McTrax: Yes, We Want Fries with that Shake

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On April 22, Dutch McDonald’s customers who thought they were just going to get a tasty burger with some mayonnaise fries got a whole other surprise. The placemat under their Royale with Cheese box was a groovebox.

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Called the McTrax, the placemat was just regular paper but with special conductive ink that responds to human touch and allows an iPhone or Android phone to connect to it over Bluetooth and power a looping music machine.

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Across the top, there were drum loop launchers for different dance music styles.

“Hey, your Hip-Hop loop smells like grease.”
“That’s okay. I like my beats funky.”

A one-octave keyboard with an arpeggiator plays synths from a sound bank, and there was even a touchpad effects unit.

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Finally, one could even record their own sampled vocals. Luckily for us, moms in the Netherlands also remind their kids to not rap with your mouth full. If only they had taught them to shoot their smartphone videos in landscape view.