The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep

At the 2014 NAMM Show, Arturia BeatStep co-creator Glen Darcey talked with SourceDistributionTV about the inspiration behind the design, his first experiences with synthesizers and also how he’ll be using BeatStep in his own analogue-heavy synth studio.

BeatStep is also a 16-step analog sequencer for creating all kinds of musical phrases to be sent to analog synthesizers, MIDI drum machines, MIDI keyboard devices, or computer programs. Its connectivity options let you interface BeatStep with a computer or iPAD using USB, a drum module using MIDI or an analog synthesizer equipped with CV/GATE.

It’s priced at US $129 / EURO 99, and is expected to be available in March.

via Alex Theakston

52 thoughts on “The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep”

    1. Now THAT is truly a useless comment.

      Thank you for not even reading the title which CLEARLY says “The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep”, also the first line below the video says “Glen Darcey TALKED with SourceDistributionTV…”

      Are you aware how stories are not demos?

        1. Let me re-copy the first line below the video once again. And just to make sure its clear enough so a simple-minded folk such as you can understand, I will also highlight the important parts which explains what that video is about :

          “Glen Darcey TALKED with SourceDistributionTV ABOUT THE INSPIRATION behind the design, HIS FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH SYNTHESIZER”

          When you put the highlighted words together, it becomes “Glen Darcey talked about the inspiration and his first experience with synthesizer”.

          Simple, yet challenging for some.

          You’re welcome for the help.

          1. The title on my screen is The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep
            It’s standing ABOVE the video?
            There is not standing The story about man with the beard is talking about his experiences.
            With my first reaction on this video I meant that I’m totally not interested in his experiences and whatsoever.
            Also I wanted to let you guy’s now that nobody needs another sequencer midi controller.
            Everybody has a midi controller so why producing another one.
            Governments should forbid these company’s producing things that’s made before.
            And especially with cheap materials that gives everybody cancer like the materials arturia uses for the garbage that they made.
            There are enough vsti’s so don’t make 100 of them afterwards.
            The only good thing they ever produced is the steiner filter and the metalizer on the cheap crapy mini and microbrute and even that is somebody else’s work.
            Now go trow your 100$ in the toilet.

            1. “The title on my screen is The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep”

              Wow… really … I’m truly amazed… you really didn’t understand the title didn’t you? Looks like you need some more help : this video is about the STORY BEHIND the Beatstep by its designer, and not the STORY ABOUT the Beatstep. Its RIGHT THERE in the title ABOVE the video. In other words, a STORY BEHIND SOMETHING IS NOT A DEMO.

              BTW, can you point me to another 100$ CV Controller with step sequencer?

              1. still here on this side of the globe there is only a title The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep above the video. NOT The Story Behind Arturia BeatStep by its designer ?
                By the way SPARK sucks so this on will suck too.
                CV is for old people so they can suck even harder than arturia ‘s products.

                1. Available end 2015.
                  No,I will sequence my synths with my d*ck and (velocity sensitive) balls jumping to the keybed up and down from left to right for 0$.

                    1. You have a Mopho? Good for you boy!

                      I’m surprised because I thought the Mopho was just for old people because of its CV inputs.

                2. Ok then, lets try to keep it reeeealllly simple :

                  Who is behind the Arturia Beatstep?

                  If your answer is : “the designer”, you are correct!

                  “The designer” is behind the product he built, hence why its implied that a video which covers the story behind a product will also be about its designer.

                  This is elementary school stuff, but maybe I’m overestimating you?

                  1. So only the designer made it?
                    Where are the chinese people that worked 20 hours a day in the factory?
                    The fat guy eaten them all ?
                    And he’s not telling any story behind the product,he’s just talking about his own things and dodgin all the questions about the slave labor.

                    2. “Dave Smith is an old f*ck so he decide to put a sequencer in his synth.”

                      Its so sad that the sequencer on the Mopho is useless unless you connect it to a computer.

                    2. The synth has an internal clock that’s working just fine without problems and so the sequencer does too.
                      Together with the Clavia synths they are the reliable hardware synths on the market,arturia minibrute is a ….
                      Go read the forum of arturia,it’s a joke and they started a new forum a year ago so they could delete the negative reply’s on the arturia stuff from the past.
                      Also the spark???WTF is that?
                      Any serious drummachine lover will choose MPC or Maschine.
                      And now they bring this .
                      An overpriced sequencer midi controller?
                      They probably not sold enough of the spark that they decide to make something more useless from the leftovers.
                      You have enough choice of midi to cv converters that are cheaper or the same or a little higher price range and it will not look like a playmobil toy.

                    3. That’s nice and all, but really did you wrote all that because you thought I care?

                      The Mopho’s sequencer is useless unless its connected to a computer, the sequencer’s UI on the tiny panel is just dreadful.

