Arturia Beatstep

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AttenuationHz
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21 Jul 2016

Just got a BeatStep and I managed to get it working with the aid of Koshdukai's Blog . I am trying to figure the thing out is there any users that have a BeatStep that have any links they came across while trying to get familiar with it?

At the minute I am trying to get it to sync with Reasons midi clock but when reason is playing and I press Ext Sync on the controller it just stops. I have never messed around with external hardware that require sync settings so I probably just have something simple wrong. What sync settings are required to make the sequencer be in time with a reason project. From what I can tell the BeatStep is just an external version of a Matrix with half of the pattern storage and a few extra features! Is more than that. Probably should have got the Pro.

If I can get it to sync with reasons clock I can build drum patterns by recording each channel and recalling pattern 2 say that will trigger the next pad. The Midi control software that comes with it would probably be a quicker way to customize each trigger for kongs pads are there any tuts around that explain the midi control software or if there is any pre made presets I can import that would be better. I registered for the Arturia forums but I'm still waiting on the confirmation e-mail to be sent!

Edit: I had a look at the reason manual and found out that from option>Sync>send midi clock will use the BeatStep as a slave to reasons tempo. Iv'e tried offsetting the output value to be in time but its still off by a few ms doesn't seem to be sync'd at all! Do you use the beatstep as out or input or both?

Well now after an hour of trying to get it to sync properly I have come to the conclusion that the sequencer is out of time with itself and because of this is throwing the sync in reason off. Whatever way it works its loop buffer is way off. I set up a matrix to trigger a drum on a kong and programmed the BeatStep to trigger the same drum every 2nd hit and loop recorded the whole thing for about two minutes as I tried to offset the sync clock. I had to slow the tempo 1/4 of 125 to 31.250 to get an offset I couldn't because of the buffer being so off. I'm beginning to think the firmware (latest) is bugged. Here's a screenshot of the second hit that was loop recorded. Keep in mind that the trigger points have not moved and in theory if it was in sync with reason the recorded triggers should be at the same point in reasons sequencer. I don't now if its the default swing on the BeatStep that is making it out of time but its a 1 bar sequencer shouldn't it be in sync with itself? The screenshot is with 0ms offset and loop recorded over one bar!
Beat step hit 2+4 loop rec.PNG
Beat step hit 2+4 loop rec.PNG (48.47 KiB) Viewed 3978 times
This is the highest zoom factor and there is a difference of 86ms* between the recorded triggers. Its the second hit on the 13 step of the BeatStep. They should be all in the same place! *if it was 125bpm it would be a difference of 21.5ms


Any help appreciated!

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O1B
Posts: 2037
Joined: 26 Jan 2015

23 Jul 2016

Not near my Beatstep at the moment ( I should have taken it with), but I will be fiddling with it - and Keystep - on Wednesday. I've used it only for drum pads in Reason, and iOS apps, but it will see new life with R9 ReDrum.

I hope this gets solved for you before then.

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AttenuationHz
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Location: Back of the Rack-1

27 Jul 2016

Ah no worries would be of great help if you can try the same as what I did and will give me a bit of insight. If it is a bug I can post it to Arturia. I haven't messed with it since posting that kind of put me off using it. Reaper has got my attention at the minute anyway so no rush.
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

MitchClark89
Posts: 110
Joined: 15 Jul 2016

03 Aug 2016

http://www.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7494418
Re: Launchpad Pro thread!

Postby electrofux » 31 May 2016
The problem with Reason and external Sequencers is Midi Clock which you have to use to sync stuff. And also wou will have input latency which poses a problem if the external sequencers runs along an internal sequencer. And besides Reason has quite a few nifty Sequencers with a good Remote support on its own like Redrum, Thor, Euclid and Step Note Recorder. I am currently working on PSQ1684 which is crazy good though some remote items are not working but i am trying to make the dev look into it.
hi there @attenuationhz. i have the beatstep also and read your thread a few days ago but most of it was over my head lol. mine is just a glorified drum pad as i dont have the understanding of ext midi and reason to know what else it can do for me (hobby home-studio producer, no live performances). but anyway i was reading through some threads last night and came across this reply in a post about the beatstep by @electrofux where he mentions problems with ext midi seq latency.. this may not relate to your problem at all but i have pasted the link and these guys seem like they know their shit so maybe you could jump in that thread and ask them?

i would be interested to see if you get it working and maybe if you had time can explain to me the benefit of using the arturia as a drum sequencer as you mentioned in your first post? to me, i just think i would use the reason drum instruments kong and redrum etc which probably shows how ignorant i am lol

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AttenuationHz
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04 Aug 2016

MitchClark89 wrote:http://www.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=7494418
Re: Launchpad Pro thread!

