twisted electrons BlastBeats FM Drum Machine User Manual

: June 8, 2024
: Twisted-Electrons

twisted electrons BlastBeats FM Drum Machine

twisted-electrons-BlastBeats-FM-Drum-Machine-PRODUCT-
IMAGE

Please check the website for the latest firmware!
The feature set is also likely to evolve so its recommended to check the website for updates to this manual.

We always value feedback and ideas, so feel free to reach out.
[email protected]

Features Overview

At the heart of this groove box is a YMF-262 Chip AKA OPL3 FM chip -the same chip that was previously found in the Soundblaster16 /SoundBlaster PRO2 sound cards found in 90s computers.

Blast Beats has two Stereo YAC512 DACs allowing 4 individual assignable outputs to multi-track and route the instruments with flexibility.

Blast Beats features 10 voices consisting of:

6 drum voices: Kick/SD/Tom/closed hat/open hat and cymbal
4 synth voices. Each synth voice can be dual or quad operator depending on the chosen algorithm.

Other features include:

8 waveforms per operator
56 faders with per step automation
32 illuminated buttons including: 3 mode buttons (top left), 3 transport buttons (bottom left), a top row of 10 voice buttons referred to in this manual as “top10” and a bottom row of 16 step buttons referred to as “bottom16”
DIN5 MIDI IN and OUT
USB for firmware updates
4 Assignable MONO T/S 1/4” outputs
1 MONO T/S 1/4” MIX output (with all instruments mixed to one output)
2 DUAL MONO T/S 1/4” headphone output (same as mix on both sides)
Analog Sync in and out via 1⁄8” mono TS jack
MicroSD (included card and USB adaptor) for data storage

About Drum and Synth Voices

The YMF262 FM chip synthesises drum sounds using several FM operators. Some operators are shared between instruments. As a result some of Blast Beats faders affect several instruments at once.
There are 4 synth instruments. Synths 1 and 2 are monophonic (one voice) whereas synths 3 and 4 are duophonic (2 voices) and differ in the way the 2 voices are triggered:

Synth 3 alternates between voice 1 and 2 on every triggered step. This allows voices 1 and 2 to overlap.
Synth 4 triggers both voices at once, they can be detuned using the operator3 tune fader allowing fat bass lines or chord stabs.

You can choose between 5 algorithms for each synth instrument with the algo fader.

twisted-electrons-BlastBeats-FM-Drum-Machine-01

Depending on the chosen algorithm the instrument will offer two dual-operator voices (algo modes 3 and 5) or a single 4-operator (algo modes 1,2 and 4) .
In 2-op modes the second vibrato fader affects the pitch of operator 4. However in 4-op modes the second vibrato fader affects the multiplier of the operator 4 for a pseudo-arpeggiator effect.

Step Edit Mode

Press step to enter this mode, here we can edit steps of the pattern to create beats.

Selecting a page

If the pattern is more than 1 page long (more than 16 steps) press step to flick through the pages.
The top10 row of LEDS will briefly indicate the current page. A pattern can be up to 4 pages (or 64 steps) long.
Please refer to the length mode section of this manual to learn how to add pages.

Selecting an instrument

Blast Beats has 10 voices consisting of 6 drum voices and 4 synth voices. Select the voice you wish to edit by pressing any of the top10 voice buttons. If the sequencer is stopped the selected voice will trigger allowing you to preview its sound.

Cloning a synth
You copy the sound of a synth over to another. To do so hold the top button of the source synth and press the top button of the destination. For example: hold top button #7 and press top button #9 to copy synth1 over synth 3.

X0X style step input
When REC is off, you can toggle steps on or off simply by pressing the bottom16 buttons. If the sequencer is stopped synths 1 to 4 will play the step that you press. This helps identify the note of a step that you are enabling or disabling.

Real time drum input
With REC armed and Blast Beats running press top10 buttons 1 to 6 to punch in a drum beat.

Real time synth input
With REC armed and Blast Beats is running the 16 bottom buttons become a chromatic piano. Tap them to record notes into the sequencer in real time.

Changing the synth input octave
Hold REC and press the kit/patt, step or function buttons to choose low, normal or high octaves respectively

Changing the playback octave ( applies to synths & drum)
You can transpose the octave of any voice by holding its top10 button and pressing the following menu buttons:

the Kit/patt button transposes the playback down an octave
the step button plays back with octave unchanged
the function button transposes the playback up an octave

Double-tapping any of the 3 above buttons transposes all voices at once

Step by step synth input
When REC is armed and Blast Beats is stopped, you can input a melody step by step by tapping the bottom16 buttons.
To activate or deactivate step by step synth mode hold REC and press run. The LEDS will chase from left to right when step by step mode is activated.

