Your fave MIDI fx, arp, mapper, mangler, generator, chorder, controller, utility. VST or MFX

[Calenberger]

It's one of the new features of version 5.

Your talking about RC I think ? I was just talking about Melodya.

Oops, my fault, I was pointing at Celemony Melodyne.

[David]

…
Thanks for your message. I guess I am really talking about arpeggiators. I find that coming up with chord progressions that I like is relatively easy, but extracting interesting melodic lines is not. Thus, in my preferred approach, I would like to feed in existing chords (whether real-time, or pre-programmed) and have the MIDI device spit out a variety of single note lines based on those chords. When I think of arpeggiators, I usually think of simple ones that go up, down, up-down, etc., but I am very interested in the "more powerful and more customizable" ones that you mention. I have both Reaktor and M4L - are there specific ones in those formats which you would recommend?

There are SO many to choose from in both categories:)

Just looking at the first-few-pages search results from both—

Reaktor: I'd grab Rotkaer, Driftwood, Fugue, Arpaerus…and many others…check out every page in the search.

M4L I especially like J74 ARPline 1.0 by fabriziopoce; also Uplift Arpeggio 1.0 by dan and SM MIDI Arpeggio 1.0 by sampleme; but definitely check out every page in this search, too. Also Hexo!
And the basic Live Arp is anything BUT basic:) Check out some YT demos about it.

This is a good one, showing how to get a ton more that you'd expect from the Live Arp by adding all sorts of other stock Live MIDI FX to it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95WwB7ox0Hg

I actually use more MIDI FX that straight arps in Live/M4L, my favs including many from Isotonik and k-devices

Also, I must throw in the great Hatefish device from Hornet, the only Euclidean arp I know of that does exactly what this thing does.

[bharris22]

IIRC, the inability to track particular chords is one of the main (purposeful) distinctions between Melodya and RapidComposer.

[courtjestr]

I find this interesting and I'd like to try and recreate it on my end. Can you tell me where I find the settings for "free run mode" and "retrigger" mode?

Phrasebox does not have these settings as far as I can tell, which was the point of my first message regarding this issue. Nora, ChordPortion and BlueArp all have this settings. Nora's setting is called "Sync with host clock" and if it is on it is free running, and if it is off it restarts on each chord change. BlueArp setting is found under the ARP Engine and is called "restart on" and gives you a number of options. ChordPotion calls the setting "Mode" and gives you the option to "Restart on chord change" or "Keep on running".

The following video illustrates the issue:

https://youtu.be/ljs_rjViXXs

My test bed is Kushview Elements and I have Scaler 2 feeding both Phrasebox and Nora. The first time I hit play, you can see that Phrasebox plays through the first 9 beats while Nora starts the phrase over on each beat. The second time I hit play, Phrasebox restarts the phrase on each beat the same as Nora. I have made no changes between the first and second time I hit play.

[courtjestr]

Also, I must throw in the great Hatefish device from Hornet, the only Euclidean arp I know of that does exactly what this thing does.

While not a VST there is also "Music Pattern Generator" by Wouter Hisschemöller.

https://www.hisschemoller.com/blog/2019 ... ator-v2-1/

It generates Euclidean patterns which can be used in live performances or in recorded compositions. Here is a video demonstrating its capabilities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4JAhvl5FaA

Looks like it mostly useful for generating percussion tracks.

[courtjestr]

The list you've made is mostly about arpeggiators, and any arpeggiator does this; some, like those in your list, are just more powerful and more customizable than others, and available as plugins (which leaves out all the incredible M4L ones, Logic's great one, and all the Reason Players). Of course, there's also a huge boatload of Reaktor MIDI devices, including both many interesting arpeggiators and quite a few unique devices that can also arguably do what you describe…

I just upgraded to Komplete 11 and now have access to the Reaktor MIDI devices. I'll have to check them out.

The Reason Players are now available to everyone as a plugin via the Reason 11 Rack Lite vst. It is available for free with a purchase from PluginBoutique this month. The Dual Arpeggio that comes with Reason Intro and above is not included but any of the Reason Players available for purchase should work.

If you want complex sequencers/arpeggiators and have Kontakt, you should check out HGSounds offerings. ARP Stream for Kontakt is a beast, as are the MIDI processors included in the Kontakt Sequencer Collection. https://hgsounds.com/product-category/kontakt/

[UncleAge]

I find this interesting and I'd like to try and recreate it on my end. Can you tell me where I find the settings for "free run mode" and "retrigger" mode?

