Hi guys
BSP is my first hardware product from Arturia and I am not sure what to expect and how good the support is but I am not here to criticize Arturia team as I am sure that there was lot of hard work put into making BSP by some creative and innovative people however after having BSP for about 3 months now I am losing my patience and I have to be honest.
I very much welcomed the recent 1.3.0 firmware update, adjusting velocity, gate for all steps accordingly was definitely a must and most modern sequencers have this feature in one form or the other.
Pattern linking is a fine feature too.
I read on this forum about different, more or less complex feature requests but what would be most welcomed if Arturia finally made Beatstep Pro usable and solid – free of bugs for once!
In studio I am mainly using BSP with Logic Pro and external synths via USB and intended to use it as live performance tool however haven’t done much testing with Din MIDI but it should not make any difference, there is a MIDI flow on both.
In my humble opinion at the moment BSP is almost unusable in studio situation, unless you want to record audio to your DAW directly without any synchronization before suddenly BSP goes down (stops working).
In Live situation BSP is totally useless, it’s unpredictable behavior and bugs is simply unacceptable.
Here is a list of bugs I have encountered through some recent basic BSP use without any extensive testing, like changing chained patterns etc.:
• goes dead - stops working suddenly, have to be turned off and back on again to re-instate
• synchronization with DAW - this is all over the place both sending MMC from BSP and as a slave (Logic X in my case but I’ve read about same or worst sync problems with other DAWs)
• the clock jumps when changing between the projects and when saving project whilst BSP is running - there is noticeable jump, for live situation this is no good at all
• random and occasional hang notes whilst trying to operate BSP
• when changing LAST STEP it creates random note which is not displayed on step/pattern pads
• sometimes when switching to Control Mode main pads are lit and either do nothing or trigger sequencer’s notes instead of being locked to Drum sequencer - that’s very random
• when switching between the Projects with Transpose Link button turned on - all the notes are transposed all the way up in the pitch
• when saving the Project newly created patterns sometimes are saved automatically sometimes are not - BSP manual is not clear on that one but I think it states that patterns should be saved
• when transposing from external Keyboard with Transpose Link on, all notes are being transposed to the same key on both sequencers e.g. I have A# C# D on sequencer 1 and the same notes but two octaves lower on Sequencer 2, when trying to transpose from external keyboard controller all notes on both sequencers go to A# two octaves lower - that happened to me once this week on one project, when I copied project to another empty location same behavior occurs but when I try to recreate it manually with same note pitches, gates, velocities etc. it’s fine, at least so far
I am sure I have experienced some other BSP’s misbehavior or bugs but I can’t just remember them all now once repeated I will add to this post.
There is also a few simple, illogical and annoying drawbacks which perhaps could also be addressed with Firmware update:
• the new 1.3.0 feature of SHIFT + Knob 2 (Absolute value change) - the Knob value is fix set to 100 and lets say I changed all notes velocity values down to 40, when knob is released and I try to SHIFT turn it again all values jump all the way back to 100, which in Live situation is again unacceptable - this changed values should be remembered and in ideal world SHIFT + Knob 2 should pick up last value or the highest value in the pattern and then change all the notes accordingly
• Pad sensitivity is appalling - I wish the sensitivity was adjustable - compare to NI Maschine
• Sequence mutes are staying on when changing the Project - would be nice if Project remembers mutes
• Tempo is global - would be nice if Project remembered tempo
• Looper in Control mode - what is the point if you can’t record it to Drum Sequencer
• When pressing Sequencer button in order to change or save empty pattern or Project accordingly it would be nice if pads would illuminate previously saved Patterns/Projects
Foremost I wish to all the BSP users that Arturia would quickly fix all the important bugs because BSP is almost useless at the moment. Its behavior is totally chaotic and as random as the Randomizer which I find completely unmusical and pointless.
I really regret selling my Doepfer Dark Time in favor of Beatstep Pro. DT had less steps and features but it was rock solid and all in sync with other equipment and DAW and I am really considering going back or moving on to different step sequencer.
Apologies for this essay !
Recbutton
