The SoftStep hasn't gained much popularity, but in the event someone is interested I'll do one last post before putting it to bed. Tried out the beta software and firmware. Still absolutely fucking UNUSABLE. Jesus, did these assholes over at Keith McMillen Inc.

Even bother testing this out? It's interesting when we discuss bugs for Live because I'm reminded after trying to use this piece of shit McMillan product that everything is, indeed, relative. I wish I could buy each and every one of you a SoftStep so that you could witness first hand the utter train wreck that is this software.

It's so impossibly buggy. So unbelievable bloated. It defies belief.

It's actually taking as much RAM to run as a 20 scene Ableton set of mine that contains a boatload of plugs, lol. And it's only a fucking interface to send MIDI data back and forth. The startup time is nearly a minute. Well, there it is. My Rant Of The Week.

My only wish is that I didn't need my $265 back because I would love nothing better than to videotape myself hauling this piece of shit out into the street, dousing it with gasoline, and lighting it on fire. :lol: The good thing out of all this is that now I can do what I should have done in the first place: buy Guitar Rig 4.

Lesson learned. Yeah, I just think the best device for me to hit with my foot is a footswith made out of metal, in a metal box. I'm pretty sure I'll end up messing Rig Kontrol 3 up in a couple years, but at least it won't be within a year or so. That's all besides your experience. My only complaint with Rig Kotrol is they got lazy with the switching back and forth between using the Rig Kontrol for Guitar Rig specifically and as a MIDI controller, you have to select it in Guitar Rig, which is slightly annoying VS Kore where it's switchable via the actual hardware.

:lol: The good thing out of all this is that now I can do what I should have done in the first place: buy Guitar Rig 4. Lesson learned. Yeah, I just think the best device for me to hit with my foot is a footswith made out of metal, in a metal box. I'm pretty sure I'll end up messing Rig Kontrol 3 up in a couple years, but at least it won't be within a year or so. That's all besides your experience.

My only complaint with Rig Kotrol is they got lazy with the switching back and forth between using the Rig Kontrol for Guitar Rig specifically and as a MIDI controller, you have to select it in Guitar Rig, which is slightly annoying VS Kore where it's switchable via the actual hardware. The bummer here for musicians is that foot controllers are really getting the short shrift when it comes to new features and innovation. The SoftStep, on it's face, is so far above any other foot controller in terms of it's incredible features. I kid you not. Take a gander at the manual. The fact that you can send out 6 different messages at once? I don't know of ANY kind of controller that can do that - without the use of Bome's MIDI or the like.

The real innovation comes in that every pedal (I say pedal but they are in fact pads) is capable of X/Y movement - you can also set whether or not that's circular for adjusting dials, or true XY. The list goes on and on. All of those controls actually DO work on the SoftStep; and very well at that. It's the software (the heart of the thing, really) that's total shit. I hear what you're saying about metal construction.

I think for the kind of high energy show you put on that would be a serious concern. I can't speak to long or short term build quality for the SoftStep, for the obvious reason. But the thing did feel quite durable. Who knows over the long haul how robust those pad sensors really are.?

Again it's just crazy that we seem to get a fucking ENDLESS supply of standard controllers, but nothing in the foot department. This isn't even an issue of DJ vs musician or type of music vs another. Doesn't EVERYBODY use foot controllers now? I guess there's just no demand; which is a true anomoly in this industry. Again, with the SoftStep the FUCKING INCREDIBLE thing is this: whatever MIDI message routing and format you have in mind, the SoftStep was designed to do it.

For instance, you can set one pad to be an expression pedal by programming a Y only movement response. You could use a CC# to handle that. Then, at the same time, you could tell the SAME pad to send another CC (or MIDI note or program change etc etc etc) the instant the pad felt pressure. You could then have it send another CC or note etc the instant you took your foot off the pad. This means you can use a pad to turn on a device, act as an expression pedal, and turn off a device. And, BTW, you've got 3 more parameter slots to send out even MORE messages, lol.

Not only that, but it has this 'slew' function that automatically smooths out - on a curve - the parameter range you are sending. Jesus Help Me. Hi everyone, Danny from KMI here. Wanted to chime in on this topic to try and help out. LoopZebraStation: I am very happy to read how excited you are about the SoftStep, yet obviously the editing software seems to be giving you some trouble. It would be great if you could post specific examples of what you are having issues with.

