At one point I had two KSPs because 4 tracks wasn’t enough and I hadn’t learned how to use the MPC Live 2 as the brain yet. Loved them minus the first note not recognizing. Pretty sure they fixed that. I bought the Novation 49SL MK2 thinking it’d be a step up, but was let down by the step count. I really wish Arturia would put out a KeyStep Pro + with full size keys and 8 tracks. It’d be brilliant!
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shit, build an 8 voice digitone into that mug and you got a deal. finally, midi arp!
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I keep telling myself that I’m going to set up little genre stations in the studio. One idea is to use a KSP with the TR6-S, S-1, JU-06A, and SE-02 for a darkwave setup as a way to fight the options overload.
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I sorta think a midi patchbay would be a good accessory to go with a keystep pro, it’s really inconvenient to try and decide where to put it when it would be best connected to everything and just be able to use it where you need it at the moment.
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Yeah, I ended up getting three patchbays. Haha! Now all my hardware is controlled by the MPC.
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I want one but as a keyboard player, the mini keys put me off… who makes the big brother version with comparable features?
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I saw the Black Keystep Pro on sale in store for clearance at Guitar Center- $279.
Maybe something new is coming out at NAMM?
Possible, but also possible they’re discontinuing black to push the Chroma, it seems like colorwise there’s a little bit of overlap. Or maybe it’s just on clearance? If something new comes out that would be interesting though!
Feel like they did some super sales on the white ones a few years back. Would love a Pro Step Pro with full-size keys.
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I picked up a Chroma a couple of days ago and I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to join the KeyStep Pro party. I’m over the moon with it; it does everything I want it to do (so far) and it’s really intuitive. I’m already making music with it in a way I wouldn’t necessarily have done with a purely Midi sequencer which is always a plus in my book.
Slightly different beast for a somewhat different task but I also got a NiftyKeys as a mule for the (somewhat stop/start) polysynth project I’ve been working on.
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I really lament having purchased the white one compared to this new color scheme, but at the time, there wasn’t much in the way of other options. It’s a great piece of kit until you hit some of the silly limitations. For such a powerful device though, it’s very intuitive. I’ll have to check out niftykeys, I’m not familiar with that one. Glad you’re digging it though!
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I bought my second white one right before the black one was announced. I was so bummed.
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not sure which face, but one of those is the appropriate sentiment.
perhaps both.
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Both is accurate.
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There are various cabinets ( like from 2 Many Synths ) or you can diy a cabinet to combine the KSP with Eurorack. The one from the company i mention has a connector panel on the Eurorack, so you are not constantly pluging and unplugging from the back of the KSP.
So these will give you something very similar to what you get with the Cre8audio NiftyKEYZ, except the KSP cabinets often are much larger with the Eurorack part. On the other hand the full sized keys is a plus for the NiftyKEYZ., plus it is usually less expensive, those cabinets can get pricey.
I really don’t like mini keys unless I really have no space otherwise.
What if Arturia did the Keystep Pro’s in 49/61 in full size?
8 tracks, bigger display, loads of controls, maybe even include a built in audio interface.
If they did it right I would see no reason why I wouldn’t buy it, but maybe someone can convince me why this wouldn’t be an amazing product?
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Yeah, the mini keys are the main reason why I don’t use my KSP live (and the pattern chain limitations). I ended up buying a Novation Remote SK61 Mk3 for live use, and will probably get a Hapax for sequencing duties (currently done in Ableton).
But the KSP is so fun and intuitive to use that it’s going to remain at the heart of my studio / songwriting workflow. Every time I thought I was done with it I ended up missing it.
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Slowly become frustrated with my Digitone Keys as a MIDI master controller for hard / soft synths with limitations like no MIDI Arp and it also weighs a ton 
With my purchase of the E25 Digitone I am thinking of swapping out the Keys version and grabbing a Keystep Pro. Also looks great for DAW jamming if can’t be bothered firing up hardware. The videos ive watched etc it looks fun and not too complex
Have a few questions if I may as a bit confused if things have changed with updates and the new Chroma version.
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Does the Keystep Pro come with a powersupply with switchable plugs for different regions or is it specific to country
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Do projects enable you to have diff MIDI channel setups or are you fixed across all projects
Eg - Project 1 - 4 different soft synths
Project 2 - 4 individual Monomachine tracks
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Is the second MIDI out simply a mirror of the first MIDI out. Anything useful or simply convenient for hooking up equipment with less MIDI splitters.
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Presume USB Midi and the two MIDI ports can be used simultaneously eg soft synth / hardware control at same time.
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can the Keystep be powered via USB of the Digi series
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White or black?
yes
out 2 can be switched to thru in the menu, otherwise isn’t all midi selection channel based so both outs should naturally pass the same data?
yes
probably not but I can’t confirm. tentative no.
I own white, I say don’t buy white unless you own a shitload of silver gear.
bonus:
I usually use with the same gear so I’m not positive on this, I seem to think it should but in practice I might have noticed that my stuff (drum notes etc) was set up the same already. So I think it might be a no. There are some nonsensical limitations to the KSP, a lot of good features, but a few dumb things so I don’t know, it has more pluses than minuses but it’s not the end all universal midi controller sequencer they advertise.
edit: ok per ccmp it works per project so I’m glad to know that, I’ll mess with it more now that I have confirmation.
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Per project. Works great too… I have customised drum maps on Track 1 depending on what I’m using (Syntakt, Rytm, DrumBrute Impact). And you can do the custom work in the desktop app for speed.
Black or Chroma. (I have white).
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