Let’s get into our picks for the best groovebox to make beats, tracks and entire productions.

A handheld groovebox that borrows from game controller technology to give you a great portable experience and workflow. It’s sample-based and loves to help you build your own kits and create your own instruments from sampling directly into the machine

SmplTrek has 10 tracks to play with. These can be looping samples, one shot tracks, instrument tracks or MIDI tracks. There’s also a total of 4 drum tracks complete with a step sequencer interface. A project can have 16 scenes and a scene can be 128 bars long. Along with the 10 tracks you can record 3 additional audio tracks. So that means vocals, guitars and other instruments as free form tracks that aren’t part of the scene structure. This really does elevate it above a lot of other purely loop based machines. You also have 36 different effects to add to your tracks as either an insert, send or master effect.

The sampling is all done at 16bit and 48kHz and can be done through an in-built microphone or via any of the physical inputs. The maximum sampling time is around 180 minutes and all the recording is done to an SD card. There are some basic sample editing tools that include resampling, auto-slicing, time-stretching, pitch-shifting and normalisation.

The interface is very colourful and very thumbable. You have track selection buttons and clip launching buttons that double up as a keyboard or drum pads. You can also mix in an external source and audio over USB. A built-in speaker and battery power finish this off as a superb portable groovebox.

Street Price: $429
Sonicware.jp

A tracker is a different way of making music. It’s a vertically scrolling interface where patterns and tracks are laid out with events. The nice big screen on the Tracker Mini keeps everything flowing and it’s far more intuitive than it looks. Overall you have 8 tracks of stereo audio or MIDI sequencing, a built-in microphone and gamepad-style interface similar to the SmplTrek.

The Tracker Mini puts itself forward as an entire studio in a box. You can convert samples into MIDI instruments, you can mix audio tracks with sampled loops, you can control and sequence other gear and you can create complex arrangements, mix, master and export your finished track.

The large screen puts complex editing into your hands. You can get into the details of sample editing, modulation and automation, sound design and effects processing. With the microphone you can sample yourself and your surroundings for instant drum kits and instruments. You can also bring audio in over USB, add effects and record back into your computer.

Street Price: $699
Polyend.com

Novation epitomises the modern groovebox with a very cool user interface, smooth lines and glowing colours. The Circuit Tracks is fast, intuitive and will have you making music in no time. The interface looks so inviting that you already know what you’re going to do.

Circuit Tracks has 4 drum tracks and 2 polyphonic digital synthesizers. It’s simple, agile and packed full of effects and performance abilities that make it one of the coolest boxes out there. It has no screen because it really doesn’t need one, it’s all on the fingertips.

The sound engine is huge. You’ve got proper digital synth engines for screaming basslines, big pads and stunning leads. If you need more then you can load samples and rework the soundscape to your own requirements. At all times it’s all instantly tweakable on the 10 encoders. There are 32 backlit velocity-sensitive pads that double as steps in the sequencer, loop launches and piano keys. If you need to you can run two external MIDI synths with a pair of dedicated tracks.

Patterns take up to 32 steps and can be chained for 256 steps in total. Scenes can be arranged and performed on the fly while you mutate and evolve the music with probability tools and pattern mutate functions. It’s a fast fun and exciting groovebox.

Street Price: $399
Novationmusic.com

Elektron produce a bunch of high-end boxes that offer different variations on the theme of groovebox, rhythm making and sequencing. The Model:Cycles stands out as it’s based on FM synthesis rather than samples.

With Model:Cycles you get a modest 6 tracks to play with but each one explores the limits of sound design and FM synthesis. It’s like playing with 6 synthesizers in one each-to-program box. Rhythms and melodies pour out of the machine with ease and you’ll have no trouble manipulating the outcomes.

Each digital FM engine can cover both percussion and melodic sounds but they don’t have to be one or the other. You could go fully into synthetic sounds, building layers of operation, sculpting soundscapes and environments. Or it could become a full-on noise machine with the spit and crackle of dissonance and enveloped noise explorations. There’s no formula to this groovebox.

The Elektron sequencer is animated, exciting and full of energy. It has a unique ability to build grooves and offers instant satisfaction with the turn of a knob. The clearly laid out interface gives you everything you need for your projects and comes with some of the best library content out there.

