Arpeggiators

Do you use them?
 
Why and when do you use them?
 
How do you use Cakewalk with arpeggiators?
 
Do you sync waves or do you use instruments to create them?
 
 

I use the arp built into Omnisphere quite a bit in my music, but there again the arp is very flexiable. It now includes limited step sequencing, which is okay when I need something simple otherwise I turn to my Schrittmacher.

I like arps and use them in many of my tracks. Like some of the others above, I tend to mostly use the arps that are built into my hardware and software synths, or I still use good ol Catanya on occasion.  I've never been a big fan of the ones built into Sonar, particularly not the ones that aren't actually arps (i.e., the MIDI sequences) and I"m not a big fan of step sequencers.  I rarely use arps in a static fashion, either, just to cycle through chord notes.  Instead, I often use a combination of chord and melody or countermelody and have the arp cycle through all of the notes to add interest.
 
I particularly like arps like the one in my Virus TI2, Omnisphere, Blue2, Catanya, etc. that allow me to create my own rhythms, rather than straight note divisions, especially if they have a groove/swing parameters.  Sometimes, a straight 8th or 16th note repeating pattern fits the part perfectly, but more often than not, I want more rhythmic variety in my arps.

biodiode
I use the arp built into Omnisphere quite a bit in my music, but there again the arp is very flexiable. It now includes limited step sequencing, which is okay when I need something simple otherwise I turn to my Schrittmacher.

I've played around with Sonar's arp a few times, but never really used it.  Omnisphere's I've always used, and since ver. 2 came out with the ability to change note increments it's become an amazing creative tool in itself. 
 
Oh, and to bitflipper,  I didn't give up on arps until '86. 

Here's a short example of something I did with Sonar's arpeggiator bounced to MIDI and edited, as part of a project I'm working on at the minute. I gave the arpeggiator the same chords as the keyboard that's accompanying. After much editing and experimentation I ended up with something completely different from the basic arps, but they helped enormously in getting me started. Sorry for sound quality it sounds a bit weird, I never use Soundcloud because it always seems to do weird things to the sound IMO. 
 
https://soundcloud.com/sharke-1/arpexample

I agree, the Sonar arp is very old fashioned and limited, and they'd probably be doing themselves a favor by updating it along with a host of other improvements they'd have to make to take some of the new user share away from DAW's like Ableton. Apart from Cthulhu, the only other arpeggiator which has really impressed me has been the one that comes with Trilian. It's a combination arp/step sequencer and you can edit the lengths of individual notes as well as join notes together. Very simple concept but a huge amount of flexibility. 

About $50 and you can have complete control of arpeggiation and a lot of inspiration.

https://squaredheads.com/

It's called Nora.

See it working here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8LceZm7Zto

declan
lawajava, thanks for the heads up about Nora - great gui, but I can't get it working in Sonar.  I got it going in Reaper immediately.
I've sent them an email and if they can help me with Sonar, I'm going to buy it.

declan - I use it all the time in Sonar Platinum.  Here are a few tips to get started.
 
1. Insert Nora as a softsynth on one track.  Ensure you have Enable Midi Out checked when inserting the track.
2. Insert a softsynth of any keyboard you'd like to try.
3. Route the input of the keyboard softsynth as originating from Nora.  "Nora 1 Midi Omni" is fine as an input.
4. Set input echo on for the keyboard softsynth track.  The Nora Midi track does not need to be on input echo.
 
Now, here's a trick. 
A. You can record your chord pattern (or draw it in the Piano Roll view which is actually better to ensure you have full long, whole note chord triads) actually on the keyboard softsynth track.  (Alternatively, and recommended if you have EZ Keys, you can make a long chord pattern (lots of chord changes with whole notes) within EZ Keys and drag the midi onto the softsynth keyboard midi track.
 
B. When you play back, since the chords are on the keyboard midi track you can hear how they sound as whole notes with that particular keyboard patch sound.
 
C. To get it going for Nora, hold the Control key down and drag the Midi clip from the keyboard softsynth Midi track onto the Nora Midi track.
 
D. To hear only Nora, go to the keyboad softsynth Midi track (which still has a copy of the Midi events), select the Midi events (or the whole track) and press K.  (Otherwise, you can to to the HUB tool and find the Mute tool and click that.  The point is, you want input echo on, but you want to mute the MIDI events on the keyboard track (but still have the option to hear them as whole notes when you want to by unmuting).
 
E. Now, at this point, if you hit play you won't hear anything from these two tracks because you haven't yet drawn anything into Nora.  If you open Nora, you can either start drawing notes in (you can have a loop set in Sonar and you can freely draw and immediately hear what happens in Nora), or you can also look at the left panel in Nora, open say the Arp folder, and drag any of the many patterns into the Nora screen and get that pattern to immediately take effect.  The things you draw (or drag) into the Nora screen influence how Nora plays the notes back from the chords  you've put onto the MIDI track in Nora.
 
This is just for starters.  Nora works great in Sonar.  Of course, if you play around with Nora you can then learn how to do much more with the pattern selections.  Nora, for example, includes a separate Harmony tool which is also slick.  The YouTube clip i posted above is an example of what can be done, and there's more.
 
I like Nora because of instead of having an arpegiattor take over once you click it on, and you feel like the arpegiattor is in control, Nora allows you to control the arpeggiator, so you're in control instead of the arp.  That said, built in arps in VSTs (especially like Omnisphere) are well suited to work within their own environment.
 
But for adding an arp, using an easy to use platform, to anything MIDI, Nora is a slick tool to have and use.

An easy to describe scenario is using Nora on strings. You can put down a chord pattern, apply Nora to it, and have a nice string accompaniment to your song.

Thanks lawajava (that was a lot of typing), I got it working.  Now I'm going to have to really wrap my head around it.  Everything looks straight-forward, but it's time to dig into the manual.  
 
You mentioned strings, orchestral stuff is one of the main reasons I was looking at arps.  Thanks again.
 
Kharma, yeah the velocity, length - everything just looks familiar and easily edited.  So now I'm off to see what this thing can really do.  Thanks.