Bought this only to control Cubase instruments, it works very well indeed, and also I can control my Waldorf Blofeld from this which is handy as the encoders on the Blofeld have lost their mind. What is also fun is playing drumbeats into Cubase from this, the pads are very sensitive to velocity which works great for drum patterns. I know it has a sequencer but I have no use for that, I needed a controller and this so far has been excellent. Mapping things in Cubase was pretty easy after some research and the software for the Beatstep is very handy so I can have the pads as switches for mutes etc or not depending on which template I load. Coming from a complete hardware studio in the past is why I really wanted this, hands on control of soft synths makes using them all the more enjoyable. Great product and service too.
This is a top quality piece of equipment. It's very well made with a steel chassis. Set up quick and easy with no drivers to install. The weight means it doesn't move around the desk when it's being played. It may be a bit heavy to carry around in a backpack - it's worth checking if you plan to be very mobile with it.
Just what I was looking for. I haven't had time to delve into the sequencing side of it but I plugged it in and started knocking out a couple of beats in Reason. The pads on my controller keyboard are like housebricks and you have to hit them hard to get a response but the pads on the Beatstep respond very well, nice feel to it. Also great fun to play something like a pluck patch on a synth, you get a different feel than playing a keyboard. It comes with Ableton Live Lite and Arturia's Analogue Lab Lite which has some nice presets from Arturia's synths.