would not stopping to save be a feasible request for an update?
I really don’t know enough about that end of that stuff to say. If I end up buying one I’ll make the request but I have no idea whether it’s feasible to implement in an update. I could probably build the thing from raw materials but I couldn’t write code for it if my life depended on it so I’m out of my depth there.
I think the amount of control under your fingers is incredible, once you’ve spent enough time so you get a real feel of it in your fingers, and can play it expressively.
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Yeah, what I like (hope?) about it is that it seems to be an eligible candidate in my quest to find an all-in-one machine that can do reasonable amounts of both beats and melodies, while being relatively simple to use and immediate at the same time.
(if you think of other candidates, I’m all ears)
Also, the live features (tricks, wiggle, etc.), while limited, could be enough to have fun mangling a pattern in real time. They remind me a bit of the ones you can find on a PO-32 (which is, IMHO, one the coolest drum machines released these last years), in the sense that they act on sound parameters instead of the audio output.
And the fact that it both sends and receives CC’s is the icing on the cake.
The Blastbeats is very tempting but the synth channels seem very limited. For example, you only have A/D enveloppes. I asked Twisted Electrons about this to know if it’s a limitation due to the yamaha chip or a design choice and he answered me that’s a design choice. When I asked him if a full ADSR enveloppe could be implemented and controlled by midi CC, he said it could be add in a new firmware (nothing official of course).
For the moment, I bought a Digitone and after, i could take a blast beats. The gritty lo fi sound, all the controls, the possibilities of generating random patterns and sound kits are very appealing to me.
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Hm, that’s good to know, indeed.
I imagine you cannot do a whole lot with the drum voices either.
So basically I guess you have to like the sound of this synth “as is”.
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Ordered… 
We’ll see how it fares in practice.
I just hope it won’t be full of quirks, like many first series…
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Honestly why would you spend 500+ on a device running a soundblaster chip when you can get a Yamaha PSS with the exact same sound chip for 20 bucks? I love the sound of the old Yammy 2-OPs but the price is rather steep for what it is.
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Well, you’re certainly right, but as time goes, I tend to realize that what I like most about an instrument is not so much its sound as its performance aspects and usability.
I also like the fact that the Blast Beats seems to combine all the necessary instruments into one machine, striking an interesting balance between sound possibilities and accessible parameters.
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Because synths are more than their chipsets. Lots of gear (and other devices) share the same chips and sometimes the cheapest possible option isn’t the most appealing option to every person.
I love my old pss keyboards but they’re not all that much fun to use, they’re lacking in the sound design and sequencing departments, and they really suck to take to gigs. Plus none of them let me store 1600 custom kits/ patterns. Even within the extensive pss series that uses that chip (not all of them do) there’s a big range of quality and features, none of which approach this level of control onboard, even the ones with decent midi implementation.
It does seem like it should be a little cheaper than it is but it’s a boutique synth from a very small European company which always adds to the cost. If it’s built well (the pss boards are constructed like high quality toys) and the firmware gets updates like the megafm has I think it’s worth trying, I intend to at some point anyway.
But nothing is for everyone. I think a dfam is a waste of money but I’m not judging anyone who buys one, to each their own.
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I preordered this before the Dev lowered the price and refunded me $125. I have no problem with the cost. Actually, I can’t believe it doesn’t cost more.
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Yeah, I have to say the “small company” thing was also a factor in my decision: it might be stupid, but I more readily give money to underdogs who try new approaches, than big players who’ve been on the market for decades.
(This being said I have a lot of respect for companies like Korg, for example, who are big but try to keep on innovating)
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I don’t think it’s necessarily overpriced compared to other manufacturers. It’s just the fact there’s still a huge market of secondhand PSS that can be had for next to nothing. I got a PSS-460 for 30 euros and a PSS-570 for 15.
They both run the exact same sound chip as the blastbeats. They sound identical to it. The programming is slightly more limited but you don’t get a 2OP FM synth for deep programming do you? For those simply craving the sound of the soundblaster, get an old PSS off of your local equivalent to gumtree or craigslist. Or if you need midi control there’s also the excellent plogue portaFM.
I get that there’s probably a small slice of people who want the soundblaster sound in a groovebox formfactor specifically and are willing to pay for it. I just think that for most people one of the other options (PSS keyboard, portaFM vst) for 1/10th the price is probably a better deal 
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I hear you. Lots of good points. I’ll often choose the cheapest hardware option that gets me in the ballpark of the sound I want or features I require or whatever but sometimes there is something where the increased price is worth it for the interface or workflow compatibility or just fun and inspiration or because it can replace several other pieces at once, etc.
You’re absolutely right that there are much cheaper options that can get you a host of very similar sounds and probably some of the same sounds. If that’s all that matters then this probably isn’t the right device for you. Nothing wrong with that. I’m a sucker for a good groovebox with lots of hands on controls and I dig the sound so I guess I’m just more the target audience.
I think it’s generally difficult to directly compare hardware and vsts. Plogue does seem really cool (though if memory serves I think it’s emulating the somewhat different chips from the genesis/ mega drive) but it doesn’t speak to me. Same reason I’ll tediously program my dx7 instead of dumping sysex files from dexed even though dexed is just as good in every measurable way.
Also while we know what type of sounds this box will produce we probably don’t yet know the true extent unless the three or so demos have covered the entire palette. There are a few ways in which the chip can be implemented. The kick drum has, what, 14 parameters? How different does it act with the envelope safe mode turned off? It may end up being a damp squib but I’m eager to see.
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I concur 
For me an instrument in 2022 is not just about the sound.
Yes you can get the sound of these chips for much cheaper, but we’re not talking about just a chip here.
If you want to be fair, you’d need to add the price of a fully fledged sequencer, a MIDI interface and a wealth of hardware controls these PSS don’t have, the special trick features, the thinking and R&D put into combining all these things together. At the end of the day, like @Prints wrote, I don’t think this thing is that expensive.
It’s probably possible to pile up gear to get the same level of control and functionality for much cheaper, but you’d loose a lot in portability and usability, IMHO. And this is important to some users - me included. Like I wrote earlier, I’m after an all in one solution.
(And no, a computer with Live or Bitwig is not an option for me, I’m not a friend of screens when making music. Plus I had bad mishaps with computers on stage.)
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This was already posted higher I think, but the second section of this demo is really what sold me to it:
I guess it would take some legwork to coax this out of a PSS 
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Sounds amazing but can’t help feeling that the UI would be challenging… sliders all out of whack as soon as you change track, no way of seeing what is locked on each step, etc
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It has those fancy/cool buttons with the LEDs in them, multiple audio outputs, SD card reader, all-metal chassis, & 56 faders. A Korg Modwave sells for $849 and it’s more difficult for me to see the value there.
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And the Modwave runs off of a Raspberry Pi, which is cheap as chips.
Not entirely equivalent as a raspberry pi is a little computer, but someone still had to program a synth engine on it. A yamaha soundchip is the literal thing generating all sound. It actually means you could check out Yamaha PSS demos to get an idea of the sounds the blastbeats can make
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