It seems everything is related to storing and recalling scene presets. I will give a simplified explanation of how to store preset mapping layouts, which are called 'scenes' in the SoftStep editor software, which hopefully will help solve some of the preset issues you seem to be having. In the editing Software, each of the 10 foot keys has a 'modulation window' where you make custom mappings to send out any sort of control data needed such as MIDI CC/Notes/PGM Change/etc. You can save these key mappings one at a time, or save all 10 keys at once to whats called a 'scene', which the global preset of all 10 keys plus the navigation pad. Being able to save keys individually or globally gives you the ability to easily recall and re-use certain keys with newer presets you might decide to make. However, more often than not you will want to save and recall the presets for all keys simultaneously.

When you select save scene from the main editing window, it gives you an option to chose whether you want to save all key mappings at once, as well as save this scene to the standalone mode preset list as well. As with most software, you need to save whatever preset you are working on before switching to another, otherwise your edits will be lost. The new software notifies you of any changes to a key's mappings by flashing a red border around that key in the application's main overview window until the new edits are saved. Once you get your scene presets setup, you can open the 'Setlist' to use and switch between only the preset scenes you want directly from the SoftStep.

So if I have 25 custom preset scenes stored in the editor software, but only want to use my 3 guitar scenes for a performance, I would open the setlist editor and select the 3 guitar presets. Now I can use the left and right navigation keys on the SoftStep to switch between the 3 guitar scenes and never have to look at the computer to see which scene I am on. Along these lines, Standalone mode is a huge addition to our editor software, which gives you the ability to download your custom setlist directly to the SoftStep and use it standalone without needing to open the editing software. There are some great examples of standalone mode working with things such as the iPad ( ) and for a live improvisation with Ableton ( ). I hope this helps for now to clarify any issues you have been having with presets.

Again, it would be great to get specific examples of what troubles you are experiencing. I am be more than happy to help solve any problems you are having. Again, with the SoftStep the FUCKING INCREDIBLE thing is this: whatever MIDI message routing and format you have in mind, the SoftStep was designed to do it. For instance, you can set one pad to be an expression pedal by programming a Y only movement response. You could use a CC# to handle that. Then, at the same time, you could tell the SAME pad to send another CC (or MIDI note or program change etc etc etc) the instant the pad felt pressure.

You could then have it send another CC or note etc the instant you took your foot off the pad. This means you can use a pad to turn on a device, act as an expression pedal, and turn off a device. And, BTW, you've got 3 more parameter slots to send out even MORE messages, lol. Not only that, but it has this 'slew' function that automatically smooths out - on a curve - the parameter range you are sending.

Jesus Help Me. Hi everyone, Danny from KMI here. Wanted to chime in on this topic to try and help out. LoopZebraStation: I am very happy to read how excited you are about the SoftStep, yet obviously the editing software seems to be giving you some trouble.

It would be great if you could post specific examples of what you are having issues with. It seems everything is related to storing and recalling scene presets. I will give a simplified explanation of how to store preset mapping layouts, which are called 'scenes' in the SoftStep editor software, which hopefully will help solve some of the preset issues you seem to be having. In the editing Software, each of the 10 foot keys has a 'modulation window' where you make custom mappings to send out any sort of control data needed such as MIDI CC/Notes/PGM Change/etc.

You can save these key mappings one at a time, or save all 10 keys at once to whats called a 'scene', which the global preset of all 10 keys plus the navigation pad. Being able to save keys individually or globally gives you the ability to easily recall and re-use certain keys with newer presets you might decide to make. However, more often than not you will want to save and recall the presets for all keys simultaneously. When you select save scene from the main editing window, it gives you an option to chose whether you want to save all key mappings at once, as well as save this scene to the standalone mode preset list as well. As with most software, you need to save whatever preset you are working on before switching to another, otherwise your edits will be lost. The new software notifies you of any changes to a key's mappings by flashing a red border around that key in the application's main overview window until the new edits are saved. Once you get your scene presets setup, you can open the 'Setlist' to use and switch between only the preset scenes you want directly from the SoftStep.

So if I have 25 custom preset scenes stored in the editor software, but only want to use my 3 guitar scenes for a performance, I would open the setlist editor and select the 3 guitar presets. Now I can use the left and right navigation keys on the SoftStep to switch between the 3 guitar scenes and never have to look at the computer to see which scene I am on. Along these lines, Standalone mode is a huge addition to our editor software, which gives you the ability to download your custom setlist directly to the SoftStep and use it standalone without needing to open the editing software. There are some great examples of standalone mode working with things such as the iPad ( ) and for a live improvisation with Ableton ( ). I hope this helps for now to clarify any issues you have been having with presets.

