Twisted Electrons - BlastBeats

A ten voice groovebox (six drums, four synths) with iconic FM-sound character. BlastBeats utilises the chip from the 90ies Soundblaster Cards and makes the potential of these devices fully accessible.

To many the Soundblaster Soundcards where the first adventure in computer sound. But quite surely almost no one ever dived into programming this chip, because this was really (!) tricky. Which is a shame because this chip – also called Yamaha OPL3 – is actually a quirky little 18 channel FM Synth with two to four operators per voice and with lots of parameters.

Enter the BlastBeats: Lots of charming retrostyle buttons and faders give you real time access to the parameters and the sequencer is up to date with advanced functionality like parameter locking.

Full Feature List:

• OPL3 (YMF262) FM chip featured in vintage sound blaster cards of the MS-DOS era
• Quad audio outputs with custom instrument routing
• High fidelity audio amplification with low noise floor
• mix (mono) and phones (dual mono) out each with volume control
• 6 drum tracks (bass drum, snare drum, tom, closed & open hat, cymbal) that can also be used for melodic parts.
• 4 synth tracks: two monophonic (2x2op or 1x4op) & two duo-phonic (4x2op or 2x4op)  
• 100 kits
• 160 songs x16 patterns x 64 steps
• Patterns of arbitrary step lengths 
• Kits and patterns stored on included SD card for convenient management and sharing.
• 56 faders with per step automation and modulation
• 32 high quality illuminated switches
• MIDI input and output on DIN5 ports
• Customisable MIDI input channels
• Analog sync in and out on 3.5mm jacks
• All Audio on 6.35mm jacks
• Premium sandblasted anodised aluminum chassis
• All instruments can be sequenced internally or played via MIDI allowing BlastBeats to be used as a 4-operator 8-waveform polytimbral MIDI synthesizer
• Probability per instrument
• Swing (with automation per step)
• Synth pitch vibrato and tremolo have adjustable speed and depth (with automation per step)
• Several waveforms and algorithms yielding infinite sound textures.
• Dimensions: 29.5cm x 16.5cm x 4.5cm (11.6" x 6.5" x 1.8")
• Weight 944 g ( 2 lb)
• 9V DC power supply included