LA based singer, saxophonist and music producer Alex Charles has been steadily making his mark in the industry. In addition to his own music, Alex has been writing music for one of Warner Brothers' music libraries for over three years and has had his music placed hundreds of times on major network television shows. We caught up with Alex to learn the secrets of generating income from writing library music, and how he uses that to finance his personal music projects.

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In the V3 version of SWAM Strings, there has been a substantial improvement in the GUI, sound and behavior improvements, and other new features. Upgrade your SWAM Strings now to V3 for free or for a discount, depending when you purchased!

EXTENDED through April 30, 2021, get one FREE ILIO Patch Library with your purchase of Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2, a $35 value! Choose from three titles from ILIO's Patch Bundle: Fire Water, Revolve, or Robotica. Each ILIO patch library specializes in a certain area, and is perfect for your next production.

The arpeggiator is just one of the many new synthesis features included in the free Trilian 1.5 update from Spectrasonics. These updates bring Trilian even closer to Omnisphere functionality and open up many exciting new ways of sequencing Trilian's bass guitars and synths. In this article, I'll be breaking down each new arpeggiator feature in detail, offering tips and tricks along the way. 

Getting Started with Trilian's Arpeggiator

For the sake of understanding what each new function of the arpeggiator is really doing, I've found it helpful to start by playing a simple interval of a fifth (C and G, for example), and experiment with the new parameters from there. By using the same pattern, you can clearly hear what each new feature is doing, without getting confused by complicated patterns. Once you've grasped the basics, try adding one more note at a time and listen to what's changing in your arpeggio.

Trilian's Functions Menu

The new functions menu allows you to shift and maneuver your arpeggiation sequence in many directions. You can move your whole sequence left or right, flip it in reverse, or even shuffle it around in a completely random way. My two favorite uses of the function are the “Duplicate Mirror” and “Shuffle Order” settings. Duplicating the mirror image of your sequence is a great way to extend your sequence and make it more interesting. The shuffle function helps to remove your own biases from the creative process and allows the system to provide ideas you may not have had on your own.

Additionally, the “Rotate Left” and “Rotate Right” features will save you an enormous amount of time when you have a section in the middle of your arpeggio that you like, but would prefer it to start at the beginning of your sequence. Instead of reprogramming the notes again at the beginning, you can simply shift your sequence to exactly where you want it!

Trilian's Speed Knob

The new speed knob is a game-changer, and frees you from the restraints of your project’s main tempo. I’ve come up with some really interesting patterns by automating the speed knob throughout a track/sequence. Slowing the speed knob down can create some interesting, murky grooves. On the other hand, speeding the knob up and programming large note stacks can produce some impressive chordal runs. When placing transitions in your music, automating the speed is a sure-fire way to build excitement for the next section of your track.

Trilian's Note Patterns (Join, Spread, Stairs Up, Stairs Down + more)

The Once setting plays through the sequence, you guessed it, only once. It shines when you want to have more control over what you’re playing. When this setting is on, you have the freedom to play big, colorful chords without having them loop.

Trilian's Octave Options

When playing a pattern, you can either limit it to cover one octave, or more, up to four octaves. This is helpful when you want a pattern to cover more of the keyboard range, but don’t have enough fingers. When set to 2 OCT, playing a simple chord (C, E, G) will play C, E, G at its played octave, then C, E, G again an octave higher.

With the ALT modes, each note in a pattern cycles through its respective octave ranges before moving onto the next note. Let’s take the C and G interval arpeggio mentioned earlier. When set to 4 OCT Alt, the first note played, C, will cycle through four octaves before moving onto the next note, G, which also cycles through its 4 octaves before returning to C.

Trilian's Step Modifiers (Transpose, Slide, Chords, Hi-Low & Step Dividers)

In my opinion, some of the most interesting sounds I’ve created have come from using the new step modifier function. This has been the best way I’ve found to program dynamic sequences and brings so much more energy than simple note changes. Also, I really enjoy setting the play mode to “Once”, and setting up slides at the beginning of a sequence, turning the arpeggiator into a “pitch-bent” MIDI instrument. This is pretty difficult to recreate without the help of this advanced arpeggiator.

Transpose - Changes the pitch of a note up or down by an amount of up to 24 half steps. 

Slide - Similar to transposing, but the transposed note will bend up or down, similar to the pitch bend on a synth or midi keyboard.  The pitch bend speed is determined by the slider above the slide value. Keeping the slider all the way to the left creates the fastest slide, while the slowest setting is all the way to the right. Also, you can select a multi-step note for legato slides.

Chords - When set to Chord mode, the selected step will play a chord (some or all of the notes held in the pattern, depending on the selected modifier). There are nine Chord Modifier Types to choose from, offering different inversions and voicings to the chord.

Hi-Low & Step Dividers:

Hi - The step will ignore the Arpeggiator mode and play the highest held note.

Lo - The step will ignore the Arpeggiator mode and play the lowest held note.

Latch Button

With LATCH turned on, the Arpeggiator will continue to loop after the notes played are released.  Even better, every additional note you play will be added to the sequence, which is a great tool for playing long runs up the keyboard. The latch will finish when either the switch is turned off again, you replay the same notes, or the DAW session is paused or stopped.

Capture MIDI

Although I use Spectrasonics products for the majority of the sounds in my music, the truth is that people own other synths and instruments. I know, I was as shocked as you were when I first found out too. But the Capture function can be of great use to those with hardware synths. 

Capture MIDI records your arpeggios and turns them into an identical MIDI file. You can then drag the MIDI file directly from Trilian's Capture section into your DAW. As if all these new features mentioned above weren't enough to get the perfect arpeggiation you’re looking for, capturing the MIDI allows you to get precise control and further fine tune any created arpeggiation. Now you are free to run this MIDI-fied arpeggiation through any of your hardware synths!

Often, I’ll create a sequence that I’m happy with and want a different order of notes. I’ll capture the MIDI sequence, then edit the MIDI notes by hand. Simple! Yet another way the folks at Spectrasonics help you achieve exactly what you want.

Hopefully, this overview has been helpful in understanding the power of Trilian's new arpeggiator, and maybe you picked up a few new tricks along the way! Further exploration is encouraged, and we look forward to hearing what you come up with!

For more questions about the arpeggiator in Trilian 1.5, please reach out to the ILIO support team at any time!

Spectrasonics has released a new v2.0 edition of their Bob Moog Tribute Library for Omnisphere 2 with over 500 brand new patches and over 50 artists participating! This incredible Omnisphere library is available now for $99 at the Spectrasonics webstore and it's FREE to existing users.

An American visual and sound artist, Stephen Vitiello has a talent for transforming, as he puts it, "incidental atmospheric noises into mesmerizing soundscapes that alter our perception of the surrounding environment." In this video interview we learned that Stephen has been using the granular sampler plug-in Stream by Delta Sound Labs to transform field recordings into music.

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