Project 4: The Arpeggiator

To "arpeggiate" a chord is to play the notes in the chord separately. This is a perfect task for a computer, and arpegiators have been a part of synths for decades. Just look at the one in front of you over on the left side of the screen.

Many generators in FL studio have an arpeggiator built right in. Here's how to turn them on:

Open FL Studio and go to Channels (at the top menu) and then Add One then choose 3 x osc. (The 3x osc stands for 3 oscillators - more on that later).

Add a note in the piano roll for this channel and make is long- at least 4 beats. Now click on the channel in the step sequencer to bring up the channel setting windo, and select the last tab "func". On this tab, you'll find the arpeggiator settings.

First turn it on by selecting one of the directional arrows- up, down, up and down, or random. The function of these directional arrows become obvious when you start playing with them.

Then increase the range number to something other than 1 and hit play. The range setting tells the computer hown many octaves above the note you input to play.

Now go to the chord window and select a chord or a scale. Viola! The computer plays a full chord or scale for you based on the one lonely note you entered.

Now, go back and play with the directional arrows, as well as the the speed and time wheels.

Your project is to use the arpeggiator on a generator to create a loop. Here's an example:



First, I use the FPC (Channels, add one, FPC) and loaded some Latin drum loops and fills. Next I went to the browser under channel presets, and selected a sound under 3x osc (but you can use pretty much any sound) Then I fiddled around with the arpeggio time to make it match the tempo of my drum loops, adjusted the direction and range of the arpeggio, and went to town in the piano roll writing long notes.

It does help to expand the size of the step sequencer when writing long melodic lines like this, in the step sequencer, go to the little box in the upper left hand corner and increase the value from -- (which is 0) up to a multiple of 4 (You know, 8, 12, 16,). I find it easier to write a long line when I have a long series of spaces to fill.

I chose not to arpeggiate the bass part for contrast, and I panned the bass to the left and the 3x to the right slightly to wident the stereo field. Then I finished it off with some effects. A flanger on the bass and reverb all around.

The criteria for assessment on this assignment is the same as the FX project, only instead of using FX, at least one of your channels has to use the arpeggiator.

Have fun!

Mr. Rabuse