Step skip feature not working

[adamj]

I recently got a KeyStep Pro and I'm working my way through the manual. So far things are working as documented/expected, except the step skip feature doesn't seem to work.

Using the feature seems straightforward enough. I made a 64-step pattern. I hold down a step and press the 16, 32, 48, and/or 64 buttons. According to the documentation, this should skip the step on the pages I pressed. I can see the 16/32/48/64 buttons toggling their lights on and off, but the steps are not being skipped.

Strangely, when I first try to skip a step, it skips the step usually once on the current(?) pattern, but it's not the correct pattern where it should have skipped. A loop or two later, that step will start to play again and then no steps are being skipped.

I tried powering the KeyStep Pro off and back on, but the behavior remains the same. I am on firmware 2.0.1 build 989, which should be the latest. I just upgraded the firmware 2 days ago.

Any ideas? Is this feature working normally for anyone else on this firmware?

[adamj]

I just discovered if I have a 16-step sequence, the step skip feature almost works the way I expected, but it's as if I had made a 64-step sequence where every page is the same and it skips on the intended pages.

If I try this with a 64-step sequence, I'm not sure what it's doing. It's like it's copying the 64-steps four times into a 256-step sequence and skipping within the 64-step groupings instead of on the 16-step pages. I'm re-reading the manual and it doesn't sound like it's supposed to do anything like that:

Suppose you have created a sequence with three copies of the first 16 steps, so all 64 steps have content. If you do not
want the 5th step to play in pages 2 and 4, hold down the step 5 button and press 32 and 64.

So that would mean steps 5, 21, 37, and 53 were activated, but the step skip feature would skip steps 21 and 53, right? My KeyStep is definitely not doing that...

If I'm right about the pseudo-256-step sequence behavior, this might actually be a cool feature. But it's not intuitive, and the manual needs to explain this better. I still think it's a bug though.

[joegrant413]

I recently got a KeyStep Pro and I'm working my way through the manual. So far things are working as documented/expected, except the step skip feature doesn't seem to work.

Using the feature seems straightforward enough. I made a 64-step pattern. I hold down a step and press the 16, 32, 48, and/or 64 buttons. According to the documentation, this should skip the step on the pages I pressed. I can see the 16/32/48/64 buttons toggling their lights on and off, but the steps are not being skipped.

Strangely, when I first try to skip a step, it skips the step usually once on the current(?) pattern, but it's not the correct pattern where it should have skipped. A loop or two later, that step will start to play again and then no steps are being skipped.

Sounds like exactly what I am seeing too. Glad to see I’m not the only one and look forward to a response,thanks.

[adamj]

I tried emailing Arturia support but got a fairly generic response about doing a factory reset and re-loading the latest firmware. I was skeptical but tried just for the heck of it, and it didn't change the behavior. I am glad to hear someone else is seeing the same thing.

After spending more time with it, here’s what I think is going on:

When you use the “step skip” feature, it loops your current pattern four times, no matter how long it is. Each “page” button (the “16”, “32”, “48”, and “64”) controls whether the step is skipped in one of the loops: if “16” is off, it’s skipped in the first loop. If “32” is turned off, it skips in the second loop. And so on.

If the pattern is 16 steps, it acts like a 64-step sequence where each page is the same, and it more or less behaves the way it’s described in the documentation because the second loop/page is controlled by the "32" button, the third loop/page is "48", and the fourth is "64".

If the pattern is 64 steps, it gets a bit confusing. If you are on page 1 and always want a step to be skipped on that page, then hold down the step button and turn off all four page buttons (“16”, “32”, “48”, and “64”). Then that step will never pay on that page. Otherwise you are just skipping it for one of the four loops of the entire 64-step pattern, which allows you to create 256-step patterns. So let’s say you hold down step 1 and only turn off the “64” button. Then step 1 will play three times in a row the first three loops of the pattern, skip on the fourth repetition of the pattern (on step 193), and then start the 256-step sequence over on the fifth repetition.

It’s hard to describe in writing, but hopefully that makes sense.

I can come to terms with this behavior if I practice with it more. My concern is whether Arturia actually intends for this to be the behavior, since it’s not clearly documented. It's fairly unintuitive IMO, and I could see them deciding to change it in a future firmware update if it's deemed a bug (which I thought it was at first). In any case, I’m just going to roll with it and try to learn how to use it to my advantage. It should make for some interesting drum patterns.

[beautifulgrease]

When I try to skip a step for the first time, it normally skips the step once on the current(?) pattern, but it's not the exact pattern where it should have skipped. After a loop or two, that step will begin to play again, and no more steps will be skipped.

I tried turning the KeyStep Pro off and on again, but the problem persists. I'm on firmware 2.0.1 build 989, which is supposed to be the most recent. Two days ago, I upgraded the firmwareoctordle

[joegrant413]

Hmmm.... one thing that does work is to record the Arp in a Pattern that you can use with your Chain. But it looks like to play that Arp back you need to switch the track to Seq. 

Odd.

[Septcercles]

I tried emailing Arturia support but got a fairly generic response about doing a factory reset and re-loading the latest firmware. I was skeptical but tried just for the heck of it, and it didn't change the behavior. I am glad to hear someone else is seeing the same thing.

After spending more time with it, here’s what I think is going on:

When you use the “step skip” feature, it loops your current pattern four times, no matter how long it is. Each “page” button (the “16”, “32”, “48”, and “64”) controls whether the step is skipped in one of the loops: if “16” is off, it’s skipped in the first loop. If “32” is turned off, it skips in the second loop. And so on.

If the pattern is 16 steps, it acts like a 64-step sequence where each page is the same, and it more or less behaves the way it’s described in the documentation because the second loop/page is controlled by the "32" button, the third loop/page is "48", and the fourth is "64".

If the pattern is 64 steps, it gets a bit confusing. If you are on page 1 and always want a step to be skipped on that page, then hold down the step button and turn off all four page buttons (“16”, “32”, “48”, and “64”). Then that step will never pay on that page. Otherwise you are just skipping it for one of the four loops of the entire 64-step pattern, which allows you to create 256-step patterns. So let’s say you hold down step 1 and only turn off the “64” button. Then step 1 will play three times in a row the first three loops of the pattern, skip on the fourth repetition of the pattern (on step 193), and then start the 256-step sequence over on the fifth repetition.

It’s hard to describe in writing, but hopefully that makes sense.

I can come to terms with this behavior if I practice with it more. My concern is whether Arturia actually intends for this to be the behavior, since it’s not clearly documented. It's fairly unintuitive IMO, and I could see them deciding to change it in a future firmware update if it's deemed a bug (which I thought it was at first). In any case, I’m just going to roll with it and try to learn how to use it to my advantage. It should make for some interesting drum patterns.

Totally same behaviour here unfortunately.  it's interesting, but would have like it better to act like in explained in the manual !