With NAMM kicking off in a few days, brands are dropping new product news for 2020 left and right. We here at Reverb are taking on the task of sorting through it all to bring you the best, most exciting news and announcements. Today, we've got a hot one, courtesy of the folks over at Arturia.
Newly unveiled today is Arturia's KeyStep Pro—a brand-new, all-in-one sequencing solution for taking full control of your modular rigs, outboard synths, and software studio all at once.
Arturia has dubbed the KeyStep Pro a "universal sequencing mastermind," and taking even a cursory glance over its spec sheet will show you exactly why.
Design-wise, the KeyStep Pro features 37 note slim keys equipped with velocity and aftertouch sensitivity and featuring an LED above each key for visual feedback, a crisp OLED display, one MIDI in and two MIDI outs, USB, a sustain pedal input, and a metronome with included speaker and line output.
But in its features list is where the KeyStep Pro really shines. Packed into this unit, players will find:
- A four-track polyphonic step sequencer with up to 16 step buttons, 64 steps per sequence, and 16 notes of polyphony per step
- A melodic sequencer offering real-time recording, step recording, and step editing; scale quantization with user scales; pitch, velocity, gate length, time shift, and probability for each note; polyphonic CV outputs
- An arpeggiator with seven arpeggiator modes and a five-octave range
- A polyrhythmic 24-part drum sequencer
- A performance-oriented sequencer featuring pattern randomization, quantized/unquantized recording, forward and two random playing modes, and a looper
- Chord mode
- Controller mode, which uses the five encoders to send CCs and automate CCs
This is not to mention the fact that the KeyStep Pro also features four CV voices all featuring gate, pitch, and mod, which means that players are getting 20 CV outs and could play the individual notes of a chord across four different modular oscillators, for the reasonable KeyStep Pro sticker price of $449 USD.
With all of its connectivity options, features, and effects, the KeyStep is a really exciting addition to the Arturia family—especially for those with sweeping software/hardware hybrid rigs that they'd like to be able to easily perform with on stage or in the studio in real-time.
Be sure to check out the Arturia KeyStep Pro demo video above, and preorder your own before its expected ship date of March 20, 2020. For more coverage from the NAMM floor in Anaheim, click the banner below.