Skip to content

2. Advanced Usage

Han Zhao edited this page Mar 2, 2022 · 1 revision

Setup for Beatstep Pro

  1. Please download the beatstep pro config here. Save is as po.beatsteppro. You will need to import this to Arturia Midi Contoller software which can be downloaded here. Once imported, you can upload this config to the beatstep pro.

  2. Please download the default config.cfg file here. Please save the file as config.cfg You will need to copy this to the microSD card using the steps explained above. You don't need to modify the content

  3. The beatstep is configured as follows : You control the PO with the "Control" mode in beatstep on MIDI channel 1. The 16 pads on the beatsetp will trigger Button 1-16 on the PO. The step number pads above the main pads control various functions on the PO :

  • 1 : Sound
  • 2 : Pattern
  • 3 : BPM
  • 4 : SPECIAL(Chord,Rec...)
  • 5 : FX
  • 6 : Play
  • 7 : Write
  • 8 : Record Loop 1 (PO-33 only)
  • 9 : Record Loop 2 (PO-33 only)
  • 10 : Start/Stop Loop (PO-33 only)
  • 11 : Delete Loop (PO-33 only)

Internal Synth Engine (V1 only)

The V1 adapter includes it's own synth engine based on Teensy Polysynth. The sound is play back from the 3.5mm jack on-board. The V2 does not have this feature

The synth engine operates on its own MIDI channel synth_midi_channel. There are 16 parameters that can be controlled via midi CC.

  1. midi_cc_knob_1 : vco1 shape
  2. midi_cc_knob_2 : vco2 shape
  3. midi_cc_knob_3 : Detune vco2
  4. midi_cc_knob_4 : vco 2 octave
  5. midi_cc_knob_5 : LFO Freq
  6. midi_cc_knob_6 : LFO Mod
  7. midi_cc_knob_7 : Filter Freq
  8. midi_cc_knob_8 : Filter Res
  9. midi_cc_knob_9 : Attack
  10. midi_cc_knob_10 : Decay
  11. midi_cc_knob_11 : Sustain
  12. midi_cc_knob_12 : Released
  13. midi_cc_knob_13 : Delay time
  14. midi_cc_knob_14 : Delay feedback
  15. midi_cc_knob_15 : Mix vco1/vco2
  16. midi_cc_knob_16 : Volume

Volca FM Velocity Mod

By default the adapter will read velocity from midi notes and transpose them in to the correct MIDI cc signal and sent via MIDI-OUT. You can disable this feature by setting volca_fm_velocity to 0 either in po_midi_adapter.ino or in config.cfg

The Volca FM channels are set by volca_fm_midi_ch_1 and volca_fm_midi_ch_2. You can either set 1 or both channels

Using PO-33 as a looper/ one button record (V2 only)

Starting from firmware v2.3.0. The PO-MA can turn the PO-33 into a simple looper as well as providing one button record feature.

One Button record

Use a single midi note to simulate the 2 buttons press needed to record to a track. Press once to start the recording, press again to stop the recording. This works for all 16 tracks. The midi binding can be configured in config.cfg under

midi_note_record_1= ... midi_note_record_16=

Looper

The previous one button record feature can also be used as a looper. To enabled this, set looper_enabled=1 in config.cfg. The looper only works on track 1-8 since they're not automatically sliced. To use :

  1. Press the midi note assigned to midi_note_record_X to start the recording.

  2. Press the same midi note to stop the recording. If looper_autoplay_after_record=1, the loop will automatically start to play after the recording ends.

  3. The midi note assigned to midi_note_loop_start_stop will allow you to start/stop the loop. Note that by default,the looper is not controlled by transport keys. If you want to start/stop the looper with transport keys, set looper_transport_control_link=1. When stopping the loop, the sample does not immediately stop,but continue to play until the end of the recorded sample.

  4. To clear a loop, use the midi note that is assigned to midi_note_loop_clear. This will immediately stop the looper and delete the recorded track on the PO-33. Note that it will only delete the last recorded track.

The looper doesn't support any quantization at the moment. So you'll need to know the BPM beforehand if you want to use together with a PO-33 pattern.

Demo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG9rOFwKDS0