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Sixty Four Pixels Arpie User Manual

Midi arpeggiator
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Arpie
MIDI
ARPEGGIATOR
User Guide
Firmware V6
September 2019

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Summary of Contents for Sixty Four Pixels Arpie

  • Page 1 Arpie MIDI ARPEGGIATOR User Guide Firmware V6 September 2019...
  • Page 2 Welcome! Arpie is a MIDI arpeggiator. In its most basic application, you connect it between a MIDI controller keyboard and a MIDI controlled synthesizer and it arpeggiates chords that are held on the keyboard – meaning that it converts them into sequences of notes.
  • Page 3 “long press”, function when this time has elapsed. If, after a menu function is selected no data button is pressed, Arpie will revert back to the “normal” display (PATN) after a few seconds. This auto revert can be switched...
  • Page 4 The midi output connector accepts a standard 5-pin DIN connector and is generally connected to a synth or sound module. • The reset button performs a hard reset of Arpie, equivalent to a power off/on cycle. This is typically most useful when loading new firmware. •...
  • Page 5 The Power LED should be on the whole time Arpie is being powered • The hack header breaks out 5V power and four spare I/O lines from Arpie’s microcontroller. It allows DIY add-ons or connection of “tab” expansion boards, as described later.
  • Page 6 The arpeggiated sequence can then be played into your synth. You will need to ensure that the MIDI OUT of Arpie is connected to the MIDI IN of your synth and that the output channel of Arpie (CHAN button) matches the selected input channel of the synth.

  • Page 7: Menu Functions

    Chromatic transposing may change the musical key of the arpeggio and sound out of tune. If you want to transpose the arpeggio but remain key, Arpie has a force to scale mode (Long-press SHFT and Long-press SPAN). Using the force to scale options makes transposition sound more musical.
  • Page 8 PATN Trig Pattern During normal use of Arpie, the data LEDs show the “current layer” of the trig pattern - this is usually the play/mute layer. To change to another layer, hold down the PATN key and press the button below the LED for the required layer as shown below.
  • Page 9 (i.e. left from the last note) up to the level of the new note, over a full step time and the gate remains open for 1 step. • The octave up, octave down and fourth down options transpose the note at the current step by the stated amount •...
  • Page 10 10 seconds. Turn this off if you prefer - you can always press the PATN button to exit from a selected menu option. T1 and T2 (Long Press time) control how long you need to hold down one of Arpie menu buttons to access it’s second function.
  • Page 11 MODE Arp Mode / Set All Trigs This option allows you to select between Arpie arpeggiation modes: • up mode plays notes of the chord in ascending order • down mode plays notes of the chord in descending order •...
  • Page 12 PATN sequence. If the LED is ON, the note at that position is skipped over and does not play. If the LED is OFF, Arpie inserts a rest and plays the note at the next step.

  • Page 13: Octave Shift

    SHFT Octave Shift This function transposes the arpeggiated sequence up or down by 3 whole octaves. The octave shift function can be used in conjunction with the chromatic transpose function on the TRAN menu button. *SHFT Scale Root Note This option works with Force to Scale Mode (long press SPAN) to set the root note of the musical scale into which notes are forced.
  • Page 14 Force to Scale *SPAN Arpie’s Force to Scale feature makes sure that all notes from the Arpie fit within a specific musical scale (or key). This can sound especially good when transposing arpeggios while playing, as the note intervals within the chord change to keep it in key.
  • Page 15 12 semitones of an octave into 8 notes and has a different feel. As well as changing musical mode, Arpie’s force-to-scale function lets us select the root note (long press SHFT) and control how out of scale notes are corrected.
  • Page 16 (two thirds normal note duration) *RATE MIDI Panic A long press on the RATE button causes Arpie to send out a MIDI “note off” message for all notes on the currently selected MIDI output channel. This can be used to stop any “hanging” notes.
  • Page 17 MIDI Note Velocity VELO This menu controls the MIDI velocity of the notes output by Arpie. There are two velocity modes, described as follows: • Fixed velocity mode allows you to override the velocity of all arpeggiated notes or to mute them completely. You can select one of 15 different velocity levels that are applied to all notes.

