Hello can someone please walk me through creating a new arpeggio please. Ive been working on it for three weeks now and can’t figure it out and I really don’t want to punch the screen. Lol thanks

Oh - don’t you know?

It’s just do the “put to arp thingy!”

It’s so clearly and intelligently spelled out in the manuals.

They even give you over 6,000 examples.

Sorry to be so down on this subject because I do love my MOX, but the truth is that by the time we ever figure out on our own how to do this “roll your own arp thing”, we will be tired of the keyboard and have moved on to the next latest thing.

Bill

“The Phrase Factory Factor

Yamaha called this approach “Phrase Factory,” and it gave the Motif an edge over workstations whose sequencers worked in linear, tape machine fashion. It also offered a degree of instant inspiration that won favor among many musicians.” --- Keyboard Magazine (A Decade of Motif)

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Creating your own arpeggios is done by converting data that you record (or load) to a sequencer track into one of three different Types of data:

1) Arpeggios for Normal Voices
2) Arpeggios for Drum/Percussion Voices
3) Arpeggios containing mainly non-note events

What is difficult to do and to understand about arpeggio creation is the following:
Not all data that you play makes good arpeggios… The rules for creating the arps require that you understand the purpose of the arpeggio and requires you create data that lends itself to that purpose.

Those for Normal Voices will adjust according to the notes triggering them.
Those for Drums will playback exactly the same every time (no adjustment according to the note or notes used to trigger them.
Those that are CONTROLLER data which are not notes at all, but is MIDI data that is applied to the triggering notes.

Basic definitions:
The arpeggio is different from a sequence. When you record notes to a sequencer you simply press play and the notes you played playback. An arpeggio’s ON button does not cause the notes to play, you must also press a key or keys to trigger the playback. So those two conditions must exist for you to have the arpeggio play.

The arps for Normal Voices will respond according to what you play. The arps for Drum Voices (fixed note) do not change. The arps containing non-note events control the sound that is being played.

The following will help you understand the basics if you are willing to try it:

From a previous post on the subject....
Call up a blank PATTERN
Let’s use the four measure default
Record to TRACK 1: the first four measures of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” Key of “C”
Starting on the “E” above middle “C”

If you create three arps from this - your understanding of arps will take a step forward
Use the “ORG NOTE” Convert Type for the first experiment
Use “FIXED NOTE” next
Use “NORMAL” next

When you complete the recording of the phrase, press [STORE] to write your Pattern to Flash ROM. We will refer back to this data.

Press [JOB]
Press [F5] TRACK
Select JOB 06: PUT TRACK TO ARPEGGIO

In the dialog box that shows up:
Set the Measure range = 001-004
Set the target USER location for the ARPEGGIO start with 001 In the space after the number in the brackets you can NAME the ARP - call it “ORG NOTE”
For “ARP TR1” set the track you used to record the phrase (TR01) and set the “Convert Type” to ORG NOTE

When you set the CONVERT TYPE = ORG NOTE the Original Note Root parameter appears
Cursor over and set the ORIGINAL NOTE ROOT = “C3”

Press [ENTER] to execute
You have now created an arpeggio that will be chord intelligent with the ability to recognize the lowest pitch as the ROOT… and it will play correctly when fed the chord quality

Now that you have created your melodic phrase and converted to an ORG NOTE Arpeggio
Go to [VOICE] mode and try it out:

Call up FULL CONCERT GRAND
Press [ARP EDIT]
Press [F2] TYPE
Assign your “USER” ARP to this VOICE
Select USR 001
Press [F3] MAIN
Set SWITCH = ON
Set HOLD = ON

If you play just a “C” it will play the melody in the key of C
If you play just a “D” it will transpose the melody to the key of D
If you play a “C minor” it will play the melody with a Flat 3rd
If you play “D minor” it will play the melody in D with a Flat 3rd
If you play a “C-Eb” that is enough to define the minor chord
If you play “C diminished” it will play the melody with a Flat 3rd and Flat 5th
etc. etc.
It is that simple and that complex.

