Arpeggiator

[CosmicEquilibrium]

In what elements you guys use it? Lead? Bass? every one of them? try to avoid to use it?

Tell about it

[HolyLight]

Only for euphoric/trancy or gothic sounding chord playing. Usually to get a feel for how some melodic ideas and chords would sound sequenced. There are certain stylistic traits inherent to arpeggiators, that can of course be replicated and more elaboratelly drawn manually in the sequencer. But for example the JP-8000 and Virus series, TI in particular. Have very distinct arpeggio-patterns, that are desirable for certain scenarios. Certainly if aiming to replicate some eras in Goa/Trance.

Goa Trance arpeggios example of the euphoric variety on JP-8000 by Filteria:

Also I like to play around with TB-303 plugins that have arpeggiators sometimes. Such as in Phoscyon by D-16 group. One can easily wander into some kinda Daft Punk- Tron soundtrack sounding things:

On the real TB-303 and its many hardware clones, you can transpose the patterns in real-time. And thus use it as an advanced arpeggiator.

So yeah for coming up with ideas for harmonic structure, as well as for some melodic parts. Which can then be more elaborately developed in the sequencer if desired. An arpeggiator is nothing more than a sequencer at the end of the day. Some with more control over finer details than others.

One pitfall one should perhaps avoid, is to use very specific current arpeggio-based presets on popular plugins. As they can very easily sound generic if used as is. For instance many presets in ReFX Nexus, Spire etc. However I’m sure that in the future those presets will at some point be considered vintage, and era-specific/defining.   What I avoid like the plague as well, are arpeggio presets which have like an already made melody. I like to have it as a blank canvas in which only my own input/chords color the arrangement. There are lots of those, one finger plays an entire song type arpeggios. And those are really more like the realtime phrase sequencing (RPS) function of the JP-8000, than an actual classic arpeggiator. The simpler arpeggiators found in the SH-101, Jupiter-8 and Juno-60 are what I would define as classic and simple arpeggiators. With simple arpeggiator patterns such as up/down/random and variations thereof.

[CosmicEquilibrium]

Ok thanks for the explanation.