Creating Arpeggios with NI Massive Stepper

Whenever the topic of arpeggiation and NI Massive come up, there is always the expected discussion of what arpeggiation truly is and whether or not what is shared in the tutorial should be considered such or not. All that banter aside, the NI Massive Stepper is absolutely capable of being used to program sequences, like arpeggiated chords. All it takes is a little understanding of chords, notes and how they correlate to the Stepper interface. Once you have this figured out, arpeggios are as easy as anything else in Massive. Let’s see how to get it done.

This one starts out with a simple square wave loaded into OSC1. The Amp is turned all the way down and the pitch value is raised one octave. And the modulation programming can now begin. A basic Performer is assigned to the Amp parameter of OSC1 to change the sustained notes into a tempo-synced rhythmic delivery. Now a Stepper can be assigned to the Pitch parameter of OSC1 so the arpeggio can be set up.

This particular arpeggio only requires a four step sequence within the NI Massive Stepper, so the first thing to do is restrict the number of steps to four. The four steps are then given four different values. The first is set to 0, the second is set to 3, the third is set to 7 and the fourth is set to 12. This is modulating the synth to produce four distinct notes in a perfect fifth. Just like that! Now you can opt to program OSC2 with an identical set-up but using a different wavetable for a nice layered synth. After this it is up to you how you handle effects, voicing and other parameters throughout the synth. It all depends upon what you’re producing.

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Cheers,
OhmLab