Get more out of your Beatstep Pro with these modular patch tips!
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- čas přidán 1. 08. 2024
- Today we are going over a series of patch tips for the Arturia Beatstep Pro, in combination with a modular system. We’ll start with the basics, but ill quickly try to cover some more ground. There are patch tips to get more out of your velocity sequencer, programming drums, using gates as modulation sources, ways to create ratcheting triggers, and a lot more!
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Timetable:
Melodic sequencer
00:00 - Intro
00:50 - Basic patches
02:05 - Get creative with the velocity sequencer
03:26 - Programming drums with the velocity
04:35 - Using gates and velocity as polyrhythmic triggers
05:22 - Polyphonic sequencing
05:47 - Cross-voice modulation
Trigger sequencer
07:23 - Gates as modulation source
08:37 - Trigger modulation
09:30 - Modulation bursts
09:58 - Ratcheting triggers
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#eurorack #beatsteppro #patchtips - Hudba
This really helped me break outta preconceptions and simply think about the Beatstep simply as a voltage sequencer and forget about the labels. Thanks!
Hey, nice! That was exactly what I hoped for :) All the best!
your technical breakdowns combined with your creative ideas, & those graphics... man, this is SUPER helpful stuff!! thanks so much for these videos.
Glad to hear it! It's so nice to get these positive comments. I started getting more serious with this channel only this year, already decided I like to go on and looking forward to next year! Cheers :)
@@MonotrailTechTalk you definitely have a talent for it!
Easiest sub of my life my German friend
Thank you! :)
Great video mate don’t know why you don’t have way more subscribers !
Thank you! Well I just started this channel a month ago, and it's for a specific audience I guess. But I hope it will be picked up more, feel free to spread the word ;)
Excellent. Love the graphic walk throughs
Thank you, glad to hear it!
Seemingly endless possibilities. Always inspired from your videos. Thankyou.
Glad to hear it. Thanks for watching!
I've previously only used my BSP via midi, but 2 weeks ago, I started my first rack, so I',m looking into how to integrate it. This has given me a lot of food for thought. Thank you.
Glad to hear it, enjoy your journey!
This is great! I’ve just gotten a BSP and this has really opened my mind to new ways to patch with it. Thanks!
Glad to hear you get some value from it! All the best :)
Super inspiring ideas for the BeatStep Pro! Thank you!
Thanks for letting me know! Glad to hear you liked it :)
This is brilliant man! I’m about to dive into a full modular set up so your videos are proving to be a very valuable source of info. Thanks man, new sub for thee here 👍
Hey, that's great to hear! Glad you get some value out of these videos. Thanks for the sub, and enjoy the journey! :)
Great timing, I've just got mine! Thanks a lot for the upload!
Your're welcome :) And congrats, it's absolutely a great peace of gear!
Man, I'm so glad to discover your channel! You make everything clear! :)
Thnx from Kiev, Ukraine! Wish you all the best)
Thanks for letting me know, so glad to hear you like it! Cheers to you :)
Some great ideas in here! Thanks for sharing ❤️
Glad to hear it, thanks for watching! :)
excellent bunch of ideas!! thanks so much for your efforts here.
Glad you like them! Cheers :)
I made a few simple passive slew limiters. Just out of a couple potentiometers, two capacitors and two diodes. Wire them in line from the drum triggers. Adjusting those pots and the pattern and gate lengths from the beatstep, turns the triggers into envelopes or LFOs. Great for adding movement when there are any drum triggers not being used for something else.I also made a couple with a third potentiometer that I can mix the “dry” trigger in. Giving a percussive element while still having the slewed effect. Super cheap to make, takes up 0hp, and requires no power.
Hey, that's awesome! I made some slew limiters in the past, and hooked them up to simple manual buttons, that was fun already, but combining with the Drums gates is excellent. Might give that a try soon :) Thanks for sharing!
Very smart video, with some very helpful tips that I'm now looking forward to trying. I've had my Beatstep Pro for about a year and a half now, and it's been a total game changer. It seems to me like a very underrated sequencer within the modular synth community, which is surprising considering that-as you rightfully pointed out-there are so far no other sequencers that offer so many fantastic features for such a ridiculously low price.
