Traxxpad – PSP – Review

First, let
me make one thing clear: Traxxpad is not a game. It has no story, no characters,
no enemies, and no environments to explore. It also has no objectives or
rewards, at least not in the traditional video-game sense of the words. So, what
is Traxxpad then? It is a full-fledged music application. Instead of building
characters you’ll be building beats or songs, and instead of saving the world
you’ll be saving and exporting your compositions to share with your friends.

But does it
work?

It works
incredibly well. At your disposal are four modules and more than 1,000 samples
to choose from to piece together your compositions. Of course, as is usual with
software of this type, all this power comes with a rather steep learning curve.
A bit of patience and dedication is required because there are so many different
menus and screens that you may not know where to even start and feel that you
aren’t getting anything done. Luckily, the manual includes a short quick-start
guide that is easy to follow, so you will be making your own basic beats after
about an hour or two of experimentation.

The four
modules include the R.T.I.S.T., MeLOD, S.T.A.C. and MyXxer modules. The
R.T.I.S.T. module is where most of your time will likely be spent. It is used to
create the basic sequences that will be the framework of your compositions. You
simply choose which sound bank you want to use, each of which contains eight
samples or “tracks” which are sounded by pressing the PSP’s face buttons. You
then use the face buttons to place dots on the game’s digital timeline display
representing when they will sound in relation to each other. The display is
split into beats and measures so you know what you’re putting where. If this all
sounds complicated, don’t worry. It is actually rather easy to do with a bit of
practice.

The MeLOD
module is used to fine-tune each individual track of a sequence. With it, you
can change the pitch, balance, volume and sustain of individual notes. The full
chromatic scale is available in several octaves to allow you to create any sort
of melody you want. The S.T.A.C. module allows you to load up to four separate
sequences and piece them together into your final composition, including
adjusting tempo and volume. You can then save your finished piece or even export
it as an MP3. Finally, the MyXxer module is for when you just want to improvise.
You can loop sequences then use your sound bank to freestyle over them. All of
these modules use the same basic controls, so not only is it easy to switch
between them, it is also easy to learn how to use them.

Traxxpad has
many customization options for sound banks. You can edit to your heart’s
content, replacing any sample within a bank with any other sample and then save
your custom banks to your memory stick. Unfortunately, it can be a pain to find
some of the samples you may want. There is a huge “samples” folder containing
well-organized general banks such as percussion, keyboards, scratching, synths
and many others, but many of the samples can only be found in producer or artist
specific folders which, instead of being organized in any meaningful way, are
just banks of the samples those people might use.

In addition,
you can combine samples to create your own unique sounds with the Combiner,
record your own samples with the Recorder (if you have a compatible USB
microphone), and use the Chop Shop to edit any sample’s gain, fade in/out or
even reverse them. Like the modules, these features are easy to learn and easy
to use effectively.

Visually,
Traxxpad is decent. You can choose from several different skins for how your
miniature studio looks which is nice when you get bored of your current color
palette, but that’s really the only purpose the skins serve: to look stylish. It
would have been nice if there were less emphasis on the skins and the timeline
displays were larger as they only take up about a quarter of the total screen
space.

So, is
Traxxpad for you? Well, that depends. It is definitely not for everyone. If you
have no interest in composing music it probably is not something you want to
pick up since that is the only thing you can do with it. If you have never
written music but have interest in doing so, it would be a great, relatively
cheap and easy way to start. Finally, even if you are already an experienced
composer, Traxxpad would be a nice addition to your equipment if only to have a
studio as powerful as it is that you can carry around in your pocket for when
inspiration strikes.

Review Scoring Details for Traxxpad: Portable Studio

Gameplay: 8.5
The “gameplay” in
Traxxpad is mostly just placing dots and bars on timelines and making selections
in menus, but the satisfaction you feel while in the process of making your next
masterpiece keeps it from feeling too tedious or boring. In addition, there is
infinite replay value as long as you want to make music.

Graphics:
6.5
The visuals are
not technically impressive, but they don’t need to be when they are there simply
to provide some kind of graphical interface. You don’t need pretty visuals to
compose music.

Sound:
9.0
The soundtrack
(besides what you write, of course) consists of a couple menu songs and a
handful of example sequences which are hit or miss depending on what you like.
More importantly, there is a huge library of samples for you to work with, and
they sound great.

Difficulty: Easy
It can take a
while to get a hang of the controls and interface at first, but you’ll be flying
through the menus and near effortlessly creating your own music before you know
it.

Concept:
9.0
Sure we’ve seen
music “games” in the past; the MTV Music Generator series and Electroplankton to
name a couple. Those were impressive in their own ways, but Traxxpad takes it to
the next level in terms of functionality and customization.

Overall:
8.5
Traxxpad is a
surprisingly powerful music app that does not disappoint. While it is mainly
hip-hop and electronic oriented, you can use it to write in just about any style
you want. It takes some patience and dedication to learn, but it is well worth
the effort. Sure it has its problems, but overall, the good far outweighs the
bad. It’s not going to replace any professional music software you may use, but
unless you are a professional composer it shouldn’t matter. For the price and
portability, Traxxpad can’t be beat.