Despite numerous references throughout the KeyStep User Manual instructing me to “press the RECORD button”, or “Press the PLAY button”, or press the STOP button", I have no such labeled buttons on my KeyStep. I do have a square button with a tiny circle in the middle with the word “Append” printed beneath. What does this button do? I have no idea, as the author of the manual provided no clue, or any indication that this button may work to RECORD, PLAY, or STOP a given operation of the KeyStep. My KeyStep has a 2nd square button with a tiny square in the middle with the words “Clear Last” printed beneath. Finally a 3rd, irregular shaped button has 2 vertical lines, a slash, and an arrow in the middle, with the word “Restart” printed beneath. Like the 1st button I described, I have no idea if either of these additional buttons may serve as a means to record, play, or stop a given operation.
Further aggravating my attempt to learn how to use my KeyStep are the countless YouTube instructional videos that (just like the User’s Manual) instruct viewers to simply press the Record, Play, or Stop BUTTONS, (even though KeyStep has no such labeled buttons), but fail to swing the camera to the KeyStep to give the viewer any clue as to what button they are actually pressing to initiate recording, playing, or stopping something. What am I missing here? Any help is appreciated! Thank you!
Hi @mmoog25. Welcome to the community.
Arturia use commonly used control symbols like those you can read about here:
The control symbols they use go back pretty much to the ‘dawn of time’ first on tape recorders then on digital recorders. I guess Arturia make an assumption that everyone knows them. Not least because they’re still commonly in use in DAWs.
The button with the filled black circle is the universally recognised symbol for Record.
The button with the filled back square is the universally recognised symbol for Stop.
The third button has two symbols on it. The two vertical lines (which is the Stop symbol divided into two) is the universally recognised symbol for Pause. The right-pointing solid triangle is the universally recognised symbol for Play or Forward.
EDIT: here they can be seen on a typical shoebox cassette recorder from the 70s, accompanied by the additional controls and symbols for Fast Forward and Rewind.
Thank you Jon. Total mental blank. I get the minimal labeling on the hardware itself, but I wish Arturia had simply dropped tiny photos of the respective buttons adjacent to the first few uses of the words record, play, & stop. Another section of the manual does actually include pictures of the buttons, but they weren’t accompanied by any text that included the associated words!
Thank you!