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

[graywolf2004]

Musically useless? Absolutely not. Too complicated? From a programmer point of view it probably is. Let me explain, I've wrote a program that uses arps and does chord recognition too. The way I implemented it was that the chords used for chord recognition are independent from the chords used for the arps. So the fundamental pattern an arp plays was not affected by the chord input used for the chord recognition part. This is especially useful when multiple arps are playing at the same time. It does work, but programming chord recognition does open up a whole other can of worms, be warned.

I got your point. By "complicated" I mean "not obvious for an average user without reading the manual". This is my main concern, not the programming complexity (latter is just a guestion of time and will). PS. What's the name of your program, is there any way to check it?

[graywolf2004]

Do you have any plan to add various colorschemes (i'm not a huge fan of the blue, i'd be glad to be able to set it to gray for instance ).

I think of porting it to Lazarus in the future (for x64 support, and probably Linux and\or Mac porting). But what's possible to do in a short time, is to make the ability to configure color schemes and fonts. I still have to learn more about skinning techniques.

[Shabdahbriah]

PS. What's the name of your program, is there any way to check it?

Zyklus Improvisor

[graywolf2004]

Zyklus Improvisor

Yeah, I saw his thread already and should have guessed. This thing looks complicated, but anyway interesting for me, I'll definitely look at it more.

ENV1
About restart on key. Yesterday night after a quick test I realized that the bug was actually small - I just removed one zero assignment and is seems to work fine.
More about restart on key + input quantization. After some playing I saw that aligning start point to the beginning of the next note isn't good, cause when you have quantized input notes in the seqnencer, sometimes it postpones pattern start one step later (maybe the input notes are very slightly delayed, maybe some delay just because of "signal flow").
So I introduced some "safety interval", or maximum input key latency (in steps) to allow triggering the arp on the current (now playing) note. First I set step_max_latency to 0.5.
But, with small gate times it looks like the step is triggered, while it makes no sound (notes with gate < 50% wake the sound only in the 1st half of the step).
Finally, I came to the equation
step_max_latency = gate / 200, where gate = 1%..100%
So, for gate = 60% max allowed latency will be 0.3 steps.

Well, looks too tangled maybe, but with this algorithm it feels much better when playing. I almost didn't miss the right start points with it (before, without this step_max_latency, I did).

[krbrook]

I'm tried it in Studio One v2 and in Cubase v5.
Is there a tutorial for setting it up for each DAW?
If someone could give me a step-by-step process for using it in a DAW,
I really really would appreciate it.
I've used midi plugins before.

Thanks
-Roy

[graywolf2004]

I'm tried it in Studio One v2 and in Cubase v5.
Is there a tutorial for setting it up for each DAW?
If someone could give me a step-by-step process for using it in a DAW,
I really really would appreciate it.
I've used midi plugins before.

Thanks
-Roy

This in pre-release version - no manual or tutorials yet. If you mean the procedure of connecting the arp to VST synth, check tutorials for Kirnu or Catanya arp's. For BlueARP procedure should be the same.
Only difference - BlueARP will start working only when the sequencer is running.

[krbrook]

thanks I'll look at those tutorials.
Sorry, I left out that I couldn't get it connect/work.

-Roy

[graywolf2004]

Update: version 1.05 beta
http://www.graywolf2004.net/files/BlueARP_v1.05.zip

Changes:
- Bugfix for 'restart on key' mode, improved accuracy
- Patch load and save
- Some minor GUI optimizations

Patch load\save may be unstable still, esp. when you do it when arp is playing.
Patch format may change also, so yet it's only for testing, don't rely on it. I'll continue working on it next weekend.

[Shabdahbriah]

Thank you for the update just for the record:

Added donation option:

http://www.graywolf2004.net/donate/

[darsho]

tested it in Reaper 4 (32bit) and Ableton Live Lite 8 (32bit) on a Win7 32bit System running on a Acer Netbook.
Works with both sequencers.

[Deist]

I'm a sucker for arps and sequencers, so I'm always delighted to see new stuff available on that department!

Although, don't want to sound like some complaining moron here, obviously any freeware development like this must be supported and encouraged, yet given the alternatives available in this particular field, I hope you won't mind me asking:
what advantage(s)/feature(s) will BlueARP offer over Arto VAARALA's Kirnu (noting incidentally that a 2.0 version is in the works for that one)?

[graywolf2004]

I'm a sucker for arps and sequencers, so I'm always delighted to see new stuff available on that department!
Although, don't want to sound like some complaining moron here, obviously any freeware development like this must be supported and encouraged, yet given the alternatives available in this particular field, I hope you won't mind me asking:
what advantage(s)/feature(s) will BlueARP offer over Arto VAARALA's Kirnu (noting incidentally that a 2.0 version is in the works for that one)?

I don't know what Kirnu developer has in mind. Sure he will see my thread and maybe even take some ideas from BlueARP. Let's wait and see.
My passion during all this time was to create an arp according to my mental picture of 'ideal arp', and I'm using it myself. I came to this picture after several years of playing with hardware and software.
Kirnu is more like a traditional arp (with pattern elements), while BlueARP is a 100% pattern arp, it gives more predictable result, which is somewhere better in electronic and trance music, where 'repetitive' and 'algorithmic' are the keys.

[echodvm]

Graywolf,
I have to say that BlueArp is one of the most musically useful arpeggiators I've run across. The pattern grid sets it apart from just about everything out there and its a pleasure to use.

One question. I notice that the parameters in the left pane don't seem to be visible to the host as automation targets (in Ableton Live at least). Would it be possible to expose those parameters to the host so they can be automated via an external controller?

For example, changing the order algorithm, missing key substitution and output range on the fly often yields very interesting results. It would be great to do this without using the mouse. Just a suggestion for your consideration.

[animaniac3k]

I'm a sucker for arps and sequencers, so I'm always delighted to see new stuff available on that department!

Although, don't want to sound like some complaining moron here, obviously any freeware development like this must be supported and encouraged, yet given the alternatives available in this particular field, I hope you won't mind me asking:
what advantage(s)/feature(s) will BlueARP offer over Arto VAARALA's Kirnu (noting incidentally that a 2.0 version is in the works for that one)?

Why do people ask questions such as this? Kimru was great until blue arp came out. Here is why:

Question: I want to arpeggiate the C major chord in the following pattern 1,2,3,2,1,2,3,3,1. How can I do it with Kirnu?

Answer: You cant!

Question: Can I do it with Bluarp?

Answer: yes.

See?

[sinkmusic]

Why do people ask questions such as this?

Because it makes sense ?
Kirnu allows a lot of awesome time manipulation tricks on arps which BlueArp doesn't allow. It doesn't mean that BlueArp is not good, but it doesn't either mean that Kirnu is not worthy anymore just because BlueArp is out.

Not trying to sound like a moron here either but sometimes people need to spend a couple of seconds to think before they post questions like these

Not trying to sound like a moron here either but sometimes people need to spend a couple of seconds to think before they post answers like these