New Arturia Step Sequencer for Sub Phatty!?

[jrosenfeld2]

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, but it's so hard to find specifics on this kind of thing...

Could I feasibly use this as a MIDI arpeggiator for my sub phatty synced from Ableton?

For example, Ableton has the clock going at a specified tempo. Syncs to the beatstep, a simple 16 step pattern. Then, I play a note on the sub, and it would arpeggiator the note in time with the click? Effectively "playing" a live arpeggio in time? And then could just focus on playing the different notes on the sub?

I can do this currently with soft synths and Live's built in midi arp device, but never tried it while using a piece of analog hardware.

Thanks in advance!

[Mantrak]

You can find more about it here:

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/smf/in ... ic=82046.0

As far as I understand, it is not possible. To me it is amazing how many essential functions are missing from BeatStep:

- No key transpose over midi or its own pads (classic sequencer style)
- No accent or slur (XOX sequencer style)
- Only one CV channel (no filter control, no amp control)

It is more a teaser than serious gadget. I will be selling mine.

[wingo]

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, but it's so hard to find specifics on this kind of thing...

Could I feasibly use this as a MIDI arpeggiator for my sub phatty synced from Ableton?

For example, Ableton has the clock going at a specified tempo. Syncs to the beatstep, a simple 16 step pattern. Then, I play a note on the sub, and it would arpeggiator the note in time with the click? Effectively "playing" a live arpeggio in time? And then could just focus on playing the different notes on the sub?

I can do this currently with soft synths and Live's built in midi arp device, but never tried it while using a piece of analog hardware.

Thanks in advance!

Hey - I have a beatstep, and it CAN actually do exactly what you are describing, when connected via CV. There is an odd issue with it sometimes transposing it up several octaves initially, but it can be rectified by turning the instrument off/on while connected to the beatstep. But yes, it will be clocked by Ableton, and change pitch according to what note you play on the Phatty. I've done it myself. It won't do arpeggios while holding down a chord, like in the Ableton midi arp device, but it will play the 16 note sequence from the beatstep based on whatever one note you hold down.

It will NOT do this automatically when connected via midi, though. You can rig it so that it does, by connecting the Phatty to Ableton and then controlling a midi track to send the note data back to the Phatty, but it is a little frustrating and kind of a needless control loop situation.

I'm not sure what the above commenter is referring to, but there is a transpose function on the beatstep, albeit a little wonky. But I don't think that is relevant to your question.

[ozmooguser]

hi, n00b question - I want to connect my beatstep to my sub phatty using the CV/gate I/O, what cables exactly to i need to buy to make this work (as SP is 1/4 inch and beatstep is 1/8th)? Stereo? Mono? - thanks!

[Rufus the Dog]

Looking at Page 8 of the manual http://www.arturia.com/support/updates&manuals it looks like you need two mono 3.5mm (1/8th) to 1/4 jack to jack leads. One for Gate and one of CV.


R.

[seanrgarland]

Tonight I finally got around to configuring my BeatStep as a expansion controller for my Sub Phatty.

I loosely based it on the software editor layout.

This is what I have now:

KNOBS

Mode: Control
Option: Absolute

1. LFO Range Selection (#76, 0-86)
2. Waveform Modulation Destination (#72, 0-86)
3. Oscillator 2 Beat Frequency (#13, 0-127)
4. Filter Envelope Delay (#103, 0-127)
5. Filter Envelope Hold (#105, 0-127)
6. Velocity to Filter Envelope Amount (#110, 0-127)
7. Velocity to Filter Envelope Decay/Release (#86, 0-127)
8. Filter Envelope Keyboard Tracking Amount (#79, 0-127)
9. LFO Keyboard Tracking Amount (#78, 0-127)
10. External Input Level (#116, 0-127)
11. Filter Poles (#109, 0-96)
12. Amplifier Envelope Delay (#104, 0-127)
13. Amplifier Envelope Hold (#106, 0-127)
14. Velocity to Amplifier Envelope Amount (#92, 0-127)
15. Velocity to Amplifier Envelope Decay/Release (#87, 0-127)
16. Amplifier Envelope Keyboard Tracking Amount (#80, 0-127)

PADS

Mode: Switched control
Option: Toggle

All pads are configured to use 0 for their OFF value and 64 for their ON value.

1. LFO Gate Reset (#93)
2. LFO MIDI Sync (#102)
3. Oscillator Gate Reset (#81)
4. (unused)
5. Filter Fast Decay (#117)
6. Filter Envelope Reset (#82)
7. Filter Envelope Multi Trigger (#114)
8. Filter Envelope Repeat (#112)
9. Glide (#65)
10. Legato (#68)
11. (unused)
12. (unused)
13. Amplifier Fast Decay (#118)
14. Amplifier Envelope Reset (#83)
15. Amplifier Envelope Multi Trigger (#115)
16. Amplifier Envelope Repeat (#113)

What do you think? Is this a good setup for a Sub Phatty expansion MIDI controller? Anything you'd change about the layout or assignment of MIDI CCs? I especially enjoy having dedicated buttons for LFO Gate Reset and Filter and Amplifier EG Multi Trigger and Repeat so far.

If this setup turns out to work for me, I plan on making a proper template to print out and put over the knobs and pads. For now I have labeled them using some masking tape and a pen, but that probably won't last very long.

One downside to the BeatStep I encountered tonight: if you turn on some pads in control mode, then switch to sequencer mode and then back to control mode, all pad lights are off again. Of course the setting they control is not actually changed on the synthesizer, but the current state of the toggles is not shown on the BeatStep. I feel this is a bug in the BeatStep firmware and I'll report this to Arturia.

But all in all: I like the addition of a step sequencer and extra dedicated hardware knobs so far!

Did anyone here eventually make a paper template for the BeatStep + Sub Phatty shift functionality? If not, I guess I can scour the Web for a blank BeatStep template and make one.