this is how i order notes in a table:<br><br>when a new note is input, read through the table until you reach either a 0, or a number higher than the new note. if you reach a zero, then put the new note in place of the zero. if you reach a higher note, then shift every remaining note 1 step forward in the table, and then put the new note in its place.
<br><br>if a note is turned off, then read through the table until you find that note, and then move every remaining note 1 step back in the table. fill the end of the table with a zero.<br><br><br>usually you don't want more than about 10 notes for an arpeggiator, so the table reading will occur almost instantaniously.
<br><br><br><br>also, for an arpeggiator, you really want to have an 'octave' function to really get some movement happening you can do it very simply by triggering a counter that goes up in 12's. so for just one octave, the counter always stays at zero, for two octaves it goes 0,12,0,12,..for 3 octaves 0,12,24,0,12,24..etc
<br><br>a slider for the gate time is also good. make a slider from 0.001->1 where 1 keeps the note on for an entire beat, and 0.001 turns the note off almost immediately. <br><br>then, you want to have a radio controlling the speed of the arpeggiator...1/16 beats, 1/8 beats, 1/4 beats...etc
<br><br><br><br>so that will give you a basic arp, which will sound ok in a 70's disco kind of way. make it into an abstraction.<br><br>the key to making it sound REALLY good is to use another arp or simple sequencer to modulate the settings of your first one.
<br><br>if the speed is always set to 1/8 notes it's going to sound really rigid, so make another simple sequencer to rhythmically change the speed. wha-lah! now instead of metronomically boring 16th notes, you get 1/4 notes, 1/8th notes, and trills of 1/32 notes too.
<br><br>and you can do the same thing to modulate the octave setting.<br><br><br><br>that's as far as i've got, and it sounds great. but i just had one other idea while typing this:<br><br>use another arpeggiator to send notes into the original arp.
<br><br><br>also, arps are good to use in place of lfo's. <br><br>in conclusion. arps are awesome. you can build them with the most basic pd objects, and they sound wicked.<br><br><br><br><br><br>