I think my blast beats and my m:c are going to be best friends. They’re very different sounding but so far I find them complimentary.
Blast beats is really making me want a megafm too. Haha.
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Anyone wanna “pros/cons” their unit?
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Pros:
Sounds good. Everything sounds great modulated.
It has kits
Everything can be automated
Lots of stuff can be sequenced including: kit changes, stutter and it’s rate, pitch bend and it’s rate, freeze effect, vibrato and tremolo rate changes
Song mode (really just pattern chaining)
Every synth parameter is available through MIDI implementation.
No menu diving
Build quality is great: buttons are fun to press and faders don’t feel like they are gonna snap off. slightly off topic but I once had a Medusa synth and I always felt like those faders were gonna snap off, coming from that experience I was a little afraid about the blast beats feeling similar but I can say they feel great.
It auto snapshots a session when it’s playing so when you press record you can mess around with the parameters and if you don’t like what you did you can press Function and Record and it goes back to the previous state. Pressing Function and Record again sends it back to the new state. Good for performances but also as an Undo function.
Not Really Pros or Cons:
There’s no panning. I figure this is a limitation of the chips and also not adding some sort of mixer but with 4 outputs plus a headphone and mix output I think it’s fine, just gotta do that panning in a DAW or with a mixer.
Apart from the Kick drum, drum engines are tied to each other and have to go to the same output. I believe the Snare, Clap, and Cymbal are one group and the Tom, closed hat, and open hat are another group (I could have that completely wrong but you get the idea). This is a limitation of the chip and without adding a chip for every voice this is how it works. It’s a “it is what it is” type situation and I don’t blame Twisted Electrons for Yamahas design.
No way to tell what the tempo is set to. This is definitely more of a con but not something that can’t be fixed in a firmware update so it’s going here for me. I’d like it if when you held the tempo button it would flash the numbers on the top row in order to show what tempo it’s set to. This is how it works on the OP-Z, seems like a reasonable fix.
Edit 2: thought of some more things:
Vibrato and Tremolo parameters are set per project. You can’t have one synth with quicker settings and another with slower. I’d say it’s an interesting idea to have every synth instance locked to the same rate for this but you do lose flexibility. Ultimately being able to lock or unlock the setting would be ideal. That said, you can sequence both of the rates for vibrato and tremolo per step so in the end this is a pro with a small bit holding it back.
Cons:
There’s no parameter locking. All automation of the faders must be recorded live. This is just a workflow I’ve grown accustomed to thanks to Elektron but thanks to the MIDI implementation if I want to do this I could sequence it with an Elektron device.
Each sound can’t have different length sequences. This is just a fact I’ve become a bit spoiled on over the years with sequencers, I’m so used to now being able to change rates and lengths of each track but unfortunately you cant do this with the built in sequencer. Again, nothing holding you back from using a different sequencer to do that type of thing.
The Kick drum has all its own parameters but the rest of the instruments do not. This is clearly a limitation on the size goal they were going for. The faders manipulate the sound instantly (so the parameter jumps to the position of the fader as soon as the fader is moved). Some people will not like this, I don’t mind it but for performance this can be a bad thing.
Edit for above paragragh: so the snare also has its own parameters it’s really the Tom, Hats, and Cymbal all share the same 7 faders. So if you want a long decay on the cymbal you move the fader up, then you go to manipulate the Tom, the decay fader is up there so when you move it you’re gonna have the Tom sound have a long decay for a second as you move the fader down. Again, not a huge deal if you’re just producing but in a live setting this will make you not want to touch those faders too much. When you consider that the 4 synth engines all share the same 28 faders that’s where things get tricky, and the disconnect on where the parameter actually is vs where the fader is begins.
You can’t tell what’s being automated, this is an issue with not having a screen. You don’t have to menu dive but it does create a disconnect from what’s happening.
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precise insight, thank you
Woop woop ! First proper Blast Beats demo and talk on my channel going live in a few minutes, come say hi or ask your questions 
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Many thanks @Stazma for this detailed review!
