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[John]

Has anybody measured latency on the iPad? The drum stuff I’ve played with (at least using the touch screen) lagged a bit too much to use for serious performance or studio work. Just curious what the limitations are….

[John]

I guess I don’t understand how the samples are accessed; I just assumed Beatstation could access the unprocessed “upstream” EZX sounds, just as they do for Superior. The website description states “When using an SDX or EZX you will get a fixed mix of the microphones available for an instrument, typically without ambience.” This seems to “typically” be true: when I open a set of drums in Beatstation, for example, the overheads and room mics are off; if I opened the same drums in EZDrummer the default mixer settings might have them turned up. This is perfect, as the user can add in effects that they want to customize their sound and “room”.

I love the drums in Claustrophobic, but when I use them for recording or performance from within EZDrummer or TT Solo, I turn off the effects in the Mixer (distortion, for example is turned up pretty high by default). But when I open the Claustrophobic drums in Beatstation, it seems that MOST of the effects, room, etc are removed, but the distortion remains. Can’t Beatstation simply find and open the original unprocessed drum samples (they must exist on my hard drive), so a user can dial in the distortion they desire?

Yes, having the raw Claustrophobic samples as a soundpack would be an acceptable workaround, but I would hope that registered users (of Claustrophobic and Twisted Kit, for example) not have to pay.

[John]

OK, nothing wrong with requesting features and constructive critisism. And there is a downloadable demo for those that want to try before they buy.

So we have some requests:
1) assignable outputs for pads
2) velocity switching within pad samples

I’ll add a couple more
3) use the raw unprocessed drum samples from EZX, without any effects (eg in Claustrophobic, Twisted, etc)
4) provide a method/format for loading in custom velocity-sensitive, velocity layered sounds (could be the same as #2, but then it would be useful to have more than 5 samples layered)

One more note. For some uses, this application is more than a low-cost entry-level app. It really is a very flexible tool and powerful tool for certain uses. For those considering, try the demo and see if it meets your needs.

[John]

That may be the case, but may I suggest that this be changed in a future revision so that the drum samples that the EZX samples that are loaded are “upstream” from any effects? That way the user could add any effects that they want, starting from the pure, uneffected samples.

Doesn’t that seem like the best way to approach this? Or is this not achievable given the software’s architecture?

Thanks for investigating ….

[John]

Why condemn a product if it has one feature you are missing? I am finding this product to be incredibly powerful and useful in its flexibiity for setting up custom kits, especially for live performance.

It was sure worth my time and money!

[John]

Scott —

Do they sound distorted in your case? I did the same experiments and, yes, they sound the same. But on my system they are both very distorted using fx. Open the default kit in EZ Drummer or TT Solo again; you will find that the effects (e.g. distortion) are turned ON. In EZ Drummer or TT Solo, go into the mixer and either turn off/mute all the FX, or solo the drum mic channels. You will hear the true, raw, unprocessed mic’ed drum sound(s). These are the sounds that Beatstation should access and play (according to the manual and the way all the other EZXs in my library work).

With the Claustrophobic samples “pre-distorted” in BeatStation, they are not usable in my situation (live performance), and I believe users would prefer to “dial in” the amount of distortion they desire using Beatstation.

Thank in advance for checking on this and providing a fix…

John

[John]

On the Mac its Shift + Control, then click. Control-Click opens the control panel for the pad.

[John]

Ah, that explains it. The program was somehow running originally because I had the demo installed. But after installing the update, things went south. When I deinstalled, and reinstalled I assumed the 1.0.2 update was the full meal based on its title and file size. My bad, and my apologies for any drama. I am downloading the BIG master file now, and expect all to be well.

BTW, I bought the full app based on the demo and was very impressed by the flexibility of the program and ability to use my entire EZD and SD libraries + my own samples and existing libraries.

I do wish their was more there for velocity support: the ability to define or select different velocity response curves (like in Superior), or the ability to import velocity layers per pad.

[John]

OK. I deauthorized, deinstalled everything, then re-downloaded, reinstalled the app and the core content (installed using defaults and default locations).

The application STILL crashes with a “Beatstation Quit Unexpectedly” report to Apple. Everytime.

I have never encountered this any application in many years of Mac usage, so I am surprised this keeps happening.

OSX 10.6.6
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB RAM

[John]

Also discovered when launching Logic Pro, the AU checker also crashes now.

Very ill-behaved so far, this Beat Station.

[John]

It sounds like you want to “split” your keyboard controller so it sends midi data on 2 separate midi channels; e.g. Channel 10 on lower octaves (which would play drums), and to, say, Channel 1 on upper octaves (playing piano, for example). Your keyboard controller may be able to do this (check your manual for “split”), if not there is likely a way to do it with midi mapping or the Environment in Logic. Good luck….

[Author]

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