Something positive for a change

[OneLittleFonzie]

I have been a customer of Arturia since the beginning. I'v also collaborated with them (although it ended soon) to make controller apps.
What is up with people who buy their stuff and complain already after 3 days. 1 you don't know the product in 3 days and you can hardly judge the quality because you refuse to read the manual. If you don't like it just send it back and buy a similar product from an other company (good luck with that). Or sell it because you get pretty much the same money back.

I would like to hear who has used the KSP for a long time and really enjoy it. I do. I use it to control several synths and eurorack modules. It is synced to cubase. I don't use arp because i want to make music, not generate.
On the other hand I have a REV2, one of the best synths for that price at the moment. Also their people complain like it is a piece of shit. Well people; if you want to be Edgar Froese or Jean Michel Jarre; you need to work for it. and work around limitations; that is how you get happy accidents.

[erstlaub]

Quoting my post from another thread:

TLDR: Had one since launch and genuinely couldn't be happier with it.

The KSP is the main hub across all my gear. I'm running a midi out to my Hermod (so use track 1 as the main input to that and subsequently my massive eurorack setup), the clock out is plugged into Pam's New Workout and I use the KSP's other midi out over to my SH01a, JU06a, JP08, TB03 and Elektron Digitakt, Samples and Cycles. If I'm using it, I also send the reset out from KSP to MI Grid to restart that in sync.

When I hit transport on the KSP, everything else starts and stops (and resets) in solid time.

For what it cost, I honestly love it, it does everything I need it to do (and a bit more), has a decent amount of keys, I don't dislike the size/spacing of the keys (I'm not an expressive keys player but it totally does for my style/ability).

Sure, sometimes I'll run into the very occasional weird note that's in slightly the wrong place or forget to save but there's not that much in there for me to complain about.

The other night I needed to recalibrate an osc and checked the cv outs with a meter and got perfect, solid voltages that I'd expect to read at those intervals.

A few of the things I've seen criticism about seem to have pretty easy solutions to me - 'you can't record the arps': no but you can just program a sequence witht he notes you want in the order/length you want? - 'No global transpose' - just copy your pattern to a new pattern, transpose it and switch between patterns globally etc. 'Some scales include the wrong notes' - just don't play the notes you don't want right?

Compared to something like Soundmachines ((arches)) which I was stupid enough to kickstart to the value of something like €770 which now sits as a poor build quality, literally half finished  and abandoned 'product' that lives in a box getting dusty under a desk in my studio, the KSP is a total delight. Soundmachines actually gave up on any updates and abandoned their own hosted forums for a year and then just flat out deleted them which I suppose is one way to deal with a less than happy userbase. Class act (they changed their name and have spent the last year hyping up an electronic recorder instrument on kickstarter which I have every faith will also be a piece of utter tepid half supported garbage to the disappointment of their many, fooled backers).


PS: I don't use USB/computer stuff alongside my physical stuff so perhaps some of the gripes are to do with that complexity but it's always going to exist. FWIW, the same thing happened with the BSP where people that were trying to do EVERYTHING with it were hitting the limitations so I can't speak for that experience of the KSP.

PPS: Totally not affiliated or sponsored by Arturia in any way, just a totally regular customer.

PPPS: If Arturia want to start sending me stuff for free, I'll be more than happy to become a shill kthnx.

[AndreasSteiner]

I enjoy my KSP despite some obvious omissions that can be fixed in a firmware update. I have no stability problems.

[ccook]

As you'll see from my post count, I'm relatively new to this forum.
I got my KeyStep Pro a couple of months ago and I've been using it in many different ways.

There are a few things that I've had to workaround, but generally I can't a) believe how good/powerful it is, and, b) why people are complaining so much about it!>?

I have been trying to minimise my portable dawless setup for the last few weeks, as we're about to see an easing of lockdown restrictions I want to be able to get out playing live shows again.
As the KSP is just on the large side of what I'd want from a keyboard, I've tried to take other routes... but I come back to the KSP every time because I have nothing else like it that allows me to start making music and control the gear I need to... it's fantastic.

I know the v2 firmware update is going to make me value it even more.

The ONLY main issue I have with it is it's file management/arrangement... if there was a way to name Projects and Patterns (and even give each Track a name within each project) it would make things way easier for me to recall.
Program Change messages per pattern would be a dream come true too... being able to select a project and everything load up would be fantastic.

BUT, as it is, if I lost for some reason I'd have no doubt about replacing it immediately with another one.

