Arpeggiator plugin that does not chop up monophonic playing into a staccato ?

catherder

I am looking for an arpeggiator plugin that does not turn monophonic playing into a staccato. I want it to only arpeggiate when more than one note are active. The Roland SH-01a synth has a very useful arp implementation that ignores monophonic playing unless the arp is set to go over more than one octave. I tried both arpbud and rozeta arpeggiator, but both are always arpeggiating.

unlink

I'm no expert but maybe Drambo can do it? Or Mosaic?

Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr

@catherder said:
I am looking for an arpeggiator plugin that does not turn monophonic playing into a staccato. I want it to only arpeggiate when more than one note are active. The Roland SH-01a synth has a very useful arp implementation that ignores monophonic playing unless the arp is set to go over more than one octave. I tried both arpbud and rozeta arpeggiator, but both are always arpeggiating.

Great question. Can it be done on iOS?

Stuntman_mike

@catherder said:
I am looking for an arpeggiator plugin that does not turn monophonic playing into a staccato. I want it to only arpeggiate when more than one note are active. The Roland SH-01a synth has a very useful arp implementation that ignores monophonic playing unless the arp is set to go over more than one octave. I tried both arpbud and rozeta arpeggiator, but both are always arpeggiating.

Do you have a audio/video example?

Andre_K

I’m not sure about a dedicated arpeggiator but I use Atom 2 piano roll to create legato effect with mono synths. I simply overlap the next note over the last portion of the previous note. You can use any piano roll to create whatever arpeggio that way and it will not be staccato if the notes are slightly overlapping.

taeo

StepPolyArp?

Aphelian?

Robin2

I don’t have it personally so can’t say whether it can do what you need, but Cream Mobile by the developer of Butter Synth looks incredibly in depth.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/cream-mobile/id890886111

cem_olcay

ArpBud can tie notes if you set the gate value 100% but I’m not sure if that’s what you need.

Poppadocrock

@taeo said:
StepPolyArp?

Aphelian?

StepPolyArp which can basically arp however you want it to.

Poppadocrock

@Robin2 said:
I don’t have it personally so can’t say whether it can do what you need, but Cream Mobile by the developer of Butter Synth looks incredibly in depth.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/cream-mobile/id890886111

I don’t have this one, but it’s one that hasn’t been updated in a long time as far as I remember.

Poppadocrock

Yea Rozeta Arp while useful is very basic. Step Poly Arp is a very detailed sequencer/Arp

Stuntman_mike

@cem_olcay said:
ArpBud can tie notes if you set the gate value 100% but I’m not sure if that’s what you need.

Boom!

catherder

@cem_olcay said:
ArpBud can tie notes if you set the gate value 100% but I’m not sure if that’s what you need.

I want to be able to play single notes untouched by the arp. Currently all arps I have tested turn a single note into a machine gun style staccato. And I do not want to use 100% gate what would affect all notes.

catherder

@Poppadocrock said:

@taeo said:
StepPolyArp?

Aphelian?

StepPolyArp which can basically arp however you want it to.

I had a look at the manual, and it’s not clear to me if it would do the job. Although the app looks great, I feel reluctant to throw in almost £20 just for the try.

Poppadocrock

I’m just curious why use an Arp if you just want single notes being played? I guess I’m wondering what you are trying to achieve so I can maybe suggest something that will work for you.

catherder

@Poppadocrock said:
I’m just curious why use an Arp if you just want single notes being played? I guess I’m wondering what you are trying to achieve so I can maybe suggest something that will work for you.

It’s not about just playing single notes, but the mix: Play something slow with single notes, then add a note or play a chord and the arp adds speed and variation. Release the additional notes and you are back to slow played notes. The arpeggiators in several of my hardware synths like the Roland SH01-A work that way. At least for me that is a very creative way to play. I’m missing this in the plugins I tried.
To bring this further it would be interesting to have an arpeggiator where you could set the minimum number of simultaneously played notes for it to start.

pedro

@catherder Re: your last paragraph, I’m sure it can be implemented in drambo. Can’t say how exactly, yet, but you gave me another thing to explore because that technique you describe of playing monophonic but once a voice threshold gets reached, the arp takes over, seems like a lot of fun 👍

catherder

I will give this Mozaic Script a try: https://patchstorage.com/in-order-arp/

The instructions say: “The first note of the ARP is allways played directly with its original velocity to allow monophonic melody play”.

That looks like it. I might mod the script because I want more arp modes…

UPDATE: Not it - it does the unwanted staccato like the other arps. So the search goes on, or the programming begins…

sigma79

An arp with a midi button or knob ?

Id use Drambos with Drambo but always maybe been buggy. Stuck note even when removing module.

Are there any arp apps with mappable parameters?

Think I know why it would crash.

Voice count not enough on the midi to cv?

jdp00

I’m sure there are easier ways but you could probably parameter lock the arp in drambo.

Poppadocrock

I think I understand, one of the few apps that has that type of Arp behavior is the gadgets in Korg Gadget. I would use that a lot to get the coolest chops on the slicer gadget. By holding one note, then two then three then back to one note and it would run continuously adding or removing the notes as they were played or released.

I feel like there’s something else maybe as an Au keyboard that plays then Like that, but I can’t remember.

HotStrange

Is there maybe some other type of midi fx that would work (like a slicer) or a midi modulator like the Pagefall apps? I’m gonna have to think on this. I’ve never used that in my tracks so can’t think of anything off hand that 100% sure performs that way.

michael_m

Gate settings as mentioned above seem like the way to control note length.

