Arp design fail

[Kusho]

Sadly the Deepmind arp makes the Rev2 Arp a bit lame in comparison. Well done Behringer.
There's no key-sync settings in the Rev2. There's only relatch on, which triggers notes out of time with the clock depending when you strike the keys.
Or you can turn Hold off and Relatch on and just hold the keys down but that greatly limits what you can play.

And when you turn off hold while still holding down the keys the arp stops?! Seriously did the person who designed the arp actually play keyboards?

What's the point of an arp that doesn't stay in time with the clock, depending on when you play the keys?
What's the point of an arp that adds any new notes to the existing set of notes and keeps building until it's ridiculous noise?
Doesn't seem very well thought through.

Sequential could learn a lot from Novation and Behringer about arp playability design.

[RobustAmerican]

"Arp Beat Sync" in Globals (14). Change it to quantize!

There's no key-sync settings in the Rev2. There's only relatch on, which triggers notes out of time with the clock depending when you strike the keys.
Or you can turn Hold off and Relatch on and just hold the keys down but that greatly limits what you can play.
What's the point of an arp that doesn't stay in time with the clock, depending on when you play the keys?

[Kusho]

"Arp Beat Sync" in Globals (14). Change it to quantize!

Thanks. I have already done that.
It does help but it still restarts the arpeggio shape and it's jarring to my ear.
The Deepmind arp doesn't do that, it smoothly integrates each new chord played.
I guess it's just that no synth can do everything.
And people shouldn't be snobs about Behringer because some things they do really well. For example there are 11 different arpeggio 'shapes' and the inversion configurations are really nice. For example if you have 4 notes the inversion form will play notes in the order of 1,3,2,4.
I know the Rev2 sounds way 'better' than the Deepmind, and the Rev2 arp is an afterthought so we shouldn't expect much from it. In which case they could have left it out and saved some money, or consulted a keyboard player.

I am now using the Deepmind arp to send notes to the Rev2, which is much better. It's vastly more playable.
The Rev2 arp is only good if hold is off and relatch is off and you just play notes holding them down, but it really limits what you can perform with one hand.

[RobustAmerican]

Seems like you might have moved the goal post there a little but I understand completely. That was going to be my next recommendation, to drive it from another synth I mean. Every synth out there has it's own quirks and oddities and they either frustrate or help in various ways depending on the situation at hand. You never know, the Rev2 arp behavior might be just the thing you need for a track someday. Often I'll start with a synth's arpeggiator or sequencer and then find that I need to actually play and record the arpeggio by hand to get the exact behavior I'm hearing in my head.

Thanks for the chat!

[maxter]

I second Kusho's concerns and critique, as to "Arp design fail".

As has been said many times on this Rev2 forum, Rev2 owners have to accept the Rev2 for what it is... ie crippled.

I have barely used the Rev2's onboard arp for the same reasons that you describe. Coming from other synths with better arpeggiators, the Rev2 arp has always felt like a PITA to try to work with. Like "What were they thinking?". This is, by far, the worst arpeggiator I've ever tried to use. I believe the problem was mainly trying to cram too much stuff in the Rev2, and so maxing out the programming memory. IMO, the arp could as well have been omitted altogether, as better arps are just so readily available everywhere, as to focus on getting everything else right.

At least they fixed most of the the gated sequencer bugs (eventually...) while it still doesn't behave exactly like the Prophet'08 does regarding these... anyhow, creds for at least giving us a final update to squash most of the bugs! As it's somewhat of a budget analog poly, IMO still worth the money now, after the last OS update.

[iingcopy]

Can I deviate a little bit from here... with a similar question:

Is there any way I can quantize the gate/ poly sequencer too?

Well I know I can sync clock from external devices but this seems to be irrelevant to the question because I can just manually set the BPM for every patch. The problem with sequencer is that notes are so easily triggered out of time if I do it manually.

"Arp Beat Sync" in Globals (14). Change it to quantize!

There's no key-sync settings in the Rev2. There's only relatch on, which triggers notes out of time with the clock depending when you strike the keys.
Or you can turn Hold off and Relatch on and just hold the keys down but that greatly limits what you can play.
What's the point of an arp that doesn't stay in time with the clock, depending on when you play the keys?

[Autosynther]

What I miss the most i gate setting 25%, 50%(default), 75% to let envelopes last as required.

I even think that OneShot, like for drum samplers, would be useful. Just trigger and let live. With so many voices like you have they could float and overlap is that suites.

While tweaking sounds it is sometimes convenient to have both hands free for tweaking.
But it sound so drastically different, unless going real, real low tempo.

I looked sustain pedal settings, but don't quite get what I want.