[ddoyen]

There are a few things that I've had to workaround, but generally I can't a) believe how good/powerful it is, and, b) why people are complaining so much about it!>?

I think the fact that you've only had yours a few months probably speaks for why you aren't as frustrated as many others are. I do think that it has the potential to be a great piece of gear and look forward to the 2.0 update. However, I completely sympathize with the sentiment that this was, on initial release, half baked. Some of the bigger issues still have not been addressed like the weird arpeggiator behavior that is documented here. My biggest gripe with the initial release was the cv velo/mod outputs were useless for 4 months. That to me is the biggest indicator that things were rushed. It wasn't a feature that was later implemented. The hardware is on board and that is it's only function and it was not usable, nor was it ever made known to owners up front that it was not usable. I've never seen anything like that on a piece of gear before.

I will agree that some the comments here get way too personal and while I understand many of their frustrations, most times I laugh and roll my eyes because they aren't handled in the most mature way. I am willing to be patient with weird bugs. This is interfacing with countless amounts of gear and those things are bound to happen. But there are certain basic expectations we should all have as consumers, I would think and when those basic expectations aren't met, we need to let companies know about them.

Frustrations are also compounded by glowing youtube reviews that completely gloss over its flaws. This thing was loaded with bugs on initial release and you would never know it by the reviews. That is not an arturia issue specifically, but it is deceptive.

Anyway, I'm glad you are enjoying your keystep. I am mostly enjoying it but there are still some things that need to be addressed and I'm not inclined to sing its praises because I don't agree with how the company handled its release. I definitely won't buy any more Arturia stuff early.

[AndreasSteiner]

"glowing youtube reviews" - most of the product-related content on YouTube are not "reviews", but marketing efforts. Arturia does this, as most other companies - advertising new products through the new online marketing channels, influencers and similar. The problem is not really the "reviews", but your expectation. YouTube "reviews" are as glowing as TV commercials are/were.

[AdrianLazerMan]

The problem with those ads is that they are not marked as ads, they are marked as reviews wich should be unbiased and if I'm not mistaken some of those "reviewers" said themselves that they are unbiased, could be completely wrong though. I fully understand that sme of them are depending on the good will of those companies, but publishing their viedos in that way is not only morally wrong but at least here in germany completely illegal. I and I'm sure a lot of other people are trusting/ have trusted those reviewers and for me only with the KSP pro it became clear to me that it's only an ad. The fault definetely is on the reviewers not on the exxpecation of the viewers in my opinion. If I buy a product labeled "Banana" and there is a cucumber inside it's not my fault for epxecting a banana.

P.S.
Just saying "Manufacturer send me this for full transparancy" is not enough.

P.P.S
To not drift of to far from the original topic:
I'm really happy for everyone who is enjoying the KSP and after the last update it certainly got better and more enjoyable. I hda a lot of fun with it too when it worked, unfortunately it doens't work all the time.

[ddoyen]

"glowing youtube reviews" - most of the product-related content on YouTube are not "reviews", but marketing efforts. Arturia does this, as most other companies - advertising new products through the new online marketing channels, influencers and similar. The problem is not really the "reviews", but your expectation. YouTube "reviews" are as glowing as TV commercials are/were.

You are putting "reviews" in quotes but that is how they are presented, not commercials. I know that there are business relationships between the companies and reviewers in many instances but it is not uncommon to see some pros and cons highlighted. I watch YouTube reviews for music gear and stuff in other industries and there are plenty that give honest assesments along with their disclaimer that they were sent a review copy by the manufacturer. So while there is incentive for companies to send products to YouTubers for review as a way of marketing, it is not a given they will just be biased commercials. Many channels cultivate an audience that expects honesty and trusts their assesment of a given product. It also reflects well on the company when they send to reviewers like that because it demonstrates that they have faith their product is good enough to stand up to some honest scrutiny.

But at any rate, this is a tangent and not really related to my main point. I've said what I'm going to say about it.

[AndreasSteiner]

The problem with those ads is that they are not marked as ads,

Most influencers disclose their affiliations, that they are given euqipment for review, whether they can keep it / get it for discounted prices etc. YouTube "reviews" are a modern edition of tupperware parties - highly persoalized, personified marketing, "influencing" in modern words.

[AndreasSteiner]

I watch YouTube reviews for music gear and stuff in other industries

I also watch some from time to time. But I look at them as advertisments, product information. Not "independent reviews". They are useful and informative, if you approach them with the correct expectations. I do not blame them nor do I condemn the reviewers nor the companies making use of them. It's contemporary marketing practice, that's it.