Twisted Electrons Blastbeats

The Lounge Other Gear
#62

wiggle

2 Likes
#63

BlastBeats specs:

  • OPL3 (YMF262) FM chip featured in vintage sound blaster cards of the MS-DOS era

  • Quad audio outputs with custom instrument routing

  • High fidelity audio amplification with low noise floor

  • mix and phones out each with volume control

  • 6 drum tracks (bass drum, snare drum, tom, closed & open hat, cymbal) that can also be used for melodic parts.

  • 4 synth tracks: two monophonic (2x2op or 1x4op) & two duo-phonic (4x2op or 2x4op)

  • 100 kits

  • 160 songs x 16 patterns x 64 steps

  • patterns of of arbitrary step lengths

  • Kits and patterns stored on included SD card for convenient management and sharing.

  • 56 faders with per step automation and modulation

  • 32 high quality illuminated switches

  • MIDI input and output on DIN5 ports

  • customisable MIDI input channels

  • Analog sync in and out on 3.5mm jacks

  • All Audio on 6.35mm jacks

  • Premium sandblasted anodised aluminum chassis

  • All instruments can be sequenced internally or played via MIDI allowing BlastBeats to be used as a 4-operator 8-waveform polytimbral MIDI synthesizer

  • Probability per instrument

  • Swing

  • Kit and pattern randomiser

  • Fader wiggling (randomiser with adjustable depth) per step

  • 3 tricks ( pitch bend aka spin down, freeze and stutter with step sequencing of all tricks.

  • Synth pitch vibrato and tremolo with adjustable speed and depth

  • Several waveforms and algorithms yielding infinite sound textures.

8 Likes
#64

really strange sound hearing it in those demos from Limbic and the Soundcloud preview on the product page. instantly getting that sorta early 90s vibe… with a really wide range of options available for play and recording fun. doesn’t seem too complex even without a screen, but there’s a good bit of room to tweak and experiment.

doubt it’s for me, but i’m sure plenty of people will get some really unique music out of this thing. and it’s a really good price for a groovebox with those kinds of options no matter how you cut it.

1 Like
#65

It ticks a lot of boxes, especially for fm suckers.

the sound, the sequencer, the simple menus, the lack of screens, the hands on control, effects , the amps and being a grovebox.

1 Like
#66

I preordered from the first batch.

2 Likes
#67

Yeah, looks really cool! Btw, there’s only one set of faders for toms, hats and cymbals - what’s the deal there? Not enough space on the front panel? Hope there’s a catch mode/pickup mode for the faders when switching voices…

#68

Sounds great, I like a lot of the simple yet character-rich sounds that these chips produce. Looks like a bit of a learning curve with some of the shortcuts, like setting the bpm by holding shift and then typing in the numbers using the track keys.

#69

Setting bpm by typing in numbers is a pretty cool solution actually! Who needs a display?
Easy to target a specific tempo, not so easy to slow down/increase the tempo…hmm…everything has its down sides, I guess^^

2 Likes
#70

It will be interesting to see how per-step modulation feels with no screen. Classically this has been done with a full-screen tracker that lets you see all the mods on a grid, or a way to visualize “locks” per-step a la :3lektron:. Having neither seems like it’d be… frustrating. But maybe the benefit of all those hands-on controls outweigh it?

Or maybe per-step modulation isn’t as big a deal in practice because this OPL3 is no longer your only sound generator? It’s now just one piece of kit in the stack or one take on the multitrack. Squeezing 3 instruments into one part no longer nets us anything but purity points. So the per-step mods are likely to be less “switch to a different instrument” and more “make this tweak to the op mod.”

#71

Yeah, I’d probaply use it mostly for modulation, timbral changes, sound design etc. and not trying to get the most out of a limited engine.

1 Like
#72

Ever since I sold my Akemie’s Castle I’ve missed that sound, so this looks very interesting … the range of sound out of it with all the different voices is impressive.

3 Likes
#73

do they charge you immediately or upon shipping?

#74

I paid with PayPal and it was charged right away.

1 Like
#75

Ordered,

£533, I’m happy.

1 Like
#76

I wish more people made funky music with this kind of esthetic, this beat machine seems perfect for deep funk beats…

2 Likes
#77

I think with some processing which it clearly encourages this would be a dream machine, super fun interface and gadget heaven aesthetic, sounds cool. Hmm I want one.

2 Likes
#78

Looks rad! Twisted electrons rules, I love my Acid8. Everything they make looks awesome and I’m a sucker for drum synths so this is a no brainer.

1 Like
#79

https://www.twisted-electrons1.com/blastbeats?ref=limbicBLASTBEAT principale

600$

FEATURE

  • OPL3 (YMF262) FM chip featured in vintage sound blaster cards of the MS-DOS era
  • Quad audio outputs with custom instrument routing
  • High fidelity audio amplification with low noise floor
  • mix and phones out each with volume control
  • 6 drum tracks (bass drum, snare drum, tom, closed & open hat, cymbal) that can also be used for melodic parts.
  • 4 synth tracks: two monophonic (2x2op or 1x4op) & two duo-phonic (4x2op or 2x4op)
  • 100 kits
  • 160 songs x 16 patterns x 64 steps
  • patterns of of arbitrary step lengths
  • Kits and patterns stored on included SD card for convenient management and sharing.
  • 56 faders with per step automation and modulation
  • 32 high quality illuminated switches
  • MIDI input and output on DIN5 ports
  • customisable MIDI input channels
  • Analog sync in and out on 3.5mm jacks
  • All Audio on 6.35mm jacks
  • Premium sandblasted anodised aluminum chassis
  • All instruments can be sequenced internally or played via MIDI allowing BlastBeats to be used as a 4-operator 8-waveform polytimbral MIDI synthesizer
  • Probability per instrument
  • Swing
  • Kit and pattern randomiser
  • Fader wiggling (randomiser with adjustable depth) per step
  • 3 tricks ( pitch bend aka spin down, freeze and stutter with step sequencing of all tricks.
  • Synth pitch vibrato and tremolo with adjustable speed and depth
  • Several waveforms and algorithms yielding infinite sound textures.
  • Dimensions: 29.5cm x 16.5cm x 4.5cm (11.6" x 6.5" x 1.8")
  • Weight 944 g ( 2 lb)
4 Likes
#80

I’m enamored with the design aesthetic. Want to touch those buttons and sliders all day. If I only had money…

Guess I’ll settle for exploring adlibtracker as I am now 100% itb and 100% not buying hardware. Renoise and an ever rotating cast of vst’s helps me avoid expensive decisions like this and redirect my gas :+1:t2:

5 Likes
#81

Same. For hands on sound design I’ve got my modular, but dang this thing sounds great and excellently accessible(thank goodness I’m done with groovebox purchases)

1 Like