Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by UN!T »

Fair enough. It was just occurred to me one could do some really cool stuff mapping the BeatStep cc's to some parameters in the Environment area after you had run some sequences and rendered the audio.

Sort of miss some things in Logic now that I am only using Ableton.
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by ashley BORG »

I've been having a play on and off this week, been a bit on the busy side, but really impressed with it.
I think I've got it working properly with the MidiControlCenter. (Or at least a way which works for me). I've mapped my Live Template instruments to different channels each.

1 - EKS Kick - Pots
2 - Drumazon - Each drum to it's own pad
3 - Nepheton - Each drum to it's own pad
4 - Aalto - Pots & other settings such as scaling values
5 - FM8

Seems to work alright, I encounter some issues recalling presets (not sure if that's me being thick). But I usually find if I recall my saved template in the MCC then it loads in to the Beatstep.

Now I've had a brainwave of saving templates of different Drumazon & Nepheton drum pads. So for instance one patch would use only claps across all pads, or a mix of toms, so that I can bang out drum patterns live.
From the way I've been working, it would only be a matter of switching between presets.

Will test it this weekend.

Tried to do midi out to my MPK49 so I could make use of the Arpeggiator, no luck though, think it's an issue on the MPK49 side will have to read the manual.

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by wormcode »

Can you disable the flashing lights? I really hate those kinds of lights on all the gear these days. It looks like one of my nieces toys, not very inspiring to me and find it distracting. I'd prefer just regular backlit white for a live situation but I wish companies would put an option to disable it. The Akai MPD line is perfect imo but it would be nice to have one in a traditional step sequencer layout.

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Planar »

wormcode wrote:Can you disable the flashing lights? I really hate those kinds of lights on all the gear these days. It looks like one of my nieces toys, not very inspiring to me and find it distracting. I'd prefer just regular backlit white for a live situation but I wish companies would put an option to disable it. The Akai MPD line is perfect imo but it would be nice to have one in a traditional step sequencer layout.
I don't think you can, but maybe they'll add it as an option later.

I'm finding this much more useful as a pad controller and general midi controller than a step sequencer, it works really well as a dedicated controller for an instrument while the APC40 does all the main donkey work elsewhere. The drum pads are the reason I wanted it and they are a lot of fun, I'm hoping my (shit) drums will see some improvement as I get the hang of using them. I need to think about some multichannel setup like you've got going there Ashley for my bread and butter instruments, but I've not had chance yet.

The step sequencing is basic but fun as well and I think those who are making techno with those simple repeating note patterns will get a lot out of it. The lack of visual feedback when setting a note is a bit of a pain.

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by ashley BORG »

Planar wrote:This sort of worked, but there was a hideous delay. So I pressed the triangle next to the MIDI "output" section for the beatstep (you can see it in the PDF) and that brings up a delay slider. I programmed in a straight 4 to the floor kick with the beatstep and then put the metronome on. I then started "beatmatching" with the delay slider until it seemed in time. I then recorded some midi and tweaked the delay time until I got it as tight as it will go.
How to bring up this delay slider you talk of?

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Planar »

ashley BORG wrote:
Planar wrote:This sort of worked, but there was a hideous delay. So I pressed the triangle next to the MIDI "output" section for the beatstep (you can see it in the PDF) and that brings up a delay slider. I programmed in a straight 4 to the floor kick with the beatstep and then put the metronome on. I then started "beatmatching" with the delay slider until it seemed in time. I then recorded some midi and tweaked the delay time until I got it as tight as it will go.
How to bring up this delay slider you talk of?
Go to the midi setup page in the preferences. It'll have input, output sections. Literally next to the word output there is a small triangle, press it and more options appear with the slider. It's not very obvious and I dunno if it's the same in Ableton 8.

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Hades »

you mean the tab "MIDI sync" in Live's preferences
under the heading "MIDI ports",
the triangle left of the word "output" of the "Arturia beatstep" or whatever it's called in Live's preferences menu, right ?

not that I have a beatstep, but I just had a look to see what you meant...
with my Kenton USB solo, I have the option "MIDI clock sync delay" appearing when I press that triangle...

never even thought of pressing that triangle...
not a very obvious place to look...
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Planar »

Yeah, that's the one, I wasn't at my computer to describe it properly.

