Akai Professional Tom Cat Analog Drum Machine Reviews
The Akai Professional Tom Cat is an all-analog 5-voice drum machine that gives you great kick, snare, claps, hi-hats, and the Disco Tom section with chromatic tunability. The parameters vary by channel, but the Tom Cat gives you the control to dial in everything from punchy house grooves to fat throbbing hip hop beats and much more. Once you've got your sounds dialed in, you can trigger sounds live on the classic MPC-style pads, with the built-in 32-step sequencer, your DAW via MIDI, standard MIDI, or even with the analog gate input. For the modern music-maker, Akai Professional's Tom Cat is an outstanding way to add analog drum sounds to your sonic arsenal.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Great analog drums!
I have had so many drum machines, starting with a home organ rhythm box in 1975 (think Bossa Nova and Cha Cha!), through Roland Dr Rhythm DR551980, Drumulator 1983, Kawai R100, Alesis D4, Alesis SR16, Roland TR8, Korg Volca Beats and now the Akai Tom Cat.
I do Kraftwerk / J.M. Jarre inspired, sequence based electronic music, heavy metal and old and new prog.
When I am doing the sequence based material, I want analog only for percussion and the Tomcat is the only unit that does exactly what I want. I really like the Snare and HC using long release times.
It's kind of funny that since my old DR55, I never really found any of the machines did what I wanted until the Tomcat.
The Tomcat is exactly what I have been asking for since the 1970s!! I sure am happy that there is a new generation of interest in analog, sequence based music. This allows us old timers to finally get the tools we have needed.
Excellent. A Volca beats destroyer.
People have hated this machine since it was announced at NAMM a year ago. Why? Because they hated the Rhythm Wolf. This is not the wolf. They took the only usable parts of the Wolf and made them better, then added to it. It's not perfect, sure. But for sub-$200, you won't find anything better. More control than the Volca, half the price of the MFB (if you can find one) and it hits hard. Given that the PCB is labeled for some mod points, I think this is a killer platform for producers. Not everyone can afford a Tempest. This thing rocks. People hated the Tr 808 when it came out, too. This is likely to be a future classic.
I Like It
I had two other drum machines that I was using for years, and I needed to switch things up. The TomCat was perfect for me, all the drum sounds are different from my other machines but they are still totally useful for what I am doing. I actually really like the "disco" toms. If you're quick, you can really pull some cool live performance stuff out of this just by playing a cool beat, tweaking the sounds/switching the beats etc. This machine does everything it says it can do, so no complaints there. It's a little smaller than a TR8, but a little bit makes a big difference on a studio desk. I recommend this drum machine, as well as Sweetwater. Thanks to David Snyder for always personally makes sure everything went smoothly.
Had to understand owner manual
Read the manual 10 times but unable to figure out how to create rec performance. Finally figured out on my own by messing with it. First you must choose a empty pattern bank which is (A) or (B) 9 and up then hit the shift and clear bank at the same time then you can create your own beats or you can record over the preset banks, they suck anyway (1) to (8) on A or B seq variation.. Nowhere in the manual does it state that. Once you figure it out it is fun but with limited potential. For the money it is worth it. Great analog sounds.