There are two features that are mentioned in the manual but you didn’t showcase:
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I understand it should be possible to automate the routing changes of the different tracks, i.e. to sequence the routing of this or that synth to this or that output (hence external effect pedal) at any time in the sequence.
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The waveform used for the tremolo and vibrato can be changed (and automated?). The initial one is sine, but (theoretically) you could use any of 10 waveforms (8 printed above + 2 random ones) for pitch and volume modulations. I was hoping to use this to create interesting melodic contents.
Are those features actually implemented or do they just exist in the manual?
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It looks like Alex heard you. As of today, “Step lock automation” is possible. This is from the manual:
“You can record a fader position in non real time to any step.
hold a bottom button to define the step and move the fader.
Note REC must be off”
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That’s really dope. From what I’ve heard Twisted Electrons is a one man operation? Crazy how many products there are and I like how focused he seems to be at making this unique digital chip focused instruments.
But yeah, parameter locking is gonna improve my experience greatly, not that I was having a bad time with it, it’s such a weird device and I love it.
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Those do exist but I have not used them yet that’s all
My video was more a “look how I like to work with this” more than a proper review to be honest, that’s why I did not tried to show every single functions.
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Yes, thanks very much for the tour! There’s not so much about this machine on the web.
Happy to hear these features do work!
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So I didn’t think much of the Blast Beats from what I read about it. I was like ‘ew, ancient PC sounds in a drum machine, why would I want that?’.
But then I watched this humble little demo from Superbooth via Sonicstate and I realise how much character this thing has. The demo is like a whimsical Four Tet-esque glitchy soft IDM thing, absolutely lovely.
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I managed to snag the Blast Beats into my Polyend Play demo video hahaha, starting around 8:50.
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I’m very intrigued by this device, lots of character and performance options
Ordered, let’s see, I am a sucker for FM chips.
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Let us know what you think!
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Found it so weird to use. Send it back with a heavy heart.
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I got mine a week or so ago. Like it so far, but find it tricky to handle. I think it will take me some time to be comfortable with.
I have to say I’m a bit disappointed by the drums, except for the kick, which offers many parameters to tweak.
But the synth tracks are really interesting and deep. Unlike what was written/said by some, deep bass can be achieved but, admittedly, that’s probably not the primary purpose of this synth.
I haven’t really looked at the performance features yet, but the little I played with sounded really promising! It’s quite easy to disrupt a pattern by using stutter and bend. Automation (by live rec) is also a good way to go blip-blop in an interesting way. There’s no track/pattern reload per se, but you can sort of cancel what was recorded by pressing FUNC+REC.
What I’m having fun with right now is routing automation: The 4 outputs are routed to 4 tracks of my mixer, each with different filter settings and FX. You can literally “play” the routing and live record output changes.
But it is probably too early for me to deliver a “verdict” on this machine.
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What did you find weird about it?
I think this is pretty fair on drum sounds. I look at this as a supplemental percussion tool. Paired with an arytm or sampler if that’s your bag it gives you a ton of versatility and makes noises that other machines won’t. The closest comparison for me is the Electribe er-1 which also sounded “thin” for a lot of drum sounds but could go in really neat directions with the ring mod and playable tweaks.
I think the sounds are tweakable but non are going to get you a traditional electronic drum sounds outside the kick like you said. The rest have a ton of range but it’ll always sound like itself and never get into 808 or bread and butter territory. I think that’s fine though, it’s a totally unique instrument with its own character and I can dial up an e-clap in a hundred other places. The parameter locking update helped a ton too and the wiggle parameter mods are nice too. I think something like the lxr is going to be better for more traditional fm drum duties but if you already have your normal covered this is a fun box that will cover ground you’re not getting elsewhere.
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Didn’t get used to the sequencer (copy paste, erase automation, etc).
Also bothered by the shared voices and what it implies in terms of editing with the faders.
I dig the Lo fi character but it was too much noisy.
Finally, controlled via midi I couldn’t have access to low range of notes, I don’t get why. More generally I struggled with the FM voices to produce low pitched sounds. I might have missed something though.
It definitely has its character and it’s a really interesting machine though.
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