The Best Portable Grooveboxes in 2022

I talk about the best portable, battery powered grooveboxes and standalone music production devices (in my opinion, at the moment, in 2022 / 2023).
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00:00 Intro
00:29 Circuit Tracks
01:36 MC-101
02:33 Dirtywave M8
03:54 Circuit Rhythm
05:10 Korg Electribe 2
06:01 Devices from Akai
06:49 Devices from Teenage Engineering
08:01 Additional devices and apps
09:24 Outro

My current favorite music production gear:

Note that some of the above links are affiliate links, which give me a commission (at NO extra cost to you!) if you use them to buy something.

Social media:

[tubeMonger]

Deluge is absolutely my favourite portable gear.

[elsantoproductora]

You should try the sp404 mkII. Roland added polyphony and a step sequencer.
My favorite portable device is definitely the op-1. The linear workflow forces me to finish a track instead of making lots of 2 bar beats. With the audio over USB update you can use an ipad as a sound module. Together, they make a really powerful combo

[patrickgrange]

Hi Gabe! I got your $5 sample pack and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Great drums! To all you circuit users, go get it. Thanks for keeping us IN THE LOOP dude! 🤙🛸

[Oooo-bibi]

I went for the tracks off mainly your advice from your channel. Couldn’t be happier for my second device. It’s come into life even more after buying and connecting a micro freak. Thanks for the advice and channel.keep up the good work.

[ericvernooij]

The Roland SP-404 MK2, since the 2.0 update, has turned into a fab little groovebox.

[JackAcid]

Deluge all the way. Recently got an MPC ONE, which is a beast, but I'm a long way from mastering it! But these two are the GOATS

[SwiftDreamer]

Though I still love my mc101, Koala Sampler has been one of my go to devices to make music with. Super powerful & still underrated IMO, though lots of ppl know how good it is

[RSKT_music]

I absolutely love my Synthstrom Deluge! Considered a lot of other options before deciding to get one, and I have zero regrets. Sure, I have a couple of gripes with it, but I can't stay mad at the thing..it gets me making music faster than anything else. I highly recommend it!

[jantuitman]

The 2 grooveboxes I currently own (don’t count my OP-Z anymore since it is broken)are the Deluge and the Syntakt. Both are completely brilliant. I prefer the Delige overall because it can do anything, but the Syntakt has really great sounds and effects.

[Yosser]

Just got a second hand Circuit and love it! It’s act intuitive and sound great. Can’t wait for novation to release a replacement for the tracks, as that’s when I’ll get one cheap lol

[Jerewalch]

Just sold my MC707 and OG OP1 to fund the OP1 Field (with an edu discount). I totally agree that it’s a really expensive piece of gear but it’s my favorite instrument for writing and composing songs on the go.
Kept the MC101 for all the Zencore sounds and the Circuit Tracks to teach and to have fun.

[hovermotion]

What a great vid...Great work as always 👍😄
Gabe you have to try out a Deluge at some point 👍

[spamspamization]

Heyho, the screen flicker in the electribe is actually a feature. Try disabling the power save mode in the global menu. Flicker is a part of this feature, cheers...

[AndyChannelle]

I have a Circuit but I always always travel with my iPad and Korg Gadget. Better than anything I've ever used. If I'm feeling elaborate, I'll take the two Bluetooth Korg control surfaces with me.

[schmoogle]

I recently grabbed an Electribe sampler from ebay. Was a choice between that and Circuit Tracks, I ended up with the Electribe due to a lucky bid. Very glad I did as it seems to have been made for the kind of stuff I like to make. I can use it to drive my 303 clone and get some pretty beefy sounds from it. Best of all I can sample in stuff like chords to circumvent the polyphony limit!

[zdravkodimitrov]

Elektron Model Samples is a very interesting device as well. Similar to Novation's Circuit Tracks but with a much more intuitive interface and a screen. Highly underrated!

[dracul]

I’ve got several and they are all great. I do reach for the mc 707 most these days as once you start properly using the chord feature it’s like having a built in chord machine. I’m a bit done with my Mpc for now, but will come back to it. Samples and Cycles good but not great. Circuit good sometimes.If you grab an OG Electribe EM-1 you will have some fun there too. Tr6s is a beast. Waiting forever for my sp404 mk2...

[OliverMooney]

On iPhone/iPad I'd first go with Drambo. It's pretty inexpensive for everything it gives you ($20 for the base version, $30 if you buy both in-app purchases). V2 revamped the sequencer/arrangement functions and now it's a fully-fledged groove-box with _incredible_ sound design potential. There's a lot to it but it repays the time you put in ten-fold.

[baltimega]

I went to a beak making event with the circuit rhythm and SP 404 mkii. Everyone had their SPs, mpcs, maschine plus, etc. No one had ever heard of or seen the circuit rhythm before. I was surprised.

[isaacanthonydj]

i have a MC707 love it, might pick up a 101 as well, to travel with for fun...