Note arps
Note arps store an 8-step pitch pattern per sequencer row. Every time a row’s trigger fires, the row plays the next note in its pattern, then wraps back to the start when it reaches the end of the pattern’s length.
By default each row’s pattern is one note long, and the eight rows form a scale. From here you can take that in three directions:
- Arpeggiate. Give a row a few notes and put a trig on every step, and you get a classic arp.
- Sequence beyond eight notes. The pattern advances on triggers, not on the clock, so a three-note pattern against four trigs takes three bars to come back round. Lengths that don’t divide into each other give you lines that take a long time to repeat.
- Pick a different eight notes. Leave every row at one note and change that note, and the sequencer plays whatever eight pitches you choose instead of the scale.
What You See
Left Hand Launchpad
The pattern overview. Each row shows the length of that row’s note pattern, one lit pad per step. Each step has its own colour, and the same colours mark that step’s note on the right hand Launchpad, so you can also see the shape of the pattern at a glance.
Right Hand Launchpad
The isomorphic keyboard for the row you have selected (the last row you pressed on the left). Each step of that row lights its note in the step’s colour, so you can see which note each step plays.
Every pad is a note of the current scale, rising upwards and rightwards, with each row of the pad starting a fourth above the row below. The keyboard covers four octaves, and the slate-grey pads mark the root notes so you always have landmarks. The top-right pad is the rest pad: a step set to rest shows in beige, on both Launchpads.
Three rows extended to patterns of three, five and two notes. The RHS LP shows the keyboard for the selected three-note row.
Set a Pattern’s Length
On the left hand Launchpad, hold SHIFT and press a pad, or simply double-tap a pad, to set the pattern’s length. That row’s length becomes the column you pressed: column 1 for a single note, column 8 for all eight.
Steps beyond the new length go dark straight away.
Edit the Pattern
Editing takes two presses, one on each Launchpad:
- Press a pad on the LHS LP to select that position in the note pattern.
- Press a pad on the RHS LP to select the note for that position in the note pattern. Press the top-right pad instead and you get a rest.
Preset Figures
Hold MUTE and press a pad on the LHS LP to write a ready-made figure to all eight rows of the sequencer. The pads form a grid: the row you press picks the shape, and the column picks the interval between its notes, so every shape comes in every interval.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| reset | seconds | thirds | fourths | fifths | sixths | sevenths | octaves |
Each figure is built around the row’s own note: rising figures start on it, falling figures end on it. A pedal tone is a note the figure keeps returning to: the row’s own note in rising figures, a high note in falling ones.
The table below shows each shape written to the bottom row, with the interval set to seconds (column 2). The other columns stretch the same shape wider.
- Scale steps counts up the scale from the row’s own note: 0 is the row’s note, 1 the next note up, and 7 the same note an octave higher.
- In C minor shows the same figure as notes, for a bottom row on C.
| Row | Shape | Scale steps | In C minor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Up | 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C |
| 7 | Double up | 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 | C C D D E♭ E♭ F F |
| 6 | Up with a pedal tone | 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 | C D C E♭ C F C G |
| 5 | Double up with a pedal tone | 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 | C C D D C C E♭ E♭ |
| 4 | Double down with a pedal tone | 2 2 1 1 2 2 0 0 | E♭ E♭ D D E♭ E♭ C C |
| 3 | Down with a pedal tone | 4 3 4 2 4 1 4 0 | G F G E♭ G D G C |
| 2 | Double down | 3 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 | F F E♭ E♭ D D C C |
| 1 | Down | 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 | C B♭ A♭ G F E♭ D C |
Wide intervals run out of keyboard, so their figures are shorter and repeat to fill all eight steps.
To pick a figure, combine the two. For example:
- Fifths up with a pedal tone: hold MUTE and press row 6, column 5. On a bottom row on C minor that writes C G C D C A♭ C E♭: the C keeps coming back while the line between climbs a fifth at a time.
- Thirds double down: hold MUTE and press row 2, column 3. On the same row that writes B♭ B♭ G G E♭ E♭ C C: a C minor chord falling a third at a time, each note played twice.
The pad flashes to confirm. Two things to know:
- A preset does not set lengths. A row one note long still plays one note. Set your lengths first, then pick a figure.
- A preset replaces every step, including any rests. Put the figure down first, then add rests.
Column 1 (any row) resets the whole sequencer: every row goes back to one note long, on its own note of the scale. The steps behind it climb the scale from there, so lengthening a row after a reset gives you a scale run. There is no undo, so save the session first if you want to keep what you had. (SHIFT + MUTE and SHIFT + SOLO do nothing on this view: see Reset and randomise.)
Switch the global scale between major and minor and your patterns move with it: each note keeps its place in the scale, so the shape of the pattern stays the same.
If the sequencer follows a chord progression, set the chord-adjustment selector to Diatonic (see Scale mode) to keep your note arps in the scale as the chords change. In the other modes the whole pattern shifts with the chord, and can land on notes outside the scale.
Cross-References
- Octave tree: the other way to move a row’s pitch
- Velocity and duty arps: the same edit model for velocity and duty
- Chords and scales: the scale these patterns follow