Akai Professional introduces the Rhythm Wolf, a groove maker sequencer module with analog drum machine and bass synthesizer.

The Rhythm Wolf is an analog instrument designed to reproduce the sounds of early electronic and hip-hop music.

It is inspired by old analog beat machines and synthesizers, producing the classic analog sounds found on old hip-hop recordings but with a modern workflow that makes it easier to use and integrate into your tracks.

The drum machine section has five customizable drum sounds - a kick, snare, open & closed hi-hat, and metallic percussion.

The module feature controls that will let you personalize each of the five sounds, you can tweak the tuning, amplitude envelopes, and volume of each drum voice separately for precise real-time adjustment.

The bass synthesizer features a selectable oscillator (sawtooth or square wave), classic filter design, a filter envelope with variable decay, and is capable of creating various bass sounds and leads.

The drum machine comes with six MPC pads that will let you create your patterns in real time, or you can use the built-in 32-step sequencer to let the module make the beats conveniently for you. You can personalize the Drum patterns available via the Swing function, Pattern select and Tempo control knob. For further tone shaping, Akai equipped the Rhythm Wolf with a "Howl" knob, which lets you add grit and character to your sound via a custom distortion signal path.

Connectivity features include USB-MIDI, MIDI In/Out, a gate trigger, and two audio outputs that separate the percussion sounds and bass independently. Although it sounds classic, this module is designed to integrate seamlessly with modern and vintage equipment.

Dan Gill, Akai Professional Product Manager, says "The Rhythm Wolf puts those sought after analog drum machine and synthesizer sounds right into the hands of today’s musicians. We set out to make a compact drum machine and bass synthesizer, inspired by the classics, that can adapt to any studio setup and integrate with modern and vintage music equipment."

The Rhythm Wolf drum machine is expected to start shipping in summer of 2014, with a street price of $199.99. It will be on display at this year's Musikmesse tradeshow, in Booth B45, Hall 5.1, from March 12-15, 2014. You can head over to Akai Pro for more details.

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