Cre8audio East Beast & West Pest

I tried to watch that whole video but it is really long… but I still didn’t hear what I’m talking about… maybe it just good enough? Idk… it definitely doesn’t sound like the microvolt or o-coast as far as the bongo’s, thru have almost a natural reverb to the sound it is hard to explain… maybe because this is missing the pluck circuit in the microvolt… I can tell they are the same family… this and a east beast in the modular keyboard would be awesome!!

The only question of yours I can answer is how to get to the Dynamics Controller section of the video

Just click the video and it should skip to that section, because of the timestamp that I included in the link.

That’s what I mean by “cued up”.

I can’t answer your other questions.

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Hi there.

Just got my East Beast. It’s pretty sweet so far, and my first semi-modular gear.

A few minor (annoying) things I’ve noticed:

  1. Particularly fast notes coming from an external midi device tend to cause one of the notes to continue to ring out until you re-trigger the offending note.

  2. I cannot for the life of me get the Env In to trigger from my KeyStep Pro. Interestingly, when I have gate from a KSP voice patched to Env In and then switch gate formats from S-Trig to one of the other two modes (V-Trig 5v or V-Trig 12v) C1 rings out.

  3. Probably just more KSP specific issues but the C4 of the controller plays a C6 on the East Beast which really limits the range.

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Number 3 isn’t a KSP-specific quirk, I’ve also run into struggles getting low enough notes out of a QuNeo and Tracker. Any keyboard/sequencer that helpfully assumes that nobody “really” needs to reach midi note 0 is going to have the same obstacle.

I really am liking the Beast, but that’s been my biggest complaint. I’ll have to re-try sending CV/gate from the QuNeo and whatever else I can lay hands on.

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Shame that it’s happening on your controllers too. I only had my KSP set up at the time, but will try on some other devices that can send midi as well.

I tend to make pretty sense arrangements and do a lot of orchestration from external controllers, so the prospect of having to rely on the sequencer on the East Beast alone is a downer.

That said, it sounds phenomenal alongside my Typhon and Nymphes.

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Hi, just passing through.

You can shift octaves when using MIDI by holding the Blue function button and tapping Oct + / - buttons.

If you’re getting stuck MIDI notes be sure to check the connection of the MIDI dongle (which you probably did). I encountered one that was a little fiddly. If it continues to persist hit up support.

Hope this helps…

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Awesome, the Shift + Octave Down (and Octave Up) both got me what I was looking for. Oddly I can still hit notes in the C-1 range on the East Beast itself, but the Shift + Octave Down doesn’t quite go that low for my MIDI devices (possibly a limitation on the controller’s end) but I’m not going to be using that anyway.

Thanks!

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Got mine and found it to be a very, very good wobbly dubstep bass device. Sounds damn nasty and when ran through suitable distorion…yum! Other uses: nice little live-sequencer for my eurorack shenanigans.

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EB? Not seeing WP in stock anywhere yet

EB…probably should have mentioned it :smiley:

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so i received the east beast and am currently testing out the modules on them own. i discovered several things:

  • patching something in or out is not disconnecting it from it’s default patching. it most of the time adds both signals. maybe i’m misunderstanding the manual but it seems not functioning as described here

“Plugging a patch cable into an internally patched input jack will override any internal patching. Most internal connections are made using switched jacks. A switched jack allows the internal signal path to be disabled when a patch cable is inserted. A simple example would be the pitch input of the oscillator. Internally, the pitch output of the midi section is wired to the switched jack input of the oscillator. When a patch cable is plugged into the pitch input of the oscillator, that patch cable breaks the connection to the midi pitch output and replaces it with the signal from the inserted patch cable.”

another example. Patching the midi pitch out into pitch in (like prepatched in the manual) is sound differently then not patching it at all

  • it seems like vca mod and vca in patches are swapped (patch fast lfo out into vca mod makes me hear something. patching fast lfo into vca in stays quiet

have a slick white one for my neutron (that’s an ugly mf!) from you and I‘m very happy!

I‘d look for a white red buchla style for west pest and a black one (moogy) for east beast.

I guess I‘ll look at more sound samples for west pest, that folder sounds good.

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I just experimented and found similar in pitch - if I patch midi pitch out to pitch in, I get something other than a chromatic scale.

On the VCA In, maybe I’m misunderstanding but the VCA should give you clicks as that means the actual input to the VCA. Mod is the correct way to manipulate it.

ETA - if I patch pitch out to filter mod in and turn mod depth all the way up, the pitch of the VCO goes half a step flat.


my understanding:
there are two patchable sockets:

  • vca in: mainly for audio signals. i should be able to patch anything hearable into this ( fast lfos, field recorder)
  • vca mod: mainly for voltage to control the volume envelope of the signal coming in through vca in.

example 1 ( fast lfo out into vca in; lfo from multifunction into vca mod) works like it should.

maybe i was too tired yesterday :smiley:

edit: regarding the pitch out: i can reproduce the behavior with pitching it into the filter mod and getting not the same pitch.

@Cre8audio: are we doing something wrong?

edit: another really annoying quirk are the blue, green buttons and the inconsistent placing of the respective functionality. to trigger the upper labeled function (e.g. filter type) i need to press the bottom “shift-Button”

edit: my current conclusion: this thing is not perfect (strange pitch out behavior and unlucky placing of shift buttons)
BUT: the digital-controller part of the east beast is great. this is a fantastic synth for this price point and i would even say a great starting point to go modular in a smaller case

Oscillator stuff
Late in the design process, it was decided that the Pitch input should NOT be a normalled jack. This is a feature and not a mistake. This allows CV signals to be summed with the built-in keyboard and/or external MIDI controller. It is essentially a second FM input that is calibrated to 1V/octave.

It’s more than a little funny that the example about switching jacks was the pitch input. We’ll have the manual updated shortly.

VCA Stuff
The VCA inputs may be a bit confusing, as the Mod and In jack positions are reversed from the Filter in jacks next to it. To clarify their behaviors:

VCA In - This is the “through” input. What gets plugged in here gets sent to the VCA Out jack

VCA Mod - This is the “valve”. The voltage received here controls the volume of the signal sent from VCA In to VCA Out

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Is there a possibility to configure the Pitch Input behavior?
If i’m not mistaken it’s currently not possible to route the internal pitch (sequencer/arp) information through a quantizer and then back to the east beast without affecting the “new processed, quantized” pitch information

IMO, custom faceplates would look better without any company logos on them. in fact, i wish all devices (synths, samplers, instruments, cars, electronics, etc) had no branding on them. in most cases the logo is ugly AF. plus I am not a salesperson for them, so why am i advertising for them, for free?

This thread popping up again reminded me that I came across this company who are planning to do an overlay for the West Pest - Cre8audio West Pest - Fascia Overlay | CTRL-V

Looks pretty cool, I’ll be keeping a close eye on that - reckon that overlay will be the thing that tips me over the edge for getting a West Pest…

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That’s the one up thread.

I have communicated with two other companies, one is likely, and the other is very likely doing overlays. Plus we heard from Heinakroon in this thread too.

So it’s pretty safe there is an overlay that will please most everyone for these two synths.

Any opinions on which of these is best?