Postby electrofux » 31 May 2016
The problem with Reason and external Sequencers is Midi Clock which you have to use to sync stuff. And also wou will have input latency which poses a problem if the external sequencers runs along an internal sequencer. And besides Reason has quite a few nifty Sequencers with a good Remote support on its own like Redrum, Thor, Euclid and Step Note Recorder. I am currently working on PSQ1684 which is crazy good though some remote items are not working but i am trying to make the dev look into it.
hi there @attenuationhz. i have the beatstep also and read your thread a few days ago but most of it was over my head lol. mine is just a glorified drum pad as i dont have the understanding of ext midi and reason to know what else it can do for me (hobby home-studio producer, no live performances). but anyway i was reading through some threads last night and came across this reply in a post about the beatstep by @electrofux where he mentions problems with ext midi seq latency.. this may not relate to your problem at all but i have pasted the link and these guys seem like they know their shit so maybe you could jump in that thread and ask them?

i would be interested to see if you get it working and maybe if you had time can explain to me the benefit of using the arturia as a drum sequencer as you mentioned in your first post? to me, i just think i would use the reason drum instruments kong and redrum etc which probably shows how ignorant i am lol
Thanks for the link to the thread.

I got the Beat Step mainly to have a step sequencer to hook up to external Hardware synths. The CV gate/note outputs connect to the ins on synths and modular like the way the CV gate/note connect to the back of the rack in reason. I was just using with Kong to get a latency offset so whatever was triggered by the BeatStep externally could be recorded in time with a kick drum or whatever in Reason. Basically the BeatStep can be connected to any software or hardware that can play notes. The sequencer part is the same as a matrix device in reason except its a physical item that you can manipulate.

I figured out how to sync it to reason but as I said it was off due to latency. I connected it to reason last night and could not get the BPM clock to send from reason despite what I did. Thing just seems to work when it wants to. I connected via midi to an external synth and sent the synths audio to reason. The BPM counter in reason should have been controlling the BeatStep BPM > BeatStep was controlling the Synth.

The BeatStep Pro would be much better for sequencing drums on Kong or ReDrum as it has multiple channels for the sequencer itself kind of like the way ReDrum has a step sequencer for each channel/drum sample. It would be fine using it as a pad controller the only bother you would have is latency when you hit the pad on the BeatStep it would trigger the pad in reason a few ms later. The BeatStep Pro is version 2 of the BeatStep

I Hooked it up to pro tools using the same method from the previous post and the latency seemed to be different for the sequencer and the pads. Meaning the latency being sent to the controller via clock from pro tools had to have -52ms offset to record on the grid in pro tools. But switching to the trigger pads would cause the latency to be off by a very noticeable amount. Head scratchingly fun! It would be harder to find a latency for the pads if there is one.
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

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AttenuationHz
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23 Jun 2017

Bumping this because the BeatStep is getting no use because of the latency issue.
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

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ejanuska
Posts: 680
Joined: 27 May 2016
Location: USA

05 Jul 2017

I have a Beatstep Pro.
I remember having latency issues and sync issues.
To correct the sync, set your BSP selected in the Sync tab output section in Preferences., Make sure to us the menu to select Options > Sync > Send Midi Clock. Now you won't use the BSP Play button anymore, Reason will control the BSP transport functions.

I'm guessing your BSP is controlling some synths and a Kong or something similar Reason. Adjust the Output Offset in the output section of the Sync tab. I played a drum sound on a device not connected to the BSP, and a different sound triggered by the BSP at the same time. Have the sounds hit once a measure, might help to slow down the tempo if you haven't already.

I'll check out my setup later on and see if there is anything else. Once I got past the setup it works pretty good.

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AttenuationHz
Posts: 2048
Joined: 20 Mar 2015
Location: Back of the Rack-1

05 Jul 2017

ejanuska wrote:
05 Jul 2017
I have a Beatstep Pro.
I remember having latency issues and sync issues.
To correct the sync, set your BSP selected in the Sync tab output section in Preferences., Make sure to us the menu to select Options > Sync > Send Midi Clock. Now you won't use the BSP Play button anymore, Reason will control the BSP transport functions.

I'm guessing your BSP is controlling some synths and a Kong or something similar Reason. Adjust the Output Offset in the output section of the Sync tab. I played a drum sound on a device not connected to the BSP, and a different sound triggered by the BSP at the same time. Have the sounds hit once a measure, might help to slow down the tempo if you haven't already.