                      Good luck with the crusades and the self-education.

                1. Again,the sequencer on the mopho is fine and works like a charm.
                  The screen is big enough and it works well.
                  You ‘re talking bullsh*t and you don’t know what you’re talking about.
                  My first comment on this video was =Thank you for talking useless sh*t and not demonstrating the product that’s sh*t anyway so in this case I can forgive you!
                  I didn’t say ,hey where is the demo?
                  My feeling was that they better demonstrating the product than doing a video about that guy or how they came up with the useless product and I wanted to let the world know that I’m not interested.
                  You make other things from my words.
                  Thanks to you I will come here every day and join this community.
                  and like in every community there will be *ssh*les.
                  And in this community I’m the *ssh*le.
                  Now you’re stuck with me.
                  Have fun downvoting,you will have to live with my comments and appreciate these comments.
                  And again this product is overpriced and for old f*cks.

                2. I think you need more education when your hobby is attacking people personally on a website and saying things that arent true like example the sequencer b*llsh*t from the mopho.
                  And there is notting wrong with crusades?
                  It’s a good thing to do and I wish we could do this like eastern people did in the past.

  4. Comments got off to a bad start for such a sweet little controller. I can’t say anything bad about it – cute as a button and an excellent companion to a QuNexus or even the MiniLab.

    (Now if Arturia suddenly announces it has done away with its eLicense dongle program in favor of a software license that works on more than one machine, I’ll really start waxing their praises.)

    1. According to the NAMM videos I’ve seen, the answer is yes. Of course, that kinda stinks and I’m hoping they come up with a clever “gate time” mode on the BeatStep itself.

    1. ‘Cause it’s a $100 step sequencer you can hook to your synths or even your modular synths, plus it’s a pretty cool MIDI controller, plus Arturia’s been hitting it for the last few years?

  7. This looks great-been wanting something like this for years. I really hope theres some way to sync this without connecting to a computer though… But not seeing a midi or gate in does not inspire me with confidence.

      1. Assuming you’re posting here you must have access to a computer though, right? Well why don’t you use it to look up the spec instead of whinging? It does have midi, via break out cable.

      2. Then this is not the product for you. There are endless midi based sequencers out there. Not using an extremely valuable and versatile tool such as a computer does not make you special. It does not make your music any better or more unique. It is a decision by you to purposely limit yourself to the myriad of tools available. You’ve chosen the path of most resistance. Man up and move on.

        1. Erm, Matos, I merely said I don’t use usb, and as you have no idea what I do use, I find your comments somewhat pointless.

          Brian, thanks for that, I only thought google was there to find porn 😉

            1. Not whinging, merely stating a fact Brian, it only has midi out, no midi in, you’ll find that information on the Arturia site, just as I did and hence my comment.

  12. really great tool…but seriously…it needs a 2nd CV out…maybe for controlling the filter cutoff or so…

    and how do you synchronize 2 of them without a computer?

    definitively, i’m gonna buy one…

  13. I respect and thank Arturia for delivering such a useful product.
    Some nondestructive development ideas would be:
    -a small lcd screen to see bpm (and I’m not sure if these thing can generate a clock signal and send bpm data to a hardware. if not, that would be great as well)
    -a bit out of context but a built in battery that can be charged and also powers up an iPad (i know it’s too much but asking is for free)
    -also i’m not sure if this thing can sequence a drum machine (individual sounds like kick , snare, open hh , closed hh etc).
    still, I’m buying one 🙂

  14. This falls into the insta-buy catagory. After watching the video I re-read the specifications and I was impressed! As both a midi controller alone there is value. Add the functionality of built in step sequencer — with CV — I am sold.

    Great value!

  15. Great product indeed and hope this can generate clock signal as well.
    and it has MIDI out,, I’ve been looking for mini MIDI (not USB) controller using with Octatrack to control volume. Hope I can use these encoders to do that.

  16. this is an incredible product. and you can tell because it really frustrates the negative shit-feeling nerds. while not the only cool thing about it, a wonderful side effect of its coolness.

    the stepped scaling of the rotary knob. amazing for our work in music. amongst other things, like built by the nicest white dude ever, and hes a synth og. im not white, i feel oppression and i think he is an amazing nice person who is on our side.

    also the price and future proof software upgradability is choice. i dont see any negativity with this product.

  17. this is an incredible product. and you can tell because it really frustrates the negative sh*t-feeling nerds. while not the only cool thing about it, a wonderful side effect of its coolness.

    the stepped scaling of the rotary knob. amazing for our work in music. amongst other things, like built by the nicest white dude ever, and hes a synth og. im not white, i feel oppression and i think he is an amazing nice person who is on our side.

    also the price and future proof software upgradability is choice. i dont see any negativity with this product.

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