Keystep and BeatStepPro

[faster]

Hi....anybody owns and uses the 2?

Can someone tell me if the two can be used together? I own BSP but need a new controller with keyboards.

Can I for example record arp or sequences in KS and send them to BSP?

Or have the two synced together with the 1/8" trs cable having BSP as master? Each doing its thing?

Thanks in advance

[antmen]

Hello,

I own both and using them synced.
I first tried with clock/sync but when I hook up the both units to a midi thru box, I got double speed (actually this is what the arturia recommends, I do not know if they consider using with a midi thru)
The cause was; even the keystep is slave it continues to send clock signals via midi out. So when it combines with bsp midi out signal, the bpm doubles.
So from gearslutz forums I got an advise like using Keysteps' midi thru feature, which solved my problem.

So the setup is BSP pro ->midi out->midi in to Keystep
Keystep ->midi out -> midi in to midi thru box->midi out ->midi in to various synths and samplers.

Hope that helps

[faster]

Hi Antmen, thanks for reply.

What I had in mind was to go actually "backwards", meaning: MIDI out from KS >>to BSP MIDI in.
MIDI out from BSP to my ZOOM u-24 MIDI in. (To record sequences to BSP)...and send them to iPad...

For sync, I want to use the 1/8" TRS cable clock out from BSP to KS in, so it is slaved to BSP.
I read that stereo trs cable also enable transport.

[derb]

You'd be far better off with the Beatstep Pro first, as the tempo on the Keystep has no display to show you exactly what it is. I have both devices, I use the Beatstep pro as the first part of the chain, then it feeds through the Keystep [with MIDI thru enabled] into my MIDI splitter. Never had any issues with this setup.

[faster]

You'd be far better off with the Beatstep Pro first, as the tempo on the Keystep has no display to show you exactly what it is. I have both devices, I use the Beatstep pro as the first part of the chain, then it feeds through the Keystep [with MIDI thru enabled] into my MIDI splitter. Never had any issues with this setup.

Thanks
That's what I had in mind, in both previous post I wanted to use BSP as a master and slave KS to it.
...And also to be able to record sequences and arpeggios into BSP.
But that's a matter of switching MIDI cables...

[AndrewBloom]

Hi,
I just bought both yesterday. My setup is connecting BSP and KS to the computer with ableton live. Clock goes from ableton live to both devices. Using ableton, I route the midi out from the KS to the midi in of the BSP. This is pretty much equivalent to what you want to achieve. To complete the description, midi out from the BSP goes into ableton and pilots the ableton drum rack (on midi channel 10) and volca bass (on midi channel 2) and waldorf rocket (on midi channel 1). Output of the hw synths goes into my 16 channel audio card, and through ableton those audio signals are routed to the output of the sound card.
My idea was to play the bass and lead lines with the key of the KS instead of the pads of the BSP.
Let me tell you that is quite fiddly, due to the fact that the BSP sequencers are mono. You have to press the MUTE button on the BSP to hear the sound while you're playing (for example the drum part).
The KS sends out the arpeggiator notes on the midi out, so those are fed to the BSP. It's more the problem that the sequencer on the BSP has a resolution, and let's say if you play the arpeggiator with 1/32th and the sequencer on the BSP is set to 1/16th, i don't think it will store 2 notes for each step.
Today i didn't do enough tries to answer you properly, cause i used the hw synths and one has an arpeggiator too, so big mess.
Overall, after i discovered the MUTE button thing on the BSP, for me it worked with simple basslines (1 bar notes) and with the arpeggiator (?!) (in the sense that out of the mess coming out from hw synth you could hear some kind of repeated notes :DDDD ).
If you are still interested i can keep you posted.

[AndrewBloom]

I did some tries and i wrote some results here http://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=89441.0
overall there are lots of weird behaviours but on the other hand while discovering them, i was thinking that they had some kind of peculiarities that were very musical. I mean, i had lots of fun with both of them and the potential is very high.