16 4 bar chains at 120 bpm is 2 mins. Should I return?

[Jburke381]

My key step pro ship last week and at first I was thrilled with it! Sequencing one drum machine and three synths has been great and very easy to use. However, today I dug into creating chains (One of the main reasons why I bought the key step pro, but I guess I should have read more technical details before purchasing). Needless to say I was surprised to find that only 16 patterns can be chained. Even with four bar patterns, at 120 BPM this is only a two minute long song. Quit frankly I'm not sure why the word "song" is used in the manual considering these limitations. Is there a workaround currently or perhaps any word on firmware updates which would increase chaining capacity in the future?

[jeffrij85]

You can create scenes, these are groups of repeating chains, based on the 16 patterns that you create for a particular Project. This means that you might have a 2 pattern chain as an intro (scene 1), a 4 pattern chain as the verse (scene 2), a 2 pattern chain from verse to chorus (scene 3), a 4 pattern chain as the chorus (scene 4), and a 4 pattern chain as a bridge (scene 5). This would build a traditional style song with repeated phrasing. This is how you could build a 5 minute song with only 16 patterns per project, you just have to use repeated phrasing.

Scene: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 3 - 5 - 5 - 3 - 4 - 4

Currently there is no way to chain scenes, you manually have to switch between them. The user community is actively asking for a scene-chain feature in the next frimware upgrade.

You are not able to record pitch bend, mod-wheel, or aftertouch - should you return it? This item has limitation, you'll have to decide that.