Best or Good Arpeggiators (standalone)

[stikygum]

I'm looking for a good arpeggiator that will work well in Logic. I am extremely disappointed that Logic can't handle midi out for VST or else I could use this awesome arp:

 

http://www.artovaarala.com/

 

What other good arps are out there that can be used in Logic?

[organsymphony]

have you checked out logic's own arpeggiator?

[stikygum]

Logic's doesn't have anything good about the arp, it's very bland. No sequencing parameters, in an arp timeline, and there is only standard up,down,random type patterns. You can't make the arp patterns yourself and have glide or accent on them. You have to get out of the window and go edit those seperately. I'm thinking of just using a Ableton Live copy I have just to make the midi Arp pattern and import it into Logic.

 

Wish there was a decent 3rd party arp that would work in Logic. Anyone know of any?

[RainVillain]

A shot in the dark, but if you own an iPad, the StepPolyArp app is fantastic as an arp, works in Logic.

[Eriksimon]

Albino. Nice arps, up to 4 layers (= 4 polysynths) simultaneously, each with their own, customizable arpeggiator.

http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mode=results&st=f&q=albino

[stikygum]

Albino is a synth though. I want just an Arp to control all my other synths.

 

Does StepPolyArp work without he iPad? It doesn't look like you can customize a sequence like on Kirnu. Seems it just gives you 8 modes, but no custom mode to create your own pattern/sequence.

[Person99]

Five12's Numerology. Has everything you want and more. I run it rewired to logic with all inst and effects in logic but it can host au inst and effects too. It's launchpad integration is very cool too.

[fader8]

Five12's Numerology. Has everything you want and more. I run it rewired to logic with all inst and effects

Person,

Does Numerology create virtual MIDI ports for Logic to receive back the arp'd notes, or would you have to use an IAC bus for that?

 

Always been fascinated by that app, but never tried it.

[Person99]

Five12's Numerology. Has everything you want and more. I run it rewired to logic with all inst and effects

Person,

Does Numerology create virtual MIDI ports for Logic to receive back the arp'd notes, or would you have to use an IAC bus for that?

 

Always been fascinated by that app, but never tried it.

 

It creates ports, but IAC bus is recommended and that is what I use. There are a few features I would still like but it really is cool. It has a 21 day trial so u can give it a whirl.

[fader8]

It creates ports, but IAC bus is recommended and that is what I use.

Apparently, or perhaps allegedly, based on statements from individuals very familiar with the inner workings of Core MIDI in OSX, IAC busses suffer from MIDI timing issues, whereas virtual MIDI ports created by applications do not. I'm thinking this "might" become apparent when slaving an app as an arpeggiator. But, only trying it out will tell! Tack that on to my list of weekend projects....

[Person99]

It creates ports, but IAC bus is recommended and that is what I use.

Apparently, or perhaps allegedly, based on statements from individuals very familiar with the inner workings of Core MIDI in OSX, IAC busses suffer from MIDI timing issues, whereas virtual MIDI ports created by applications do not. I'm thinking this "might" become apparent when slaving an app as an arpeggiator. But, only trying it out will tell! Tack that on to my list of weekend projects....

 

This can be an issue. Running it as an au helps this but I mainly use it as a compositional tool and bring midi into logic so not a prob for me. Others that use num as the cornerstone host au inst and effects in num, then just record audio from num.

[rainstick]

id really like another arp too... no mad on logics

 

Is this Numerology good then, ? does it allow you to record the note's onto a midi track or does it just run like the arp's in synths like sylenth and that, ?

 

cheers

[Person99]

OK, since I threw out Numerology, I think I need to do a big post to clear up what it is and the other options.

 

First up, to my knowledge there is no simple AU plug-in that is just an Arppegiator like you would find on a keyboard.

 

Additionally, there is no plug-in that does this in a super simple to use way--and IMHO this is due to a glaring deficiency in the AU spec. There is no concept of a AU that generates MIDI to return to the host via the AU interface. So, any arp AU has to be placed on a track as an instrument which then outputs MIDI to an IAC bus or midi port which is then piped back into Logic and treated as if it came from an external hardware sequencer or such (not a very elegant solution). So basically, AU plug-ins that send MIDI have to do it the same way as a ReWire slave app that sends MIDI to Logic.

 

That said, there are a few arp solutions that I think stand out. These are:

 

Reaktor - If you have Reaktor, there are a couple ensembles in the user lib that do this.

 

Hypercyclic - this is a dontationware AU/VST that does Arp and gated effects. Designed more to be a mangler but can be used as a straighforward arp.

 

Sugar Byte's Thesys - This is an easy to use step sequencer that can do arps along with chord sequencing, pitch bend, and some gate sub-divide stuff.