Not sure how many people out there do this, but I tend to treat each BSP project like a "song": I program variations to (and movements within) a melodic motif and its corresponding backing rhythm(s) across each track within the project by copying and pasting the original motifs into separate tracks, and then playing around with each one. I then plan out when each event will happen within the song, sequencing each track accordingly. Of course, it's very easy to branch out into all directions at once with this method, hence raising the potential to end up with a complete (but sometimes glorious) mess. Having said that, I've never filled out all 16 tracks of one project with a single composition, though the potential to do that is certainly there and open. I wonder what Philip Glass would do with THAT idea...
Hey, glad to hear you liked it! I thinks its unbeat when it comes to price/power indeed. And I do similar things for life performances. I have one or two projects and then slowly progress through the variations and differetn parts, but still having the posibility to improvise with them.
Truly something else... amazing.
Thank you!
Good work, thank you Monotrail
Thanks for watching!
Whow! Danke für das tolle Video!
Freut mich zu hören, dass es dir gefällt!
Just the info I was looking for. Thanks!
Glad to hear it! Cheers :)
wieder klasse gemacht !!! hab wieder viel verstanden, danke fürs teilen 😄😄😄
Vielen Dank! Ich mache diese gerne, solange sie den Leuten gefallen :)
great breakdown!!!
Glad you liked it! :)
Great video thank you 🙏
Glad you enjoyed it
these vids are so good. ty
Thanks!
Thanks a lot man, you have opened my mind with this video!
Thanks for letting me know, all the best!
spelling it "baseline" gave me a chuckle.
Glad you got something out of it ;)
Good stuff. Appreciate the graphics.
Thank you!
eeeeexactly the information i was looking for. awesome!
Glad it was helpful! Cheers :)
Very useful! Thx a lot!
Hey, thanks for watching Jan!
thanks man! really nice usecases..
Thanks, glad to hear you liked it!
You have a amazing channel
Thank you!
Great help. Thx a lot.
You're welcome! Cheers :)
1000 likes, congrats from France - I was the 1,000th, so I did something productive today :-)
Haha, thank you! All the best :)
Yes! Realy helpfull!!
Nice, glad you liked it! :)
These videos are really good
Thanks! Glad to hear you like it :)
one of the smartest modular vids seen yet
Glad to hear you liked it!
Very fun.
I do not have a modular synth.
But... I shall try set this up in softube modular! I hope it's possible
Thanks! And I think you should be able to recreate most, if not all of these ideas :) Enjoy!
I'm going to have to watch this about ten times.
Good for my view count, but hope you get some good use out of it! Cheers :)
Maravilloso 🤟🏻🤟🏻
Thank you!
very cool!
Thank you!
Patreon: www.patreon.com/monotrail
Arturia Beatstep Pro on Perfect Circuit (US): link.perfectcircuit.com/t/v1/8-12626-267461-9759?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfectcircuit.com%2Farturia-beatstep-pro.html
Arturia Beatstep Pro on Thomann (EU): thmn.to/thoprod/357506?partner_id=32555
* These are affiliate links.
Yer awesome!
Thank you!!! :)
Nice
I just realized that the Beatstep Pro can output NRPN messages. I want to get one to sequence those to control my LXR-02. I started messing around with NRPN with a max/msp patch and it's cool. I know I'm late but the Beatstep seems like the best sequencer for modular and or midi hardware. I ve been looking for a sequencer that's versatile enough but without too many pads like the Hapax. The Pyramid looks cool but i'm not sure about the performance effects.
Have to admit I have no experience with that, but do agree the BSP is still the best bang for buck sequencer by far!