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Hades »

excuses, excuses...

you were just a proper lazy cunt, that's all... :D

I spent 2 hours this morning making a cluedo game from stuff I printed out from the internet.
Early this afternoon I hid all the cards in my house for my oldest, and while I was hiding them, I was already thinking "damn, I hope she finds them soon enough,
or I'll just damn right forget where I put them"
and sure enough, not even 1 hour later I wasn't even able to remember where I put all the 22 cards... :lol:
We found back 21 cards.

Thank god she found the last one just 5 minutes ago,
or chances were big it would have turned up only 7 years later or so...

I hid it under the balance,
which would explain why I'd be the last to find it back.
I only weigh myself twice a year or so... :lol:
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Planar »

Hades wrote:excuses, excuses...

you were just a proper lazy cunt, that's all... :D
Sorry, I was too busy reading the manual for the rest of you fuckers ;)

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Hades »

we're just getting old, that's all... :D
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by UN!T »

Hades wrote:we're just getting old, that's all... :D
No kidding!?! Where is the Doepfer MAQ16 review?!? Maybe you forgot? :?:
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Hades »

nope, didn't forget at all,
just didn't have enough time yet.

I got it more than a week ago,
but only had 2 hours to try it out a little bit yesterday morning.

I'd rather post something useful after I have spent some proper time with it.
Usually, if I write a "review", I make sure I have read the manual and have spent at least a few days with the piece of gear.
Otherwise it's not a very well balanced review, is it ? :)

Just printed out the manual here at work half an hour ago. ;)
(but too tired to read it now, 1st nightshift is always a struggle to get through)

but if you're really interested...

1st impressions :
not really that intuitive to use.
can do a lot of different things, and I doubt you'll ever use even 50% of its options.
the build quality could be a bit better. I mean, lets' not forget this is basically a sort of MIDI controller, but one that still gets sold for around 600 euro's new. For that kind of money I expected something better built. It's not cheap-ass quality, but it certainly could have been done better.
Since it's a rack unit, and doesn't get abused a lot, it'll hold, but yeah, could have been done better.
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by UN!T »

Hades wrote:nope, didn't forget at all,
just didn't have enough time yet.

I got it more than a week ago,
but only had 2 hours to try it out a little bit yesterday morning.

I'd rather post something useful after I have spent some proper time with it.
Usually, if I write a "review", I make sure I have read the manual and have spent at least a few days with the piece of gear.
Otherwise it's not a very well balanced review, is it ? :)

Just printed out the manual here at work half an hour ago. ;)
(but too tired to read it now, 1st nightshift is always a struggle to get through)

but if you're really interested...

1st impressions :
not really that intuitive to use.
can do a lot of different things, and I doubt you'll ever use even 50% of its options.
the build quality could be a bit better. I mean, lets' not forget this is basically a sort of MIDI controller, but one that still gets sold for around 600 euro's new. For that kind of money I expected something better built. It's not cheap-ass quality, but it certainly could have been done better.
Since it's a rack unit, and doesn't get abused a lot, it'll hold, but yeah, could have been done better.
Ha! I was just giving you a hard time. :D I don't need a review because I will never use 100% of its functions. :lol: I already have a sequencer I am quite happy with. Its true that I am interested in gear generally so I don't mind reading about this or that.

That's an expensive midi controller. :lol: You don't sound so enthused about it. Usually people are quite excited when they get a new piece of gear. Maybe once you've had a good session or 2 you be more into it. Clearly it was impressive enough that you bought it... or you got for a super cheap price.
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Hades »

UN!T wrote: That's an expensive midi controller. :lol: You don't sound so enthused about it. Usually people are quite excited when they get a new piece of gear. Maybe once you've had a good session or 2 you be more into it. Clearly it was impressive enough that you bought it... or you got for a super cheap price.
It doesn't work that way for me.
Besides, I've bought so much gear in all those years it's pretty hard for me to get really "enthousiastic" about a piece of gear. I guess it comes with the years.
It would have to be something far more rare or special or just pretty damn good to get me all exited, like a prophet 5 or Jupiter 8 for example... :)

I consider every instrument as a tool, an "instrument".
With some of these tools, you have an instant "wow" effect, but you grow tired of them eventually and sell them after a while.
Others you never seem to get along with at first, but you put them aside. Perhaps because it took you years to find them, and their prices are only going up on the used market. Or because you have a felling that you're maybe just not ready yet to appreciate it's full potential.
And then there are those you fall in love with instantly and you never grow tired of.