If you reach the end of your sequence (16 steps if the song is only 1 page) it will loop back to step1 and overwrite endlessly
You can also input notes via MIDI using the channels 1-4 (or other depending on the MIDI channel routing)
If you wish to start over at any time toggle REC off then on again to reset the step recorder to the first step.

MIDI real time punching

When Blast Beats is running and REC is armed, it will pick up MIDI notes sent to the corresponding MIDI channel depending on the settings (see MIDI channel routing for details).

Send the following notes on CH10 (by default) to input drum notes

MIDI note 36 =kick
MIDI note 38=snare
MIDI note 41=tom
MIDI note 42 =closed hat
MIDI note 46=open hat
MIDI note 49=cymbal
CH1-4: MIDI notes 36 to 100 synth1-4 respectively

Kit / Pattern Mode

In this mode you can change & chain patterns, and assign different kits to each pattern. Press kit/pat to enter this mode.

Changing Kit:
Press a top10 button at any time to change the kit assigned to the current pattern.
Each of the 16 patterns can have any of the 10 kits assigned to it.

Cloning Kit:
It’s quick and simple to clone kits. This is useful if you wish to create variations of the same kit. Hold the kit you wish to clone ( any top10 button), and press the destination kit ( any other top10 button) to paste it. You can make multiple clones at once.

Changing pattern:
Press any bottom16 button to change patterns.
If the sequencer is stopped, Blast Beats will immediately change to the new pattern. If the sequencer is running, Blast Beats will cue the next pattern and make the change when it reaches the last step of the current pattern. In this case the cued pattern will be indicated by a blinking bottom16 LED.

Cloning pattern:
Same process as cloning kits. hold the pattern you wish to clone (bottom16 button), and press any other bottom16 button to paste it.
Note: When changing pattern, the assigned kit will automatically be loaded

Chaining patterns

You can chain up to 256 patterns in a row to form a song.
Press REC to arm the sequencer (REC LED should blink)
When ready Press the first pattern of your song to start recording a chain.
This will also delete the previously recorded chain.
Blast Beats will record up to 256 pattern changes in a row.
You can loop the same pattern several times.
The current pattern will blink during the chain recording phase to indicate that it’s armed.
when you have reached the end of the chain,Press REC again.
The current pattern will no longer blink and Blast Beats will return to the first pattern in the chain and loop the chain endlessly.
Stopping the sequencer resets to the first pattern of the chain.

clear the chain

suppose we want to play only pattern 1
press REC to arm Blast Beats,
press bottom16 button1,
press REC again to un-arm Blast Beats (before pattern 1 reaches the end of its cycle if the sequencer is running).

Add or replace patterns in the chain
Start the song by pressing run. Now you can arm the REC button at any and press bottom16 buttons to swap patterns in the chain. If the end of the chain is reached with REC still armed, you will extend the chain until you disarm REC or stop the sequencer.

Freeze the chain
To temporarily disable the chain (and repeat any pattern) without clearing it you can freeze it. hold REC and press freeze to freeze and unfreeze the chain.

Song Mode

Press kit/patt and function at the same time to enter song mode. Both kit/patt and function LEDS will light at the same time.
The 160 available songs are arranged in 10 folders/banks of 16 songs

To load a new song tap a top10 button to select a folder, Then tap a bottom16 button to load a song.

1 song consists of:
16 patterns (up to 64 steps per pattern (arranged in 4 pages of 16 steps)) 10 kits (aka presets) that hold all fader positions.
Kits can be swapped on the fly and are linked to patterns.
A chain of up to 256 pattern changes can be recorded.

Function Mode

Press function to enter this mode to edit the following functions:

Save
updates the SD card. You can save the current song to location (1 to 16) within any folder (1 to 10).
Blast Beats will select the current folder and location by default, press any top10 button to select a destination folder 1 to 0 (10), then press any bottom 16 to confirm location. Blast Beats only writes to SD when the synth is stopped.
If it is running, it will wait for the next time you stop it (by pressing run) and save then.

Length
sets the length of the current pattern. Use top10 1-4 to select number of pages (x16 steps),
Then use bottom16 to select the last step.

Cloning the first page:
If you hold the first top button and press another top button without releasing the first, the new added pages will contain the same pattern data as the first.

