes…the speed of your track) and putting them down is as easy as pushing a button. Each loop has their own colour depending on the bar that you place it on so you can easily keep track of where you are putting your different sounds. It’s hard to grasp at first but stick with it because the results you get from Beaterator are virtually unlimited if you have the patience and the talent to make the tools work. There are so many options to choose from that there really is no effect or sound you can’t gain.   You just gotta do a lot of tweaking but what Beaterator will do for you will largely depend on what you put into it.

 The different groups of samples have been put together in various categories such as Hip Hop, Drum n Bass, so you know what kind of sample will work for you best without the need to go in there and search through every single one. You can customize just about everything and while it means that working with the buttons and analog nub isn’t as intuitive as the DS or IPhone, it does work perfectly once you get the hang of navigating around. You can even create your own drum loops. It really does do an impressive amount of things for such a small handheld device.

Once you have finished your amazing track you can upload to the Beaterator website to show others plus you can convert your songs to wav files and place it on your PSP music folder or put it on your track list and carry it over on to your ipod or mp3 device.

Overall Beaterator is a great program that offers more flexibility and quality to making your own music than any hand held device on the market.  It really is jam packed with great ideas that work well and even though navigation can feel clunky at times, the results can be downright astounding.  I seriously lose track of time and catching the train has never been more fun, or productive than since the moment I put the Beaterator UMD into the drive. 

Beaterator is an almost perfect portable music creation program. Well done Rockstar and bravo on constantly pushing the envelope!