If that isn’t a good solution, could you use ADSR settings to make the notes sound more like they’re being played legato?

wim

I'm thinking Polytemus AU could sort of manage this.

The mode should be Random or Random not Same. The synth to be played should be set to listen on a specific channel. The first Polythemus voice should be assigned that channel and routed directly to the synth. The arp should be set to listen to a different channel and the remaining voices should be set to that channel and routed to the arp. The arp output should be set to the channel the synth is listening to and routed to it.

This sounds more complicated than it is:

Midi Input > Polyphemus
                 Voice 1 (channel 1) > Synth set to listen on channel 1
                 Voice 2 (channel 2) > Arp listening on channel 2, sending on channel 1
                 Voice 3 (channel 2) > Arp listening on channel 2, sending on channel 1
                 etc.

So as long as you're playing only a single note the arp is bypassed. As you add notes, the additional notes hit the arp before going to the synth. This could be varied by choosing more notes to channel 1 (bypassing the arp).

I think it should work, but unfortunately don't have the time to test right now.

There is a downside. The first voice will never join the arp. Only the added voices will pass through the arp.

cramdog

I’m interested in this thread because I like arpeggiators.
The feature OP mentioned appears at the playback position of the videos below, btw.
(Sorry if I’m misunderstanding it.)

1:00 - 1:25 (I mean the second example.)

2:35 - 2:58 (I mean the last long note of the performance.)

McD

I took a look at the wonderful arpeggiator Mozaic script @_Ki created to see if I could change the behavior to suit your request.

Find these lines:

@HandlePulses // param: pPulse, pBar
  if activeNotes > 0

and change to 0 to a 1

@HandlePulses // param: pPulse, pBar
  if activeNotes > 1

Hit UPLOAD and ideally save it with a new name to get it back quickly.

It then allows single note legato playing but kicks on the arp with 2 or more notes.

It’s a lot of fun to have 3-4 of these running with different repeat rates like 1/8th, 16th, dotted 8th and dotted 16th. There are also triplet options which can be layered with a 12/8 drummer.

craftycurate

@catherder said:

@Poppadocrock said:

@taeo said:
StepPolyArp?

Aphelian?

StepPolyArp which can basically arp however you want it to.

I had a look at the manual, and it’s not clear to me if it would do the job. Although the app looks great, I feel reluctant to throw in almost £20 just for the try.

As a long time StepPolyArp (SPA) user, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t offer this. SPA is very flexible, but I've never heard of this switching type behaviour from SPA where it does something different for mono vs poly input.

You can run multiple arp lanes within SPA with different note lengths e.g. your lowest note can play for 4 bars while all other notes are 16th notes for example, which might get you somewhere close, depending on what kind of result you have in mind.

Gavinski

@craftycurate said:

@catherder said:

@Poppadocrock said:

@taeo said:
StepPolyArp?

Aphelian?

StepPolyArp which can basically arp however you want it to.

I had a look at the manual, and it’s not clear to me if it would do the job. Although the app looks great, I feel reluctant to throw in almost £20 just for the try.

As a long time StepPolyArp (SPA) user, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t offer this. SPA is very flexible, but I've never heard of this switching type behaviour from SPA where it does something different for mono vs poly input.

You can run multiple arp lanes within SPA with different note lengths e.g. your lowest note can play for 4 bars while all other notes are 16th notes for example, which might get you somewhere close, depending on what kind of result you have in mind.

I also think that is. Or possible- I made a 100% thorough walkthrough on SPA a few years ago, and am pretty sure it does not have this feature, though it’s been a while since I used it, so I may be remembering wrong.

@McD nice, that sounds very cool, will definitely have to try that. @wim - clever too, though pity it wouldn’t also be able to arp the first voice

McD

Here’s a video of the modified Mozaic “In-Order Arp 1.0” script at work in AUM:

Gavinski

@McD said:
Here’s a video of the modified Mozaic “In-Order Arp 1.0” script at work in AUM:

Just modded the script, that’s pretty cool for sure McD.

2 quick questions

• what is the point of the ‘upload”? I just saved and renamed it without uploading and it seems to work fine.

  • it seems Mozaic lacks a search bar to find and edit code. Do people not find the lack of this very tedious, or have I somehow missed it?

Cheers and thanks again, I had never played with an arp that functions like this before, can definitely see the utility, so thanks also to the OP for asking this interesting question

McD

@Gavinski said:

@McD said:
Here’s a video of the modified Mozaic “In-Order Arp 1.0” script at work in AUM:

Just modded the script, that’s pretty cool for sure McD.

2 quick questions

• what is the point of the ‘upload”? I just saved and renamed it without uploading and it seems to work fine.

Upload will make the change active for that instance but editing and saving is the best approach so that the original stays intact.

• it seems Mozaic lacks a search bar to find and edit code. Do people not find the lack of this very tedious, or have I somehow missed it?

Yes. @Brambos uses an apple text editor window in the app and it doesn’t have any of the usual editing features. Serious programmers like @_Ki export the code to Texttastic and get search and replace features and syntax highlighting.

For really long scripts I have been exporting the code out to a VI editor that is embedded in the A-Shell app. I have muscle memory for vi editing hot keys and macros from years of writing code and scripts on Unix systems.

Cheers and thanks again, I had never played with an arp that functions like this before, can definitely see the utility, so thanks also to the OP for asking this interesting question.

Yes. Sometimes a question can open doors to new ways of working.