Clear

fader automation: Hold clear and move a fader to erase its automation
All automation: Hold clear and press REC to clear all automation
pattern clear (single voice): Hold clear and press a top10 button to erase the enabled steps
pattern initialize: Hold clear and press kit/patt to erase the current pattern resulting in a blank 16-step pattern.
wiggle automation: hold clear and press wiggle to reset the wiggle depth automation.
vibrato rate automation: hold clear and press vibrato to reset the vibrato rate automation.
tremolo rate automation: hold clear and press tremolo to reset the tremolo rate automation.
Swing automation: hold clear and press the swing button to clear the swing automation.

Wiggle

This function adds randomness to any fader.
To assign the wiggler to a fader: hold wiggle and move a fader.
Set the depth of the wiggler: press any of the top10 buttons once to apply the wiggle depth to the current pattern.
Double click any top10 buttons to apply the depth to all patterns of the song at once.
You can also automate the wiggle depth. Simply light the REC button and wiggle depth changes will be recorded and played back.
To clear all faders assigned to the wiggler: hold wiggle and press clear.
Shuffle kit: Hold wiggle and press kit/patty to randomize the kit (automatically move some random faders)
Shuffle pattern: Hold wiggle and press step to randomize the pattern (automatically enable or disable steps)

Swing
Use the top10 buttons to set the amount of swing. Each pattern of a song has its own swing setting.
You can also automate the swing setting. Simply light the REC button and swing setting changes will be recorded and played back.

Mute
In this mode use the top10 buttons to mute/unmute a channel

Solo
in this mode use the top10 buttons to solo a channel

Prob
In this mode set the trigger probability of a channel.
Select a channel: hold prob and use a top10 button
Now release prob and set the level of probability (chances out of 10 of triggering) with the top10 buttons.

Stutter

This is a performance function, enabling you to re-trigger the same instrument rapidly (like a Blast Beat).
Hold the top10 buttons to repeat the current step at various rates. The rates are divisions of the current tempo.
Tip: try holding wiggle during a stutter 🙂

Bend (spindown effect)
Hold bend to bend the global tuning of the FM chip downwards. Use the top10 buttons to set the bend strength.

Freeze
When freeze is held, the communication between Blast Beats and the FM chips is suspended leading to sustained notes and glitches (can be combined with bend and stutter)

Tremolo

Use the top10 buttons to set the tremolo rate (each pattern has its own tremolo rate)
This function will continuously modulate the volume of the operator.
A different Tremolo rate can be assigned to each pattern.
You can also automate the tremolo rate on each step.
Simply light the REC button and tremolo rate changes will be recorded and played back.

Vibrato

Use the top10 buttons to set the vibrato speed (each pattern has its own vibrato rate)
This function will modulate the pitch of the operator. A different vibrato rate can be assigned to each pattern
You can also automate the vibrato rate. Simply light the REC button and vibrato rate changes will be recorded and played back.

Phones
Use the top10 buttons to set the phones level (recalled at startup)

Mix
Use the top10 buttons to set the mix level (recalled at startup)

Route

With this function you can assign the instruments to any of the 4 outputs. Note some instruments are locked together (snare+hats , tom+cymbal).
This is a hardware limitation due to the way the voices are created by the YMF262.
hold route and press a top10 button select a target instrument.
Release route and now press the first 4 top10 buttons to attach/detach the target voice to outputs 1-4 (you can route a voice to multiple outputs to make it louder in the main mix)

Synching

Master Mode

Blast Beats will automatically start up in master clock mode.

Clock Out

Blast Beats will send a 5V pulse every 2 steps (2PPQ) at all times.

Analog Slave Mode
Plug a 1/8” mono TS cable into the sync input to activate Analog Slave mode. In this mode Blast Beats will advance 2 steps on every received pulse (2PPQ). MIDI clock is ignored in analog Slave mode.
Blast Beats will automatically reset to step 1 if no pulses have been received for several seconds.
Pressing run in this mode will reset the sequencer to step 1.

MIDI Slave Mode
Blast Beats will automatically sync to incoming MIDI clock. MIDI slave mode is activated when Blast Beats receives a MIDI Start command. Pressing run in this mode will reset the sequencer to step 1. Blast Beats will go back to Master mode after receiving a MIDI Stop command.

Setting The Tempo (Master Mode)

Tap tempo
Press a tempo button at least 3 times to tap the tempo. If Blast Beats isn’t running it will start on the third tap.

