A new sequencer

I haven't mentioned it on this blog yet: I bought a second-hand Beatstep Pro from Arturia.

Beatstep Pro

Beatstep Pro is a triple sequencer: two melody sequencers and a dedicated drum sequencer.
It has MIDI and USB inputs and outputs, but above all CV/gate/modulation and trigger outputs, which are useful for driving a modular synthesiser.
My now-ancient Korg SQ-1 pales in comparison. The Beatstep Pro can be used as the master sequencer in my setup.

This machine is cool, very playable and goes perfectly with a modular synth. Not much else to say about it.

Synth setup

Here's an illustration of a song in which the 4 tracks are controlled by the Beatstep Pro and generated (in part) by the synthesiser in a single take.

Jay F. · Beatstep Pro + Volca Sample + Rings

Drums and percussions : Korg Volca Sample (808 samples) MIDI-driven by the Beatstep Pro and two synth-generated percussions (Pony VCO+noise -> Multimode filter -> Percall). One of the sound is treated with Beads.
Bass : Doepfer VCO (PWM) -> Ripples 12db/oct How Pass Filter -> VCA (enveloppe from Rampage) -> Twin Drive
Melodies : Rings (polyphonic mode -> Left output in a reverb / Right output in a delay.  In polyphonic mode, when both Rings outputs are used, one trigger triggers one output, next trigger triggers the other one. Two melodies in one.
FX unit : Line 6 HX Stomp
DAW : Reaper with EQ and compressors added

OCP Update

After two years and barely much use, I decided to upgrade my Ornament and Crime module with one of the latest firmware.

Ornament and Crime being an open source platform means there are several alternative firmwares out there.

I reckon that the original firmware is a bit daunting : lots of applications with pages and pages of parameters.  Moreover, each application uses all the inputs and outputs. I do not need, for example, a 4-channel ADSR envelope generator.  One or two is enough. I wanted less comprehensive applications, using less resources and be able to mix some of them (i.e combine a Sequencer and an LFO generator)

Why would I need 4xADSR envelope generators with 20+ parameters ?

Update in progress

And that’s what firmware like Hemisphere promises. It is an "alternate firmware for the Ornament and Crime Eurorack module, featuring a dual-applet framework with dozens of different modular functions".  Each applet is simple with an handful of parameters. And two can be combined at any given time.

The latest incarnation of Hemisphere is djphazer’s Phazerville. In the classic open-source forking tradition, it is built on Benisphere, itself a fork from Hemisphere. It still contains a fair share of the original applications, so it makes quite a complete feature set.

My version of Ornament and Crime is based on a Teensy 3.2 micro controller platform.
So I downloaded a Teensy loader, turned my module around in order to access the ‘program’ button, followed the instructions on the Teensy loader webpages and that was it.
As far as I can tell, the installation of a new firmware does not affect calibration data, so I was good to go after the 30 seconds installation.

Now I have a new world of possibilities to explore 

Done