The Beat Modulated Arpegiator

By Ryan

What, you ask, is a beat modulated arpegiator? How could you possibly not know what a beat modulated arpegiator is?
I guess I will have to tell you. The BMA is the next generation of Ryan's ridiculous independent study (winter, this time) which started with the Musical Pants, and has now evolved into musical programming.

The BMA uses the special MIDI Lab computers, with their nifty sound cards and MIDI devices, to make music. There are two functions on the BMA that these computers can use. First, the standard arpegiator. A standard arpegiator will take a note played from a keyboard, and continue playing other notes at certain time intervals. The program controls what the pattern of notes sounds like. All in all, the standard arpegiator is quite boring.

The second function, the beat modulater, makes more interesting music. As you can see below, the grid of checkboxes is used to tell the computer what note to play, and when to play it. This sequence loops continuously, and can produce some very pleasing sounds. In the wrong hands (mine) it can also make some pretty horrible sounds. But for the good sounds, it is easy to reproduce that happy sound by hitting the "save beat" button, so you will never need to remember exactly how that beat goes. The computer does that for you. Amazing, isn't it?

The BMA is not available on a commercial market as of yet, but for a small fee ($97, or possibly a soul) I would allow you to test drive this wonder of technology. Until then, you can just marvel at the cool screen shot of it below.