Street Price: $399
Elektron.se

The SH-4d has an emphasis on the synthesis but the multi-timbral pattern sequencer makes it fantastic groovebox. There are 4 tracks dedicated to the synthesizer and a separate one for drums and rhythms.

The rhythm part has access to 49 preset kits and room for plenty more. Each kit has 25 instruments using two layerable waveforms and dedicated tools for polishing.

The synthesizer side is immense. There are 11 oscillator models taking in classic Roland analog sounds from the SH-101, JUNO-106 and more. You have PCM samples, an FM and plenty of internal modulations. The poweful wavetable engine even lets you design your own waveforms. You can combine up to 4 waveforms for deep and rich tones or use one as an LFO for complex changes.

The front panel is perfect for synthesis and sound design, with a nice bright screen to keep you fully updated. The button keyboard acts as a performance space and sequencer for all your groovebox needs. And one more trick is that it has built-in D-Motion technology so you can pick the SH-4d up and move it around to affect mapped parameters.

The SH-4d is a very capable multi-engine synthesizer with an inspirational sequencer and innovative performance controls.

Street Price: $649
Roland.com

The MC range from Roland are a bit more traditional in terms of groovebox functionality. They’ve been doing this a very long time. The MC-707 features pads, sequencing, faders, effects, performance controls and a dazzling array of colours. Perfect for electronic music production.

Inside is Roland’s latest ZEN-Core synthesizer engine with access to models of all their greatest synthesizers, sound engines and library. You have an 8-track sequencer, effects and an audio looper. It comes with a bunch of rhythms and phrases created by top sound designers and it is covered in realtime performance and mixing controls.

You can layer up beats, one shots and phrases taking cues from classic Roland drum machines and bass line synthesizers. You can loop, modulate and rework the tracks, scenes and clips on the fly. You can drown in reverb, suck the sound through all sorts of audio processing and lean heavy into the filter.

The MC-707 is a studio quality box for intense electronic music production. It will integrate with your DAW or run as a standalone workstation.

Street Price: $999
Roland.com

The MPC is legendary. It’s a format that’s been making beats for decades. The MPC Live II is a return to the standalone workstation that made it famous while being full of the latest technology. It’s completely portable and even has decent built in speakers but it still big enough to be taken seriously in the studio.

It has a powerful multi-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. It has 16 full-sized MPC velocity-sensitive pads, a huge and brilliant multi-touch display. The connections are amazing with 2 separate MIDI ins and outs, 4 lots of CV/Gate and USB ports. You can record in through any of the 6 inputs and store everything on an SD card or expandable internal SSD drive. It’s a bit of a monster.

The display gives you a DAW-type experience in a groovebox with piano-roll sequencing, sample editing and track arrangements. You can run the internal sound banks or build your own library by sampling. You can run multiple external synths and take full control of modular. The workflow is classic beat-making by the people who invented the format.

You can keep on making tracks until the system runs out of juice and if you connect it to your computer you can keep going via the MPC Daw software and start to pull in software instruments and plugins. It’s an amazing machine.

Street Price: $1299
AkaiPro.com

Sonicware make a lot of grooveboxes with all sorts of different sound engines alongside the awesome SmplTrek that’s also on this list. However, the best of the Liven range is the Lofi-12. It somehow manages to capture all the character of what grooveboxes should be about.

LoFi-12 is all about retro sampling. It has an engine that sounds so good you’d think it was the 1990s. The beats are rich and inviting, the instruments warm and rough around the edges, everything you need for laid back lofi music. It even has a knob to dial in the laziness of a summer afternoon.

You can sample in up to 4 seconds of old school sound. Rewinding down to 12bit and 12kHz for that authentic sampler vibe. You can then trim your samples, apply pitch and timing changes, reverse, loop, sustain loop, filter and modulate. The plastic keyboard gives you just enough to play your own samples as instruments just like an MPC.

The 4-track sequencer gives you 64 steps and 64 patterns and loads of automation. You can lock parameters so you can record movements for every step. There are 11 effects to mess things up including filters, bit crushers, tape simulators and vinyl spins.

The LoFi-12 is a lot of fun, great value and comes with a ton of really great content ready to play.

Street Price: $239
Sonicware.jp