  • Page 18: Note Length

    GATE Note Length Controls the gate length of the MIDI notes played by Arpie. You can select a proportion of a whole step (in fifteen increments) or you can tie notes together with the legato setting. legato means that a note is held until the next note is started, with the MIDI note off message being sent after the next MIDI note on.
  • Page 19 INST Arp Note Insert / Chord This extends the length of the arpeggiated sequence by repeating notes from the chord as follows: • none plays the arpeggio sequence without adding any extra notes to it. This is the default. • highest inserts the highest note of the arpeggio sequence in between all the other notes •...
  • Page 20 *INST Manual Chord A long press of the INST button takes you to the manual chord insertion screen. Here you can play a chord by simply pressing buttons to toggle notes on and off. The HOLD function engages automatically once you have inserted a chord.
  • Page 21 The leftmost data button - source button controls whether Arpie is in internal or external clock mode; when the LED is off, Arpie runs from its own internal clock source and when the LED is on, Arpie runs on external MIDI clock via the MIDI IN or MIDI AUX sockets.
  • Page 22 For an external clock source, the mapping is as follows While Arpie is running from an external clock the rightmost 3 buttons can be used to override the external transport. This is particularly useful if you want to start Arpie playing without having to send a transport start command over MIDI from the clock master.
  • Page 23 • thru notes - If you have Arpie listening on a specific input channel (not Omni mode) then this option controls whether note messages for other channels will be passed directly through to Arpie’s MIDI output.
  • Page 24 • velocity cc - Arpie sends CC41 before each note to set the velocity. This is specifically aimed at users of Korg Volca FM which does not respond to MIDI velocity. • midi local off msg - When enabled, Arpie sends MIDI LOCAL OFF message on each MIDI channel at start-up time.

  • Page 25: Midi Output Channel

    MIDI Input Channel You can select The MIDI input channel via a long press to the CHAN button. By default, Arpie will accept input from any MIDI channel (OMNI mode) but you can also select a specific channel. OMNI mode is indicated by all the LEDs being ON. Pressing any single button will select an individual input channel.
  • Page 26 Pressing a button on this screen transposes the running arpeggio up or down by a selected interval between 1 octave up and 3 semitones down It’s also possible to sequence the transposition, allowing one of Arpie’s most exciting features. Create a transpose sequence by holding the TRAN button down while pressing a sequence of the interval buttons.

  • Page 27: Midi Transpose

    The HOLD button stops Arpie forgetting your chord once you stop playing it on an attached MIDI keyboard. If you do not have HOLD engaged, Arpie plays immediately from the start of the trig sequence when you press a chord and stops again when you release the chord.

  • Page 28: Firmware Version Display

    Firmware Version Display To check the firmware version of your Arpie, press down HOLD while powering up or resetting. While HOLD is pressed, the data LEDs will show the current version using the following method Each group of 4 LEDs shows a single decimal digit, encoded in binary, with a lit LED being a 1 and an unlit LED being a 0.
  • Page 30 With the exception of the Control Tab (which sits outside the Arpie case) each tab fits between the top and bottom boards of the Arpie. The six connector pins fit into the hack header and the tab is held firmly in place by passing through it the two rows of connection pins from the top board.
  • Page 31 (i.e. hold down HOLD while powering up or resetting) After pressing the appropriate button, release the HOLD button to let the Arpie start up. You should see your selection highlighted briefly before normal operation begins. This selection remains active until you change it or do a settings reset, so remember to change the setting if you change or remove a connected “tab”...
  • Page 32 The following signals from the ATMEGA microcontroller are present at the Hack Header These pins can support some interesting functions that open up other possibilities for experimentation (as long as you are able to get your hands dirty in the code!). ●...

  • Page 33: Control Tab

    The actual functions for each potentiometer and switch are selected via the long- press PLEN menu, on LEDs 2-8 as follows (hack header mode must also be set to Control Tab) LED 2 controls the Arpie function mapped to the switch input Switch Switch Press Mapped to Function Mute MIDI out Restart pattern.
  • Page 34 LEDs 5/6 control the Arpie function mapped to the POT2 input pot2_sel1 pot2_sel2 Mapped to Function None Velocity MIDI Pitch Bend MIDI CC#17 LEDs 7/8 control the Arpie function mapped to the POT2 input pot3_sel1 pot3_sel2 Mapped to Function None...
  • Page 35 When running from a regular external pulse clock, set Arpie to internal clock mode. Tip: If Arpie is set to external clock mode and there is no incoming MIDI clock, the external pulse clock input will function as a single step advance, with one pulse advancing one step, regardless of RATE setting etc.
  • Page 36 CV Tab The CV Tab allows the Arpie to control analogue synth gear using standard CV/Gate connections. CV Tab also supports a pulse clock output which can optionally be set to output accent pulses instead. The CV output supports 1V/oct and Hz/V. The Gate output is a +10V V-Trigger. Clock output is +10V.
  • Page 37 WebMIDI (Such as Google Chrome) Select the MIDI interface to which the Arpie (with CV Tab installed) is connected, enable calibration mode via hack header settings and follow the instructions on screen.
  • Page 38 PLEN. The screen changes to show the slot status (used slots are lit up brightly). Press one of the slot buttons to save the current Arpie state to that slot. If there is already data in the slot it will be overwritten. You can save to multiple slots without having to press HOLD+PLEN again.

  • Page 39: Firmware Update Procedure

    Firmware Update Procedure New versions of the Arpie firmware may be released on an occasional basis to add new features, support new hardware add-ons and to fix bugs. These new releases are made available as pre-programmed microcontroller chips which can simply be swapped with the older chip.
  • Page 40 +5V / VCC / VDD Leave unconnected The pin 1 end of the connector on the Arpie board is indicated with a digit “1”. It might be necessary to take out the screws and remove the top Arpie PCB to access the programming header.

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