 

Five12's Numerology - This is a monster of a step sequencer. It does all the stuff Thesys does (though some things are a bit quciker to access/do in Thesys) and so very much more than what Thesys does for the same price. It runs AU or stand-alone (can be ReWired to Logic). In stand-alone mode it can host AU instruments and effects, has an arrangement view of sorts, a mixer, etc--it is *almost* a DAW.

 

I use Numerology because:

- I like step sequencing WAAAAAAY better in many situations that either drawing in the piano roll and hyper editor or playing in slowly.

 

- Ability to try interesting sequences that are a pain to draw in to the piano roll.

 

- Notes are sequened as intevals from a base not absolute notes. In other words, a sequency might look like this (U being the reference note): U m3 U U P8[+1] U U. You then pick the key and the reference Octave. In the above example, if the key was C and the reference octave were 3, the notes would be: C3 Eflat3 C3 C3 C4 C3 C3. I can take it up or down an octave with one click to change the reference from "3" to "4" or "2". Similarly, I can transpose it to the key of A simpley by changing the reference key from "C" to "A".

 

The second one above bears some explaining. Most step sequencers have the idea of a gate divide as Numerology does. Numerology supports some pretty serious divides (divides of integer numbers from 2 to bigger than you would ever use). So, lets say I have a 16th note pattern (16 steps of 16th notes). Lets say step 9 (downbeat of beat 3) plays a single note -- C3. If I divide that step by 2, then I get C3 played twice as 32nd notes. If I divide by 3, I get a 32nd note triplet, if by 4, then 64th notes, etc. This takes way longer to experiment with in the piano roll!

 

Additionally, Numberology allows the use of discreet sequencers. For instance, you can use seperate interval (note), gate, and velocity sequencers. So, for example, I could have a 16th note pattern interval sequence, which could use a 3 step gate sequence and a 5 step velocity sequence. It is likely you would not even think of or try to draw this out in the piano roll or hyper editor--it would be a pain.

 

These discreet sequencers can be used together for thing like transposition, if I have an Inteval sequencer with whole note patters feeding another interval sequencer of 16 steps, then I can have the 16 step pattern transposed each measure.

 

Add to this that just about any parameter (pattern start step, end step, step gate length, step velocity and loads more) more can be modulated.

 

So Numerology is WAAAAY overkill if you only want an arp. But it has considerable functionality that you don't get anywhere else.

[ski]

Person99, thanks so much for taking the time to write up such a detailed and informative post on arpeggiation options!

 

Regards,

 

Ski

[Jordi Torres]

IMHO this is due to a glaring deficiency in the AU spec. There is no concept of a AU that generates MIDI to return to the host via the AU interface.

 

The deficiency is in the host, not the AU spec:

 

http://lists.apple.com/archives/Coreaudio-api/2007/Mar/msg00053.html

 

J.

[Person99]

IMHO this is due to a glaring deficiency in the AU spec. There is no concept of a AU that generates MIDI to return to the host via the AU interface.

 

The deficiency is in the host, not the AU spec:

 

http://lists.apple.com/archives/Coreaudio-api/2007/Mar/msg00053.html

 

J.

 

True--I guess I should have said "I blame Apple". First for taking so long to put it into the AU spec (I think it was not implemented until 10.5 IIRC) and then not driving the market by putting support in Logic. This has been no prob in Cubase for awhile (this is one of a few nagging features that make me wonder still if I should be using cubase instead of Logic).

 

As of last year, I didn't think there were any (major?) AU hosts that support MIDI out (perhaps natural lag between features being available and software taking advantage). Are there any yet (I don't think DP, Live, etc support it--maybe Bidule does)?

 

So, I still think it took way too long to get this in the AU spec (should have been from the beginning).

[Jordi Torres]

IMHO this is due to a glaring deficiency in the AU spec. There is no concept of a AU that generates MIDI to return to the host via the AU interface.

 

The deficiency is in the host, not the AU spec:

 

http://lists.apple.com/archives/Coreaudio-api/2007/Mar/msg00053.html

 

J.

 

True--I guess I should have said "I blame Apple". First for taking so long to put it into the AU spec (I think it was not implemented until 10.5 IIRC) and then not driving the market by putting support in Logic. This has been no prob in Cubase for awhile (this is one of a few nagging features that make me wonder still if I should be using cubase instead of Logic).

 

As of last year, I didn't think there were any (major?) AU hosts that support MIDI out (perhaps natural lag between features being available and software taking advantage). Are there any yet (I don't think DP, Live, etc support it--maybe Bidule does)?

 

Bidule does for sure. Live doesn't, and the rest I don't know.

 

J.

[Person99]

Live doesn't,

 

Exactly, it still makes me question the AU implementation. Live supports it for VSTs, so they have the "plumbing" in place. If AU was straightforward, should be easy to add.

 

Of course, could be that there are no market drivers to spend even a little time on it.