BeatBox – the DIY drum machine housed in a literal cardboard box – became a viral sensation when some short videos debuted on Kickstarter earlier this year. And now you can get one.
The Austin, TX-based Rhythmo launched the BeatBox on Kickstarter today. In one day the DIY drum machine has it’s nearly met its $50,000 goal.
BeatBox is a low cost and portable, designed for beginning musicians and students and ordinary music nerds. Videos on Instagram and taken at January’s NAMM show (where the BeatBox team showed up in a booth made entirely out of cardboard) went viral as people couldn’t seem to get enough of the paper housing and big plastic arcade-style buttons that looks like a cartoon drawing of an MPC.
Rhythmo describes BeatBox as a “cost-effective, yet no compromise, all-in-one solution to get you a quick start in making music. With on-board amplifier, speaker and battery assemblies, included sound-packs and tutorials, Beatbox saves you the trouble of getting additional equipment and guidance to start.”
Some assembly is required – BeatBox comes as a kit rather than a completed product – though Rhythmo claims it takes less than an hour and there’s no soldering involved. (Which would be rather dangerous on a cardboard container when you think about it.)
The Kickstarter tiers include a 25% discount if you buy a BeatBox during the next 35 days that the crowdfunding campaign is active.
[…] You have to believe me: they’re not paying me for this. But I get so many emails about Behringer’s 808 clone, the RD-8, asking what I’ve heard about up-to-date details and now shipping info. The buzz, at least by the inbox measurement, is probably more than every other piece of gear we’ve written about put together (including viral ones like the cardboard BeatBox). […]