Creamware - Arpeg01

Creamware · Post by **Creamware** » Sun Jun 24, 2001 4:13 pm

<a name="planetz-file"></a><a href="http://www.creamware.de/en/Products/Plu ... peg1"><img src="/forums/images/file_icon.gif" border="0" alt=" File"> File</a> <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Price ($USD): 16 <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Type: Utility _____________________________________ Adds motion to the mix and extra life to your songs: the Arpeggiator for Pulsar and SCOPE. Use it for internal synths or your external gear. Of course you can sync it to MIDI clock. Easy to understand and use - but very powerful <a name="planetz-fileimage"></a><IMG SRC="http://www.creamware.de/en/Products/Plu ... ltpics.asp" BORDER="0">

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Wed Jul 18, 2001 11:10 am

I just love the arpeg series from creamware. What i like is to program a chord (possibly with some delay between chord note) and it plays alone. It's not very aleatory, but it tends to produce unexpected melodies, and you can add easily new feel by adding an unusual note to your chord.
Of course, you can record the output in your midi sequencer and twek the sequence a bit, and that 's when it becomes interesting.
The download and use of this device is highly recommended , and the arpeg02 with the lot of additional features is may be in my top 5 of preferred and most useful pulsar devices around.
I don't work for cw but i hope this message is an incentive to any developper to produce devices that generate melodies more or less aleatorily (but not like a step sequencer).
all the best
mehdi touzani
http://www.spacef.com

Sam Glass · Post by **Sam Glass** » Fri Jul 20, 2001 3:33 am

a·le·a·to·ric Using or consisting of sounds to be chosen by the performer or left to chance; indeterminate: An object placed inside the piano added an aleatory element to the piece.

I'm guessing I'm not the only ignorant fool here

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Jul 20, 2001 3:56 am

Certainly the price isn't too bad, but I've read elsewhere that the timing of both these units is seriously flawed. On the old ratings page the two Arpeg units were just about at the botom of almost a hundred devices.

Are there any other users out there who can comment ?

Ben Walker · Post by **Ben Walker** » Fri Jul 20, 2001 8:56 am

There's a couple of examples which use the Arpeg02 on the Samples page at the modular synth site.
Check
ArpFifth &
Faintlight
Faintlight should be c.259kb - let me know if it's corrupt - I had some problems playing this just now.

They're not masterpieces, but the timing sounds OK to me!

Ben

_________________
<a href="http://www.modularsynth.co.uk" target="_blank">www.ModularSynth.co.uk</a>

[ This Message was edited by: Ben Walker on 2001-07-20 09:56 ]

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Fri Jul 20, 2001 10:54 am

Well, it's better to quickly records a midi file. Timing may present problems if you have something that is midi clocked. It's not the timing of the arpeg that is in cause, but the gate received which seems filtered by the arpeg. some pulsar synths specially adress this issue (any synth that has an independant midi clock in). However, I met this issue only when i had something midi clocked, like an lfo, and only after a while (playing loops etc). i'm only using synth with independant midi clock Input, and when i record, it's just seems perfectly quantized.
Aleatoric? i thought it was aleatory/rily/ic. the arpegs are not aleatory genrators of midi note on as they follow predetermined curves (i guess), so it may not exploit the "chance" factor, which resides in the input programmation (you) (i don't know how to translate the french word "hasard" which doesn't mean "hazard"), but it would be great to have more stuff that exploit aleatory methods of compo in the midi note on output flow. or call it "automatically-unexpectable" if you like

I'm not talking about aleatoric mixing of sound, like softwares like "KoanX" if i remember well,which plays with a certain number of samples, but melody generation : order, tone etc of notes.

In fact i'm not even sure you can talk about aleatory in a computer (except for windows may be).

A step sequencer is more aleatory than the arpeg because it is based on human intervention for choosing melodies (and you can just try to set everything without thinking and seeing afterward if it gives something interesting, unlike the arpeg which follow an algo applied to the inputed chords) well, nuff empty talking, just plug the thing and see if you like it (this is very aleatoric).

[ This Message was edited by: spacef on 2001-07-20 19:52 ]

algorhythm · Post by **algorhythm** » Fri Jul 20, 2001 11:46 am

On 2001-07-20 11:54, spacef wrote:

In fact i'm not even sure you can talk about aleatory in a computer (except for windows may be).

[ This Message was edited by: spacef on 2001-07-20 12:27 ]

If anything, Windows does qualify for aleatory!

yes computers can due "seemingly" random number generation; that is, it seems random phenomenologically to us the perceivers of the data output. however, it is really just clever algorithms operating according to complex rules. "God doesn't play dice." Einstein meant that for quantum physics, but the same applies to computers . . . hmmmm i wonder if the experimental quantum computers will be able to do aleatory - but this has absolutely nothing to do with the arpeggiator, nor with pulsar at'all, so i will shut up now

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Fri Jul 20, 2001 6:55 pm

cool

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sun Jul 22, 2001 3:46 am

If the Arpeg inspires music as well as it does lexical and phenomenological debate I'd best buy one. Maybe two.

algorhythm · Post by **algorhythm** » Sun Jul 22, 2001 7:16 am

anyone had the luxury of comparing arpeg 1 vs. arpeg 2? is the only difference MIDI control er what? the CW site does not make it too clear . . .

pavig · Post by **pavig** » Sun Jul 22, 2001 11:24 pm

I've got the arpeg 2 and it seems to differ mainly in midi control. What that means is you get a bunch of wierd keys you can define to alter the arpeg function as it is playing. Handy things like swapping between inputting a chord on the kbd and using the kbd to transpose the arpeg. Most of these functions are simple but several are killers - fr instance you can set a key as clock and use THAT to trigger the arpeg, so you could impose your own rhythm on the arpegiated notes. Very cool. The arpeg 1 however is more akin to the standard arpegs found on most keyboards.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Fri Aug 03, 2001 2:50 am

I finally got the Arpeg02 and it's a fine machine. Nothing flash, but solid and functional. It reminds me of some of the better arpegiators on the old true analog hardware synths of the 80s. Certainly a lot faster than setting up a imple pattern on one of the pattern ModV2 modules (which are sooooo primitive). And it's cheap which always helps....