Bravo super vidéo .avec les dessins c est un bon moyen pour comprendre.😊👍👏
Merci! Was hoping the illustations would add to this kind of video! All the best :)
Im going to use the drum seq on the bsp to play future garage type beats. I was going to use the triggers to first go into an envelope. You mentioned the ability to make the drum triggers into gates and then you talked about the cv hard edges. If I am going to be triggering envelopes, will those hard edges make envelopes sound off in some way? Do I need to process the wider trigger gates if I want to have the envelopes behave and sound as they would if I used one of the bsp's melodic sequencers? Thanks
Nice video. It think its can be easy to control cv/gate with the midi cc knobs on the beatstep. I have the doepher midi to 8 cv converter for that. You can live tweaking the cv to the modular on the beatstep.
Ha, that sounds great indeed! Which Doepfer module do you use for that? :)
@@MonotrailTechTalk It's the old doepfer mcv8
Ahh awesome! That one has 8 gate AND 8 cv outputs no? That's really powerful, shame they don' make it. Think the new one only outputs 5 in total.
It was inspiring, thanks!
BTW beatstep pro drum sequencer can work in polyrhythm mode, to activate it press shift + step16 (in drum mode).
Thanks! And your totally right, since the firmware update that's the case! :)
as always,great content and pro tips for better understanding how modular works and what you can do with some clever patching,i think the entire series is excellent :) such a shame that the drum seq of the bs pro it's still unreliable,when slaved because it suffer from a hiccups every 15 minutes which is really frustrating imho,also worth to mention that those 12v gates and trigger outs are often too hot for some modules and so you need a bunch of attenuator to deal with it.Arturia knows this problems from more than 18 months,i demonstrate the issue with their dev team and they spotted it,but still no fix for it :(
Hi there, and thank you! Glad to hear you like the series :) Sorry to hear the issues. Are you syncing the BSP to midi? I never experienced the hiccups, but I know the clock syncing to midi is not as tight as you might hope. Also personaly never had problems with the gate not triggering a module?
@@MonotrailTechTalk thanks for the reply,your opinion is very important to me :) yeah i used to sync by midi actually but i tried really every tipe of sync method and the problem is still there sadly,maybe i have a defective unit but this is the third bs pro that i change and have the same problems on all 3 devices...anyway,i still hope they can fix this with a future firmware update,finger crossed! anyway thank you again for making this video,you are an inspiration and i really enjoy every bit of your music
Hmm, yeah I'm sorry to hear it. It's a wonderfully powerfull device for the price, but it has it's flaws. I'm usually using it as the master clock when performing live with the modular, then it works pretty fine. In the studio I'm very often using it as a midi to CV converter. So just setting differetn tracks in Ableton up to the midi channels corresponding with the 2 melodic, and even the drumm track, so you can use a piano roll to program the drum triggers. In that case the BSP isn't actually syncing to midi, just passing on midi data as CV. That works really good for exampkle when I'm making more tight techno things. But the downside is you can't use the BSP to progamm or change the patterns anymore :/
@@MonotrailTechTalk yes indeed! when used as a master clock device it is pretty reliable and that problem magically disappear and everything flaws nicely and tight.Thats a great idea to use it as a midi to cv converter for triggering external modules via the Ableton piano roll thru the drum sequencer,I never thought about it! yeah i can try this and i'm sure i would enjoy it,i have quite a lot of gear and i use ableton just for recording and as master clock via Roland sbx-1 which sync very nicely all my studio gear without a problem.So,for now i'm happy with the bs pro as a melodic sequencer and keep using my varigate and intellijel steppy for triggering drums :D Unfortunately every piece of gear have it's pro and cons,but working with some kind of limitation can be such a good thing to unlock creativity and great ideas!anyway,i'm really intrigued by the korg sq64 too,it could be a great substitute for the bs pro,isnt'it? :D
Wow nice video. I learned so much about the BeatStep Pro. I almost forgot that I own one of them since I don't use it anymore since I have a Push. But this sounds incredible flexibel and creative
Thanks for letting me know! And it's great gear to have, especially when you're starting with modular! It als works great as a Midi to CV converter, so you ca nsequence stuf from your DAW :)
Great video, as always! I have the Keystep Pro, but a lot of this is definitiely applicable there as well. Question about the ratcheting sequence: when you add an additional sequence to the fast hi hat sequence, don't they just trigger simultaneously. Ie, i f I add a couple of quarter notes to a 16th note pattern, they will fire off at the same time. How did you manage to get them to trigger separately on the same step?
