The LinnDrum II (once the BoomChik) has become a somewhat mystical beast, looming over the horizon and taunting fans of synth and beat hardware. The collaboration between beat machine guru Roger Linn (of LinnDrum and MPC fame) and synth guru Dave Smith (of Dave Smith fame), the box has gone through various design revisions, each leaked and dissected by, well, people like me. Saturday brought a new set of news, as spotted by Tony Mission on Gearslutz.

Here’s what we know now:

We know that the LinnDrum will be a combination of Dave’s synthesis know-how and Roger’s approach to real-time sequencing and beatmaking. We know it’ll have digital and analog synth voices. We know it’ll do MPC-style real-time and 808-style step sequencing. It’s almost certain to retain onboard sampling, too. In fact, presumably the specs on Dave Smith’s site are still reasonably applicable.

What we don’t know is what the design will look like, or when it’ll ship. It won’t ship in 2008, so … 2009? The image above is not what the new LinnDrum II will look like. Roger released these images over the weekend, but they’ve already hit the wastebasket in favor a new design. On the design elements:

We’d prefer not to release details of the new design because it’s so cool that I don’t want to show our cards to the competition. However, I do want to thank all those who wrote in with suggestions because this interactive design process has very much helped to change what we thought the product originally should be into what we now know you really want.

Roger does tip his hand a bit in regards to what the philosophy of the new design is:

For those of you who are new to LinnDrum II, its new subtitle is “Beat-Centric Digital Audio Workstation with Integrated Analog Synthesis”. Inspired by how the MPC product line that I (Roger) originally created for Akai has evolved a new genre of musical instrument, LinnDrum II aspires to raise the bar beyond the current crop of high-end pad-oriented music production station products in order to enable musicians around the world to better realize the next wave of beat-oriented music.

“Beat-Centric Digital Audio Workstation with Integrated Analog Synthesis” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but I like the philosophy here. It sounds a bit like the feedback people sent was that they want the finished design to stand on its own. (The passionate audience for the MachineDrum certainly suggests there’s a market out there for something different from the Akai and Roland units for all-in-one production.) I’ll certainly be the first to defend the delays. We can’t judge the LinnDrum II itself until it’s in our hands, but it is clear to me that if you want something different than what’s already available, you do have to be prepared to wait.

While you wait, you can sign up for updates:

Request for LinnDrum II or AdrenaLinn III Product News

LinnDrum II Product Page / News

Previously:
Dave Smith/Linn LinnDrum II Pre-order List Now; Specs

LinnDrum II: Former BoomChik Gets More Delayed But More Mature

We’ve been eagerly awaiting the LinnDrum II since it was called the BoomChik. We called the non-functional prototype one of the best products of this January’s NAMM – reasoning being that, based on what we heard from showgoers, a silent LinnDrum still beat more evolutionary blandness from the rest of the industry. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say some of us were getting a wee bit impatient waiting for some kind of news. Now that news appears to be here — a rough estimate on availability and pre-order details. (Updated: Specs had been posted previously, as Cory observes in comments, but let’s savor them one more time.)

Availability: Late 2008 (“our best estimate,” so that’s not set in stone)

Cost: US$1400 for the all-digital LinnDrum II, or $1800 for the LinnDrum II Analog with the addition of four analog voices as seen in the Prophet ‘08 and Evolver, plus 32 dedicated encoders

Pre-order list: No commitment, no money down; just email support@rogerlinndesign.com and you’re in. Will there be a baby shower at some point?

Dave and Roger have also posted updated specs on the two units. Highlights include:

• A real-time optimized operating system – do lots of stuff without stopping play
• Modulated filters and resonators
• Real-time and step recording – think MPC and 808, respectively – with visual animation on the pads
• Record to Compact Flash
• Lots of controls, including buttons and assignable sliders, and foot switch and expression jacks for pedals, in addition to the pads (in fact, it looks like there’s less mucking around inside menus than on competing boxes from Akai and Roland, one thing that kept me off those units)
• Eight outputs – so you could do some interesting effects routing, or do some crazy surround sound drumming. (In fact, I could see using multichannel outs to a computer and doing effects in the computer…) Four more outputs for the analog voices on the Analog model.
• MIDI and USB, with USB storage operations

I imagined the Analog model would pretty much steal the show, but the Digital model is cute and compact and still pretty unique, so I think we’ll see interest in both.

June 20 LinnDrum II Update [Specs and an explanation of the status of the design]

Via The Chip Collection, who caught me napping out in Chicago

Yep. I still want one. And I don’t very often want hardware.

Here’s the analog model, with a close up on its additional control section. Things are laid out in a really friendly way across the whole design. Promising stuff.