Midi Arpeggios

[Zareen Zapata]

1Record your own arpeggio patterns in real time (step sequencing feels tedious to me)

2) Arpeggiator recognizes the chord you are playing (e.g. Em) and modifies the arpeggio to fit within the associated scale (Em)

3) Record cc automation in real time

4) Stable enough for live performance when outputting arpeggios to multiple audio units or hardware devices (either through a single instance or multiple instances, whatever works).

Ah ok, I see the confusion. I'm conflating a sequencer with an arpeggiator. Yamaha describes all patterns as "arpeggios." If you record a pattern (step sequence), you can then treat it as an arpeggio, in the sense that you can play a chord, and the pattern will trigger, with modifications to reflect the chord used to trigger the pattern.

My experience with non-Yamaha step sequencers (Bass Station II + Keystep) is that if you record a step sequence the step sequence will be triggered by whatever root note you play, and will be transposed exactly when you play a different root note. If I'm playing a song in Cmajor and have a bassline sequence I recorded using various notes in the Cmajor scale, I'm going to run into problems if I then hit the root note E, because the bassline will still be played in a major scale. To be musically useful, the sequencer needs to recognize that bassline should be in Eminor, which is where the "chord intelligence" comes in. The Yamaha arpeggiator I'm familiar with will automatically adjust the pattern so all the notes are played within the chord that you played to trigger the pattern.

I'm just not that familiar with iPad arpeggiators. I imagine that this feature might even be commonplace as it doesn't seem particularly complex, but hoping someone can steer me in the right direction!

So it rather seems like a good job for Drambo:

Midi map the clips and set each track MIDI receive mode to "Transposes". By adding CV Quantizer modules, you can define scales to stick to. I haven't tried it but that could work.

It is however quite good at detecting what key the played chords are in but does not do 'live transpose' of the notes that are played but if one is happy with triggering one finger chords it works quite well.

The only app I know that came even close to the way Yamaha arps work was Yamaha's own Keys & Arps but it's long gone with only the Mobile Music Sequencer being left on the AppStore...(It does an admirable job of allowing one to create custom arpeggios that will be mapped to what the user is actually playing).

@CracklePot said:

Try putting a scale locking midi AU between the arpeggiator and the synth. You can transpose any amount, but the scale locking AU keeps the notes in your chosen scale before they trigger the synth.

Thanks for your reply Martin.

For example if you hold a note with the Grooving Finger Bass preset, an arpeggio is triggered and I would like to capture its performance as MIDI notes or capture the MIDI notes produce by Trip presets that use arpeggios, or capture the midi chords generated by the pads.

For those interested, Greg Undo answered my question in the june 15h Cubase Hangout live stream here Mix Down Multiple Files to one File Using Render in Place Club Cubase June 15 2021 - YouTube at 3:10:17

Create a 1-bar MIDI loop on the Sylenth1 track with a single C2 note in it. Create a new audio track, set its input to Resample, and arm it for recording. Solo the Sylenth1 track with the play position at the start of the loop. Press Record on the transport and the bar will play and simultaneously record on the audio track.

Create two tracks, one the source vst(i.e. Kontakt), two the destination(Padshop). 1. Track: Select your midi keyboard as midi input for track and midi output Kontakt. Now on 2. track (Padshop): select Kontakt as midi input and Padshop as midi output

What's the trick to record arpeggio from a plugin to a MIDI track? Ithought we were suppose to use the MIDI out of the plugin.

Using Trilian and the VST "MIDI Out" option is not delectable, is there another way?

Some plug-ins that can generate MIDI data require the feature be enabled in the plug-in. In this case, it must be done in order for the VST drop down to reflect the feature. Other plug-ins use drag and drop.

i have a few generators i use like scaler, chordz, ripchord, and a few more more i can't remember but they let me create arpeggios / sequences etc which i feed to the plugin via MIDI... but i see - you have an arpeggiator on the plugin want that to be output as MIDI... so if you check the plugin settings in the plugin manager

Let's say that I play the note C on my midi controller. I only play 1 note, C. The app will automaticly play a C Major Arpeggio (C, E, G). Maybe the app will allow me to add more fonctions to modify the arpeggio. So if I select CM7 in the options, the app will add 1 more note to the arpeggio (in this case .

Before this feature existed, complex arpeggiating required some skill to execute effectively, as demonstrated in this clip by legendary guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen. But with the introduction of the arpeggiator, it became possible for anyone to use synthesizers to play arpeggios consistently and effectively with minimal physical effort, opening the doors to entirely new genres of music like industrial music and synth-pop.

Some questions remain: How does an arpeggiator determine the order of the notes? How does it know how quickly to switch between notes? What happens when you let go of the chord? And how can you use in-the-box arpeggiators that come with DAWs like FL Studio, Ableton Live, or Logic Pro X?

Two of the first popular synthesizers to ever incorporate an arpeggiator were the Roland Jupiter-4 and Sequential Circuits Prophet V. These still-iconic hardware synths were originally released in 1978.

The earliest arpeggiators, like the one on the Roland JP-4, used an outboard drum machine to dictate the tempo of the arpeggiated sequence. Newer arpeggiators tend to use an internal BPM or MIDI clock input to determine tempo. (DAW arpeggiators follow the BPM of the session file. More on that after the jump.)

In DAWs, arpeggiators create patterns based on MIDI data. This means that when you play a C major chord on your MIDI keyboard, that MIDI information runs through the arpeggiator and then into the software instrument. The MIDI information itself (aka the notes that appear in the piano roll) does not change.

In any DAW that does not have a built-in arpeggiator, such as Pro Tools, you can use third-party arpeggiator plugins. You can use these arpeggiators by placing them on a MIDI track, and then routing the MIDI output of that track into the MIDI input of another MIDI track with a software instrument.

I have my xwp1 as slave and the Octatrack as master. They are both time synced and I can play it from the Octatrack, but I cannot get to play the xwp1's arpeggiator. Do you know how can that be done? I really love the arpeggiator and cannot seem to make it work.

When in slave mode, the XW needs to receive a MIDI clock signal from the master device before any sequences or arpeggios will play. Having said that, you still have to play the XW keys to trigger the arpeggiator. It can not be driven via MIDI.

Thank you very much for your answer. That is a shame! I thought I could start the arp in the WXP1 from the Octatrack the same way I start the step sequencer if I gave it the Midi Clock. Something like:

I guess I will have to adapt and find a way, the thing is that even though they are clock synced, when you play the chord on the XWP1 that is going to be arpeggiated and at the same time you hit play on the Octatrack, they are a little bit out of sync. A different thing happens when you just hit play on one device and the other one receives the order to start at the same time without touching it, as happens with the WXP1 step sequencer.

As Brad says above. The XW's arpeggiator is triggered by pressing keys, that then tells the arpeggiator what notes to use for the selected arpeggio pattern. You would need to send key press information into the XW via MIDI for it to play an arpeggio.

Got it, thanks. I guess I am sending that midi info because I can play the WXP1 from the Octatrack "keyboard". But even though I can play it from the Octatrack, when I turn the arp on on the XWP1 it doesn't sound. I am pretty sure ther emust be something in the XWP1 that you need to activate or something, because I can do it with other synths. It is not the Octatrack.

I just wanted to add that I am able to control the keyboard, assignable knobs, pitch bend and modulation wheels, dsp fx and everything else from the Octatrack. I just cannot seem to be able to activate the arp when I play the key from the Octa insead of playing it fro the XWP1

3a8082e126