Arp Generator
Turn any progression into a rolling trance arpeggio. Change the shape, rate and range, hear it on a pluck, and drag the MIDI into your DAW.
Arp shape
Sounds to load your MIDI into
Supersaw Essentials: 25 free trance presets for Vital, the free synth. Leads, plucks, pads and gated stabs, voiced for every tool on this site.
How to write a trance arp
An arpeggio plays the notes of a chord one at a time instead of together. In trance, a fast 16th-note arp on a bright pluck is what gives a breakdown its sense of motion, and what drives the euphoric lift when the full track comes back in.
Pick a progression. Start from one of the presets, or build your own in the Chord Lab: the Arp Generator picks up the last progression you made there on this device.
Pick a shape. Trance roll plays low, top, middle, top: the rolling shape you'll hear in a lot of classic trance. Up and Down climb or fall through the chord, Up-down and Down-up bounce, and Random gives you something new to re-roll until it clicks.
Pick a rate and range. 1/16 is the trance standard. 1/8 suits slower, emotional sections, and 1/16 triplets add a swinging, tumbling feel. Spreading the arp over two or three octaves makes it sound bigger without adding notes.
Export. The zip holds the arp, the chords as a held pad, a full loop with a kick, and a text sheet of the notes. Load the arp onto a pluck in Vital, Serum or Sylenth1, add a dotted-1/8 delay from the Delay Calculator, and sidechain it to the kick.
Questions
Why does the arp sound simple in the browser?
The browser uses a basic two-oscillator pluck so you can judge the notes and rhythm. In your DAW, a pluck with a short filter envelope, a touch of unison, reverb and a tempo-synced delay will make the same MIDI sound like a finished record.
How do I use my own chords?
Build them in the Chord Lab. The Arp Generator remembers the last progression you made there in this browser and offers it as "My Chord Lab progression".
What's the difference between the arp and the chord colour setting?
Chord colour changes which notes are in each chord (sus2, add9, sevenths), so the arp has more or different notes to play. The pattern decides the order they're played in.
Can I use these arps in released music?
Yes. The MIDI you export is yours to use however you like.