Arturia is not quite finished with the Beatstep Pro’s development. In fact, the French concern has been consistently upgrading the unit’s firmware since it’s release. Version 2.0 brings several new features, which should please current owners and attract new users to the versatile hardware sequencer.
Drum Sequencer: New polyrhythm Mode
The new polyrhythm feature for the drum sequencer of the BeatStep Pro now allows you to define different sequence lengths for each of its sixteen tracks. A Nine-step high-hat fill aside a seven-step tom riff, an eleven-step snare march barking over a four-on-the-floor kick, all coming together on “The ONE.” Whether you want to create an elegant feeling of perpetual motion or the most radical drum anarchy, this is a whole horizon of creativity that opens in front of you.
Touch Strip: New Roller / Arpeggio Function
BeatStep Pro’s new Roller / Arpeggio feature claims to take your live performance to an even higher level. Holding the BeatStep Pro touch strip and pushing a pad will repeat the related sound at different resolutions. This feature is now available for each of the BeatStep Pro sequencers. On a drum sound, it will be helpful to create rich fills. On a synthesizer or any other melodic instrument, it will be a key to create very instinctively fast bass lines or rhythmic leads. It goes even further as pushing several pads while holding the touch strip will create an arpeggio based on the related sounds. And of course, you can use it along with the real-time recording to create and rewrite sequence with a never seen effectiveness.
Pattern Chaining: Saving Chains
Spontaneity works when it comes to experimenting and extracting composition ideas from scratch. However, when you are on stage, being able to ensure reliability is often preferable. With this idea in mind we deeply reworked the BeatStep Pro code so that you can save and recall specific configurations of your patterns and even pattern chains, or what Arturia is now calling “scenes.” Each of your 16 projects can contains up to 16 scenes, each allowing to chain up to 16 patterns for each of the 3 sequencers. Sounds like a confusing mess, but it actually works quite well.
Octave randomization
You like what a certain level of unpredictability can bring to your music but you prefer to keep the control over your creations? Then, you will probably love the octave randomization mode. If it is switched on, when using the Randomness feature, the pitches of your active steps will only be shifted up or down one or several octaves.
Additional Enhancements:
» Pad-based Step Programming
» Korg Volca compatibility
» The velocity CV outputs can now be rescaled to comply more effectively with the greatest number of devices & modules.
» When using the looper by holding the touchstrip, you can now move the starting point of the loop simply by pushing one of the step buttons.
» You can now clear individually the tracks of the Drum sequencer by holding [SHIFT] plus pushing the step button [2] and then pressing one of the pads.
» From now on, the Drum sequencer also allows you to tie steps which can be very effective when using some tracks to trigger sustained notes or samples.
» The Global Tempo Mode is another interesting feature from a performance perspective that allows you to keep the same tempo when switching from a project to another.
» Improved the stability and accuracy of the sequencer, reducing the jitter to an imperceptible level.