Manual aka BPM tempo
Press and hold the tempo button then press the top10 buttons to input the tempo in beats per minute. You can input either 2 or 3 digit BPM values.
Example 1: Set Blast Beats to 123 BPM

Hold tempo and tap first, second then third top10 button
Example2: Set Blast Beats to 51 BPM
Hold tempo and tap fifth then first top10 button
Release tempo button to set to 51.

Fader Automation

When in step mode you can record and automate the faders.

Recording a fader
To record a fader simply press the REC button in step mode (the REC LED will flash). Now the sequencer will record and repeat the fader movements. Press REC again to no longer record the faders.

Deleting automation for a single fader
To delete the automation of a single fader press function to enter function mode. Now hold clear and move the fader for which you wish to delete the automation.

Deleting all fader automation
To delete all the fader automation of the current pattern press function to enter function mode. Now hold clear and press REC

Trick Automation and step edit

In function mode you can record and play back the 3 available trick functions that are stutter, bend and freeze

Recording a trick
To record a trick simply press the REC button in function mode (the REC LED will flash). Now the bends, freezes and stutters that you activate will be recorded and played back

Deleting trick automation
To delete trick automation press function to enter function mode. Now hold clear and press stutter, freeze or bend the delete the respective automation .

Step Editing trick automation
You can edit the automation using the 16 step buttons just like you would edit the steps of a regular beat.

To access the trick step edit page hold step and press stutter, bend or freeze to access the respective editors.
Now you can flick through the pages of the pattern by pressing step and the bottom 16 LEDs will light up when automation of the trick is present on a step.
To exit trick step editor press function, kit/patt or step + any top 10 button

Bend and Freeze step edit
Bend and freeze trick automation are edited the same way in that a single press of the bottom 16 buttons will turn the trick on or off for any step.

Stutter step edit
Stutter trick step edit allows you to activate and deactivate the stutter on any step but it also allows you to choose the stutter rate per step. Press a bottom 16 button to select a step. If no stutter automation is present on the step the LED will light and stutter will be added. Next press any of the top10 buttons to select the rate of the stutter for the selected step.
To clear a stutter on a step, press any LIT bottom 16 button twice

Special Startup Settings

There are special settings that can be changed by holding a specific button at startup:

Safe envelope ranges:
Hold length button at startup to toggle safe envelope ranges on or off. The length LED will blink once or twice to indicate the new setting. 1 blink = on. 2 blinks =off. When Safe mode is on, the att(ack) and dec(ay) faders keep the envelope speeds within pre set ranges judged useful for drum machines.
When safe is off, the faders reach the full range of the chip allowing very long to infinite attack and release times (drones).

Faster pitch fall (default=off)
Hold bend button at startup to toggle this on setting or off the LED of the button will blink once or twice to indicate the setting. Once=on twice=off.
When faster pitch fall is on the fall faders will pull the tune of the instrument up or down 4x faster
Useful for fast paced music.

MIDI channel routing

Hold route at startup to enter MIDI channel routing.
Blast Beats listens to 5 MIDI channels of your choice:
Drums (default CH10)
SYNTH 1 (default CH1)
SYNTH 2 (default CH2)
SYNTH 3 (default CH3)
SYNTH 4 (default CH4)

To change the channel select a target by pressing the following top buttons:
Top button 1-6 selects the drum voice
Top button 7-10 selects SYNTH1 to SYNTH4 respectively
Now press any bottom button (1-16) to choose the channel.
Power cycle Blast Beats to resume normal operation.

Factory reset
Hold clear at startup to reset the settings to factory default.
This can be useful if Blast Beats isn’t behaving as expected after an accidental setting change.

These are the default settings:

Fall rate=normal
Current song=1
Current folder=1
Swing=off
Phones and Mix volume=6
All voices routed to all outputs
Safe envelope ranges = on
MIDI Channel routing:
Drums=CH10
Synth1=CH1
Synth2=CH2
Synth3=CH3
Synth4=CH4

Factory resetting won’t affect the SD card data

File Structure (SD Card)

IMPORTANT:
The included micro SD card contains all your song and pattern data.
The card is required for Blast Beats to operate. At start-up if the card is not detected all the LEDS will blink twice every second until the card is inserted.

From a single SD card Blast Beats can load up to 160 songs (10 folders X 16 songs).

