90% sure it’s possible on the new firmware. Watched a video on it somewhere.
A ton of options. There’s no way it’ll have anywhere near the depth in sound that the perkons has for molding sounds . What it does have is crazy unpredictability when you start using the tricks and automation weird aliasing and sweet spots in recording slider movement. It’s a strange beast because when it comes to the sounds themselves without the sequencing there’s nothing over the top incredible but the sum of all of its parts. The chip/the sequencing/the tricks/being able to automate a quick kit change. They all equal an incredibly fun machine. In 30 years of hoarding gear I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun with a piece of gear.
I really hope Alex tosses a few YM2612 chips in a similar box. That’d be my dream box
3 Likes
It just has loads of character and personality. That’s worth a lot to me, it’s a really cool machine!
1 Like
If you find it, could you post a link to this video?
As far as I know, stutter and other tricks affect all the voices, even in the latest firmware (date July the 3rd)
This being said, Alex is quite responsive and open to suggestions/feature requests. Somebody could ask for this feature (i.e. stutter only affecting the chosen voices)
However, he wrote me he was on holidays right now so maybe we’ll have to wait a bit.
Actually, I’ve been showering him with feature requests since I’ve got my unit, so much so that I feel embarrassed 
In case anybody’s interested, here is a condensed list of my requests 
:
- jump mode for instant switch between patterns
- per track pattern length
- routing presets (including the routing of all the voices)
- routing preset track (to change presets on a per-step basis)
- routing saved with kits
- fader catch-up mode (a value will change only once it has been reached with the physical fader)
- ability to define the pitch of a step out of live-recording (one of my biggest gripe at the moment)
- ability to copy a step, including all its settings
- for the synth voices, indicate which algorithm is used with half lit LED 1-5, so you know at least which operators are carriers
- ability to copy non sequential sequencer pages in length mode (currently, pages are overwritten: if you copy say page 1 on page 3, page 2 will be overwritten)
- ability to reload/reset the kit by selecting it again in kit/patt mode
- ability to transpose synth sequencer tracks independently
- ability to “unwiggle” a single fader (currently, all wiggles are erased at once by the Clear button)
- ability to set the speed of the Wiggle (not only its intensity)
- ability to choose a waveform for the Wiggle (effectively turning it into an LFO), much like for the tremolo/vibrato
1 Like
I was wrong arbitrary stutter per step 1:20 is what I was thinking… that would be an incredible feature though https://youtu.be/krE6QmbTilA
1 Like
I still for the life of me cant understand how to use wiggle or what it does.
Well it’s quite fun, just a randomizing factor for any fader and you can set the amount (or range) of randomized values. When combine with stutter, you get some pretty wild results sometimes 
However, beside setting the amount, you can’t control how often the values are randomized, hence my feature request above, because you’d sometimes like it not to change values so quickly.
In my message to Alex, I offered something a bit more elaborate: top buttons 1-8 could define the waveform for the wiggle (much like for the tremolo/vibrato - a brilliant idea by Alex). It would turn the wiggle into some sort of LFO, which I think would be really welcome on this machine.
Top button 9 could be used to set note-on randomize, i.e. each new note would have a new random value, but this value would be fixed for the whole duration of the note.
And top button 10 would be for the current wiggle behavior.
Speaking about wiggle, can you tell me if it’s act as a holf LFO like on the Elektron devices ? Something that picks up a new value each time a note is play but doesn’t move until the next note.
Nope, unfortunately
This behavior is among the feature requests I sent Alex (see my post above)
I think an LFO - even a single one - could work wonders with this machine
To a certain extent, you can use tremolo as an LFO, when using it on a modifier operator, and this is already great
Has anybody got any saving issues with their BlastBeats?
This is one of the most frustrating issue I have with this machine: sometimes I save things, and the next time I turn the machine on, the last things I recorded are gone :-/
(and, yes, I stopped transport before saving)
1 Like
Howdy! One week into exploring this gorgeous box and i’m loving it. I’ve got one inquiry so far and I ain’t sure whether their contact email or this forum are the place to express something that is potentially already featured. Lol that being said does anyone know if it is possible to only send tempo (clock??) via MIDI out and not the notes? I’m sequencing into a mc101groovebox but would like to not send notes, just tempo. Not sure what clock means so please pardon my novice nomenculture i am more of a brute forcer than an understander of tech…Ha!
Also Omar, i have save issues form time to time but it is growing on me!!
1 Like
I’m not much of an expert when it comes to sync and CV and all. But I think you could just send the ‘clock’, without notes using the sync mini jack. But your slave machine must be able to receive such signal.
If notes are an issue, you could alternatively set the machine to send MIDI via a different MIDI channel than your MC101. To do so, you should either change the MIDI channel on your MC101 (if that’s possible at all) or change the “MIDI Channel Routing” on the BlastBeat. There’s a chapter dedicated to that in the manual:
I think the clock would still be sent… Not sure though
Ok, thank you for the answer 
still can’t wait to have mine !
Is anyone aware of a decksaver for this thing? It would surprise me if there actually was one out there, as its a fairly new and niche lil thang. I can’t seem to find one on the intranet…any redneck alternatives i ain’t considerating?
im constantly tempted by this thing…
i love how its seems very easy to go into a 90´s IDM/Warp Records type of sound and i absolutely adore that vibe!
but there seems to be some limitations which im not sure will be a deal breaker or not… as with most things it all comes down to the sum of its part rather then induvidual functions… And from what ive seen the cool performance effects (bend, stutter etc.) really makes it seem like this is a really performance freindly knobby groovebox.
So what is the verdict of current and former owners now that its been out for about 6 months?
1 Like
I currently have a love and hate relationship with it.
It sounds very peculiar and extremely good - to my hears. Sound design is deep and not so easy (like with all FM synths I guess).
It’s a complex machine to my standards, but I love to get lost and surprised in algorithms.
Surprisingly, the performance features are not what I use most in the end - although they are the main reason I got it for. But maybe it’s due to the fact that I’m not at the performance stage yet. I speculate you could almost use them to create a full length set out of a single pattern, changing kits (and recording these changes in the sequencer), recording automation, “wiggling” parameters, routing tracks to different effects on the fly (which can also be recorded in the pattern), etc.
This being said, coming from the Elektron world, I can’t help feeling frustrated by the firmware: some things don’t always record right, duplicating pattern pages or sequencer steps is a hassle, the only way to set the pitch of a step is by actually recording a performance (which I suck at). It’s missing a lot of simple things we’ve come to be accustomed to with other manufacturers.
So, yeah, I find it quite tedious to use but, oh my, it’s still a terrific machine. Alex from Twisted Electrons used to be quite responsive to feature requests/bug reports, but he’s been on vacation for a while, which he probably deserves (he wrote me the last months were quite intense). I’m looking forward to when he comes back in office and fix things, add features (I’ve been showering him with feature requests) and make this machine live up to what it is.
I can’t help comparing TE with Norand: the Mono was cool right from the start, but they turned it into something amazing with firmware updates (and supposedly there’s a lot more to come). I really hope Alex, once he’s back from vacation, will also improve the BlastBeats.
2 Likes
Just a quick snippet, with a little help from Norand
9 Likes
Great jam ! Sounds very good for me, what part does the Norand Mono ?
I’ll receive my Blast Beats tomorrow