I believe if you look back through history, you’ll find that humans are fairly good at looking the other way in regard to certain things.
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I think the Force (and possibly MPC) took a bit from the OP-1 with the audio tracks, and then expanded on it a bit, not quite as streamlined, but also quite a bit more powerful. The way that you can edit, chop, loop, bring the audio into a sampler, add multiple fx, etc really quite astounding.
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See:
It also has a bunch of hardware buttons that seem like they might be intended to add numpad-like speed to editing tasks.
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Where’s the playhead jogwheel and what’s the price?
Someone must have this information…
To the comments about “the problem of this device” being that another product with similar functionality exists and would beat it on price or milliseconds, or… This is very logical thinking in the context of commercially successful products, profitable companies, niche market shares… But I bet more than half of what you find at Superbooth isn’t motivated by that, and even less they are deterred because an existing product does more or less what they want to achieve with their own creation.
The Track8 fits in this category, and here it is confusing us because of the sequencer-ish form factor and because the product looks so good and accessible. If it would be a Eurorack module developed by a single person the conversation would have moved on or most probably it wouldn’t have started (here).
The developer explains that he started building it for himself. I bet he isn’t seeking to beat any DAW in performance or features. He spends the whole day with a computer, a qwerty keyboard and a mouse for his paid work, and when he feels like writing music he would prefer not to sit more hours in front of the computer again. And he wants a writing and recording process that is seamless and doesn’t get in the way of playing music. That’s it, this is more or less how he explained his vision.
If there are more people interested on this device and willing to buy it, great. If not, I can well imagine that he will still feel good about this adventure, everything he is learning with it, and the tangible result of three years of work. He will continue writing songs and, well, no matter what, this is going to set his career in a direction that he could not imagine a few years ago.
Without creators like Colin, Superbooth and the music industry in general would be way smaller and imho quite boring. 
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It’s a lovely sentiment but what is the actual numeric cost to share the dream and feel the proverbial wind of freedom in your musical hair? I think it’s relevant to ask, though I don’t expect that you have the specific answer, I’m just now repeating it for the sake of rhetoric.
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I was kind of thinking it might be that, oddly enough - it sounds like it has effects and an easy bounce feature, there are dedicated buttons similar to lift/drop on the OP-1, and controls to navigate by beat. If it has an easy way to mark a loop across several tracks and bounce that somewhere then, depending on the FX selection, that seems quite reminiscent of the tape side of the OP.
You make a good point about the sampler integration on the OP, and it’s also things like the tactile nature of the knobs and the various inventive ways to use them that elevate the OP, but the TP-7 doesn’t seem a million miles always from the OP’s recording setup.
I’d be very interested if they extended this approach to add more tape-like elements such as splice shapes, being able to bounce at different “speeds” and so on, but I may be going way off the developer’s intended path. I always liked the description of the OP as a little Radiophonic Workshop in a box, and I’d love to see more hardware that explores this. The synth side is well-covered, but outside of modular and the OP there’s not much gear that explores the concrete assembly angle in a creative fashion.
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Hey everybody,
this is Collin, the dude behind Thingstone/Track8
Sorry for not responding earlier. Thingstone is still a one-man-show … and SuperBooth was crazy. Barely found time to fetch something to drink.
Thanks at @icaria36 and @touchy for visiting my booth, and writing about your experience!!
So I guess there is a major misconception about the target audience of Track8.
In my spare time I do some songwriting and play in a band. And I mostly do traditional Drums/Guitar/Vocal based music.
I always had the issue when staring a new song and getting Ideas down, that the DAW distracted me too much. Either by email-notifications or simply by having too many features. Oftentimes I got lost in optimizing everything, and forgot the melodies/riffs I had in my head.
For a long time I’ve been looking for a device that would help me with this.
I tried the iPad, but I felt disconnected because of the touch Interface.
I tried the MPC/Force and didn’t like the loop based approach (and too many features)
I tried the Tascam/Zoom Multitrack recorder. But they make it really hard to rearrange parts and are better suited if you already have a finished Idea.
Finally I bought an OP-1 and was inspired by the linear tape-style workflow. I didn’t care about the synths/drum machines. But the tape was great.
Unfortunately It didn’t quite fit into my studio. I have XLR Mics, 1/4" outputs on my Guitar/Synths.
It’s missing basic features like Count-in, Punch-in & Undo.
And 4 Tracks is simply not enough for me (I do a lot of Guitar doubling)
Also the display is so minuscule, that you don’t really see what you’re doing when playing an external Instrument.
That’s why I started building Track8 3 years ago.
I’m a Software Engineer in may day job. And I like solving problems I care about.
I’m super flattered that Track8 popped up here at Elektronauts. But I guess that most of you are not my target audience.
I do care about the nitty gritty details like Audio/Midi Latency/Jitter. And I want to optimize for them as much as possible. (and make them public). But I built the device for a very specific niche.
Regarding additional features that I got asked about a lot ( like 8 inputs/outputs, CV in/out. …)
They are simply not in my narrow view of music making.
The value proposition of Track8 is to write songs/compose without distractions.
The limited features are by design. My intention was not to build a full fledged DAW in a box.
Track8 is easy to learn and to use and will stay this way.
I will only implement new features if they fit this philosophy.
I know that SuperBooth probably was not the best place to present the Device for the first time. But it’s kind of local to me and they accept unfinished Products/Prototypes.
And having a barebone website also didn’t help to clear up the confusion about the Product.
These are all things I’ll learn from, and improve in the future.
So … sorry that some of you had high hopes that Track8 would be the perfect device for your DrumMachine/Synth/Sampler/Modular/… workflow.
But it’s simply not.
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I appreciate your focus and honesty ! Thanks for clarifying things and making a considerate product.
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There’s definitely a large target audience that wants a Track 8 for the same reasons you want.
A simple way to record tracks similar to a tape machine without using a daw or something that’s much more complex.
Plus it looks really cool!
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Yeah, I’m really into this. I would use it beside my Digitone as a way to record longer sections, solos, ideas, and so on.
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That’s a really positive message from the creator.
I’d love a small mixer, multitrack recorder (mostly for archiving jams) and USB interface.
Tx6 lacks multitrack recording.
Bluebox lacks USB audio so you’d be endlessly unplugging things to record to laptop.
The zooms are very huge and xlr not stereo ins.
Quest continues!
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I passed the booth and briefly messed with the Track8, didn’t meet @colrad so had to try blindly.
The retro design is really nice and the device seems to be set up to do a few things really well. This could be exactly what some people need/want.
I want it if only for the nice interface
Best of luck Colin!
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Its an awesome device if you want a modern Tascam Portastudio that is way more powerful. Back in the day I would have bought this rather quickly.
Also a really cool portable device for folks in bands who want to record rehearsals…etc. I get it now, probably not for me, but definitely a legit tool.
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As an Erased Tapes kinda guy with ADHD I totally feel where this is coming from. I just want to lay down some down-tempo modular stuff then play my piano and summit over the top. Do some simple arranging and output some stems for further processing. DAW’s are 95% over the top for me. CUrrent multitracks don’t sync and have poor usability. IPad’s are just full of crap DAW’s. If this thing syncs properly and has some midi recording functionality, then bounce to audio. I’ll buy it. @colrad is fighting the war for music production simpletons everywhere.
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Nice device, and I love the focus!
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Just found this video someone uploaded on YT.
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