An Introduction To Arpeggiators

In fact, like some other software-based arpeggiators, Omnisphere also adds the ability to draw in your own velocity value for each step, or to turn individual steps on and off.

A final option allows you to turn the arpeggiator into a gate-style pulse generator for chords…

…although you could argue that this crosses the line and isn’t really an arpeggiator any more!

Open the DAW

Even though the arpeggiator has traditionally been part of the instrument itself, that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case any more. Many DAWs now offer MIDI effects that include arpeggiators.

In Cubase we can use the Arpache inserts:

In Ableton Live the equivalent is the Arpeggiator MIDI effect, while Logic requires the arp to be set up in the Environment window:

This allows you to use an arpeggiator with any synth plugin, and provides an easy way to create arpeggiated sequences from other tracks. Try duplicating some pad chords and using them to trigger the arp:

Interesting things happen when you start to tweak the sound of a synth once the arp is playing. Try experimenting with the glide or portamento setting:

You can also feed one arpeggiator in to another, or even use the arpeggiator to trigger less obvious instruments such as sampler or drum machines. This is a great way of generating interesting rhythm patterns quickly and coming up with new ideas. Just feed an arp into your drum sampler, hold down chords at random and see if anything useable emerges. If not, move onto another chord and repeat until you find something you like: