Production heavyweight Timbaland, who's collaborated with a wide range of superstars spanning from Justin Timberlake to Chris Cornell, has jumped on the fake-music bandwagon. Signing with Rockstar Games, Timbaland is working on a handheld music-making application called Beaterator, which allows gamers to experience the ins and outs of his job... except without the star diva behavior and afterparties.
So is Timbaland worried that the ease of the game will spring up a generation of knob-twisters gunning for his job? Not exactly. "I can give you everything," he teases, referring to the trade secrets he uses to make his signature sounds, "but you're not gonna think like I would think."
Beaterator the game features nearly 1,300 sounds and loops made specifically by Timbaland, as well as about another 2,000 from the developers at Rockstar Games. The game, which is more an application than an actual game, is split into three modes: Live Play, Studio Sessions and Song Crafter.
Amateur mixers can layer vocals, an assortment of drum machine sounds, kicks, snares, bass loops, synth sounds and a wide collection of other sounds to create their own unique beats and melodies. The Live Play feature allows users to create a song alongside a virtual Timbaland.
The Grammy-winning producer wasn't accustomed to the long turnover rate for an actual playable application to be created. "They broke it down and said, 'Tim, this is not like music. It's gonna take three to four years. Are you prepared for that?'" says Tim. "I thought about it just like this... Let me try it. And so here we are today. It's all about timing. Sometimes you look at those years and think it's a long time, but it's really not. It's really not."
Beaterator will be available for the PlayStation Portable on Sept. 29 and the iPhone and iPod Touch later this fall.
