Why cant I make my arps sound cool?

[Jimmyprice]

Can some1 please give me some tips to getting some cool house style arps?
like the arp in this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJDI0x5H ... re=related

Cheers

[LeifonMars]

You do realize, that in your example "coolness" is mostly done with loads of delay, reverb and glide of the synth? Arp is basically playing notes in downwards order. To answer your initial question: you need to practice more.

[RCUS]

You do realize, that in your example "coolness" is mostly done with loads of delay, reverb and glide of the synth? Arp is basically playing notes in downwards order. To answer your initial question: you need to practice more.

@LeifonMars wow that was an awfully pretentious way of answering Jimmyprice's question. I particularly like your "quotation" around "coolness" inferring your superior musical taste. YOU do realize that you sound like some smug fuck with your nose so high in the air, it's as if your neck was talking, instead of your mouth? You know what the world needs? Less people like you and more people like me to tell you to piss off.

Anyway @Jimmyprince, yes douche' fuck is correct ala delay, reverb, glide etc... However I would add to his "esteemed" dissection of the sound, perhaps some slight automation of EQ, or cutoff/resonance to make it more evolving. You also never know, the original artist may just be using some preset that's doing all that work for them, so don't get hung up on matching it exactly, rather, start with a good sound and experiment. You can learn alot by working backwards versus trying to re-invent the wheel.

Also, read up on Live's Midi tools as well. There's alot to be said about subtle randomness. It's all about making it sound like it's organic versus a robot playing the same keys in the same order in exactly the same time for 16 bars. Cheers!

[Tone Deft]

wow man. and I thought I was in a mood today.

sometimes when one is really impressed with a song we can overthink how it was made. I think that was Leif's angle.

[LeifonMars]

You do realize, that in your example "coolness" is mostly done with loads of delay, reverb and glide of the synth? Arp is basically playing notes in downwards order. To answer your initial question: you need to practice more.

@LeifonMars wow that was an awfully pretentious way of answering Jimmyprice's question. I particularly like your "quotation" around "coolness" inferring your superior musical taste. YOU do realize that you sound like some smug fuck with your nose so high in the air, it's as if your neck was talking, instead of your mouth? You know what the world needs? Less people like you and more people like me to tell you to piss off.

Anyway @Jimmyprince, yes douche' fuck is correct ala delay, reverb, glide etc... However I would add to his "esteemed" dissection of the sound, perhaps some slight automation of EQ, or cutoff/resonance to make it more evolving. You also never know, the original artist may just be using some preset that's doing all that work for them, so don't get hung up on matching it exactly, rather, start with a good sound and experiment. You can learn alot by working backwards versus trying to re-invent the wheel.

Also, read up on Live's Midi tools as well. There's alot to be said about subtle randomness. It's all about making it sound like it's organic versus a robot playing the same keys in the same order in exactly the same time for 16 bars. Cheers!

A bit too aggressive, don't you think.

[RCUS]

A bit too aggressive, don't you think.

totally, but let's ask the OP?

(Dr. Phil voice) "OP, how did it make you feeeel when Leif put 'coolness' in quotations and told you, 'you need to practice moaaar'?"

[The Northern Contingent]

Another way to make more interesting arps is to add variety to the original MIDI pattern used to trigger it. As well as adding more note 'layers,' play around with the timing of each note, with some dropping out earlier than others then maybe reappearing later in the loop pattern. You can control the input with a 'Chord' MIDI effect for more variety.

Finally, for a constantly evolving loop, set your loop to an irregular length (eg 5 beats instead of 4/4 etc). Hope that helps!

[Tone Deft]

a really fun arp experiment is to program in Pink Floyd's 'On the Run' on your own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Run ... umental%29 <-- probably a weird link, you get the idea.

"The 8 note sequence (E3, G2, A2, G2, D2, C2, D2, E2) is played at a tempo of 166 BPM"

on a Novation Nova
http://pinkfloydvideos.info/2010/06/pin ... #more-4800

[be tonal]

Wow, i seriously need to find the ignore function, some dudes here got issues...

[3dot...]

to OP :
simply... experiment... try more than 1 arp.. in serial.. in parallel (using racks)...etc..

I think LeifonMars answer is spot on.. how else can you master something without practice...

to RCUS :
wtf ?! got a small knob or what ? what's with the flame answer?

what(T.F)does this mean??? :
"you can learn alot by working backwards versus trying to re-invent the wheel." ???
YOU CALL THIS GOOD ADVICE ?
oh.. and "read up on Live's Midi tools as well"... as they say.. no shit..

and also bad advice.... house arps tend to be more robotic and LESS organic..
in fact...one of the furthest things from "organic" is an arpeggiator imho..
IT IS A ROBOT..

[anybody human]

You can also record the midi from Live's Arp. and then edit the result. 2 midi channels, one with an arp & one with the synth, setup midi to/midi from etc. As was stated above, subte changes in the length of the notes in the chords triggering the arp works well, and/or throwing in the odd extra note here & there.

That flaming post was uncalled-for, I'd have to say. Talk about out of left field...

[henke]

+1 for playing with the note length, maybe even assign to a fader! also +1 to play with velocity and use a synth where velocity is e.g. mapped to filter cutoff or to FM modulator amount or such things.

ARP -> LENGTH -> VELOCITY -> (synth) -> (delay)

should be a cool chain to experiment with.

Robert

[NickyD86]

You have to admit, Leifon's response was like all those agro knobs featured below any good youtube video....

[Moody]

Un-linked clip envelopes are your friend.