Dallas Austin's Got That Beat Thang (PHOTOS)

Super producer and tech junkie Dallas Austin spoke to GlobalGrind about the Beat Thang, his new music making device which is presently on sale in the Musical Instruments department Best Buy stores across the country. 

Beat Thang has 3,000 original, sample-free sounds, hundreds of original beats, loops and 65 digital effects, including waveform editing, mixing and mastering capabilities, a 3.5 inch full color LCD screen and a four-hour rechargeable battery.

We spoke to the Atlanta-based producer by phone. Check it out below!

GlobalGrind: How did you get involved with Beat Thang?

Dallas Austin: I was actually working on the Air Phone product and I met the guys, AJ and Rev. They had started out with doing a virtual version of the machine and making a prototype for the Beat Thang when I met them.

I wanted to do an electronic company and so I was starting around electronics at the same time and that’s one of the reasons why the person introduced us. When I saw it I said, instead of just making an OK machine, let's take it to the next level. So, we spent the six months or so just looking at the things we didn’t do and made sure the sounds and stuff are right, testing it back and forth with one program and different programmers.

We finally felt like we got it right and we were like,'OK let’s go!' We put out the first round, started seeing a lot of people come around; people started testing the product and now we’re in the first wave of seeing it actually go out to people, which is a trip! I've been the only one with it for so long, me and the guys. I feel like it's my baby because I make all my records with it. I put so many sounds in it and stuff.

Above: Austin with the Beat Thang at the 2011 BET Awards.