Arturia BeatStep Pro

I think in 6 months I'll see if there's any used on eBay

thing is sexy, and I really need a CV>midi

is anyone planning to use it in a hardware-only setup?

I'd love to switch over to all hardware

problem is alot of the stuff I do would require a lot of hardware to pull off

would need like Kaoss Pads and multiple reverbs and tweak-friendly delays and such

mmmmmm mighty tempted indeed

Really don't want to...but might just have to sell my Dark Time :(

guess it would be silly to have both

does anyone know if this has the feature of running two 8 step sequences at one time, thereby getting a slight poly sequence(or duo note sort of thing)? The Dark Time has this feature, and i thiiiink i remember someone saying the original beatstep had it?

If so, i'm sold

Hang on, this thing is cv>midi? Intrigued

Quanta costa questo?

Quanta costa questo?

I'm going to be able to get one of these in the next couple weeks. I'll post my thoughts on it when I do.

  On 8/3/2015 at 5:00 PM, LimpyLoo said:

is anyone planning to use it in a hardware-only setup?

I'd love to switch over to all hardware

it's pretty much designed to be used with a hardware-only setup!

  On 8/3/2015 at 5:34 PM, TRiP said:

does anyone know if this has the feature of running two 8 step sequences at one time, thereby getting a slight poly sequence(or duo note sort of thing)? The Dark Time has this feature, and i thiiiink i remember someone saying the original beatstep had it?

 

If so, i'm sold

I don't think so. The original doesn't, since it only has one output for CV and one for gate.

Keep in mind though that the beatstep pro is essentially two melodic sequencers and a drum sequencer, so you can have two melodies going at once.

I'm kinda considering selling my original Beatstep and getting one of these, simply because it has midi and clock in.. that way I can clock it from monomachine or even gameboy and have some poly sequences going along with my usual MnM/nanoloop stuff..

For 2 8-step cv/gate melodies you could get a Korg SQ-1, you can make it go polyrhythmic as well if you make it an 8 and a 6-step sequence for example. Other than that it's much more limited than the Beatstep Pro I guess.

I will be getting this as it would be amazing to control a load of stuff that rarely gets that sort of outing and all at the same time.

I just hope there are not any major bugs.

The 8 drum gates are a godsend for me right now.

  On 8/4/2015 at 2:36 PM, th555 said:

For 2 8-step cv/gate melodies you could get a Korg SQ-1, you can make it go polyrhythmic as well if you make it an 8 and a 6-step sequence for example. Other than that it's much more limited than the Beatstep Pro I guess.

the beatstep pro can do that too

  On 8/6/2015 at 2:18 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 8/4/2015 at 2:36 PM, th555 said:

For 2 8-step cv/gate melodies you could get a Korg SQ-1, you can make it go polyrhythmic as well if you make it an 8 and a 6-step sequence for example. Other than that it's much more limited than the Beatstep Pro I guess.

 

the beatstep pro can do that too

 

So to confirm - The beatstep pro has 2 separate melodic sequencers, but in one single sequencer you can have it play 2x 8-step sequences - or you have to utilise both of the sequencers controlling the same synth to achieve the effect?

  On 8/6/2015 at 2:44 PM, TRiP said:

 

  On 8/6/2015 at 2:18 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 8/4/2015 at 2:36 PM, th555 said:

For 2 8-step cv/gate melodies you could get a Korg SQ-1, you can make it go polyrhythmic as well if you make it an 8 and a 6-step sequence for example. Other than that it's much more limited than the Beatstep Pro I guess.

 

the beatstep pro can do that too

 

So to confirm - The beatstep pro has 2 separate melodic sequencers, but in one single sequencer you can have it play 2x 8-step sequences - or you have to utilise both of the sequencers controlling the same synth to achieve the effect?

 

oh oh oh

i understand now

i don't know about that

ALRIGHT WATMM!

it's time. the moment we have all been waiting for. nick from sonicstate's video review.

(spoiler. he gives it the thumbs up.)

yessss, gonna watch it tonight. will probably sell my original and buy the pro as a result.

It's not without it's downsides though.

having an older mac I cannot update the BSP OS and change the CV types etc. Will have to find a way as this means I cannot sequence half of my analogue synths and when I can some need a lower voltage so I cannot get into bass registers. Also the screen printed labels are wrong so the face controls do not correspond with the rear jack resulting in me wondering why it's not working.

The only thing that works for me right now is the drum gates, and damn! it's fun. Piss easy to sequence and a blast to mess with live.

When you start getting random it can fuck up, miss triggers and go out of time but as long as you know the limits you can get some fun shit from this.

hmm. its those^ weird little flaws that get picked up on that i was hoping to see in the review but not so much.

if i was to get one i'd want it to work out of the box without having to rely on an editor or at least as much as possible without an editor so annoying that lack of one is preventing you from changing some crucial settings :|

It's a decent enough bit of kit.