Thank you! I'm not totally sure if I understand you right, but the trick is the mixer module. The normal triggers are always firing off the hi-hat, the faster triggers only every now end then. You are right if you mean that the first of the ratcheting triggers can "overlap" with the regular triggers, but since the two trigger signals are mixid in a mixer, the two simultanious triggers just end up being one. - that doesn't sound very clear, let me know if you meant something else ;)
@@MonotrailTechTalk, cheers. I tried it out just now on some percussion and it worked great. Here you can hear the result. Thanks for the tip, happy to be a patreon!
czcams.com/video/RytXhnd0WLQ/video.html
Thank you for this inspiring video (and the others.) Would it be also possible to use the BeatStepPro as a (deluxe) MIDI to CV converter? Information on how to do this I find scan and rather obscure... I find this possibility exciting for several reasons: 1) if you don't have anymore rack space to accommodate a dedicated module to do this and 2) to use only your DAW a sequencing brains; an option, I find, particularly convenient if you have already an Ableton + Push combo. Ableton offers amazing sequencing capabilities, and an all-in-one setup is hard to beat. Thanks for your time and any input you may provide! el domo
Hello, glad you like my efforts! And indeed the BSP works very well like a midi to CV converter, although with some restrictions, so make sure to check details that are important to you. How I very often use it: Create two melodic sequences in Ableton and use the BSP as a midi to cv converter for those. Velocity works as well this way. Drum triggers can be programmed in a piano roll sequencer as well. So C is the first trigger D the 3th and so on. This also works great to get a clock from a daw into the modular. Works tighter that midi sync.
But I did'nt research much. For example if you can do program changes to trigger, or if you can map the triggers to other things than piano roll!
Works brilliantly - thanks a lot. I'll figure out the ither trigger possibilities. El domo
I don't have any modular gear, but It doesn't matter, Subscribed! :)
Would love to know your opinion about the TC effects you are using (reverb, delay)
Haha, glad to hear it, thanks! I use the TC electronic M350 wich I use for my master reverb and really like! You can find them cheap on ebay. The skysurfer and the prophet are quite budget guitar pedals, The prophet is great for the price, simple clean digital delay, does what it needs, only thing I miss is tap tempo. I bought the reverb to try as reverb for life use, but the difference with the M350 is way to big, no stereo on the pedal of course, but also not long enough tails. However it works quite okay as a "subtle reverb you only notice when its gone" I do often use the combo of the two to run my drums through. The delay for effects, and a subtle reverb, to trashy room reverb. So the pedals are limited, but find their use!
@@MonotrailTechTalk No problem, great content (!) and thanks a lot for the detailed explanation about the pedals! It will come in handy
Thanks for these. It's great to have material that bridges the Beatstep Pro to modular. But I'm wondering about actually just clocking my modular from the Beatstep? I'm not having much luck getting any of my Makenoise modules -- Wogglebug, 0-Coast or 0-Ctrl - to understand the BSP Clock Out. But I'm also thinking there's something I don't get about the connection. Any help much appreciated. Thnx. again.
Hello! I generally use the 8th trigger output as a master clock for the modular. That is a lot more stable and excepted by modules in my experience. The only downside there is that you can not Mute the whole percussive section without stopping the clock :/
@@MonotrailTechTalk Thanks a lot! Not exactly plug 'n play. Maybe I'll look for a different approach.
@@MonotrailTechTalk When there is a disconnect between the numeric tempo display and what the Clock Out is generating first thing to do is check the setting in MCC about which tempo -- Project or Global -- is being put out. I hadn't used my BSP for quite a while and whatever settings there were related to some Project which was faster by 4 than the Global. Paradigm conflict: simple modular vs complexified computer system.
Hmmmm. Up until this point I’ve underutilized the BSP…I think I will start experimenting with voltages now.
Glad to hear you got some new spirit for mthe video, enjoy the experiments!
