Tom Cat and Timbre Wolf join Akai Professional hardware line

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  • The drum machine and polyphonic synthesizer, both analog, are due out this summer.
  • Tom Cat and Timbre Wolf join Akai Professional hardware line image
  • The Tom Cat and Timbre Wolf are Akai Professional's big announcements for NAMM 2015. The hardware bits form a series with the Rhythm Wolf, the analog drum machine that Akai rolled out at last year's Musikmesse in Frankfurt. Like that original release, both of these are analog, and neither will break the bank. The Tom Cat is another drum machine, and it features five percussion voices: kick, snare, clap sounds and chromatically tunable disco toms. You can tweak the sounds with continuously variable controls for tuning, amplitude envelope and volume, and you can play them with six MPC-style pads and a built-in 32-step sequencer. Also featured is something called Maul, described as a "custom signal path" for adding some grit to your patterns. Next up, the Timbre Wolf is a four-voice polyphonic synthesizer that can also be configured as four mono synths or produce four-voice unison sounds. It's playable via the onboard 25-key keyboard (borrowed from Akai Professional's controller line) or a 32-step sequencer. Akai hasn't released footage of either yet, but in the meantime you can watch Richard Devine jamming out with a Rhythm Wolf (among other gear) in the video below.
    Akai Professional will release the Tom Cat and Timbre Wolf in July 2015 for a suggested retail price of $199 and $499, respectively.
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