BlueARP VST Arpeggiator development - let's discuss! (Apple M1 ready, 4K)

[funkystrings]

Support our best developer, he deserve an award! Urra Oleg

+1^

[funkystrings]

Hi Oleg, I have a song in a Mac >Cubase 7.5 project, in 3/4 time signature, with a tempo of 175. As of now, it's the only song in which I'm using BlueArp. I saved a preset I created in BlueArp especially for it that suits it very well. I then upgraded to 2.10 and BlueArp started playing it quite a bit faster then normal. I went back and forth between 2.07 and 2.10 several times and 2.10 always plays it way too fast so I have now reverted back to the 2.07 install .... Hmmm ....very strange

[glinkot]

The update sounds great Oleg - will be checking this out tomorrow for sure.

[graywolf2004]

Hi Oleg, I have a song in a Mac >Cubase 7.5 project, in 3/4 time signature, with a tempo of 175. As of now, it's the only song in which I'm using BlueArp. I saved a preset I created in BlueArp especially for it that suits it very well. I then upgraded to 2.10 and BlueArp started playing it quite a bit faster then normal. I went back and forth between 2.07 and 2.10 several times and 2.10 always plays it way too fast so I have now reverted back to the 2.07 install .... Hmmm ....very strange

I thunk it's not mac-specific issue but something with step calculating logic. But I couldn't reproduce this in FL. Can you send me this present and give more info on how to reproduce this? Does it happen when host is playing or not?

[glinkot]

I've just done some testing of the new chain logic. It's very cool and I think it works as intended. I find the following:

a) 'Restart on Beat' works as hoped, and the pattern starts nicely on first MIDI input! It continues the chain through changing input notes/chords, again great. Thanks for your efforts Oleg.

One thing to keep thinking about is that even a small gap between played chords starts the chain again. If you want a tiny gap between chords (even of one 'step' length) workarounds are needed. I tried putting a single 'velocity = 1' note along the bottom of the whole piano roll on a but of course when the real chords had a gap, this note got picked up as one of the k1, k2 arp keys as you'd expect, which changes the whole pattern so that's not a great idea.

b) I then tried automation to achieve this - set 'restart on beat', chain quantize to 1 bar, and set an automation to set the chain to 1 just before the start of the third bar. However it starts on the 3rd bar of the chain, rather than starting from the start (see attached .flp to see what I mean - you would expect the piano roll on bar 3 to start from program 1 in the chain).

So....
I propose that (unless there's already a way to do this) changing the 'current chain' by automation should restart it on program 1 in the chain (respecting quantize though, so this begins on next bar or whatever). I thought it used to do this actually.

[graywolf2004]

I've just done some testing of the new chain logic. It's very cool and I think it works as intended. I find the following:

a) 'Restart on Beat' works as hoped, and the pattern starts nicely on first MIDI input! It continues the chain through changing input notes/chords, again great. Thanks for your efforts Oleg.

One thing to keep thinking about is that even a small gap between played chords starts the chain again. If you want a tiny gap between chords (even of one 'step' length) workarounds are needed. I tried putting a single 'velocity = 1' note along the bottom of the whole piano roll on a but of course when the real chords had a gap, this note got picked up as one of the k1, k2 arp keys as you'd expect, which changes the whole pattern so that's not a great idea.

b) I then tried automation to achieve this - set 'restart on beat', chain quantize to 1 bar, and set an automation to set the chain to 1 just before the start of the third bar. However it starts on the 3rd bar of the chain, rather than starting from the start (see attached .flp to see what I mean - you would expect the piano roll on bar 3 to start from program 1 in the chain).

So....
I propose that (unless there's already a way to do this) changing the 'current chain' by automation should restart it on program 1 in the chain (respecting quantize though, so this begins on next bar or whatever). I thought it used to do this actually.

Hi. This version (2.10) is still quite raw, I found a few bugs this weekend (could spend only a couple of hours today).
Some more explanations:
In beat mode, bluearp will always align it's step to the beat, this is the way I want it to be. Maybe "restart on beat" is not the accurate name, better to say "align step to song position". In your case it starts the chain from the middle 'as designed'.

Say we have 2 chains:
chain1: 1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-3 (numbers are program numbers, program 1 is 4 steps long, in program sequence you see 1-2-3)
chain2: 4-4-4-4-5-5-5-5
Assume we switched the chain from 1 to 2 in the middle of step 5, we have sync=1/16, chain_quantize = 1/16.
Chain 1 will play 1-1-1-1-2, chain2 will continue from step 6 and then re-cycle: 5-5-5-4-4-4-4-5-5-5-5
Now assume we changed chain_quantize to 1/4 (= 1 beat) and again we switch chain from 1 to 2 on step 5.
Chain 1 will play 1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3, due to chain quantize it will play steps 6,7,8 - till the end of the beat. Chain 2 will continue from step 9 (since chain 2 is 8 steps long, it will be again 9-8=step1), so chain 2 will continue 4-4-4-4-5-5-5-5-4-4-4-4 etc.
Now assume we had no chords pressed till step 5 and set current chain = 1 from the beginning, in this case chain 1 will start from step 6: 2-2-3-3-3-1-1-1-1 etc. (this is the same thing as in your case when it starts from 3rd bar of the chain)

If you want the chain to start with the chord, use "restart on = key" mode. But as you noticed, there are 2 possible scenarios:
1. When you press a new chord with a gap between the chords - you want your chain to restart (the way it works now). It will be "restart on" = key
2. When you press a new chord with a gap between the chords - you want your chain to continue playing. So 1st chord pressed will start the chain but it won't restart on the next chord. It will be "restart on" = 1st key (new option).

In restart on key mode - I think it's logical to start new chain from the beginning when you switch the chain.
It doesn't work this way now. So I need to do more testing myself. I'm working on the bass cover, combined with testing\debugging - I have some track synced to the projest tempo and bluearp plays complex bass line over the top using chains.

PS. Thanks for FL studio example, it makes it much clearer.

[graywolf2004]

(deleted)

[graywolf2004]

(deleted) - occasionally duplicated my last post . Is there any way to delete a message here?

[kaiyoti]

This might be answered somewhere in the thread but a search keywords tie and loop doesn't yield any results.

I'm wondering how to make the last note and the first note tie when it loops? It seems that when the steps end... or while looping, the tie notes aren't respected.

Anyway around this?

[ansolas]

Hello,
i dont get it working under Studio One x64 .

I created 2 midi instruments one with blujearp and another witha synth.
When I select BlueArp as midi in on the synth channel and play blue arp nothing happens ?

[ENV1]

Make sure that the synth track is record enabled.

Otherwise no MIDI will go in.

[ansolas]

Yit thats it! Now its working Thank you !

[glinkot]

Thanks for the detailed reply Oleg. I wanted to make sure I fullly understood your post before I replied. I get what you mean about the benefit of changing halfway through a chain. The 'first key' is a good idea too - I think that's a good approach.

I was thinking maybe just a checkbox 'restart chain when chain changes' would be good - this way you could have gaps in your chords if you wanted without trouble. During performance you can then decide whether turning your 'chain' knob keeps continuity between various 'compatible' chains (which work seamlessly with one another) or just moves to the new chain and starts the arp again.

What do you think?

[kalbinsson]

You have to click on the speaker icon on the track where you have your synth instrument.

/K

[kalbinsson]

I would love to be able to select one ore more keys in a step so that you can play parts of an input chord.

/K