Built quality is pretty solid, aside from the micro USB connection which is just waiting to break. Minijack outputs are not as positive as I'd like, you don't really get a wicked *clunk* when plugging something in. It'd also be nice if output labels had been printed on top, rather than just on the back.

Ground loop issues. Basically unavoidable if you're trying to power it over USB. You do get a weird splitter thingy so you can use an additional power supply which solves the problem. Just annoyed me a bit since the problem is so likely to happen, they could've provided a power supply.

Once it's up and running it's good fun, does what you'd expect it to. There are a few things which I'm hoping will be fixed with firmware updates.. Changing clock divisions or sequencer direction completely looses any sync and you have to restart, really annoying. The looper roller thing is junk, would be more useful if it had quantized options. The other thing which could do with a fix, afaik there's no way to control LED brightness. In a dark room, all panel labels are completely unreadable for me, so much glare!! Less of a problem as you get familiar with it I guess.

The MIDI control center software is kinda crap. I mean, it serves its purpose but is ugly and really slow to use. Most stuff you want access to is in one long menu.. scrollscrollscrollscrollscrollscrollscroll.......

Still gripes aside, it's done everything I've wanted from it so far. Used as MIDI to CV converter from host to synths, worked fine. Used as clock source and MIDI controller for laptop, sending sequences to synths over CV at the same time, worked fine too. Selectable clock types for the clock output is very cool. It's decent value for what it is, most things that annoyed me are probably fixable in firmware updates & HW is decent build quality... except the micro USB which is going to be where it will break.

thing is sexy

on my 'to buy' list

  On 8/20/2015 at 6:36 PM, TechDiff said:

Changing clock divisions or sequencer direction completely looses any sync and you have to restart, really annoying.

Almost a dealbreaker, but I'm still going to grab one of these since it's probably a firmware update away.

Fixing a broken micro-usb jack is a real pain in the ass, I've never managed to desolder the old one without lifting a solder pad or two with it, not that I've tried many times.

Just got one today. I won't have time to really dig in until after work tomorrow but I spent about 45 minutes playing around with it and the Anushri and so far I'm pretty impressed. It's intuitive, the build quality seems good for the price range, the knobs and buttons feel nice, and it's really fun. As mentioned already, the roller/looper is pretty useless and the timing does seem to hiccup a bit when yo switch from forward to reverse, even when you're using the internal clock, but I can live with that. I could definitely see basing a minimal live hardware rig around it, which was the whole point of getting it. I'll post more when I've had a few good chunks of quality time to get to know it better, but it seems like a winner so far.

Oh, and the case it comes in is built to be used as a carrying case and is slid enough that you could probably get away with it. Nice touch.

  On 9/1/2015 at 3:17 AM, RSP said:

Just got one today. I won't have time to really dig in until after work tomorrow but I spent about 45 minutes playing around with it and the Anushri and so far I'm pretty impressed. It's intuitive, the build quality seems good for the price range, the knobs and buttons feel nice, and it's really fun. As mentioned already, the roller/looper is pretty useless and the timing does seem to hiccup a bit when yo switch from forward to reverse, even when you're using the internal clock, but I can live with that. I could definitely see basing a minimal live hardware rig around it, which was the whole point of getting it. I'll post more when I've had a few good chunks of quality time to get to know it better, but it seems like a winner so far.

 

 

Oh, and the case it comes in is built to be used as a carrying case and is slid enough that you could probably get away with it. Nice touch.

ooh congrats

you should def post some samples when you get comfortable with it

The knobs come loose very quickly. Hopefully they're easily replacable with some standard D shaft ones.

  On 9/2/2015 at 8:17 PM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 9/1/2015 at 3:17 AM, RSP said:

Just got one today. I won't have time to really dig in until after work tomorrow but I spent about 45 minutes playing around with it and the Anushri and so far I'm pretty impressed. It's intuitive, the build quality seems good for the price range, the knobs and buttons feel nice, and it's really fun. As mentioned already, the roller/looper is pretty useless and the timing does seem to hiccup a bit when yo switch from forward to reverse, even when you're using the internal clock, but I can live with that. I could definitely see basing a minimal live hardware rig around it, which was the whole point of getting it. I'll post more when I've had a few good chunks of quality time to get to know it better, but it seems like a winner so far.

 

 

Oh, and the case it comes in is built to be used as a carrying case and is slid enough that you could probably get away with it. Nice touch.

 

ooh congrats

 

you should def post some samples when you get comfortable with it

 

I will! I'm starting a minimal live rig based around it, but I have to get and learn the Axoloti before that will be done. I've pulle the Anushr out of my main setup and I've been practicing with that so far, but I might add a third piece. I'm actually thinking of using the old Yamaha QY10 I picked up when a local store was closing a few years ago, since it's small, pleasantly cheesy sounding and I could probably use it as a basic MIDI looper in pattern record mode, maybe build a loop on the BSP and then bounce it over to the QY10 to get some extra tracks without lugging around the MPC2000xl I've been sequencing on for the past few years.

