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Talk to me about arpeggiators
You've got the ones built into synths - TF8 stands out. Now Syntronik too. The Virsyn and iceWorks synths as well.
And then you have the standalones - Step Poly Arp, Arpeggist, Arpist, Chordflow, Arpeggionome Pro (just got an update), and Yamaha's Synthesizer Arpeggiator (free).
Then of course you have Quantum which does every damn thing...
So let's hear it about arpeggiators. The favourites, the quirkies, the pros and cons, the marmite and the marmalade...
Comments
I like the instrument specific arps in the Yamaha line of hardware synths.. The Motif a d the Montage series. Would be hard for a small team to do though.
Nice. So they're your benchmark? How about on iOS?
Different Drummer for lots of reasons.
The line 'Talk to me' and arpeggiators reminded me of this track.
Anything with a 2-octave 2x up/down satisfies me. You can get good rhythms/sequences out of it by using chords with differing note amounts, and you can get away with switching a beat early. It’s very simple, but anything more basic (up, down, up/down) is a drag to me.
My personal favorite on-board arp on iOS is the Korg Odyssey...arpeggiator combined with step sequencer is the best of both worlds. Plus its step sequencer also doubles/triples as a cc modulator.
Dedicated apps...StepPolyArp can do the same; it’s just not quite as smooth to program as the classic chromatic step sequencers a la the Odyssey. I’ve bought several others but that’s the only one I’ve used (much) more than twice.
Didn’t expect that. Would love to know more.
Haha! Classic.
Nice. I forgot about the Odyssey. I’ve heard it has a fun arp.
SPA is probably my favorite stand alone ARP app. Manages a great balance between functionality and simplicity. I think Cream is considered the most powerful of the lot but I've never tried it.
Here’s an example of what I referred to with Different Drummer. It may be odd, at first, but it is very powerful...
Yes, my personal benchmark (The Yamaha).. They hired actual musicians to play the arps via Midi so they’re a collection of riffs. And they even have chord intelligence to a degree.. Bery useful. Squarp Pyramid also. On iOS I’m gonna get into step poly arp.
StepPolyArp, arps in Virsyn synths, ChordFlow and Quantum
I also really like the random function in TF8
ChordFlow and Quantum are my current favourites
I'd really love an au arp. Not sure if that's possible on iOS yet
Haha, Cream is bunk. The only person on this board who ever had the patience and wisdom to solve it was @Kaikoo2 , bless him
Cream is @Wally 's domain, afair.
Arpeggiating arpeggiators in a Moebius midi loop could be interesting ...
fm8 is my favorite desktop arp. i am really digging syntronik's on ipad.
you just sold me on different drummer. thank you. i was a little intimidated as i've read the learning curve is steep.
i feel like i am learning new software more than i am using what i have altready. it's to the point where i have to say enough is enough....buuuut just one more. it's not surprising that philosophy carries over into other aspects of consumption. lol
I didn’t find Cream that difficult to figure out relative to a lot of iOS apps.
Same. It's pretty easy to figure out, just not really worth it anymore considering the options we have
Syntronik's arp is without question my favorite and several of us have requested that they make a stand alone of that and also their fx section which is great as well.
I don't have Syntronik. Why are so many folks into it? What sets it apart?
Why cant I start/trigger StepPolyArp from AB3. It ain´t starting and has no ”play” function in AB3s controllers. I have to latch it manually in SPA. Is there any workarounds?!
Wouldn't you need to have something as an INPUT to SPA ?
Also, SPA goes in the midi effect slot in AB3 too. That way what ever you set as input goes through SPA
I love arpeggiators and i see pro and contra with many of them. I prefer them as midi FX and use them per synth/track/whatever.
I often make complex arps via using 10 or more of them. F.e. each track get an oct up or down and the speed is also different. F.e. lower tones get a lower speed.
Then i use velocity as modulation source and prefer arps which let me use random values for velocity and also use slightly different values for swing etc. So i get some nice complex things while playing chord in real-time without having to touch some other knobs.
This way i also prefer often simpler arps but layering them up to infinite
So with some deeper programming you can get quite interesting and moving arps.
So humanize and random options for parameters are important to avoid that machine gun effect (even with it´s quite hard or impossible but it´s much better).
Maybe i post some examples if anyone is interested.
I also prefer arps over sequencers. But not sure if that is not quite the same these days.
However, i mean i want to have the option to live input midi/transpose those arps/sequences rather than enter a fixed note/midi value. I really love "playing" arps/sequences and at the same time using them as modulation source.
I could play arps all day/night long
Yes, please.
What are the iOS arps with midi out that can be layered multiple times? I only have Cream, and the internal icegear arps.
Wondering what happened with Cream and Ableton Link. An early 2016 post from the developer said he was waiting for Ableton to send him the sdk. Sadly, Cream is infrequently updated. SPA is probably the better choice.
We might start a band "The Arp Shop Boys".
I use more a crossplatform workflow now. So i don´t know if i could make a good iOS only thing. Especially since i have still no iPad and just my iPhone 6S plus for all the iOS things.
I meant it more in a general way what you can do for nice things with combining different arps and playing them live.
It´s a lot harder still in an iOS only environment but i think possible right now too.
I hope an app like NanoStudio 2 will offer (several?) arps and other midi FX per track to use with any AUv3 app. And automations of AUv3 apps would be great too.
It´s what i do now on mac and crossplatform iOS/macOS and this could easy created in iOS only too i think if developers finally implement such things. Maybe it´s already there and i missed it.I´m not so up to date with the latest iOS tools maybe anymore.
I was yesterday in an apple store and tryed to decide if i finally get an iPad Pro 10.5" or save further up for a new macbook pro. Of course i want both but i have to investigate further to where iOS is yet for this kind of workflow.
I wish it was already December and NanoStudio 2 would be out with all the things i miss now.
Having that including arps and save that as performance would be nice.
Maybe that´s possible right now with Audiobus 3 and AUM etc. but i still get headache by trying to load and sync and let all these apps play together well
I'll try that? Thanks!
Damn I’m sold on Different Drummer too. Just one more and that’s all I need, ever, for a long time.
I probably should never come to this forum again then, for a long time, as often.
Here is an (sorry but mainly non iOS) thingie i put fast together just to show what i mean.
It would be too hard to do that on my phone yet....but possible too....so...
It´s mainly just 2 different 3 note chords i play for 8 bars at 100bpm and then i just add each 8 bar another instrument with it´s own arp which is nearly the same but with slightly different settings, a different speed and octave. The arps also modulates the instruments slightly via velocity input. At the end 9 arps play together and then i played some random chords at the end again.
It´s a simple and fast set-up but like i said i play often hours with such things (without recording anything of it) and get lost it how complex it can go while still having a slight feel of live playing (which i indeed do then).
If we now go further and add more complex routings and apps like Quantum it will be even better.
I will try to do something iOS only if i get the time (or when i finally will buy an iPad).
Here we go....