Can u help with Roland boutiques man because I have options for sequencing but they already have a selection of options. also I have sequence options on almost everything I own. So what am I gaining by owning the b s .. if u don’t want to answer. 😊anyone always I’m welcome to your opinion.. tho only 2 answers
If you wonder what you would gain from getting something, don't get it! :)
Do you have any other sequencers you would recommend which would also work just as well instead of Beatstep Pro? Could be both external or eurorack module.
Not if you take the price into consideration. I think the BSP really is in a league of it's own then. Midi and CV outputs for two melodic voices, as well as 8 trigger outputs is a great deal. You won't find a module that does that for that price.
My head asploded. But good video
Sorry! But thanks :)
do you know if i can get unquantized pitch out of the pitch out of melo sequencer or any other output ? i dont ussualy stick to scales
Hi there! And no you can't the pitch output is always quantized, but you can use chromatic scale, next to mayor an minor. However, you can always use the velocity output! That is not quantized to any scale :)
would you recommend the beat step pro over a build in sequencer/clock source to a beginner in modular?
Hello Stan! Of course I also want to be careful advising things when I dont have a lot of info, at the end its everyones personal choice what suits them best. But yes, very much so. Modular sequencers all have there own special powers, which might be crucial for someone, but the Beatstep Pro offers control over two monophonic voices with velocity sequences, as well as 8 drum trigger sequences, that's a lot of power, and will turn your modular into a perforable instrument with a single reasonable investement. Also for beginners, the BSP works as a MIDI to CV converter for all those sequences, so you can use a DAW like Ableton to control melodies and drum patterns, or play them with a midi controler. You can save and load sequences and what not. I still use it pretty much every day with my modular, in studio and life. Other gear can offer more specific features, but nothing beats the amount of stuff you get for this price.
@@MonotrailTechTalk thank you, I think this will be the better option since I will have a wider range of applications to use it for in the future.
Hi, I don't know if you can help me but I try!
I'm trying to send velocity to Neutron just to have some notes with different volume, I'm just there but there's a problem.
Pratically if I patch a cable from vel-out of bsp to vca cv in of Neutron I have velocity but ADSR is bypassed and I have all notes long like a decay and release set to max.
I give a look at Neutron routing but I did'nt realize how to do it
Sure! Have a close look at the graph I made at 1:16. To have both an ADSR curve and velocity, you need two VCAs. One, like its wired in the Neutron, where the ADSR controls the volume curve, and then another one after that, where you patch the velocity. If i'm right the Neutron doesn't have a second VCA, so thats not an option unfortuantely.
The easyest way to add velocity(-ish) dynamics to a patch, send the velocity to the filter. This way notes with more velocity open the filter a bit more, still creating some sort of percieved loudnes and dynamics.
@@MonotrailTechTalk Yeah, thanks!
I suspected it. Ok I'll have to add a vca to my system! thanks a lot. Tazio
Can the beatstep pro be the tempo master for a moog dfam? And is it then synced to my daw aswell?
I don't have a DFAM, so cant test, but should be yes on all. BSP has a clock out, should be able to drive the tempo on the DFAM. BSP can be synced to a DAW easily via USB. if the clock out of the BSP is to "soft", you can also programm a drum pattern, and use that to drive the DFAM. You can even use the BSP as a midi to cv converter. And program a pattern on your DAW, and send that to the DFAM via the BSP :)
Then you can use the melodic sequencers to modulate the DFAM. you can make longer sequences, safe and load sequences, and create entire performances :) Don't know why I don't see people do this more!
EDIT: I mean, this is what I would do! Still would like to pick up a DFAM.
@@MonotrailTechTalk thank you so much for your detailed answer :) Sounds great, i will give it a try !!
I'm noob here, can i put any midi files into Arturia Beatstep Pro ? Also if not, what modul i need for play Midi to CV ?
Two different things! You can not put 'midi files' into the BSP. But you can use it to convert midi to CV. For example, you can hook up a DAW with usb cable to the BSP, and then use the CV outputs from the BSP to control the modular.
@@MonotrailTechTalk THank you!!!
