How to make an arpeggiator ?

Cheng Chien-Wen's icon

I would like to make an arpeggiator which can randomly playback the pitch class of the chord I play on a keyboard. It is like the arpeggiator in Reason 4. Which objects might be most useful for this project ?

Are there any Max external that can do this ?

Thanks.

Luis's icon

It can be a start
take a look on the attached patch

Aly

On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 3:51 PM, Cheng Chien-Wen
> wrote:

>
> I would like to make an arpeggiator which can randomly playback the pitch
> class of the chord I play on a keyboard. It is like the arpeggiator in
> Reason 4. Which objects might be most useful for this project ?
>
> Are there any Max external that can do this ?
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>

Adam Murray's icon

I don't know of an external to do this, but Max is good for building these sorts of things.

You need to keep track of which pitches are currently held down. [bag], [funbuff], or [coll] can do that.

Then it's a matter of the right combination of [zl] objects and a [random]. I used [zl group], [zl len], and [zl mth].

It's trickier if you want to use the played velocities. You could keep track of which velocity goes with each pitch with an additional [funbuff], or do something with [coll].

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Peter Castine's icon

I did the following as an exercise for myself. The creation date is February 1992, and I don't think I've looked at it since, so good luck!

I remember building a arpeggiator with options for up, down, up/down, and random; also early 90s. Spotlight's not finding it. Exercise for the reader.-)

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

swieser1's icon

I've got a similar patch from waaaaay back in the day. It's probably pretty messy, but it works:

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Exit Only's icon
Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Here is my version for 2008. Takes advantage of borax, coll and the new global transport.

Dg's icon

Mark Phillips tutorials are a good place to start with arpeggiators.