In the mean time, I can definitely record some simple noodling at some point.

I haven't noticed the knobs being loose on mine, maybe only some of them have that. So far, my gripes are:

-no pattern chaining or song mode of any kind. I knew that going in but I miss it more than I thought I would. It wouldn't be an issue though, except:

-no "next sequence" type feature - unless I've missed something (I've only gotten to play with it a little bit and I mostly worked on one pattern at a time to get used the basic workflow) the only way you can change sequences is immediately jumping as soon as you select one. I'm hoping I just missed something obvious but I don't think I did. It would be nice to also be able to jump to the next sequence at the end of the current sequence. I also don't think you can change sequences without jumping to the first step of the new one, and sometimes it would be nice to, keep your position within the sequence when you changed. I used to have one of those Boss DR55 knocokoffs that Soundmaster made and the thing that made it fun was that you could program a few simple patterns and then turn them into really long, surprisingly complicated sounding beats just by turning the pattern select switch, since the actual step position was free running. I'm sure lots of other hardware sequencers do something similar, and it would be a great option in the Beatstep Pro.

-finally, I haven't found a good way to restart a sequence while it's playing. Sure you can hit stop and then play again, but I'd really like a single button (or even a shift command would do) to make either the current sequence or all sequences jump back to beat 1. A good example of where this would be useful: If you have two sequences of equal length running. You shorten SEQ2 that as it cycles its start point shifts relative to SEQ1 (something I do a lot). Eventually you change the length of SEQ2 so that it is the same as SEQ1 again, but unless you timed your change so that it happens when the first steps of both sequences are already lined up, the actual steps in the two sequences will be lining up differently than they were originally, even though they're both the same length again. Sometimes this is a cool effect but other times it's a hassle. You can work around it by copying the original versions of the sequences before you change them btu it would be nice to have a simple control to jump back to step one on either the active track or all tracks.

None of this stuff is too serious, it's more a matter of adjusting to the workflow of the thing and all of it could be added with firmware updates (not that I expect any of it but at least it's possible), and hopefully at least some of it is just stuff I've overlooked, but it could be a bigger deal for some people depending on how you like to work.

Also I definitely noticed some weird, glitchy behavior in the synth when I was using the BSP's CV outs while powering it from USB but they went away when I switched to an external PSU so hopefully the ground loop blocker thing that it ships with will fix that. I don't plan on having it hooked up to a computer much anyway. although I was hoping to power it from the Axloti's USB port once that arrives.

Overall I'm really happy with it and the good design choices definitely outweigh the complaints. Being able to leave the sequences running and jump into controller mode to tweak parameters on the synths they're playing is great.

EDIT: I've read cmplaints about the editing software being clunky but I've had no problem with it, it does what it needs to do.

@RSP:

When switching patterns, the step counter is kept from one pattern to the next. Selecting a new pattern when the sequence is at step 8, the next pattern starts from step 9. Unsure if there is an option make it start the next pattern after the current is finished. Probably a bit of a pain in the ass to implement, as all patterns can have different lengths and subdivisions.

  On 9/3/2015 at 5:43 PM, psn said:

@RSP:

 

When switching patterns, the step counter is kept from one pattern to the next. Selecting a new pattern when the sequence is at step 8, the next pattern starts from step 9. Unsure if there is an option make it start the next pattern after the current is finished. Probably a bit of a pain in the ass to implement, as all patterns can have different lengths and subdivisions.

Cool, I actually didn't do much pattern switching yet, so that part I couldn't actually remember for sure. Most of my complaints are more about me being used to the MPC2000xl workflow than anything.

But yeah, overall really, really satisfied so far. Sunday I'll have a chance to spend a good solid afternoon and hopefully record a demo noodle or three.

It's already been said, but it feels a lot more substantial than I expected, too. Even the microUSB feels pretty solid, and it has a nice heft to it. The case doesn't have any give like a lot of stuff I've tried in this price range. I wouldn't want to knock on the pads like I'm comfortable doing on the MPC but I definitely don't feel like I have to baby it, either.

I make no claims with regard to its quality, but here's a recording of me futzing around with the BSP and a really basic tabletop setup the other day. Track 1 is playing an Anushri via CV into an old, silver Akai Headrush, track 2 and the drum track are playing Roland MT32 presets since I had one lying around. Both of them are running straight into an EHX 2880 recording a continuous loop slaved to the BSP with some decay so it keeps evolving. Starts from a blank project, so it takes a while to build up.

https://soundcloud.com/tmoq/first-steps-with-beatstep-pro-improvdemo/s-Trksb