OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

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altitude
 
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OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by altitude »

This project was brought to my attention a month ago and it immediately caught my eye as a perfect solution for a sequencer for my 9090 TR-909 clone.

Quick Run Down:

The Beat707 is a Arduino shield (meaning hardware front end) and software for an Arduino (Uno/2009/Mega) hardware platform. The Beat707 hardware can be purchased via their website assembled for $100 (An Arduino MIDI Groove Box Shield). Their website has a number of video demos that I recommend everyone check out. An arduino will run you $15-$65 depending on what you get and where you get it. I opted for an Uno for $30 but am upgrading to a Mega since the code limit for the 2009/Uno has pretty much been met. Anyone looking into getting one, I recommend a mega (Chinese clones are ~$40).

The hardware is simple to assemble, simply join the Arduino and the Beat707 (pins and headers) and upload the software. Arduino has its own software to upload the apps to the hardware and it is trivial to use (no programming knowledge required)


The Hardware:

The controls are straight forward. Sixteen step buttons, 4 navigation buttons, Stop/play/record/shift. Ports are midi in/out, Power, USB. It can be powered via USB and it also has a midi over USB function.

Here is mine. I opted for different style buttons from the kit to better suit my case. I also have two mods installed (more on that later)

Image


The software:

The sequencer consists of 18 tracks: 14 drum instrument tracks, 2 monosynth tracks, and two accent tracks. Each drum voice can be set to a different midi channel and note. The names can easily be edited in the software so you don't have to have them named according the to GM names.

Editing the drum tracks is pretty much identical to the Tr-707. There is a A/B variation for each track giving a total of 32 steps (and it even goes beyond this, however I have not played around with that feature). The combination of the shift key gives access to editing and quick jump parameters (copy/paste/mute/solo etc). Pattern edit mode is your classic x0x style editing and there is also a realtime record where each of the 16 keys represents and instrument (again, like the 707)

The two synth tracks work considerably differently than the drum tracks and each note is entered per step and remains on until a note off event is programmed (to hold notes) or another note begins. There is also a slide function to slide between notes. What I really dig about the synth tracks is that with a keyboard attached, you can simply play in the notes from a keyboard. A clever scheme is used where a light note press (low velocity) is recorded as a rest and a hard press records that note. Both events advance the sequence to the next step. Quite fun to use.

Hacks and Mods:

The designer built in quite a bit of expandability so it is very easy to add features. Like I show above, I added an analog pot (which can be assigned to a number of parameters) and an encoder which allows for quick editing of parameters. There are also a number of switch inputs that can be used for a variety of things (footswitch start/stop). Trigger outputs are also built in to trigger non-midi external drum voices.

At this time, there is no case or faceplate for the Beat707 (coming soon afaik) so I designed my own enclosure based on an extruded Hammond box and a CNC made panel. I used lightpipes for the LEDs since they are mounted to the board and SMD parts.

Image

guest
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by guest »

this is pretty interesting to me
as i recently started designing a drum sequencer
and it was shaping up to look pretty similar

what are your thoughts on
rotary encoder versus up/down keys
for navigating the display

is there a tempo knob

do you miss having bank/pattern/voice rotary switches
how about inidividual triggers out
for controlling an analog synth

which case is that
i like the form factor

rarara
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by rarara »

i like the case - how much was it to get holes cut, printed etc? would it be suitable for the x0xb0x?

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altitude
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by altitude »

guest wrote:
what are your thoughts on
rotary encoder versus up/down keys
for navigating the display
I like both and will be adding the encoder to mine. the way the encoder works here is that it just controls whatever parameter the cursor is on. A couple hardwired to certain things would be nice though (tempo, and most importantly instrument/track select)
is there a tempo knob
no but the analog input can be assigned to this (as well as the encoder). Personally, I like an up/down control for that and dont need a knob since it is not something I tweak constantly
do you miss having bank/pattern/voice rotary switches
for the track select it is a must IMHO
how about inidividual triggers out for controlling an analog synth
They are available (3 IIRC) on board and already written in software. Cool option for sure

THere is a 16 fader expansion in the works for a step like control of the pitch of the synth tracks as well as some other cool things for the Mega


which case is that
i like the form factor[/quote]

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altitude
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by altitude »

rarara wrote:i like the case - how much was it to get holes cut, printed etc? would it be suitable for the x0xb0x?
The hammond enclsure was $30 and the front panel was $140. Hammond does not have anything x0xb0x sized in that style case. I do use FPE to make the enclosures for the x0xb0xes I sell (in this thread: http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewt ... =9&t=54862)

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paradigm x
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by paradigm x »

Looks awesome Altitude! Do you ever sleep? :mrgreen:

Nice one.

The 707 thing looked perfect for my needs but no trig outs. :(

If youre designing a nice drum sequencer with trigger outs guest id be interested.

Cheers

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altitude
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by altitude »

It does have trigger outs

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paradigm x
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by paradigm x »

Right sorry, missed that bit above :oops:

I looked at this when it was first announced, seems theyve added this since.

Cheers


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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by hamburgers »

is that batman hiding in the first picture?

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altitude
 
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Re: OT: REVIEW: Beat 707 Arduino Drum Sequencer

Post by altitude »

LEGO batman

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