Again, it would be great to get specific examples of what troubles you are experiencing. I am be more than happy to help solve any problems you are having. First, I want to thank you for paying us a visit. It's appreciated. Second, I've already returned the unit. Third, sorry but I carefully read the manual and watched the tutorial vids and every step I took was exactly as you describe above. Yesterday I actually dragged a friend of mine over with his MacBook Pro, sat him down, and said 'Okay.

I'm not going to say a fucking thing. See what you think.' I then shut the attic door, made sure he got what he needed in terms of coffee, refreshments, and bathroom breaks, and didn't return until 2 hours later. I gave him no clues as to my difficulties, but he knew something was up. Every single problem that I had was duplicated during his experience; with both the standard and beta versions. Presets were renamed at random, settings were altered.

And don't even get me started on the process of saving from Host to StandAlone. That entire thing barely worked at all - though admittedly it IS beta for that feature. So, bottom line, what we have here with the standard and beta versions are 2 people with Macs who duplicated the exact same problems. Oh, and the software literally CONSUMED as much memory as it possibly could. It was slow as hell to start, slow as hell to work with, and even fucking SLOWER to quit out of. Your software is SHIT.

I don't know what else to say? I truly truly TRULY think you've got the concept for an amazing foot controller. But even the one review I managed to find - of which you provide a link to on your website - said that the software was buggy. And that was written in Oct? I was unbelievable excited about the SoftStep. Like peeing my pants excited.

That's why I've been blasting you folks now. There's just no excuse.

Not after a year of promotion from KMI. You could set the world on fire with the SoftStep. But that software has got to go back to the drawing board. LoopStationZebra: Both I and our entire support team would be absolutely happy to help you solve the issues you are having. We've had great success recently with our latest software version so it is a big concern of ours reading about the sort of issues you are having with your preset management. Again if you could give us specific details about what you are doing to cause these issues, we would take the time and attempt to either re-produce the problem ourselves, or help make sure you are doing things correctly.

We have never seen an instance of presets being renamed at random for example, so it would really help having every detail possible to try and reproduce the problem on our end. Our company continues to spend time and energy adding functionality, incorporating user suggestions, and most of all guaranteeing stability. A big part of improving on our end is being able to reproduce issues users are having exactly as described, so we can really get to the bottom of what is going on. We are at a great point right now with what we and many of our users believe is a very capable and reliable version of our software. So it is taken very seriously when we read your posts stating our software is 'unusable.'

It would be great to help you troubleshoot things step by step, for your benefit and ours. I am sad to read you already returned your unit, which obviously wont help either of us get to the bottom of the issues you were having. From seeing how many people are successfully using our software to build and save their own presets, I would have really liked to help figure out what was going on. I personally am not part of our support team, but I take a very big interest in an issue when the software is stated as 'unusable.' Did you ever try contacting our support team? I am 100% positive they would have been happy to assist you in any way possible to get you up and running with success.

I will be the first to admit that music technology can be extensive and sometimes tricky to learn both hardware and software wise. A very large goal of ours at KMI is to make products and software that is not only extensively capable, but also user friendly. Our software does require a learning curve to be able to dive in and create your own custom presets, just as it does for most all software/hardware you want to take full advantage of. However because of our success rate with hundreds of customers and professionals who chose to endorse our product, and from my own personal experience, I believe our software is quite usable.

Danny, the software is someone convoluted, but not altogether complicated. It took awhile to get my head around the sheer scope of the software, that's for sure. But while there are more features to program, it's not all that different from something like the Korg editing software for the Nano series. I sent about 3 emails on Saturday, heard back from you guys today at around 1pm. There was nothing in the emails that I hadn't already checked/tried/tested. I certainly could have waited longer, but to what end? I had spend roughly 5 hours of time with the thing on Saturday, another 3 on Sunday.

The real kicker was inviting my friend over (also an Ableton user, btw) and he had the exact same issues with both versions of the software and hardware. He's on a MBP, I'm on a MB. What can I say?

Enough was enough. I was seriously pissed off. I'm an idiot, but not so much of an idiot that I couldn't see there were major issues going on. A conflict on my system?

The same conflicts on a different system? Maybe the success rate you claim is on the PC side?.shrug. Dunno. Maybe ze2be or someone else on this forum will pick up a SoftStep (for the Mac) and give it a go?

