> Step by step

3. Basics

1

With a suitable synth loaded – we’re using Cableguys Curve 2 CM – and Cream CM loaded and routed to the synth according to your DAW’s system, you can now start to explore Cream CM’s many sequencer features. Load the Init preset from the preset menu and set the note input range in the top left to C1 to C9.

2

Start by playing a single note. You’ll see the arpeggiator notes appear in the pattern grid. Now adjust the Octaves setting. We’ve set ours to 3 and you should now have a typical arpeggiator pattern across three octaves. Once again you can see the notes playing in the pattern area.

3

In typical arpeggiator fashion you also have Swing, Rate, Gate and Transpose parameters that will influence the overall arp. Try tweaking these. Here we’ve made some changes to the swing and gate parameters.

4

Now reset the controls or simply reload the Init preset and this time play a chord. Here we’ve programmed a simple three-note triad. Now if you head over to the Pattern Controls on the right you can influence how Cream CM interprets the chord. Try switching between the various options – here we’ve selected Hi-Lo.

5

Cream CM includes a number of categorised arpeggiator presets – bass, lead, rhythm and miscellaneous. The preset naming also includes a handy indication of how many notes the arpeggiator is meant for, so Trance Arp 06 – 4K is designed for a four-note chord.

6

With an arpeggio running, the pattern section of Cream CM is used to apply changes to each step. Here we’ve loaded Trance arp 08 – 1K and if we click on the Transpose tab, we can see a bunch of pitch modifiers applied to the arp. Try adjusting these and you’ll see that they’re applying pitch offsets to the existing arpeggio pattern.

7

There are, of course, further parameters we can change including note accent and note length, and you can draw in multiple changes in one go using the pencil. Here we’ve quickly changed the gate time across multiple steps to create more interest in our basic arpeggio.

8

One option in the pattern section is chord memory. This ties in with the section below and tells the pattern to follow the notes of the chord indicated on the keyboard. You can select the notes manually on the keyboard, or load one of the presets. You can also page through the various chord inversions using the Inv tab.

9

Here we’ve reloaded the Init preset and then loaded the Minor 7 option from the dropdown menu. Cream CM only follows the chord for the selected steps. To play all the chord notes in sequence, we’ve selected all steps in the first row, which is for Chord Memory 1. You can, of course, select specific steps if you like.