Arpeggiator
Hold a chord in the clip and let the Arp play it in order, rhythm and range.
The arpeggiator plays the notes held in a MIDI clip one at a time. Write or drop a chord, open Arp in the piano roll header, and the chord becomes a pattern at the rate, order and range you choose. The written notes stay as they are and remain editable; the arpeggio is generated at playback and follows the clip when you move, trim, split or loop it.
When to use it
Turn block chords into a running synth line. Build a pedal-tone bass from a held triad. Give a pad movement with a slow gate. Because the pattern reads the chord in the clip, changing the chord changes the line and nothing else needs redrawing.
Controls
Profile
Profiles copy a complete set of settings into this clip: Ascending, Descending, Up & Down, Random, Pedal bass, Climb 3-1, Outside in and Gallop. Editing afterwards shows Custom; one clip’s settings never affect another.
Order
Ascending, Descending and Up & Down, which does not repeat the top and bottom notes; Outside in, which alternates lowest, highest, second lowest and so on; Inside out, its reverse; As played, which follows the notes’ start order one octave at a time; and Random, which is deterministic for a given clip so it plays the same each time.
Rate, Octaves and Gate
Rate runs from eighths to thirty-seconds, straight or triplet, independent of the display grid. Octaves (1–4) extends the chord upward. Gate (5–100%) is each hit’s length as a share of the step, cut short where its source note ends.
Rhythm
A strip of Steps toggles, 1 to 32, default 16 all on. An off step is a rest: it stays silent and does not use up a chord note, so the next sounding step plays what the order would have played next. A cycle shorter or longer than the chord runs against it polymetrically. All on clears every rest.
Insert
Off, Low note or High note, which repeats that pitch between every other note (C E G ascending with Low becomes C E C G), 3 up 1 back and 4 up 2 back, which walk the order in overlapping blocks. Insert is not available with Random.
Phrase and silence
The step clock keeps ticking through chord changes, so a new chord joins the running pattern. An actual gap in the notes restarts both the order and the rhythm at the next step.
Tips
- Pedal bass with two octaves over a slow chord part gives a classic running bass without a second clip.
- Draw the chord notes slightly longer than the bar they fill; a note that ends just before a step produces no hit there.
- Arp and Strum are alternatives: enabling one turns the other off for that clip.
See also
Changes
- NewThe arpeggiator gains rests, Insert and new orders · 27 September 2026
A 1–32 step strip turns steps into rests that stay silent without skipping a note. Insert repeats the low or high note or walks 3-1 and 4-2 blocks, and Outside in, Inside out and As played join the orders, with four new profiles.