MOTU BPM Complete Beat Production Software review – part three
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
Reaching this, the third and final installment of our DV247 Blog’s MOTU BPM review, today we’re digging deeper into more creative functionality of this complete beat production software.
Looking firstly at the program’s loop import, playback and sampling features, I dropped a standard AIFF file straight into a rack selection’s edit window. Here, alongside other features, it’s possible to adjust sample start/stop points and choose from one of three playback parameters – ‘sample’ (plays as a regular sampler), ‘stretch’ (pitch changes, but not tempo) and ‘slice’ (as per stretch mode except loop can be played as individual slices). If a rhythm-based, non-sliced loop such as a plain AIFF file (as opposed to something like a .REX file) is loaded, by engaging this latter slice mode and clicking the map button BPM very cleverly auto-slices the content, spreading the individual results chromatically ascending up a keyboard. Map mode also allows the user to drag/drop the sliced loop data into a MIDI track within a DAW, for further manipulation of the individual order of rhythm slices.
Sampling and bringing in audio from the outside world for MOTU BPM is achieved by firstly launching the BPM-Sampler applet (which is located in the user’s Applications [Mac] or Programs [Win] folder) and enabling the software’s audio devices tab to address whatever interface you are using. After this, it’s possible to choose to monitor the incoming sound or not and then adjust the incoming level meters to an optimum low noise, distortion-free signal. This applet is only necessary for external incoming audio streams by the way, but keeping focus inside the computer environment, feeding audio from a DAW to BPM seems easy enough to set up too (though I couldn’t try this myself due to the strange non-functionality of my plug-in version – report back soon on that I hope).
Building a song is relatively straightforward, but you do need to keep your eye on the ball, reminding yourself of BPM’s definition of banks, patterns, racks and sounds etc along the way. Either of two racks holds multi-sample instruments, loops and phrases, and each individual component is loaded into the rack as a part. A ‘part’ is explained in the user manual as ‘like a channel on a mixing console or instrument track in your audio workstation software; it can have its own preset and settings’. By clicking on one of the two rack buttons, its constituent parts can be viewed – these could be a bassline, a guitar phrase or a synth lick for example, all or any of which could be a loop or multi-instrument type.
MOTU BPM addresses the playback of all audio information to build a complete track, firstly as ‘scenes’. A scene is a virtual snapshot of the above patterns and sequences loaded in each bank and rack part, with a total of sixteen scenes available. The scene editor gives the user a simple display to show which patterns and sequences are associated with each scene (keeping up..?). I’d highly recommend loading one of the two included tutorial files to get familiarised with how scenes connect to build a song.
However, to play back a full song, BPM gives the user ‘song’ and ‘live’ modes. This is where it gets much more straightforward, thank goodness. In song mode, the pads turn into scene indicators, and it’s simply a case of dragging scenes onto a horizontal sequence grid with musical bar divisions (at the given tempo the user is working in) and building a sequence of scenes in drag ‘n’ drop fashion. Any scenes that may be, say, short by a few bars can be dragged out (extended/repeated as it were) to accommodate whatever arrangement attributes the user requires. Hitting the play button on the standalone version or on your DAW (if using the plug-in version) will set the daisy-chained sequences running from thereon. In addition, and by way of further control and expressive variation, version 1.0.5 of the software adds ARP control functionality applicable to ‘racks’ too, which is definitely worth checking out.
Say perhaps, though, that rather than have a fixed arrangement from top to bottom in the timeline, the user wished for more flexibility to trigger different scenes in a more ‘busk it’ fashion (a bit akin to how Ableton Live users would do likewise). No problem, because MOTU BPM’s live mode will handle that. MIDI input is used to change scenes (either from a keyboard or the DAW application) or by clicking on any of the sixteen pads on the software’s GUI. If working in the DAW/plug-in side of the fence, users just flick BPM’s scene editor options tab from latch to false, and trigger each scene accordingly (recording the performance along the way should they desire).
All of the above leads us nicely to mixing within MOTU BPM. As mentioned in this review’s part one, this now quite obvious complete beat production machine is capable of some very flexible mixdown duties. All info is accessed quite logically by clicking the ‘mix’ tab, which gives 64 channels (handling level, pan, solo, mute) from the [4x16] set of banks A,B,C and D. The four parts of racks A and B give a further eight channels and a Master section contains level control for the composite of bank’s A,B,C and D, plus three auxiliaries and the main master outs. All in all then, this really bolsters the raison d’etre of the stand-alone version and gives each instance of the BPM plug-in even more stereo image and balance control.
In conclusion then, this software does actually live up to its name and under-the-hood claims. Without doubt, this is an awesome all-in-one rhythm solution for any producers making beats, bassline and instrumental backing tracks with a side eye on incorporating and sampling, loops and other audio content. It does a lot of things, very, very well indeed but maybe falls just short of being spectacular compared to perhaps the extraordinary capabilities of some other rhythm based instruments. It does however endear itself to my world as being a complete and highly powerful bread ‘n butter solution – the kit you’d turn to for the foundations of most, if not all, upcoming productions. It is of course very ‘urban/hip-hop/rap/dance’ in overall flavour (from presets to operation to interface) and those interested purely in the acoustic, rock and real world drum kits may not feel it a justified inclusion in their virtual racks. Via the MIDI learn function, nearly any parameter within the program can be automated and with this – plus the super efficient and creatively inspiring ‘song’/'live’ modes (and lest we forget the flexible mixing options) – BPM is about as inspiring to use as the likes of Ableton Live for on-the-fly and on-stage arrangement variations. Dedicate yourself primarily to MOTU BPM and you may jointly find yourself a new best mate and an ideal rhythm machine for the foreseeable future.
Tags: beat production, BPM, editor, loop, machine, motu, Sampler, software