AKAI Rhythm Wolf: analogue drum machine and bass synth for under £200

Totally out of the blue, long-time electronic music supremos AKAI have announced the arrival of the Rhythm Wolf.

Aiming to get noticed in the already saturated drum machine/groovebox market, AKAI are promising a lot of bang for your buck with a US list price of $200 (currently around £120, although no official price has been confirmed). The AKAI Rhythm Wolf combines a 32-step, 5-part analogue drum machine, allowing you to programme and perform patterns on the kick, snare, perc, open & closed hat as well as integrating a classic bass synth groove-box using the on-board MPC pads.

As a counter to Roland’s feature “scatter” knob on their new Aira range, the Rhythm Wolf has a dedicated “howl” control which applies a unique, crunchy distortion effect to whatever happens to be going on at the time. The brand new AKAI beast also features separate drum machine and bass synth outputs so you can mix and process them individually if you’re that way inclined.

It’s still early days, but it certainly looks like AKAI’s new sound-toy will give the KORG Volca Beats, Roland TR-8 and Elektron Machinedrum a good bit of healthy, low-budget competition.