apreggiator users

[keyboard hunger]

as many keyboards have a apreggiator, wouldn't it be cool to use it to play those really fast apreggios instead of practicing them for all day because you can adjust the speed on a apreggiator as you want.

[Quili]

It´s quite hard to incorporate the arpeggiator smoothly into your playing... I´d say it would take as much practise as actually learning to play the arpeggios. But give it a try! Tell us how it works out...

[Drusillus]

I'm thinking of programming mine to help me play the intro for The Great Debate... :oops:

[maJ estY]

Using arpeggiators in own compositions is OK. Covering songs of a band whose keyboarder does also use arpeggiators is also OK, but if you cover something or compose something, which can or could be played without arpeggiator, it's a bit lame - I actually never use mine. :)

[Spacehog]

I have mine turned off on both my E-MU's... I've tried it a couple of times, it was annoying to me. Also, on the E-MU, to use the arpeggiator you have to either have something else supplying MIDI clock, or use the internal MIDI clock, both of which cause an irritating flashing tempo light... hence I have my midi clock settings set to EXT and no external clock source :)

Martin

[Scrap]

Advanced arpeggiators based on algorithmic technology that offer real-time control and improvisational ability, such as KARMA, can prove to be quite inspirational. For an example of this, check out the mp3 below, which is -entirely- generated by the KARMA engine (all I did was give it a source chord to base itself on - Em9), then I began to twiddle the control knobs to vary things like rhythm complexity on individual instruments, swing time, kick/snare levels, humanization, so on. As a personal rule in my own music, I use such devices sparingly, but if you are a blue collar 'musician' who needs to crank out music for an car insurance advertisement, jingle for the radio, and work on a television soundtrack all in one day, it can cut down on your time wasted waiting on inspiration to hit you and allow you to finish all of your projects.

http://www.reprehensible.net/~scrap/modernjazz.mp3

Here are some quotes from Harmony Central to mull over and consider. They may actually change your opinion on arpeggiators. ;)


A lot of you may now be wondering if KARMA will replace musicians and let inexperienced newbies create songs without any knowledge create music. You might also be thinking that I'm a fool and I shouldn't use some computer algorithm to make my music. That's not the way KARMA works. It provides you musical clay to work with, and you must mould it into something great. You have a lot of control over this moulding, so you can create something very unique. KARMA is also a refreshing creativity-generator for tired minds! You can not even use the KARMA function in your song, but let it inspire you to experiment playing different types of music. It has certainly opened my mind to a lot of possibilities!



There have been many reviews of the KARMA so I'm going to write this one purely from the perspective of how I respond to it as an improvisational musician. I'll start by telling you where I'm coming from. I'm fifty three and I've been playing keyboards and guitars for forty years. I play a variety of styles but I'm mainly interested in improvisational approaches to music. I don't gig. I play music around ten to twenty hours a week, typically by myself, and every once in a while with another musician. I'm not daunted by technology, but I'm not a techie. I'm less interested in sound design, composition, and recording,than I am in making on the spot music.....what I can best describe as Mandala sand paintings....get into a groove and mess around for an hour...and be grateful for the experience....no record of my"accomplishment." The KARMA is accessible, tweakable, deep, and complex. I haven't bothered with combi creation or the GE software. I'm sure it would be great fun to do so, and I have enormous respect for people who make music that way, but in the amount of time I have to play music, I'd rather just be at the keyboard. On that basis, the KARMA is a pleasure to use. Real time combi tweaking is instantly possible, as is basic mixing and program editing. This is definitely an instrument in which you can "learn by doing." Your understanding grows as you experiment and gain more experience. Not everything is transparent, but you can get your chops going pretty quickly.