MOTU BPM Complete Beat Production Software review – part two
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
Yesterday’s part one review of the MOTU BPM beat production software took a detailed overview of the many features that reinforced its all-in-one solution claims. Today, we look at the quality and range of sounds available and how the software’s main features work in production mode.
Entering sequence mode, a familiar step-time matrix is revealed in the main window. This illustrates any ‘pattern’ (or sequence of events) information the user has loaded. To get a quick taster of BPM’s preset library, it’s a good idea to click the triangular reveal button to drop down the ‘Kit + Pattern’ tab. Making sure that the amber-coloured auto-load button is on (bottom r/h/s), its simply a case of further revealing one of the nine named category trees to have access to some very ‘urban’ themed grooves. By clicking on whichever is chosen, the pattern info is loaded into the screen, and hitting the play button sets the sequence running.
Leaving ‘play’ engaged, it’s very easy to audition other sets of sounds and patterns by clicking down the list or using your keyboard’s up/down buttons. The range of sounds as mentioned have a distinctive contemporary urban/pop/dance feel to them, with a multitude of full and incidental patterns and sound sources. BPM also however provides ‘filler’ percussion – bongo’s, conga’s, shakers and a flurry of Latin flavas etc – in abundance. Editing and indeed replacing individual sounds is a breeze too – say, for example, you like the core elements of one pattern but not the snare sound. By navigating to the sounds folder (containing a magnificent and broad selection of percussion weapons), the user can simply click on the pad to replace and click/choose a preferred snare. BPM’s preset patterns can also be maintained, but be applied to completely different sounds sets (ie: imagine a full kit sequence playing a latin set and some interestingly creative results will ensue).
Likewise, adding FX to percussion sounds is easy to achieve. A selection of the FX-mode button is followed by hitting add fx (with of course the desired target pad sound highlighted) and thereafter, a window appears for detailed parameter adjustment of the selected effect. I was pleasantly surprised how good this range of supplied FX is in MOTU BPM, ultimately making it possible to further fine tuning and optimisation of how your groove should sound (and also saving a lot of time compared with often more complex multi-channel routing necessary in a host DAW environment). Should you want to get deep down ‘n’ dirty with actual sonic manipulation of any pad sound, simply enter edit mode, where access to a multitude of synth-style parameter adjustments is available. A decent range of filters are there too, alongside drive, aux sends, pitch envelope and various signal-routing options. This section of the BPM GUI really is the icing on the cake for the ultimate in dynamic, sound-shaping control.
MOTU BPM really gets fun, though, when using the on-board graph sequencer that we mentioned in part one. This cool feature allows editing of note parameters, primarily focused on expressive results. As an example, I ran a snare sound within a regular pattern, with a ‘roll’ (controlled multi-trigger) effect, and then applied a left/right pan to each individual hit. Add some velocity, cutoff, resonance, pitch shift, note length and then some to perhaps other groove elements and we’re talking some real applications for individual drum-programming excursions. Also, and as mentioned in part one of this review, the application can be flipped into grungy, gritty and lo-fi Emu SP1200 mode, which outputs any relevant content into emulation of this iconic drum machine – nice.
Continuing with this optimistic theme, BPM’s drum synth, accessed via the Osc tab in the edit window, is an engine based on the very basic waveform building blocks of electronic percussives. MOTU supply a large amount of preset starting points, which will have you somewhere near Vince Clarke synth drum territory in the blink of an eye. Bass drums, cymbals, hi-hats, toms, rims, claps and snares are among the category choices – all of them, even in their basic form, very useful additions to the main preset counterparts located elsewhere.
In next weeks part three of this MOTU BPM beat production machine review, I’ll be checking out the sampling options, loop handling and song creation side of the fence, including a peek at how the program utilises musical, non-percussive content.
Tags: BPM, how to program beats, making rhythms for songs, motu beat production