Using the Arpeggiator
The Arpeggiator is a powerful feature of Nightfox Audio products that allows you to build arpeggios, or series of notes played at a defined rhythm, with just a few key presses. To turn it on, make sure the ARPEGGIATOR button at the top left is white - if it is not, give it a click.
- HOLD will add any notes input from your midi controller to the currently running arpeggio.
- LATCH will indefinitely hold the notes that are played simultaneously. Each new key press or chord from your midi controller will start a new arpeggio with those notes.
- MIDI THRU will play whatever notes are played on your midi controller in addition to the notes being played in the arpeggio.
This section determines the directional behavior of the arpeggios being constructed by the Arpeggiator.
- UP starts with the lowest note input from the midi controller and works its way up
- DOWN starts with the highest note input from the midi controller and works its way down
- UP-DOWN starts with the lowest note, works its way up, then works its way back down
- DOWN-UP starts with the highest note, works its way down, then works its way back up
- RANDOM will play the inputted notes randomly
- CHORD will play every note input from the midi controller simultaneously on every step of the arpeggio
The controls in the bottom left of the Arpeggiator tab define the arpeggio itself.
- STEPS sets the number of steps in the arpeggio
- RATE sets the speed of the arpeggio (and is in sync with the BPM of your DAW, if you're using one)
- OCTAVE allows multiple octaves to be spanned within a single arpeggio
- SWING sets the amount of swing to the rhythm, or the imbalance between two normally equally divisions in the beat
- STEP SIZE allows the Arpeggiator to skip steps
- RANGE LOW and RANGE HIGH allow you to set the range available to the Arpeggiator in building its arpeggios, allowing you to isolate parts of the keyboard to be ignored by the Arpeggiator. This would allow you to play notes on your midi controller that are not included in arpeggios, like if you wanted to play a melody with one hand, and use your other hand to play chords that are turned into arpeggios by the Arpeggiator
In the bottom right corner in the PATTERN BUILDER are the VELOCITY, NOTE LENGTH, and PITCH OFFSETS panels.
- BAR SIZE sets how many bars are contained within the pattern
- VELOCITY allows you to set the Velocity (strength, or volume) of individual notes in the arpeggio using your mouse. You can click and drag to easily change multiple values. Press the dice to set a random pattern. The arrows allow you to shift the pattern right or left
- NOTE LENGTH dictates how long the note is held, and can be set using your mouse. Like with Velocity, you can click and drag to easily change multiple values. Press the dice to set a random pattern. The arrows allow you to shift the pattern right or left
- PITCH OFFSETS allow you to offset the pitch of notes in the arpeggio. It's most commonly used by playing a single note on your midi controller and drawing pitch offsets to create a melody, but by selecting a scale and hitting the dice you can quickly try different randomly generated melodies.
- SCALE can be set to restrict generated notes to a given scale. The checkbox, when selected, restricts notes drawn into the window to the scale also
- OCT indicates whether the melody window spans one or two octaves
- You can quickly reset all pitch offsets to zero using the RESET button
- PATTERN allows you to set what pattern is followed when generating a melody. For example, A-A-A-B would repeat the same phrase three times, introduce a new phrase, and then repeat
- < - + > transpose the pattern up and down pitch wise, as well as right and left timing wise
LOAD PATTERN and SAVE PATTERN allow you to save and recall patterns you've built in future sessions.
A video walkthrough of the Arpeggiator can be found here: