Arpeggiator

The arpeggiator has been completely redesigned from scratch. It can be used on Synth clips, Midi clips, and on any kind of Kit rows (Sound, Midi and CV).

Arpeggiator Modes (or Presets)

Arpeggiator Modes were used to set the arpeggiator to play in different ways. On the official firmware you just had the possibility to select 4 modes. Now you can customize much more deeply the arpeggiator behaviour, with independent direction settings for Note and for Octave. That’s why we changed the Arp Mode grid shortcut to an Arp Preset shortcut. A preset sets at the same time 3 parameters: Arp Mode, Octave Mode and Note Mode. The available presets are:

• Off will disable arpeggiator.
• Up will setup Mode to Arpeggiator, Octave Mode to Up and Note Mode to Up. This is equivalent to Up in official firmware.
• Down will setup Mode to Arpeggiator, Octave Mode to Down and Note Mode to Down. This is equivalent to Down in official firmware.
• Both will setup Mode to Arpeggiator, Octave Mode to Alternate and Note Mode to Up. This is equivalent to Both in official firmware.
• Random will setup Mode to Arpeggiator, Octave Mode to Random and Note Mode to Random. This is equivalent to Random in official firmware.
• Walk will setup Mode to Arpeggiator, Octave Mode to Alternate and Note Mode to Walk2.
• Custom will setup Mode to Arpeggiator, and enter a submenu to let you edit Octave Mode and Note Mode.

Arpeggiator Parameters (submenus)

Now the menu options are the following:

Mode

• Enabled (ON): enables the arpeggiator, that is, it internally sets Mode to Arpeggiator. In the future, this will be replaced by the Mode setting, which will have other modes other than Arpeggiator.

Basic Parameters (BASI)

The following parameters define the basic parameters of the arpeggiator:

• Gate: This changes the length of the note, as a relative percentage of the time window set between this note and the next. A gate of 25 will make the notes last for 50% of the available time window. It can be automated and learned to golden knobs and MIDI CC (not automatable in MIDI clips).
• Sync: allows you to set the synced rate between Off, 2-Bar, …, 128th notes, etc.
• Rate: manually sets a sync rate when Sync is set to Off. It can be automated and learned to golden knobs and MIDI CC (not automatable in MIDI clips).

Pattern (PATT)

The following parameters will define the pattern of the arpeggio, by ordering the notes you have played, adding extra octaves, setting how many times they are repeated, and setting the direction in which they are walked:

• Octaves (OCTA): sets the number of octaves
• Octave Mode (OMOD):
  • Up (UP) will walk the octaves up.
  • Down (DOWN) will walk the octaves down.
  • Up & Down (UPDN) will walk the octaves up and down, repeating the highest and lowest octaves.
  • Alternate (ALT) will walk the octaves up, and then down reversing the Notes pattern (without repeating notes). Tip: Octave Mode set to Alternate and Note Mode set to Up is equivalent to the old Both mode.
  • Random (RAND) will choose a random octave every time the Notes pattern has played. Tip: Set also Note Mode to Random to have the equivalent to the old Random mode.
• Chord Simulator (CSIM): is only available for Kit Rows. This allows you to simulate a chord so you can use Note Mode on the Kit Row. It will take the base pitch of the sample and add extra “notes” to the sequence by pitching the sample up several semitones to form a chord.
• Note Mode (NMOD):
  • Up (UP) will walk the notes up.
  • Down (DOWN) will walk the notes down. Tip: this mode also works in conjunction with Octave Mode Alternate, which will walk all the notes and octaves all the way down, and then up reversing it.
  • Up & Down (UPDN) will walk the notes up and down, repeating the highest and lowest notes.
  • Random (RAND) will choose a random note each time. If the Octave Mode is set to something different than Random, then the pattern will play, in the same octave, the same number of random notes as notes are in the held chord and then move to a different octave based on the Octave Mode. Tip: Set also Octave Mode to Random to have the equivalent to the old Random mode.
  • Walk1 (WLK1) is the “slow” walk and next note is selected this way:
    • 30% of probability to walk the sequence a step in reverse.
    • 30% of probability to just repeat the same step of the sequence.
    • 40% of probability to walk the sequence a step forward (as normal).
  • Walk2 (WLK2) is the “normal” walk and next note is selected this way:
    • 25% of probability to walk the sequence a step in reverse.
    • 25% of probability to just repeat the same step of the sequence.
    • 50% of probability to walk the sequence a step forward (as normal).
  • Walk3 (WLK3) is the “fast” walk and next note is selected this way:
    • 20% of probability to walk the sequence a step in reverse.
    • 20% of probability to just repeat the same step of the sequence.
    • 60% of probability to walk the sequence a step forward (as normal).
  • Played Order (PLAY) will walk the notes in the same order that they were played. Tip: this mode also works in conjunction with Octave Mode Alternate, which will walk all the notes and octaves all the way up (with notes as played), and then down reversing the order of played notes. Note: this mode is not available for Kit Rows.
  • Pattern (PATT) each time you select this Note Mode on the menu it will generate a new pattern for you. The pattern is like if you had selected Played Order and the Deluge had decided the order for you. Tip: as this mode is the last selectable one, if you try to scroll past the end of the menu, the Deluge will interpret it as a re-selection of the Pattern mode and so it will generate a new pattern for you. Note: the pattern is saved to the song so you can recreate it after reloading the song. Note: this mode is not available for Kit Rows.
• Step Repeat (REPE): allows you to set how many times the same note in the pattern is repeated before moving on to the next one.
• Rhythm (RHYT): This parameter will play silences in some of the steps. This menu option shows zeroes and dashes, “0” means “play note”, and ”-” means “don’t play note” (or play a silence). It can be automated and learned to golden knobs and MIDI CC (not automatable in MIDI clips). The available options are:
  Rhythm Options

  • 0: None (play all notes)
  • 1: 0--
  • 2: 00-
  • 3: 0-0
  • 4: 0-00
  • 5: 00--
  • 6: 000-
  • 7: 0--0
  • 8: 00-0
  • 9: 0----
  • 10: 0-000
  • 11: 00---
  • 12: 0000-
  • 13: 0---0
  • 14: 00-00
  • 15: 0-0--
  • 16: 000-0
  • 17: 0--0-
  • 18: 0--00
  • 19: 000--
  • 20: 00--0
  • 21: 0-00-
  • 22: 00-0-
  • 23: 0-0-0
  • 24: 0-----
  • 25: 0-0000
  • 26: 00----
  • 27: 00000-
  • 28: 0----0
  • 29: 00-000
  • 30: 0-0---
  • 31: 0000-0
  • 32: 0---0-
  • 33: 000-00
  • 34: 0--000
  • 35: 000---
  • 36: 0000--
  • 37: 0---00
  • 38: 00--00
  • 39: 0-00--
  • 40: 000--0
  • 41: 0--00-
  • 42: 0-0-00
  • 43: 00-0--
  • 44: 000-0-
  • 45: 0--0-0
  • 46: 0-000-
  • 47: 00---0
  • 48: 00--0-
  • 49: 0-0--0
  • 50: 00-0-0
• Sequence Length (LENG): It defines the length of the pattern in number of steps.
  • If set to zero, the arpeggiator pattern will play fully without restrictions.
  • If set to a value higher than zero, the pattern will play up to the set number of steps, and then reset itself to start from the beginning. Tip: You can use this in combination with the Rhythm parameter to create longer and more complex rhythm patterns.
  • It can be automated and learned to golden knobs and MIDI CC (not automatable in MIDI clips).

Randomizer (RAND)

The following parameters are all automatable and learnable to golden knobs and MIDI CC (not in MIDI clips), and they define how probable a value is to change on each step:

• Lock Randomizer (LOCK): This parameter allows you to freeze the current set of randomized values so the sequence has a repeatable pattern. Note: you can find this parameter also at the root level of the sound menu, under Randomizer, because this toggle is also applied for both sequenced notes and arpeggiated notes.
  • If Lock is OFF, every single note or arp step will get a new random value for each randomized parameter, and as a result for every single step it’s unpredictable what result values it will have for Velocity/Octave/Gate spreads, or Note Prob, Ratchet Prob, etc.
  • If Lock is ON, the dice is rolled just once for every note or arp step of the whole clip sequence (based on the probability values you have set), so you will feel the clip like it is repeating, with a fixed and predictable sequence. = If you want to re-roll the dice just for one of the parameters, slightly change its value (even increasing or decreasing it by 1 is enough) and a new set of random values will be generated and locked again.
  • Extending on the previous tip, if you want some parameters to be locked, but not others, add some automation variation in the clip to those, so the dice is re-rolled for them and hence you always get fresh new random values for them, while the others have fixed values.
• Octave Spread (OCTA): The note will get a change in pitch of a random amount of octaves, going from 0 up to a maximum of +3 octaves.
• Gate Spread (GATE): The gate of the arp step will get a random positive or negative deviation from the base gate.
• Velocity Spread (VELO): The velocity of the arp step will get a random positive or negative deviation from the base velocity. Note: you can find this parameter also at the root level of the sound menu, under Randomizer, because this parameter affects both sequenced notes and arpeggiated notes.
• Ratchet Amount (RATC): A ratchet is when a note repeats itself several times in the same time interval that the original note has to play. This will set the maximum number of notes that a single step can have (each step will pick a random number of ratchet notes between 1 and this maximum value set). Ratchet bursts can contain 2, 4 or 8 notes. By increasing this parameter, it is more likely that bigger ratchet bursts can occur.
• Ratchet Probability (RPRO): This sets how likely a step is to be ratcheted. The ratchet amount is randomized on each step between 1 and the maximum value set with the Ratchet Amount parameter.
• Chord Polyphony (CHRD): is not available for Kit Rows. This will set the maximum number of notes that will play at the same time when a step is played as a chord. Increase parameter Chord Probability to make some steps play a chord instead of a single note. Values range from no chord, to 5th, to triad (3rd + 5th), to seventh chord (3rd + 5th + 7th) as the maximum size of a chord. By increasing this parameter, it is more likely that bigger chords can occur.
• Chord Probability (CPRO): is not available for Kit Rows. This paramater will allow you to control the chance of a note to play as a chord. The size of the chord is determined by the Chord Polyphony parameter.
• Note Probability (NOTE): It applies a probability for notes to play or not (after Rhythm has been evalutated, that is, only for note steps, not for silent steps). Note: you can find this parameter also at the root level of the sound menu, under Randomizer, because this parameter affects both sequenced notes and arpeggiated notes.
• Bass Probability (BASS): It applies a chance of replacing the current note to be played with the lowest note of arpeggiator pattern. The higher the value, the more likely that the note played is the bass note of the arpeggiated chord. This can be used as a performance tool to open up or close the arpeggio’s pitch range.
• Reverse Probability (RVRS): It applies a chance of inverting the Reverse sample setting just for the current note to be played. This probability only affects the oscillator whose type is set to Sample. Note: you can find this parameter also at the root level of the sound menu, under Randomizer, because this parameter affects both sequenced notes and arpeggiated notes.

The randomizer’s parameters that are also available for non-arpeggiated notes are:

• Lock Randomizer (LOCK)
• Velocity Spread (VELO)
• Note Probability (NOTE)
• Reverse Probability (RVRS)

MPE

This submenu contains parameters that are useful if you have an MPE controller connected to the Deluge:

• Velocity: It will allow you to control the velocity of each new arpeggiated note with an MPE expression parameter.
  • Off: This disables control of velocity with MPE.
  • Aftertouch (AFTE): The pressure applied to the key sets the velocity of the note.
  • MPE Y (Y): The Y position on the MPE controller sets the velocity of the note.

Kit Arpeggiator

The Kit Arpeggiator is a new layer on top of the kit rows, which will control which rows receive note ON’s and note OFF’s. That means that the kit rows can have their own arpeggiators also enabled. If you want to use the Kit Arpeggiator, you need to enable Affect-Entire in the Kit. Then access the menu with Select knob and go to the Kit Arpeggiator submenu.

The Kit Arpeggiator parameters are also controllable with MIDI FOLLOW.

Opting in and out of the Kit Arpeggiator

Kit rows by default opt-in to the Kit Arpeggiator. You can make a kit row opt-out of it by going into the Arpeggiator submenu from the kit row menu and disabling the option Include in Kit Arp.

There is a special case where the kit row is forced to opt-out of the Kit Arpeggiator, which is when their notes in the sequencer don’t have “tails”. That is, if when you paint a note in the sequencer, it doesn’t allow you to extend its length, it means this kit row is going to be excluded from the Kit Arpeggiator. This happens when you load a sample in the row and the sample mode is set to Once. Or it could also happen when you load a synth preset and you set the Env1 Sustain to zero.

Reverse Probability

The Reverse Probability parameter is available for the Kit Arpeggiator, but it works a little bit differently than the same parameter for sounds. In this case it is able to “invert” the Reverse setting for each note, which means that:

• If Reverse Probability evaluates to Yes for a note, and the kit row’s own Reverse evaluates to “play forward”, then this will be inverted and the sample will play in reverse.
• If Reverse Probability evaluates to Yes for a note, and the kit row’s own Reverse evaluates to “play in reverse”, then this will be inverted and the sample will play forward.
• If Reverse Probability evaluates to No for a note, then, the kit row’s Reverse settings will be respected.

Tips for using the Kit Arpeggiator

• To be able to use the Kit Arpeggiator with a sliced sample, remember to set all kit rows to sample mode Cut. You can do this by entering sample mode menu for any kit row, and while holding the Affect-Entire button, you can change the sample mode to Cut. That will apply the change to all kit rows. Then it is up to you how you place the notes, but a simple experiment could be to place a long note occupying the whole length of the clip for all the kit rows, then enable the Kit Arpeggiator and have fun playing with the settings.