Arpeggiator

At a glance

• A per-layer note sequencer that retriggers the layer's instrument in time with your host.
• Each layer has its own independent arpeggiator on the Arp tab.
• Two modes: Played Notes (arpeggiates the chord you're holding) and Fixed Notes (plays a recorded note sequence).
• Up to 64 steps, each with its own velocity, gate, note/interval, on/off and tie.

What is the arpeggiator?

The arpeggiator turns a held chord — or a recorded note sequence — into a rhythmic pattern of individual notes, synced to your host's tempo. Each step of the pattern triggers the layer's instrument as if you'd played it from a keyboard, so the volume envelope, filter, LFOs and effects all respond exactly the same way they would for a manually played note.

Because the arpeggiator is per-layer, you can have one layer arpeggiating a percussive pluck while another layer holds a long pad on the same incoming notes. Each layer can run at a different rate, in a different mode, and with a different sequence.

Turning it on

Open a layer's Arp tab and click the Arpeggiator button to enable it. Next to that button is the Mode menu:

• Played Notes: the held chord is arpeggiated. Each step plays one of the notes you're holding, transposed by an optional per-step semitone interval. The order in which the notes are picked is set by Note Order (Up, Down, Up/Down, Random, Thumb, Up+, and so on).
• Fixed Notes: each step plays a specific MIDI note that you set yourself, regardless of what you play in. Pressing any key triggers the pattern at that key's transposition. Use the Record button to capture a sequence by playing notes on your keyboard.

The step sequencer

Below the mode controls is the step sequencer. The number of active steps is set by Length.

Velocity bars

Each step has a vertical bar. Click and drag inside the sequencer to set velocities — drag across multiple steps to draw a shape. The bars represent velocity, not volume. How that velocity becomes loudness is shaped by the Velocity to volume curve on the layer's Config tab. By default that curve doesn't start at zero, so even a zero-velocity step still produces a quiet sound.

This distinction matters most for multisampled instruments that have separate velocity layers: a step's velocity selects which velocity layer is played, not just how loud it is. A low-velocity step on a piano, for example, gives you the soft-velocity samples rather than just a quieter version of the loud ones.

Step rows

Under each bar you'll find:

• Step number / on-off: click to mute or unmute the step. A disabled step stays silent but keeps its other settings.
• Note / interval: in Fixed Notes mode this is the MIDI note name; in Played Notes mode it's a semitone offset added to whichever held note is being played at that step. Drag to change, or double-click to type a value.
• Tie (link icon): fuses the step with the previous one to create a single, longer note. Tied steps inherit the velocity and gate of the tie-chain's root step.
• Gate (small knob): the proportion of the step duration that the note actually sounds for. 100% is legato-like; lower values create staccato patterns. Gated notes still trigger the Release of the volume envelope on the MAIN tab.

Right-click any step for a context menu with options to reset the step, apply its settings to all steps, or rotate the whole pattern forwards/backwards.

When the pattern is longer than fits on screen, an Overview toggle in the top-right of the sequencer shows a compact, non-editable view of all steps at once.

How a step triggers the instrument

Each step starts a new note on the layer, which triggers the volume envelope's attack. When the step ends — either at its gate-off point or when a following non-tied step begins — the volume envelope's release is triggered. If your volume envelope has a slow attack or long release, steps will overlap and bleed into one another; with a fast attack and short release, you'll get a tight, percussive feel.

Sequence controls

Below the step sequencer is the SEQUENCE section:

• Rate: the step length, synced to host tempo. Choose from triplet, straight or dotted divisions from 1/64 up to 4/1.
• Auto Rate (only visible for sliced instruments): picks a rate automatically based on the instrument's loop length and the host tempo.
• Length: how many steps are active in the pattern (1–64).
• Order (Played Notes only): how held notes are picked across the steps — Up, Down, Up/Down, Down/Up, Random, Random No Repeat, Up x2, Down x2, Up/Down x2, Converge, Diverge, Thumb, Up+.
• Humanise: adds random timing and velocity variation to each step. Small amounts loosen up a rigid pattern; larger amounts produce a much more human-feeling performance.

Config controls

The CONFIG section holds behaviour switches:

• Trigger: Free keeps the arpeggiator running across new key presses, so playing new notes changes the held chord without restarting the pattern. Retrigger restarts the pattern from step 1 every time a new chord is pressed.
• Polyrate: lets each octave of the held chord play at a different rate. Double at octaves doubles the rate per octave up; 3:2 at octaves and 4:3 at octaves create polyrhythmic relationships between octaves. Useful for creating complex, evolving patterns from a simple chord.
• One Shot: when enabled, the pattern plays through once and then stops instead of looping.
• Record (Fixed Notes mode): click to start recording, then play notes on your keyboard to fill the sequence step-by-step. Click again to stop.

Sliced instruments

Some instruments come with built-in slice markers (for example, a sliced drum loop). When you load one of these, the arpeggiator switches into a locked slice mode: it plays the instrument's slices in order as its steps, rather than running a user-defined pattern. The mode/length/order controls are hidden, and a SLICING section appears with two extra controls:

• Offset: the first slice to play.
• Length: how many slices to loop through (or All for everything from the offset onwards).

The step sequencer still shows per-step velocity and gate, so you can shape the dynamics and rhythmic feel of the slice playback.