Perfecting arpeggiator parts

There’s more to an arpeggiator than its direction. Here we treat a basic sound to a wash of effects and synth tweaks to give it more character

Our backing track starts with a dark filtered pad from Omnisphere and a supporting sub bass. Both parts are being fed into Valhalla’s VintageVerb, which is set up with a Dirty Hall algorithm, providing some detuned pitch modulation and a low-sample rate, producing some grit and unpredictability.

We’re using Logic Pro’s Arpeggiator, using an ‘Up and Down’ pattern so that the bottom and top notes are repeated. We put UAD’s Moog Filter on the first Insert slot to add further resonant filtering, using a low-pass 4-pole filter with cutoff at 3kHz and some resonance.

We open NI’s Rounds, browsing the ‘Created For Arpeggiator’ patches before selecting ‘Tangereen Arp’. We switch off all but the ‘A’ bank, meaning the arpeggiator will cycle only between these segments. We modify the pitch of Analog modules 1, 2 and 3 to 0, 0 and 12 semitones respectively.

We want to manipulate pitch further. We add UAD’s Eventide H910 Harmonizer, using an input envelope to change pitch whenever notes play. Then we add the MXR Flanger-Doubler, creating a wide chorus effect. Both have a mix balance of ‘nearly dry’, so that the effect is relatively subtle.

We Sync Oscillator 1 to Oscillator 2 for all of the Analog engines and add detune using the ‘Fine’ tuning dial. We add a touch of X-Mod to further manipulate pitch in each engine, and tweak the cutoff point for engines 2 and 3 to make the upper notes duller.

We send the Arp to Valhalla VintageVerb and to a second auxiliary which features Waves H-Delay. This is sent to VintageVerb too. Finally, we automate the Moog Filter’s cutoff point to create tonal variation as the arpeggiator sequence plays.