Arturia Keystep Pro (Chroma Edition)
37-Key MIDI keyboard & 4-channel Step Sequencer, up to 64 steps.
Price on Thomann.de: £407
I paid £325 (eBay)
I looked at the Sr-18 drum machine last month and I mentioned I was using it with the Arturia Keystep Pro (Chroma Edition), so it made sense for me to look at that this month.
I’ve had this for only a few months and I immediately loved it. I think I just “get” Arturia controllers (I also have a Beatstep and Beatstep Pro and I really covet the new Astrolab). The Beatstep was my first step sequencer and I really like the easy workflow of the Keystep Pro.
First of all, there are four step sequences that you can run concurrently, each with up to 64 steps and up to 16 patterns per sequence. To give you some context, that allows you to layer sounds on the SR-18 drum machine per step (maybe a couple of kicks, a sub sine synth and a low tom) to really customise your drum sound. Or you could line up a piccolo snare and a high tom, or two different hi-hats, whatever you want. Now, four sequencers doesn’t actually sound that much if you’re layering sounds, but each step is polyphonic with a total of 16 sounds possible. Paired with the SR-18, you run out of pads on the drum machine before you run out of notes on the Keystep Pro.
Having said that, there are so many things to like about this thing. When you want to quickly put together some sequences, almost everything you need is right there under your fingertips. There is only very minimal menu-diving to do. I really like the step length section which quickly allows you to set the length of your sequences to 16-32-48-64 steps (you can use any number in between by using the 16 step buttons).
You can either play live with quantization or sequence step-by step, I often find I use a combination of the two. Step sequencing is so easy, especially if you’re playing in 4/4 – the 16 step buttons are demarcated into four sets of four so it’s easy to see what you’re putting where. To create a sequence, hold down a button and play a note. (Off the top of my head I can’t remember if you need to have the “record” button engaged or not). The keyboard has blue LEDs above each key to show which note is playing at each stage of the sequence.
Setting the velocity and gate are the two most common tweaks I’ve used and that’s done using the endless encoders, each with really useful LEDs around them. Time shift allows you to push ahead of the beat or drift behind and is a fairly useful feature. I haven’t really used the pitch or randomness features at all.
While I’m mentioning features, it’s worth saying that track 1 on the Keystep Pro can toggle between a drum layout and a keyboard layout. In practice I’ve not used this feature at all, as the way I have set up my drum machine uses a keyboard layout (I mentioned this in the review of the Alesis SR-18). The other three tracks can toggle between keyboard and arpeggiator setting, which can be quite useful for simple arp patterns, but when I’m programming something fiddly, I prefer to use the step sequencer.
One feature that I have already used and envision coming in really handy is the metronome output. The Keystep Pro has a separate metronome socket which allows you to output a signal on a standard 6.3mm (1/4”) jack cable. That doesn’t sound incredibly important at first glance but it allows you to do something really useful: you can use it to synchronise different instruments on a multitrack recorder. I have recorded a couple of different instrument tracks that I wanted to be precisely synchronised , a drum and a series of synth sequences which needed to “line up” with the drum tracks (I’ve used this technique on a Zoom R20).
First thing I did was set up the drum machine on two stereo-linked tracks and ran an output from the metronome onto another. I let the metronome run for a minute or so (this was more than I needed) before starting the drum sequence running. Once I had recorded the drums, I set a marker on the R20 to show where the drums began. I set up one of the synths and started recording again. I started the synth sequence on the start of a 4-bar measure, but with the synth sequences muted, so only the metronome was playing. By tweaking the tempo on the Keystep Pro (increasing it if the current recording was behind or decreasing it if it was ahead), I got the metronomes to match up really closely. I’d given myself about a minute of uninterrupted metronome before the drums came in and I’d marked where they were coming in so I was ready to set my synth sequences to match the drum pattern. Cool, eh?
There are a load of other features which will appeal to different buyers, especially if you use 3.5mm Control Voltage (CV) channels, but I’ve not really used those at any point. What has been useful is the 3.5mm clock outputs which work seamlessly with the Beatstep Pro – that allows you to customise MIDI CC messages from the Beatstep Pro for whatever parameters you want to be able to tweak on your hardware (resonance, filter cutoff, effect sends & parameters, tuning, envelope parameters, that sort of thing). You’ll need an external MIDI hub / host to connect different hardware simultaneously, and I’ll write a bit about that in a future post.
I love what you can do with the Keystep Pro, especially so in a MIDI hardware setup. I’ve not really used it as part of a DAW / VST setup, so I’m not really experienced enough to write about that. I love its small footprint, the robust chassis (if you’re reading this, I’m British so that’s pronounced “Shassy” not “Chassiss”) and the features I’ve already mentioned. But… There’s always a but….
There are a few glitches in the model I have, I don’t know if that’s something universal or not. Firstly, some of the high-level settings don’t change from project-to-project, or even from session-to-session. So if you start a new project it will save the tempo, the sequences, MIDI channels, that sort of thing. But you’ll have to change the Metronome setting every time you switch it on if you want the metronome to only send to the line out ( there’s a little metronome speaker which is always on by default). I’ve also had difficulty calibrating key aftertouch for my ASM Hydrasynth desktop module, and I’ve not had the energy to dig into settings to fins out what’s not communicating. Aftertouch worked straight away on the Hydrasynth with something as simple as a CME X-Key, so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with the Keystep Pro.
I’m aware I’ve written quite a lengthy article here, so I’ll finish with a fairly simple summary. I’ve really enjoyed using the Keystep Pro, I enjoy playing with it, and it’s really versatile as part of my MIDI setup. I could probably write another article on using it as a controller / sequencer with the Roland MC-707. It has a few idiosyncrasies, but it mostly does what I want it to do, and they only really become an irritation if I’m trying to set something up when I’m tired.
Next time I’d like to write about the MIDI host/hub I use, and my experiences of learning what I need to get everything communicating together. It seems to be something music shops and reviews don’t always tell you.
Thanks for reading!
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