BEATMAKER 2 - Oldschool sampling dude review

First off, as far as samplers go , I'm kind of hard to satisfy. It's not that I want much-I really just want to be able to sample like I did back in 2001!
I really couldn't fathom, after spending about 75-100 bucks on more apps than I can remember, why in thee heck nobody thought to write a sampling program/app that just freaking samples like my seriously "outdated" akai s20 did-I can't assign midi channels!-Really? No multi-sampling!-Really? NO MIDI at all?????????????

Seriously, WTH? who wrote all those apps? Is this what kids nowadays think sampling is? Most apps I tried were pretty okay in one area or another but still did not provide the basic functionality I got from my bottom-of-the-line Akai sampler. Dude, the closest I got was Sir Sampleton which is basically a Casio SK-1 but a lot less fun. I even downloaded garageband-REALLY!

  Anyhoo, this is about BEATMAKER 2 so , I'll lay off the other guys now. Basically, I should have spent 20 bucks (WORTH IT) for the app instead of wasting time/money with all the other junk filling up my cloud or whatever. I literally have only used this app since I got it. If unused apps gathered dust, my ipad would be crazy dusty right now-truthfully the most useful sampler I have ever owned. I sequence with hardware, MIDI hardware and BEATMAKER 2  fits in EXACTLY where I need it to. can't really say much about the internal sequencer since I only use it on my phone version but if your into sampling, especially if you have been for awhile...I'm gonna say it-It was worth buying the Ipad and that @#*&^%! IO Dock just because of this app! I can sample any sound and play it up/down on all keys,(with a nice set of synth controls, all midi controllable) I can have  multiple samplers operating on multiple midi channels, add great effects, it has midi learn- it's basically a full daw slaved to my hardware-its great! oh gosh, I'm gonna cry!Pretty much it comes down to freedom. I can use this app slaved to hardware or standalone. I can create playable instruments from pretty much any sound source. I can make beats. I can create pads, I can freak vocal samples. Its a hard disk recorder. Its an effects box. I have no qualms about recommending this app! Here are some things recorded using Beatmaker 2 for sampling :
Pskyemix

ARTURIA MINIBRUTE !

First off, I know I'm like, the last person on the web to write up a review on this thing, but so what.?-I sure wasn't gonna be the first!

  I actually got my minibrute awhile back, last year, maybe? It's all so fuzzy........I pre-ordered from JRRshop before it even came out so I could save about a hundred bucks-WOW!

 Anyhoo, I got my minibrute (True story: I actually moved out of my place before the thing arrived! I preordered in December and it got there in like, July) and aside from the rather surreal experience of having 400 bux floating around in cyberspace thing, I am pretty happy with it. I really did'nt get to use it for the first six months or so that I had it because I loaned it to a friend (who ended up doing some amazing stuff on it , btw) because by that time we'd had a baby (actually got pregnant and then had the baby AFTER I preordered the synth!) And moved so

 my sweet studio space magically morphed into a corner in the living room.
Finally though, upon hearing that my fellow muso was getting booted out of his place, I suddenly found space for the 'brute.

 This is one serious synth. At first I was trying to do standard issue subtractive synth stuff that I became accustomed to on my novation va synths, but thats really not where this baby is at. The arppegiator on this unit is so accessible , so user friendly, so tight, I would spend hours just letting it run while messing with the panel. The end result felt almost like a really good dj set where you are taken on a real journey and end up someplace else entirely by the time its done!(I'm pretty sure that reference is gonna go over the heads of most "edm" fans under 30!)
It sounds great dry, if you know your synthesis, if you need a little help, well, thats what outboard effects are for. Had alot of fun running it through a Rogue "analog"(?) delay pedal and a little reverb. One thing you have to get used to if your new to analog style synthesis but are working with an oldschool -styled non-preset instrument like this is never really being able to get the EXACT same sound twice. I have a Novation K-station with a busted display so I never saved very many presets anyhow, I just fire it up and tweak until I get what I'm looking for out of necessity. Its pretty much the same way I Approach the minibrute, I mean, it pretty much stays on the last thing you did with it anyways, right, but its easier to tweak because EVERYTHING , including the all-important arp settings are right there in steel/paint for you to see ( with the K-station , its in a sub-menu and , my display is ,y'know, kaput!)

The Sounds:
Okay , enough of my crap-here's the skinny on the sounds. In a word...HARD. The 'brute CAN be tweaked into a passable solo string/soft lead type sound but it really excels at percussive, attacky , thumpy jagged edged lead/bass sounds-so much so that I had quite a time setting proper record levels!I have, however gotten pretty much any type of sound I've wanted out if the MiniBrute, so, yeah its a great synth. My good friend, Marlo Reynolds pretty much exclusively left the "BruteFactor" knob cranked up but I use it sparingly and still its the hottest signal in my mixer, quite a beast. I have yet to use it on a bassline, as I have been mainly playing solos and sampling them into a great ios program called Beatmaker 2  . I reccomend this to EVERYBODY who makes electronic music. This is real analog democracy here, folks!