Just as Pioneer has taken all the great features of the BeatStep Pro and improved on them with the Toraiz Squid (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-9g2KZRoo ), I suggest that Arturia take on the Squid and improve on it ASAP with a
BeatStep Pro MKII:
- Give it at least 64 tracks
- "Unquantized" live recording (at least 24 substeps per step?)
- Step nudge ("Shift") for all tracks
- Humanize/Randomize time +/- % instead of Swing (whole pattern, or manually select steps)
- Better Timewarp, and call it History, Flashback, or Recall
- Drop the Groove Bend to help keep the price down
- Find a fix for all the "cons" listed in the video linked above (MIDI learn!)
- Copy their panel UI: it's totally intuitive, so much better than the Roland TR-8S, for example. The DrumBrute was excellent, the BSP less so. No mini knobs or buttons. A slightly larger device would not be a disaster. A slanted top would be a big plus. Shift is the only modifier. Space between controls. Don't try to be too clever or cute.
- Bigger, OLED screen. Screen UI also designed by experienced pro with track record. Logic, hierarchy, and function first. An industrial designer is not an artist. Top line always there: SET- PATTERN - TRACK - PAGE (big, clear names and numbers)
- Copy the Squid pads, or the Akai MPD218 pads. Add brightness settings (separate Screen and LEDs). The damn BSP pads are blinding as soon as the room is a bit dark !
- Make the panel text bigger and more contrasted (see previous item)
- Don't forget Cut/Copy/Paste/Undo (=Undo EVERYTHING)!
- USB type B sockets
- Don't sweat it if USB power would not be sufficient. Look at the Cirklon.
- Complete, transparent, "filtrable" MIDI routing between USB MIDI and DIN IN/OUT/THRU.
- Cut the crap and make it completely SysEx configurable. Publish the full MIDI implementation chart.
- Try to make it the exact same price as the Squid, with a margin for lowering it if Pioneer gets nasty. if impossible, make it more expensive, maybe under 750 euros. If you do this fast, you'll have many, many customers because you have a better visibility and better track record of support and firmware updates than Toraiz.
That' ll teach them to invent a noun as dumb and ugly as "Toraiz".
chrr
