I asked Arturia about that and they sent a firmware update that had just been released that fixed the problem. When I tried to send MIDI back through KeyStep Pro to the Moog, I couldn’t get it to send MIDI from the DAW. One minor issue I had was that I was also recording MIDI into Live. And because I still had the USB MIDI connected to Ableton Live, I could sync up my new hardware synth sequences with my soft synth sequences super easily. Once again, it was super easy to play a chord-based sequence from the KeyStep Pro to the Deckard’s Dream with a bass line sequence on the Moog simultaneously on separate MIDI channels. And unlike most sequencers that can only play one note per step, KeyStep Pro can play up to 16 notes of polyphony per step, and also has a really cool unique chord mode where chords can be played and arpeggiated with one key!įor my next session with KeyStep Pro, I grabbed the rack from Panoramic Studio with my rack-mount Moog Voyager mono synth and Black Corporation’s Deckard’s Dream polysynth, then used standard 5 pin MIDI cables to connect them to the keyboard. Once you have a sequence or arpeggio playing, you can then manipulate it in a variety of ways like transposing, inverting, or reversing the sequence. The sequencer and arpeggiator are super fun, especially for more percussive sounds and bass parts. KeyStep Pro’s three-octave keyboard makes for a great MIDI controller, and I really like the touch strip pitch and modulation controls. The cool thing about KeyStep Pro is that you can do either. The live mode also produced some fun and somewhat unpredictable results, but in a studio setting it seems easier to just play directly into your DAW if you’re wanting to simply perform a keyboard part. In this instance, where I found KeyStep Pro the most useful and fun was in the keyboard-activated step mode and the arpeggiator mode. Recording was super easy, as the start button on KeyStep Pro started Live as well – and off you go! (I should mention here that although I was using KeyStep as the master clock, it can just as easily slave to external clock sources of nearly any kind). Once I set up Live to receive MIDI sync and added four MIDI tracks on channels 1-4, I then set up four different MIDI instruments in Ableton Live, and was quickly able to record a bunch of cool sync’d sequences into the DAW to then further manipulate with Live’s editing capabilities. My first session with KeyStep Pro was using it as a controller in Ableton Live, and it was amazingly easy to set it up via USB MIDI. KeyStep Pro would obviously be an amazing tool for live performance, but since Tape Op is a recording magazine, I’m going to focus more on the recording and compositional aspects of the device. Track one can act as a sequencer or a drum sequencer, while tracks two through four can act as a sequencer or an arpeggiator. Much of the overall architecture and functionality of BeatStep Pro is the same as KeyStep Pro, although there are a lot of useful new features in addition to the keyboard. Tracks can be a different length, so you can set up some really cool polyrhythmic sequences. Like BeatStep Pro, there are four separate and simultaneous sequencers, each referred to as a Track, available with up to 64 steps each. There are basically three ways to program a sequence with KeyStep Pro: Step mode with the keyboard, step mode with the encoder, and live mode with the keyboard. But with the addition of a three-octave 37-note slim key keyboard, it’s much easier to visualize and program sequences from a player’s perspective. With KeyStep Pro you can still program a sequence using a rotary controller, albeit with only one knob for pitch instead of 16 knobs with one for each step. There was no keyboard on that unit, instead 16 rotary encoders for setting the pitch with lots of options for manipulating the sequences. BeatStep Pro was essentially Arturia’s take on older voltage-controlled step sequencers on steroids, adding MIDI and up to four separate sequences of up to 64 steps, plus the ability to store and program songs around multiple sequences. Their new MIDI/CV sequencer/controller KeyStep Pro takes things up several levels. A few years ago I reviewed Arturia’s Beatstep Pro and was really impressed by the functionality of that unit.
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