Access Virus TI Arpeggiator Magic With Gearwire's Bill Holland: Part I
In this first in a series on the Access Virus TI, Gearwire's Bill Holland takes a close look at the various modules of the synth. The first episode features the arpeggiator and how to work with it to get the most out of its programming.
Whether making a bass line, or developing a hot synth hook, the arpeggiator is perfect for starting a new track or improvising live. This is part one of three in the arpeggiator series. Stay tuned to Gearwire for more on the Access Virus TI.
BILL HOLLAND: Welcome back to Gearwire. My name is Bill Holland, and today we are looking at the Access Virus TI.
Specifically, we are looking at the arpeggiator that is built into the keyboard. So to start, you'll notice the basics here. You have the arpeggiator on and off button and the edit button. Now, if we look at the patch we have right now, I have the arpeggiator off [BILL PLAYS THE KEYBOARD WITH ARPEGGIATOR OFF]; very, very simple, just no arpeggiator on at all. Turn it on, check out the preset pattern [BILL PLAYS THE KEYBOARD WITH ARPEGGIATOR ON].
Now, it's a pretty basic setup for an arpeggiator. You have a single octave, you have very basic pattern, and it's in "as played" mode, so let's go into our configuration LCD over here and take a look at what you can do to get more out of this arpeggiator.
Well, I think many people may consider the arpeggiator cheating, mainly among musicians. It's been in use for a long time. Now, if we look at this arpeggiator, right nowyou'l notice that you actually have one of three pages of content here to go through. If I scroll over, you'll notice there's three different pages of material.
So, let's look at the first page. First, there's Mode. Mode is how the notes are played. You can either have them just As Played or you can go Up, a straight up run [BILL DEMONSTRATES UP], meaning the notes start from the bottom of the octave going to the top. If I want to have that octave go farther, I take it from octave up to two [BILL DEMONSTRATES TWO-OCTAVE ARPEGGIATION], and if I want to go crazy I can go all the way up to four on here [BILL DEMONSTRATES FOUR-OCTAVE ARPEGGIATION]. Let's take it back down to two; that's pretty good range for what we're doing. If I take the mode to Down, it does the opposite [BILL DEMONSTRATES DOWN]. If we can go up, we can go Up & Down; now, this is kind of a -- it's very simple. This is a basic arpeggio used by a lot of people [BILL DEMONSTRATES UP & DOWN].
Okay, we're back to As Played, and of course you can have fun with the Random function [BILL DEMONSTRATES RANDOM]. This is great for doing anything that sounds like Synth Pop or New Wave, and you can use the Chord mode. So, I'm hitting A-flat here [BILL DEMONSTRATES CHORD MODE].
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