Rinse and repeat, this time assign the “Convert Type” to FIXED and target ARP “USER 002”

With the same melody - this time using the “FIXED” type.
FIXED is similar to ORG NOTE, in that it can play a specific melody, except: no matter what key you use to trigger playback the result is “fixed” - it does not transpose. This convert type is ideal, as you might imagine, for DRUM and PERCUSSION arps. (Drummers do not transpose).

Finally:
With the same source song melody… use the Convert Type “Normal” - this is what an arpeggio normally does- plays the rhythm of your source data and takes the information of the currently held notes to do its thing with it. It will never play the melody correctly on its own. Remember: Arps traditionally did not do melodies, this (what you find in the Motif/MOX) is a re-invention of the arpeggio. Arpeggio traditionally did up, down, up/down, down/up, etc. Later more complex rhythmic stuff, and finally phrase-based melody arps, counter-melody arps, and the guitar intelligent chord voicing arps that you have in the XS/XF/MOX.

A very important issue, which is almost always overlooked before you start creating your own arpeggios… For an arpeggio to be useful with chord intelligence you really do have to think about it in a single musical key. Say you want to create a guitar strumming arpeggio for a “bossa nova"… you would simply play 1 chord rhythmically. (for example, you might play a C Major 7 chord: C-E-G-B)
You could simply play this chord rhythmically in a bossa nova feel.

The rhythm of the chord is far more important than the notes themselves. After all, when you actually perform “Girl From Ipanema” you will voice an F Major7, then a G7, then a G Minor 7 and then C7 etc. etc.

You would not need to voice these chords in the arpeggio creation data - You would play just a simple 4 note chord in a particular rhythmic pulse that feels like a ‘bossa nova” - this is all you’d need to record to the ARP TRACK. When you actually use the arpeggio, assigning it to a VOICE or to a VOICE in a PERFORMANCE, you would then change the chord progression, as required.

The arp does not need to be the whole progression… (In fact it would be WRONG to record a whole progression) Remember the person recalling your arp will want to define WHAT chords to play

You only need to record just the correct number of simultaneous notes necessary to be a guitar, and you need to play that one chord in the right rhythm.

The multiple tracks in the CONVERT TYPE (and we know this is a bit difficult to grasp without actually working with the instrument), the additional tracks are for when you want to add additional rhythmic items. For example, in our guitar bossa nova example, we might want to put in a guitar sound effect (a thump or knock or finger zing, etc) these only occur on occasion and may have an entirely separate rhythmic pulse from the normal string notes…

if you listen to the following VOICE with its arpeggio patterns you can hear it:

Call up Nylon Mega: PRE 8: (F01)
Initially ARP 3 is selected:
Press [EDIT]
You can see that this VOICE is made from 7 Elements
Buttons [1]-[8] SELECT an Element
You can turn ELEMENTS ON and OFF using the corresponding button in the row below 9-15
Element 1 is the body of the guitar sound
Element 4 is also triggered by the arpeggio but has a different rhythm from Element 1
Element 7 is also triggered by the arpeggio but has its own rhythm separate from Elements 1 and 4

You can tell that in order to create this arp, 3 CONVERT Tracks were used.

The mute string and the sound FX (Element 4 and 7) were recorded on separate source tracks.

Press [SF1] ARP 1
Here you can isolate each ARP and find that Element 1, 4, 5 and 7 each are contributing something - and again each is a unique rhythm. From this y ou can tell that 4 CONVERT Tracks were used.

This is a Mega Voice so different articulations can be precisely triggered by notes playing at a specific velocity.

Press [SF4] ARP 4
Here is the Bossa Guitar - what as originally played was a C Major 7 Chord
In the rhythm you hear. If you want to play a bossa nova tune with this ARP, it is for YOU to define the chord changes. (this one sounds like it was done with two Convert Tracks (the second one is for the finger zings - they have to have been recorded separately… make sense?

