Rolo Tomasi Posted November 29, 2021 Share Posted November 29, 2021 I feel like nobody uses these. They build them into almost every midi keyboard and synth but honestly when was the last time you heard a hit record that featured an arpeggiator? Not hating but geez they were popular for like 3 years in the 80's. The technology is no longer groundbreaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas007 Posted November 30, 2021 Share Posted November 30, 2021 That is probably due to the new features and whatnot guizmos appearing every now and then which drags creators attention. Then when an fx features in a hit song, that creates a fad for same; until the next new fx shine in a new hit song… Since vinyl records came back on the market, I’m pretty sure that sequencer and arpeggiator will eventually come back too… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRobinson Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 I've now written several songs which needed "a simple arpeggiated musical line," say plucked by a guitar, in which I took advantage of a software crutch. I don't apologize for that. It produced "the sound that I wanted" in the least amount of time and effort, and that was my only goal. "Sequencers" were a mainstay of 1980's and 1990's musical performances. For instance, I once bought a strategic seat at an A-Ha concert so that I could watch how they did it. As they played their iconic song, Take On Me, I was astounded to witness the number of intricate musical parts that their keyboardist didn't(!) play. He simply mashed a button, thus treating the audience to a perfect rendition of the part which they knew from the records they had bought. "Perfect," no doubt, because they had once done exactly the same thing in the studio. I don't fault them for that ... "Drum Machines," another mainstay of the time, were never anything more than "percussion sequencers." They became a defining signature of the sound. Hey – you did whatever you needed to do to produce product more easily, given the technology of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolo Tomasi Posted December 2, 2021 Author Share Posted December 2, 2021 I didn’t know that about “Take On Me” that’s pretty cool I guess I was wrong about Arpeggiators and Sequencers there are actually hit songs that have used them. Another one that I just thought of was the intro to “Hungry Like the Wolf” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRobinson Posted December 2, 2021 Share Posted December 2, 2021 I am today quite sure that these artists took full advantage of available technology, each and every time that they could. After all, in those days (which I remember quite well ...), no other musical technology existed. Musicians did spend $100,000+ for tools like "Fairlights" and "Synclaviers" in order to gain a musical edge, but free software like Audacity and GarageBand today has far greater capabilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
in.name.only Posted January 9, 2022 Share Posted January 9, 2022 Trance. A whole genre that was built on the use of arpeggiators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRobinson Posted January 12, 2022 Share Posted January 12, 2022 When I listen to "Hip Hop" and in fact a lot of music that you hear getting cranked out today, I know that the sequencer and the drum-machine didn't go far away. You know that no person and no drummer is playing those parts. Heck, I just the other day heard yet another song where they'd sampled the singer's voice into a keyboard and probably-arpeggiated that. It was hackneyed back then and it's hackneyed now, but, there it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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