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

[danwpc]

...
Any chance you could create a tutorial on triggering chains/patterns using midi notes/keys? I'm in Logic Pro X. The process of chaining is described clearly in the manual, but I'm struggling with finding a way to trigger patterns with keys. Or do I need to use sliders/buttons/knobs exclusively? (Seems like keys would work too. Just struggling to figure it out). Even so, would be interested to see a tutorial on CC's/keys and chains. Thx!

It is not possible with keys (in an easy way at least), you need something that transmits CC/RPN/NRPN. So either a knob or a row of buttons. Not sure if you can use keys for that, but maybe some keyboards will allow to reprogram keys to send CC's instead of midi notes. And maybe some DAWs will assign keys to a certain controller/value, but this will be tricky and depend on DAW. I have the idea to make a tutorial no this, but too much stuff right now...
The easiest way to go - is to grab something like korg nanokontrol with a row of 8 buttons, works fine for me. Or if your midi keyboard has pads/button rows, I'm pretty sure you can reprogram them to use for chain switching. The key thing is to make them transmit the same CC when you press them, but different values, like 0, 16, 32, 48, etc. So basically your button row should work like a single knob and by hitting buttons you just trigger different values.
PS. If you are about switching programs instead of chains - you can try to automate 'CurProgram' parameter the same way or try to pass program change messages from your keyboard to the plugin. Basically, the plugin reacts to program change messages, but the tricky thing will be to pass them to the plugin, DAW will likely filter them out.

I'll give it a shot. Much appreciated.

[Dadi]

Hi,
First of all, this arp plugin is great and very appreciated!

One thing that did not work for me is that I could not hold the arp using the sustain pedal.
Sustain event (CC #64 value 127 and then 0) is sent correctly into the plugin, and also 'sustain msg' is set to 'arp latch'.
Am I missing anything?

Thanks,
Eldad

[phreaque]

I could not hold the arp using the sustain pedal.
Sustain event (CC #64 value 127 and then 0) is sent correctly into the plugin, and also 'sustain msg' is set to 'arp latch'.

Hi, avoid using VST3 & rely only on using VST (aka VST 2.4).

[Dadi]

I could not hold the arp using the sustain pedal.
Sustain event (CC #64 value 127 and then 0) is sent correctly into the plugin, and also 'sustain msg' is set to 'arp latch'.

Hi, avoid using VST3 & rely only on using VST (aka VST 2.4).

Thank you very much, it worked!
Is there a documentation explaining it? Is it a known issue for VST3?

[phreaque]

My pleasure

Yes here's a couple:
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/vst3-and ... all/201879
https://answers.presonus.com/55067/supp ... t3-plugins

[Dadi]

My pleasure

Yes here's a couple:
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/vst3-and ... all/201879
https://answers.presonus.com/55067/supp ... t3-plugins

Wow, this is unbelievable. I'm really surprised.
So all known products in the market of Arps and MIDI Mappers, they all support only VST2.4 or did they go the hard way of mapping the CC and the PC messages?

[ulit]

Hi Oleg, I hope you are doing well in these weird times. Can you post for us somewhere some impressions from Moscow? All the best!

[phreaque]

Hi Oleg, I hope you are doing well in these weird times. Can you post for us somewhere some impressions from Moscow? All the best!

Hi, on behalf of Oleg, he's okay, and it is better to avoid discussions like this here.

We hope everything will be okay soon, after all, events like this always impact in bad way on all sides.

[arseniiv]

I have a couple of suggestions for adding a partial microtuning support to BlueARP eventually.

Nowadays microtuning is done using several approaches, including remapping MIDI notes to different frequencies in the plugins which support that. Quite often people use tunings which still repeat at octaves, but an octave spans some other number of notes than 12* (when it spans 12 keys but the tuning is not equal, BlueARP would still work as expected—at least to my taste). My suggestions will make using BlueARP with this approach easier.

• * And when they don’t repeat at octaves, these additions may still be useful. For example, Bohlen—Pierce scales, both just and equally-delimited, with 13 steps to a tritave (octave plus a just fifth), will still enjoy 13-step transpositions to an extent.

First, adding a setting “steps in octave” with default value 12, min 2, max ≈40 (larger equal divisions of the octave are probably not used much with this approach, as MIDI has just 128 notes and we usually need play range of a couple of octaves). Probably sensible to make it bank-level, as arps in programs would use transposition values related to the value of this one and would not be playable as-is in the context of other bank-level settings.

Second, settings which operate with octaves and transposition by octaves will all change how much steps are added to notes when processing, multiplying not by 12 but by the value of “steps in octave”:

• Input Filter > input range (wrap)
• Input Filter > missing keys transpose
• Output Filter > transp. oct
• Output Filter > output range (wrap)
• Value lanes > octave

Simple UI changes will be also needed here:

• Output Filter > transpose: more than −12..+12, maybe −40..+40?
• SETTINGS > Matrix Editor > scale step range: add ranges for more than −12..+12, probably just add the −40..+40 range and that’s it.

That’s all. This will already make a huge difference. More support will require way more work regarding to the settings in Arp Engine group, as the current scales and chord detection won’t make sense for non-12-notes-per-octave scales (and even 12-note scales too different from 12edo). Then all that would probably need to be specified explicitly: what tuning steps belong to the mode, and all chord detection logic (but the last one is even less essential).

Approaches which use polyphonic pitch-bend (and just pitch-bend and channels) are harder to adapt an arpeggiator to, so I didn’t think about them at all and they are out of scope here.

[crickey13]

Or just tune the plugin microtonally (via tun file or ODDsound thingie) and use the arp to trigger the notes?

[arseniiv]

@crickey13 I mean exactly this scenario, just octaves then would be not 12 notes in span so it will be less handy to set up in some cases (transposition lane) or the behavior will be inconsistent (note wrapping).

[phreaque]

or the behavior will be inconsistent (note wrapping).

Can you visualize the idea in a simple drawing sketch or some illustration please?

[arseniiv]

Yeah. Something like this:

How BlueARP works now, vs. how it would transpose 7edo notes (red) vs. how it would be appropriate to do so (green).

How BlueARP works now, vs. how it would transpose 7edo notes (red) vs. how it would be appropriate to do so (green). Yellow is the range we picked to be wrapped onto.

That is if I understand the current wrapping behaviour properly (in which I’m certain for now).

[StrangeSatellite]

As someone who just (finally) discovered BlueARP today, I have to give Oleg a big THANK YOU. For me, this plugin is a breakthrough for my writing. I’ve been making music for over 23 years and I feel that it’s one of those rare tools that causes a paradigm shift. It allows movement from harmonic progression to melodic progression in a way that makes a lot of sense. Keep up the amazing work.

[phreaque]

On behalf of Oleg, glad to hear that, and, this indeed is the purpose of using BlueARP to get rid of limitation while maintaining formal and 'useful' aspects in music creativity.