Thank you, Thank you Bad Mister.

The process is much clearer now and I’m going to try right away.

I sure wish you would write the manuals.
There are never any examples in the manuals and these keyboards are not simple. It is the complexity of these things making them so attractive to us, but that complexity begs more detailed explanations in the documentation.

As long as we have you here pitching in for us, we’ll be okay.

Thank you again.

Bill

I’ve watched videos. I’ve read documentation. Admittedly, I haven’t actually tried it on the XS yet. But how do I do this?

There are some arpeggios that seem to change the pattern depending on HOW MANY notes are being pressed, not just what chord.

How do I create an arpeggio to be one pattern (eg: note1, note2, note1, note2 repeat) for a two-note fingered chord, but then another pattern (eg: note1, note2 dotted, note3 dotted) for a three-note fingered chord?

--
philovivero

EDIT: clarity and spelling errors fixed

How do I create an arpeggio to be one pattern (eg: note1, note2, note1, note2 repeat) for a two-note fingered chord, but then another pattern (eg: note1, note2 dotted, note3 dotted) for a three-note fingered chord?

Sorry the description is not at all clear - can your write out (notation) what you want or give us a musical example.

You can upload your arps here!

I’d like to be a beta tester!

Bad_Mister.  Thanks a lot for that extremely clear introduction to arpeggio making on the MOX.

I have tried to create a simple strumming arpeggio for an accoustic guitar using 2 measures.  I have tried and tried until I got my timing perfect.

Now, on a performance, where there is a Bass arpeggio and a Percussion arpeggio, how does the MOX know when to loop the arpeggios if, for instance the Bass is 2 measures, the Percussion is 4 measures and my new guitar arpeggio is 2 measures. 

I’m asking this question because I’m making a second variation of the arpeggio so that it can be triggered when I press SF2 and back to the original one triggered with SF1, but what is happening is that it gets out of sync with the bass and percussion.  I tried both “RealTime” and “Measure” on the arpeggio editing thingy, but RealTime is worst.

Both arpeggios are quite similar, 2 measures with the second arpeggio muting
beat 2 and 4 of each measure. It’s really simple. But when I press SF2 right as the first measures completes, I’m expecting the second arpeggio to start but it seems that it plays the last beat of arpeggio 1 and it goes out of sync.

So may be the other instruments with arpeggios are getting in the way ?

Thanks for all your help

When you fill in the dialog box for “PUT TRACK TO ARP” you determine exactly how many measures the ARP phrase will play.

On the MOX when you are in the SEQUENCER and you are ready to CONVERT the phrase into an arp

Press [JOB]
Select [F5] TRACK
Select JOB; PUT TRACK TO ARP

This dialog box lets you set the number of measures that will be converted to the arp phrase.

Set the measure range to 001-002 when you create your Guitar Arp Phrase. Although arp phrase are set to loop by default, that is a programmable function among the Arp parameters.

That’s how I’m creating the guitar arps, with two measures from the PUT TRACK TO ARP dialog, however, I have no way of knowing how many measures are the other arps, which are builtin arps.  What I’m worried about is that if another instrument has a 4 or 3 measure arps, then my arps that are 2 measures might be going out of sync when trigered with SF1 or SF2. I guess the MOX’s algorithm needs the larges measure arp to create a loop.

Is there any way to edit arps once they are created ?.  This might tell me how to get the measures of the builtin arps that I’m using

Bad_Mister - 26 September 2013 10:51 AM

When you fill in the dialog box for “PUT TRACK TO ARP” you determine exactly how many measures the ARP phrase will play.

On the MOX when you are in the SEQUENCER and you are ready to CONVERT the phrase into an arp

Press [JOB]
Select [F5] TRACK
Select JOB; PUT TRACK TO ARP

This dialog box lets you set the number of measures that will be converted to the arp phrase.

Set the measure range to 001-002 when you create your Guitar Arp Phrase. Although arp phrase are set to loop by default, that is a programmable function among the Arp parameters.