Superbooth 2025: Beatboxer Mosaik is a new live performance groove box from Berlin, developed by former Native Instruments and Nonlinear Labs devs.
Many well-known music technology companies have their origins in Berlin, including Ableton, Bitwig, Jomox, Native Instruments, Nonlinear Labs, Sugar Bytes, and U-he, among others. At the next Superbooth, the Berlin scene will be getting a new company.
Former developers from Native Instruments and Nonlinear Labs have founded Beatboxer. In less than two weeks, at Superbooth 25, Beatboxer will showcase Mosaik, a new live performance groove box.
Beatboxer Mosaik
Mosaik is a new all-in-one groovebox. The Beatboxer Mosaik pad’s design is particularly striking. Instead of being arranged in a matrix, the pads are placed around the housing.
This is what the prototype design looks like. Not sure if it will be the same in the finished design. In the middle, there is a large touch display with additional multi-color LED feedback buttons and encoders. According to the specs, the housing is made of wood and aluminum.
On the hardware side, Beatboxer Mosaik will feature an internal 256GB storage, USB ports, LAN, built-in Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity.
Part of the feature set is also a high-quality 4-channel audio interface with main outs and phone sockets. It isn’t communicated, but I think there will be input as well.
Software
Beatboxer Mosaik will be a standalone device that uses a software-based engine. This is what turns the hardware into a groovebox. It will feature 36 tracks, each with its own separate filter section (low-pass, peak, high-pass), distortion, volume control, pitch control, and independent tempo.
The engine, whether samples-only or synths with drum synthesis, is not yet known. However, you can see representations of samples with fade-in and fade-out points on the display. It looks like sample playback is safe. I hope internal sampling and resampling are also possible.
Further, it will feature global reverb and delay effects.
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First Impression
There are still many unanswered feature questions. We’ll probably have to wait until Superbooth 2025 to find out. On paper, it looks like an exciting groove box with a unique design.
Beatboxer Mosaik groovebox availability and price are TBA. The company will be at Superbooth 2025 at booth Z390.
More information here: Beatboxer Berlin
Eurgh 🤢
Exactly the expression I was looking for. This looks more like a DIY project, with a horrible looking UI. What’s the purpose of the pads / steps moving around the device? Why are the buttons left and right to the knobs misaligned? Why does the UI on the screen look, like an engineer from the 90s did it? Why are these guys even bothering with WiFi AND LAN, instead of just choosing one (just use LAN for audio streaming and BT for connectivity and be done with it). I’ll stick to Maschine. Still the GOAT.
The pads around the device appear to be four 16-step sequencers. It’s quite a clever way to integrate them in a space saving way. The buttons left and right to the encoders are likely not misaligned, but placed like this for ergonomics. Their placement also reduces the risk of confusing them with the nearby sequencer buttons when relying on muscle memory when playing live. The GUI appears to be a high contrast design geared towards readability in live performance scenarios. Overall, these design decisions indicate that the people who made this know what they are doing.
I thought the 16×4 square grid was actually a pretty brilliant way to visualize a step sequencer. 4 measures of 16 steps in this configuration makes more sense to me than the typical 64-button configuration, or Elektron’s 16 steps configurstion. Will be curious how that works with odd meters, though.
As for the other complaints – this is a prototype, right? Production hardware always looks different than prototypes.
There’s a reason step sequencers go from left to right and show you one bar most of the time. If I wanna now the play position, with every bar, it’s another visualization with the top (or lower) one, wherever this thing starts, running backwards. I fail to see this worse than indicating the loop Elektron style with a page LED or having a follow mode like on machine.
Yeah, it’s a prototype, but hiw much do you think they are gonna change the step sequencer, if it’s already in this configuration.?
Yes, it was obvious this is the step sequencer 😉 Ergonomics does not really apply as a reason here, since the encoders are aligned differently. It’s more symmetrical aesthetics, less functional, but then again, I don’t know how the UI works. The GUI may be high contrast, but I am talking about the layout, not pixel density or contrast. Elektron boxes have less pixels than an NES and a terrific GUI.
But in the end this toy with it’s funny layout and colorful buttons will find it’s buyers. It’s just not gonna be performing musicians.
Get an e-mail It will cost 2800€.
if MPC One and Deluge had a baby, for better or worse.
If it’s from Stephan Schmitt of Nonlinear Labs/Native Instruments, it will be unlike anything that exists, widely misunderstood, and likely expensive.
not from Stephan Schmitt, he is still at Nonlinear Labs
Looks nice, hopefully synthesis engines bult im
It would seem like an easy rule that shouldn’t be violated….do not place buttons above the screen…your haves will obscure your view…..clearly, I am not the intended target…..