Ableton/Live/UG/30 MIDI Effect Reference/01 Arpeggiator
- Arpeggiator turns a held chord or single note into a rhythmic pattern.
- Style sets the order of notes in the pattern, and the display draws it. Previous and Next Style Pattern buttons in the display step through the styles.
- Most styles are the usual ones: Up, Down, Converge, Diverge.
- Play Order plays notes in the order they were pressed.
- Chord Trigger repeats all held notes together as a block chord.
- Random styles:
- Random — a continuously shuffled sequence
- Random Other — random, but no note repeats until every held note has played
- Random Once — one random pattern, repeated until the held notes change
- Rate sets the speed, in milliseconds or in tempo-synced divisions depending on the Sync/Free toggle.
- Distance and Steps transpose the pattern on each repeat. Distance is the interval in semitones or scale degrees; Steps is how many transposed repeats follow. With Distance +12 st and Steps 2, a pattern starting on C3 plays at C3, then C4, then C5. Negative Distance goes down.
- Root and Scale keep the transposition inside a scale. Use Current Scale in the title bar takes the clip's scale instead and disables those two choosers.
- Gate sets note length as a percentage of Rate. Over 100% the notes overlap for a legato sound.
- Hold keeps the pattern going after the keys are released, until a new key is pressed. Holding keys and adding more builds up the pattern; playing a held note again removes it.
- Pattern Offset rotates the start of the pattern by a number of steps. At 1 the second note plays first and the first note plays last.
- Groove adds swing from the groove library; the Global Groove Amount in the Groove Pool or Control Bar sets how strong it is.
- Retrigger restarts the pattern:
- Off — never
- Note — on each new note
- Beat — every bar or beat set by Interval
- An LED next to the Retrigger controls flashes on each restart.
- Repeats sets how many times the pattern plays; the default is ∞. Values of 1 or 2 suggest a strummed guitar, and combining Repeats with Retrigger gives patterns with rests between them.
- The Velocity toggle shows the velocity controls. Decay is the time to reach the Target velocity; a long Decay with Target 0 fades the pattern out. With Retrigger on, the velocity ramp restarts with the pattern.