With my Andromeda, it was love on first sight, and I highly doubt I'll ever grow tired of it since it has so many sound design possibilities and has almost anything you can dream off for a poly analog synth.
But I know for a fact that if I had gotten that synth 3 or 4 years earlier, it would have been too much for me, and maybe I'd have been stupid enough to sell it.
My Fizmo on the other hand took me years to find. I never liked it that much, but that was just cause I got it really early in my synth years, and I wasn't good enough at sound design yet.
So it went in storage for several years. Now I recently took it out and I'm very happy I never sold the thing.

But as to the Doepfer, it doesn't even produce a sound, it's only a controller, so things have to be looked at even more practical, and not like "ahh, I don't use it enough, but what a sound !!", which is how you could look at some synths.
So... I'll be needing a few more months to see what I can come up with by routing it to several of my synths. If I like the results enough, and I feel comfortable enough using it in my workflow, then it'll stay, otherwise it'll go.
That other step sequencer you were so kind to post that video of just seemed like a lot more instant fun, so to say... :P
So chances are big that if I don't like it enough in the long run, I'll just get that other one and sell the doepfer. We'll see. Only time and hours invested in the gear will be able to tell for sure...
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by UN!T »

I have bought a lot of gear over the years too. I am still happy to try new things. I don't always keep them of course.

For me its all about the sequencer in a lot of ways. My friend pointed out to me that I am a sequencer freak. A lot of the gear i have used over the years has a sequencer. Even if its very primitive. Give me 16 steps and I am happy! Hence my interest in the Doepfer and the Beatstep.

I think this song says it all. :D
youtu.be/eSBybJGZoCU
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Mslwte »

I do like step sequencers as well
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by ashley BORG »

UN!T wrote:I have bought a lot of gear over the years too. I am still happy to try new things. I don't always keep them of course.

For me its all about the sequencer in a lot of ways. My friend pointed out to me that I am a sequencer freak. A lot of the gear i have used over the years has a sequencer. Even if its very primitive. Give me 16 steps and I am happy! Hence my interest in the Doepfer and the Beatstep.

I think this song says it all. :D
youtu.be/eSBybJGZoCU

Same, I even like the Beatstep's lack of visual feedback when programming the steps, just ears only - think there'll be plenty of happy mistakes to come out from it.

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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by Hades »

UN!T wrote:I have bought a lot of gear over the years too. I am still happy to try new things. I don't always keep them of course.

For me its all about the sequencer in a lot of ways. My friend pointed out to me that I am a sequencer freak. A lot of the gear i have used over the years has a sequencer. Even if its very primitive. Give me 16 steps and I am happy! Hence my interest in the Doepfer and the Beatstep.

I think this song says it all. :D
youtu.be/eSBybJGZoCU
ok, I'm gonna put my neck out and say Kraftwerk is highly overrated. (really don't like that song)
About 12 years ago, I even made a small profit by getting tickets for one of their shows even though I knew I couldn't possibly go,
so of course I sold them with a bit of profit cause of course the show got sold out real soon. :roll:
Not a thing I actually do normally, and I usually hate people who do that kind of thing.
Felt good doing that to hipster Kraftwerk-fans though.
You can always spot them by the way they do their über-best to pronounce the name properly even though they don't know 3 words of German otherwise... :lol:
I'm not saying Kraftwerk doesn't have a few tunes I can enjoy once in a while, but I personally think they're a bit like Derrick May : they were just lucky they got in early, but if they'd release something now it would be more than clear enough they don't have that much talent really. Problem is their image/status is so legendary people automatically like everything they do, even if they'd be just recording their farts for 60 minutes.
(you can all shoot me for this opinion, I don't really care ;) )

Anyways, yes, no visual for programming stuff, that's exactly why I wanted a step sequencer.
I'm a far too skilled piano player, so there's no "computuristic" stuff coming out of my hands, far too much melody, I can't avoid it... :cry:
And when I try to click in notes, it still doesn't go easy enough to my likings...

Kraftwerk actually helped improve the Doepfer step sequencer. They made a few suggestions for improvements which Doepfer included with later versions of the MAQ16/3.

I always gotta think of this video with Kraftwerk.
It's so hilariously not their fault and yet exactly what they stand for : not a lot of info but people blow it up to something huge...

youtu.be/MhJJ-KypkBk
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Re: Arturia Beatstep _ Hardware Step Sequencer for €99

Post by oddmyth »

Hades wrote: ok, I'm gonna put my neck out and say Kraftwerk is highly overrated. (really don't like that song)
Sad.

You should go see a show, they are constantly reinventing their older music. Can't wait for the new album myself. Back before I quit DJ'ing I think I played Aerodynamik in every set.

youtu.be/ZARYeCPjrrM
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