It's a keystep. Why is this necessary?

(also just tried to make a thread but submitting took me to the homepage for some reason?)

Well they are heavy into modular and will continue to be, makes sense to sell their own controllers no?

They even cloned the crappy sync mode DIP switch selector.
That’s really low.
Why clone a flawed low budget device.

why not 89.- lol is tooo expensive.. think the firmware will make the difference, not exactly the strength of Arturia.

With the upcomming free DAW they will build a maschine like controller called Ping. 199$ and the software is free. Just guessing.

Which currency?
Here in Europe a Keystep is €99 new and as low as €50 used.

Have they just precisely cloned the Keystep and launched it for a mere €10 less (seems like this is €89)? What are the actual differences?

oh sry confused with the pro

Well even for Behringer, THAT'S shady ... Behringer sucks!

The Keystep is about 110 EUR no?
But I agree, Arturia firmware is the worst. They don’t get it.
Like sync, the most important thing about sync (besides that it actually works) is that it gets out of the way if necessary.
Even MFB, also no firmware geniuses, got this right: React to midi clock, react to start/stop commands but never trap the device’s own transport buttons. The user always have to be able to override transport. Being able to override tempo as well is greatness. Elektron sequencers are top of the line.
But even Behringers own offering, the 303 (TB 3) has a smart way to override sync: by a keypress shortcut.

Arturia is the worst, you have to crawl at the back and change DIP switch with a tool.
Creativity killer. The device is dead otherwise, if there is no clock.
The only thing more stupid is Novations Bass Station II: syncs to midi clock but ignores transport, so no way to snap it to grid.

Anyway, it’s really, really stupid that they cloned that lousy sync selection method.

Yeah!

I know it's a tired argument by now about the ethics of Behringer's cloning stuff... I personally am happy to have a whole bunch of Behringer gear, including clones... But if they are now going to start ripping off contemporary designs and then keep them priced at €10 below the designer, that's obviously going to make it really hard for companies like Arturia to eek out a business and certainly be a disincentive for companies to invest in R&D to innovate new gear.

Looks like they are trying to squeeze their competition out of business entirely. Which might make sense from a corporate boardroom standpoint. Pretty nasty though.

didn't take long to attract trolls. Uncanny.

I can get behind them cloning old classic synths that are long since out of production (although there are certainly reasonable arguments over the ethics of it), but this is literally just a black Arturia Keystep, a budget controller that is still in production AFAIK. This one makes me stop and think, "Really, Behringer?"

Would it have been so difficult for them to design their own controller? They have already shown themselves capable of making great unique products like the Neutron. The fact they cloned such a budget device actually makes it worse, because it seems so unnecessary. This really leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Expensive being a clone.
You can find Keysteps for that price.
Was expecting 60€ or so. Behringer will have to lower the price here...

even if there are the usual haters ... almost funny ..
with luck there will be a pro version .. and with a lot of luck a beatstep ultrapro ..

"What's the big plan? Together with you, we’re committed to shake up the whole MIDI controller and sequencer market and for that purpose, we love to have your input what controllers and sequencers you’d like us to make.
We hear you:-)"

Exactly. At least with the Crave they made it look completely different to the Mother32, tweaked the features slightly, and put it in a totally different price range so you can argue that the two are aimed at different types of customer. This is so much more of a brazen clone and seems like it's solely been done to gouge Arturia by a few quid? Did someone at Arturia p!ss Uli off?

I have my fair share of B gear but really not impressed with this. Only way I can see them justifying it is by having some integration with their DAW that the Keystep is incapable of, but I have no idea what that could be.

Dunno, maybe Arturia didn't designed the HW by themselves (only speced it) but contracted some Chinese OEM to design and manufacture it? Exclusivity for Arturia ended so the OEM now offers it as generic product and Behringer bought it and customized it (labels, pot covers)... That's the only "reasonable" explanation I could find for myself. But that doesn't mean it has to be true.

It feels really weird they would have "cloned it from scratch."


EDIT as this is on 1st page and below referenced posts are buried in tons of crap...

My speculation above was wrong. I am keeping it here as it has been already quoted. Neither Arturia, nor DesignBox have anything to do with this Swing. It's Big B at its finest...
Arturia's Twitter
Arturia's statement (post #436)
Axel Hartmann's statement (post #537)
Behringer's statement


(I don't have direct links to statement's from Arturia and Axel Hartmann as they were somewhere of Facebook... All were brought up by other people in this thread, you can find try them yourselves if you have the guts.)

BeatStep BubraBro... Sorry, couldn't help it...

Looks like crap, why would anyone even buy this? It would be more appealing if it had fullsized keys, more features or if they released it in different sizes.

^^^ What this guy said.

Yes, I guess there is such case, the both products are just too close I would bet they use the same PCB.

Either it was some OEM design as outlined above or Behringer just went to Arturia and asked politely for permission and offered some revenue. Like:

"Hey, can we clone your product or shall we just buy Arturia?"

if it makes you happy..
I really look more in the direction of something new ..
you may not have noticed. but even this nasty clone has a few improvements.

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a "hater". I like Behringer but that doesn't mean I have to like all of their stuff. This controller was a waste of resources they could have better spend the money, time and resources on a poly synth instead of this. It's not that the Keystep is overpriced or discontinued if it was I would understand. Heh, they could have better cloned the Waldorf KB37:



I think this would sell way more than the Keystep clone.

Christ, at least the Crave didn't copy the look and feel of the Mother-32, as blatant of a <deleted by moderator> as it was.

this doesn't make sense. It looks cheap, price is almost same as the original, why bother?

Waiting for the polyat + ribbon controller.. yawn.. what a mundane start to "shaking up the controller market" and "hearing us"

They should call it "swing and a miss"

Yup ha, who exactly did they hear asking for this??

Good move.

That's a very far fetched conspiracy theory to give some imaginary straws to clutch at.

It's bull****.

The KeyStep was conceived, designed and realized by Arturia. The industrial design is by by Axel Hartmann. You could have found out this by looking at the manual. It's a wholly original piece of gear.

We need more of this:

Pretty shocking, even for Behringer. A new low