Timbaland Has A Secret Weapon

Any novice producer would be able to list off the major brands for professional producing hardware. Korg, Roland, Yamaha, and Akai are usually the most common. Open Labs and Timbaland may have another entry to add to this list. And if you are skeptical, don't take our word for it. Look at the record sales for Justin Timberlake's album “Future, Sex, Love, Sounds.” Or you could even look at the record sales for Timbaland's latest album “Shock Value.”

So what exactly does Open Labs make? They make two super-instruments designed for producers. One is called the MiKo (me-koh) and the other is called the NeKo (nee-koh). Take a look at Timbaland talking about his experience with Open Labs products.

So what is so innovative about these two cutting-edge tools? Imagine combining portability, compatibility, and a power-house of a computer to mix, master, and record with. Now take all of that and dump a mammoth arsenal of sound libraries to boot. To be specific, how does 25,027 presets with over 24GB of sounds work for you? Accessing some of the most well known sound sample libraries no longer takes additional downloads or upgrades. Right out of the box, you can have E-MU's Ensoniq Mo'Phatt and Urban Legends sounds at your disposal. And this is just two of the many classic sound banks you can work with.

Among some of the most amazing features, each model has the ability to systematically sample your existing keyboards note by note. You can then make program patches on the fly and save/recall them for use in later productions.

Timbaland and Open Labs have seized a lucrative opportunity and have released the Timabaland Special Edition Miko. “I've made the new Timbaland Special Edition MiKo with Tim's Touch,” said Timbaland, “It's got everything I need in a single box and when I use it, we make masterpieces.”

The special edition MiKo started shipping on August 15, 2007 and has an estimated street price of $3,899.