Short question for dummys?? How do you unmute only a single channel on the trigger sequencer? Every time I try this I unmute all muted channels 0.o
Sure! You have to press and hold the "drum" button, then press and hold the "mute" button next to it. When holding them both you can sellect individual tracks to mute/unmute.
Somehow, i can't find any information about sequencing a Track in Ableton, other gear over Midi and modular gear at the same time. Do you have any information about that?
Ich dachte vielleicht interessiert das auch Andere, deshalb auf english;)
Außerdem vielen Dank für deine extrem informativen und professionellen Videos! Deine professionelle Art hat mich sogar nach über 10 Jahren des "stummen" CZcams Schauens letztendlich zu meinem ersten Kommentar bewegt:)
(Translated to english: "Thanks")
Haha, thanks for the kind words!
But im afraid that if you mean to use the Beatstep Pro to send signals to Ableton etc, I don't know this. I never use it that way, ony to send midi from ableton to the modular.
It should be fairly easy though. You can send midi through USB to ableton if im right, use the midi out of the BSP to other midi capable gear, and just hook up the modular with patch cables. Altough you can still only create two melodic sequences at the same time, but it's nice to sequence multiple divices symultaniously.
Anyway, if you meant something else, let me know!
@@MonotrailTechTalk That's right what i meant, thanks for your answer! I'm looking forward to building my own Eurorack Synth and would like to connect it to my hybrid setup. Wonderful, then the Beatstep Pro will probably do the trick👍
Always make sure to check the manual to confirm functionality that is crucial to you! I can be wrong or missunderstand of course ;)
This modular stuff gets complicated, could you do a video of the Behringer system 100 from start to finish?
True! I have quite a lot of plans, but not with the Behringer system 100 atm :)
@@MonotrailTechTalk or go on it'll take not long 🙂
Hello Monotrail. I have Beatstep Pro. Do you know how to slave it and send it resets from my modular, please? It's the main thing I want to do and never know how to do it. Thank you!
I've been searching info and you can't reset it from outside I think... Must be done manually, if I'm not wrong
Hello there! I'm so sorry, seems like I missed this message completely. But indeed, you can't reset the BSP with a analog/modular clock/trigger signal. Only with midi, or manualy indeed.
@@MonotrailTechTalk Thank you!
Could you make a vid explaining audio vs cv more thoroughly? i get that they’re technically the same type of signal, but could you talk about the differences in use between cv (pitch, gate, trig) and audio signals?? this would be so helpful!!
Hello Nathan, thank you so much! I've asked some time for viewer suggestions, and this is exactly what im hoping for! It's been so "normal" to me I sometimes forget, but that is a great topic for a video. Ill put it high on my list and it will be a topic I'd love to cover early next year :) Thanks again, and all the best wishes!
Grest videos. May I offer a small suggestion? It might be helpful to talk a bit slower when you’re showing patching diagrams. Usually I’m looking at new modules and connections and it takes a while for my brain to figure out what’s happening. Thanks
Glad to hear it, thanks! And of course, all suggestions are welcome! This is a harder one for me though, different people say opposite things. Some like it slower, some more experienced users like more information in a compact video. I'm aiming somewhere in the middle for now, with a primary goal to put a lot of useful information in about 10 / 15 min videos. I hope it's optional to pause the video every now and then when im going to fast. Also I'm working on dowloadable .pdf files of all my patch illustartions for Patrons. That might also help out ;) All the best!
@@MonotrailTechTalk I was just thinking the same i.e. different strokes for different folks. It might have been an early morning before my coffee kicked in, but I felt that I would perfectly follow if you even talked faster when talking directly to the camera or showing your modular, but for the diagrams it's a bit too fast for me, and I've been in euro for many years, so definitely not new to patching ideas. But take it with a grain of salt - it's just one man's feedback :-) I'm sure for some people it'll be even too slow.
In any case, I've been really enjoying your videos. I might have binge watched them all this morning. Thank you for making them and looking forward to more!
Thanks for the kind words! It makes me so happy people value these. Also interesting to hear you know your way around the modular, it's good to get the feedback. At the end this is also pretty new for me and I'm sure many things can and will be improved over time with some tweeking. The right tempo for different sequences included :)
Nice