There are 2 main folders on your card labelled KITS and SONGS.
Each have 10 sub-folders labeled BANK1 to BANK10

Each main folder contains 16 song folders labelled 1 to 16

Each song folder contains the following files:

AUTO.BB (automation)
BANKS.BB (kit bank assignments)
CHAIN.BB (pattern chain)
10x DRUMX.BB (drum kits/presets where X= 1-10)
PAT-D1.BB to PAT-D16.BB (drum patterns)
PAT-S1.BB to PAT-S16.BB (synth/melodic patterns)
10x SYNTX.BB (synth kits/presets where X=1-10)
Each kit folder contains the following files:
DRUM1.BB to DRUM10.BB (drum fader positions)
SYNT.BB to SYNT10.BB (synth fader positions)
You can safely mix and match these files between folders.

Firmware Updates

To perform a firmware update connect Blast Beats to your computer with a standard USB type A to type B cable (the kind typically used by a printer).

Hold the run button and power on Blast Beats.
Keep the run button held until your computer sees a hard drive labelled “UPLOAD_DISK”
Now simply delete the file located on the disk and replace with the new firmware file.
The disk will automatically eject from your computer and Blast Beats will reboot with the new firmware installed.

MIDI Implementation

Blast Beats responds to the following Note On messages. The drum voices will transmit MIDI notes out of the MIDI port when triggered by the internal sequencer allowing you to use Blast Beats as a MIDI drum sequencer!

Parameter MIDI Note number

Blast Beats responds to the following MIDI Control Change (CC) messages. When moved all faders will send their respective MIDI CC out of the MIDI output port allowing you to use Blast Beats as a MIDI controller.

Parameter MIDI CC Range

DRUMS (channel 10 by default)| |
Bass drum carrier volume| 20| 0-127
Bass drum carrier waveform| 21| 0-127
Bass drum carrier feedback| 22| 0-127
Bass drum carrier multiplier| 23| 0-127
Bass drum carrier tune| 24| 0-127
Bass drum carrier tune fall| 25| 0-127
Bass drum carrier attack| 26| 0-127
Parameter MIDI CC Range

Bass drum carrier decay| 27| 0-127
Bass drum modulator volume| 28| 0-127
Bass drum modulator waveform| 29| 0-127
Bass drum modulator multiplier| 30| 0-127
Bass drum modulator multiplier fall| 31| 0-127
Bass drum modulator attack| 32| 0-127
Bass drum modulator decay| 33| 0-127
Snare volume| 34| 0-127
Snare waveform| 35| 0-127
Snare multiplier| 36| 0-127
Snare tune| 37| 0-127
Snare tune fall| 38| 0-127
Snare attack| 39| 0-127
Snare decay| 40| 0-127
Hats Volume| 43| 0-127
Hats waveform| 45| 0-127
Hats multiplier| 55| 0-127
Hats tune| 56| 0-127
Hats tune fall| 57| 0-127
Hats attack| 51| 0-127
Hats decay| 54| 0-127
Tom Volume| 42| 0-127
Tom waveform| 44| 0-127
Tom multiplier| 48| 0-127
Tom/Cymbal tune| 46| 0-127
Tom/Cymbal tune fall| 44| 0-127
Tom attack| 50| 0-127
Tom decay| 53| 0-127
Cymbal Volume| 41| 0-127
Cymbal waveform| 45| 0-127
Cymbal multiplier| 48| 0-127
Parameter MIDI CC Range

Cymbal attack| 49| 0-127
Cymbal decay| 52| 0-127
Synth (channels 1 to 4 by default)| |
Operator 1 volume| 20| 0-127
Operator 1 waveform| 21| 0-127
Operator 1 feedback| 22| 0-127
Algorithm| 23| 0-127
Operator 1 multiplier| 24| 0-127
Operator 1 attack| 25| 0-127
Operator 1 decay| 26| 0-127
Operator 2 volume| 27| 0-127
Operator 2 waveform| 28| 0-127
Operator 2 multiplier| 29| 0-127
Operator 2 tremolo depth| 30| 0-127
Operator 2 vibrato depth| 31| 0-127
Operator 2 attack| 32| 0-127
Operator 2 decay| 33| 0-127
Operator 3 volume| 34| 0-127
Operator 3 waveform| 35| 0-127
Operator 3 feedback| 36| 0-127
Operator 3 tune| 37| 0-127
Operator 3 multiplier| 38| 0-127
Operator 3 attack| 39| 0-127
Operator 3 decay| 40| 0-127
Operator 4 volume| 41| 0-127
Operator 4 waveform| 42| 0-127
Operator 4 multiplier| 43| 0-127
Operator 4 tremolo depth| 44| 0-127
Operator 4 vibrato depth| 45| 0-127
Operator 4 attack| 46| 0-127
Operator 4 decay| 47| 0-127