Phrasebox does not have these settings as far as I can tell, which was the point of my first message regarding this issue. Nora, ChordPortion and BlueArp all have this settings. Nora's setting is called "Sync with host clock" and if it is on it is free running, and if it is off it restarts on each chord change. BlueArp setting is found under the ARP Engine and is called "restart on" and gives you a number of options. ChordPotion calls the setting "Mode" and gives you the option to "Restart on chord change" or "Keep on running".

The following video illustrates the issue:

https://youtu.be/ljs_rjViXXs

My test bed is Kushview Elements and I have Scaler 2 feeding both Phrasebox and Nora. The first time I hit play, you can see that Phrasebox plays through the first 9 beats while Nora starts the phrase over on each beat. The second time I hit play, Phrasebox restarts the phrase on each beat the same as Nora. I have made no changes between the first and second time I hit play.

I think it would be a good idea to send this request to the dev along with that link. I am pretty sure he would want to know about features users find useful. I have found him to be very responsive to my emails.

[courtjestr]

I think it would be a good idea to send this request to the dev along with that link. I am pretty sure he would want to know about features users find useful. I have found him to be very responsive to my emails.

Thanks. I would if I knew how. I can't find a forum anywhere for Venomode or Phrasebox. How did you contact the developer?

[David]

…
While not a VST there is also "Music Pattern Generator" by Wouter Hisschemöller.

https://www.hisschemoller.com/blog/2019 ... ator-v2-1/

It generates Euclidean patterns which can be used in live performances or in recorded compositions. Here is a video demonstrating its capabilities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4JAhvl5FaA

Looks like it mostly useful for generating percussion tracks.

Cool—Thanks for this! Looks like Xronomorph has a cousin:)—

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgzLRzI ... e=emb_logo

http://www.dynamictonality.com/xronomorph.htm

[David]

…
The Reason Players are now available to everyone as a plugin via the Reason 11 Rack Lite vst. It is available for free with a purchase from PluginBoutique this month. The Dual Arpeggio that comes with Reason Intro and above is not included but any of the Reason Players available for purchase should work.

If you want complex sequencers/arpeggiators and have Kontakt, you should check out HGSounds offerings. ARP Stream for Kontakt is a beast, as are the MIDI processors included in the Kontakt Sequencer Collection. https://hgsounds.com/product-category/kontakt/

Ditto!! HGSounds devices are brilliant. And that's really cool news about Reason Rack for free:)

Kontakt as MIDI FX!? Don't miss:
viewtopic.php?t=495526

(Groundhog day alert!—Can't praise these gems too often, IMO:)

Tied for first in my world:

Kontakt: Access to both factory MIDI scripts and the endless variety of the same from 3rd-party libraries (Cracklefield, Fingerpick, Arpology, etc.) Easy to use in Live as VST, and in Logic as VST inside BlueCat Patchwork MIDI FX or Bidule.

Reaktor: Already available as an AU MIDI FX, SO many interesting and unique MIDI devices (some all time favs in the User Library: Motion Clusters, Adlais, Rifflab…)

Tied for second:

Xronomorph (standalone, works great with Mac IAC Driver, as does Reaktor—advantage: MIDI output is easily recorded): http://www.dynamictonality.com/xronomorph.htm

DifferentDrummer (IOS): http://technemedia.com/drummer/

Most used Logic MFX: The Arp of course, but also Transposer after whatever else is sending out MIDI, with two Modulators, one with Random LFO pointed at the Transposition slider, and one at the Scales field. AND, also of course, the essential MIDI FX Freeze.

I, too, expect Loomer Architect to change my world:)

And since the next Architect release WILL HAVE PRESETS, maybe it FINALLY WILL!!

[courtjestr]

Cool—Thanks for this! Looks like Xronomorph has a cousin:)—

Xronomorph! That is the application I ran across a few months back and could never find again. I have been looking for this for ages. Thanks!

[UncleAge]

I think it would be a good idea to send this request to the dev along with that link. I am pretty sure he would want to know about features users find useful. I have found him to be very responsive to my emails.

Thanks. I would if I knew how. I can't find a forum anywhere for Venomode or Phrasebox. How did you contact the developer?

PM sent

[bharris22]

Thank you, all!

[JiggSaw]

Can anyone list the tools that can generate random riffs/melodies by following the chords? So far I have Captain Melody, Melodya, Phrasebox, ChordPotion. Any others?

[David]

The main ones missing from your list, IMO (because I use them), are RapidComposer and Liquid Music (currently on sale here).

There's also Melody Sauce and Orb Composer, which I have no experience with.

Also, I don't think Melodya actually does this; IIRC, it only allows you to set a scale, not chords, but I may be wrong. Anyone?

These YT searches may be helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... velopments

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... quid+music