I'll check out my setup later on and see if there is anything else. Once I got past the setup it works pretty good.
Thanks. I got a map from another user which is working very nicely little more control on a Kong with the mapping. It is a BeatStep 1 but they are similar except for multiple sequences. I Tried setting the output offset when I started the thread to be triggering spot on it was unachievable I found. The closest I could get was within 10 ticks or so of the measure. I figured also the BeatSteps default swing setting is set to 50% with no way to use no swing so that's the reason for the offbeat loop recording above.
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

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ejanuska
Posts: 680
Joined: 27 May 2016
Location: USA

05 Jul 2017

AttenuationHz wrote:
05 Jul 2017
ejanuska wrote:
05 Jul 2017
I have a Beatstep Pro.
I remember having latency issues and sync issues.
To correct the sync, set your BSP selected in the Sync tab output section in Preferences., Make sure to us the menu to select Options > Sync > Send Midi Clock. Now you won't use the BSP Play button anymore, Reason will control the BSP transport functions.

I'm guessing your BSP is controlling some synths and a Kong or something similar Reason. Adjust the Output Offset in the output section of the Sync tab. I played a drum sound on a device not connected to the BSP, and a different sound triggered by the BSP at the same time. Have the sounds hit once a measure, might help to slow down the tempo if you haven't already.

I'll check out my setup later on and see if there is anything else. Once I got past the setup it works pretty good.
Thanks. I got a map from another user which is working very nicely little more control on a Kong with the mapping. It is a BeatStep 1 but they are similar except for multiple sequences. I Tried setting the output offset when I started the thread to be triggering spot on it was unachievable I found. The closest I could get was within 10 ticks or so of the measure. I figured also the BeatSteps default swing setting is set to 50% with no way to use no swing so that's the reason for the offbeat loop recording above.
I think 50% on the swing in the BSP is no swing. Check the manual.

What do you mean when you say 10 "ticks"?

I had a hard time today syncing with Reason as the master. Couldn't get it to sync with a redrum playing a snare on step 1 and the BSP playing a kick on step 1. Adjusting the output offset would get close but then go off again.

When I used the BSP as the master clock I was able to adjust the input offset right away so the hits happened at the same time.

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AttenuationHz
Posts: 2048
Joined: 20 Mar 2015
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06 Jul 2017

ejanuska wrote:
05 Jul 2017
AttenuationHz wrote:
05 Jul 2017


Thanks. I got a map from another user which is working very nicely little more control on a Kong with the mapping. It is a BeatStep 1 but they are similar except for multiple sequences. I Tried setting the output offset when I started the thread to be triggering spot on it was unachievable I found. The closest I could get was within 10 ticks or so of the measure. I figured also the BeatSteps default swing setting is set to 50% with no way to use no swing so that's the reason for the offbeat loop recording above.
I think 50% on the swing in the BSP is no swing. Check the manual.

What do you mean when you say 10 "ticks"?

I had a hard time today syncing with Reason as the master. Couldn't get it to sync with a redrum playing a snare on step 1 and the BSP playing a kick on step 1. Adjusting the output offset would get close but then go off again.

When I used the BSP as the master clock I was able to adjust the input offset right away so the hits happened at the same time.
Tick2.gif
Tick2.gif (47.07 KiB) Viewed 3508 times
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

User avatar
ejanuska
Posts: 680
Joined: 27 May 2016
Location: USA

06 Jul 2017

AttenuationHz wrote:
06 Jul 2017


Tick2.gif
Did you get it sorted out?

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AttenuationHz
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Location: Back of the Rack-1

06 Jul 2017

No it still off. The Sync offset in Reason is not good enough I believe!
It is not too much of an ask for people or things to be the best version of itself!

junkofett
Posts: 1
Joined: 25 Aug 2020

25 Aug 2020

Soo... it´s been like 4 years since the initial post and here I am now, with this BSP issue, using Reason 10... and seems to be still the same... OR DOES IT? Did you´ve been able to handle this weird sync problem? I was thinking that MAYBE it´s the usb audio interface? I´m using an M-Audio Fast Track Pro, which is pretty old... Maybe throwing some dollars there?

didlow
Posts: 6
Joined: 13 Jan 2023

13 Jan 2023

Hi all,

I have a the same big problem with my Beatstep at the sync / Tempo in Reason / Ableton.
First of all, I have tried with all the firmwire of the Beatstep (1.0.1.0 / 1.0.1.4 /1.1.0.0 / 1.2.0.3.0
I tried all the options in Reason.
In ableton it's the same.
I also tried to find the problem with Midiview.

My problem is that the sequencer is always a bit late.
On a 1/4 loop, the first step will always be a bit off and the more I loop the more it gets off (a bit like Swing)
Option in MCC check, and try everything.
I tried on different USB port, different cables.
Even if I put the Beastep in Master mode, the problem is the same.
Do you think this is a hardware problem?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Here is a picture of the sequencer.
Beatstep_Reason_sync_Tempo_Problem.JPG
Beatstep_Reason_sync_Tempo_Problem.JPG (157.41 KiB) Viewed 493 times

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