But that's the thing: I started searching on every music forum I know for info on the SoftStep, and could barely find a user. Loopers-Delight had one or two. Gearslutz had one or two. And that's it. They weren't even really talking about the thing.

Tell you what? Send me another one and we'll work through it. If the issues were indeed my fault I will a.) Pay you the $265 purchase price + an additional $100 and b.) Publically retract every shitty thing I've said and offer an apology. However, if the issues do prove to be a fault of the software then I get to light the thing on fire and videotape the action. Okay, that's uncalled for I suppose and you'd probably never go for it. Look man, I'm putting that cash towards Guitar Rig 4 at this point.

However, if just one Mac user here at the Ableton forum buys the SoftStep (with the current standard and beta versions of the software (v1.031 & v1.099) and hardware (vJ1 & vJ26) and doesn't have issues, I'll buy the thing again and give it another go. If I'm proven wrong on the software stability, I'll come to you guys with hat in hand and offer the mea culpa.

Just thought it would be worth chiming in with my experience with the Softstep. I've had it since the first run, last year and have used it already in over a dozen gigs. Like LoopStationZebra, I'm on a Mac. However, my experience has been flawless. I have had no trouble with the software at all.

Things are stored, save, recalled, switched dynamically live. Everything is running as advertised. The software is quite complex, but I prefer that, as I'm that way inclined. I found the documentation very simple.

I've lent it to a friend, who too, with only a few hours, made patches to control his Live set. He is definitely NOT a programmer-guy. Maybe your SS was faulty? Even with the first public version of the Software, on my machine it was totally usable, not a RAM hog and completely stable. On another note.

For those considering or who own a SS and own multiple computers: leave the app in your Dropbox folder and you can sync all your patches with all your machines. It's perfect if you have a studio and live machine. I started searching on every music forum I know for info on the SoftStep, and could barely find a user. Loopers-Delight had one or two. Gearslutz had one or two. And that's it. They weren't even really talking about the thing.

I also find it surprising/disconcerting how difficult it is to find information about the softstep, especially considering the amount of potential it offers. Small companies have small advertising budgets, sure, but if I was a neutral music magasine and one of these came through the letterbox I'd certainly put some sort of article together about it. I'm heartened to see that kmi are concerned enough to actually jump in to the forums to tackle issues head on - I'll be reading Danny's responses carefully. I'm still eager to buy one, but not if it's going to mean hours trying to problem-solve it when I should be using it. The resource issue is also very concerning. Essentially, all I need to convince me to buy one are a handful of testimonials/reviews from some impartial, unconnected sources that say that there are no bugs beyond the usual piddly things that any new product has.

As a consumer, I don't see that as being too much to ask. Live 7.0.18 Axiom 61 Launchpad Homous Nanokontrol Saffire 6 Ibanez Jazzmaster Bass Biscuits. Just thought it would be worth chiming in with my experience with the Softstep.

I've had it since the first run, last year and have used it already in over a dozen gigs. Like LoopStationZebra, I'm on a Mac. However, my experience has been flawless. I have had no trouble with the software at all. Things are stored, save, recalled, switched dynamically live.

Everything is running as advertised. The software is quite complex, but I prefer that, as I'm that way inclined. I found the documentation very simple. I've lent it to a friend, who too, with only a few hours, made patches to control his Live set.

He is definitely NOT a programmer-guy. Maybe your SS was faulty? Even with the first public version of the Software, on my machine it was totally usable, not a RAM hog and completely stable.

On another note. For those considering or who own a SS and own multiple computers: leave the app in your Dropbox folder and you can sync all your patches with all your machines. It's perfect if you have a studio and live machine. While the SoftStep certainly may have been faulty, I'm not sure that would have anything to do with preset names and settings changing at random whenever a new scene is selected and you go back to the scene you were just in.

In the standard version of the software, the SoftStep doesn't store any data at all - it happens at the software level only. In the beta version, the problem was the same in HOSTED mode which, again, doesn't store anything on the SoftStep. KMI, if I'm not undertanding this then feel free to correct. Most times the app was soaking up 700MB of RAM.

My friend's MBP Pro was spiking at around 600MB of RAM. I also installed and uninstalled the standard release 3 different times; just to make sure it wasn't some issue with paths or whatever. I installed/uninstalled the beta twice.

Soft Step Editor For Mac Mac

Same thing for the firmware. 3 times for the standard release, 2 times for the beta. Question, corneliusw: What version of the software are you using now? Are you on a MacBook?