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PX-5s Arp Angel


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I really loved that shimmering "Arp Angel" sound that Mike Martin presented about 30 minutes into the recent PX-5s video clinic. He was demonstrating the ability of the PX-5s's arpeggiator to arpeggiate control data, in this case filter cutoff.

 

Given that my XW-G1 is only equipped with the older model arpeggiator that can't access control data, I wondered how I could duplicate this effect on an XW. It seemed to me that the base sound was one of the PCM Polysynth tones, or maybe a Warm Pad, with a fast oscillating LPF cutoff overlayed on a slowly oscillating one. This suggested using Performance Mode with a silent Solo Synth in Zone 1 and the base PCM tone in Zone 2, routed through Zone 1 by enabling its DSP line. I set Solo Synth LFO 1 to control the Total Filter cutoff at a slow rate, and LFO 2 to control the cutoff at a faster rate. With a bit of tweaking of the rates and depths of the LFOs, I got a sound pretty similar to the PX-5s's Arp Angel.

 

Then I wondered about creating a similar sound using fewer XW resources and tried applying the Wah-Tremolo dual DSP to PolySynthPd2. First of all I brightened up the tone a bit and tweaked its attack and release parameters, then I set the Wah half of the DSP to a slow rate and the Tremolo half to a fast rate. This also created a very appealing sound, not quite as close to Arp Angel as the Performance Mode/Solo Synth method because this time the shimmer was created via fast amplitude modulation instead of fast filter modulation, but nevertheless a very usable sound. Wah-Flanger offered another useful approach.

 

In the video Mike went on the discuss the HerbiesRoadz patch on the PX-5s which applies DSP distortion and arpeggiator autopan to an electric piano sound. At this point I realised that, unlike the XW's, the PX-5s does not have dual DSPs like Distortion-AutoPan.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just thought of another way of doing it - there's always another way.

 

Although the XW arpeggiator cannot send control data, it can send note on velocity. (The PX-5s arpeggiator can too.) This means that tremolo can be created using the arpeggiator instead of the DSP. Just create a two step arpeggio with both steps set to a P5 type, for maximum polyphony, leave note set to zero but set velocity at step 2 to -40, say. This arpeggio will alternate the volume of a note or chord and create a tremolo effect. Speed of the tremolo is controlled by the master tempo setting instead of an LFO.

 

The full Wah DSP can then be used, with full control over resonance, to create an Arp Angel type effect.

 

With 16 steps available, a tremolo arpeggio can be much more unusual compared to the usual sine wave LFO variety, including the ability to create syncopated throbbing rhythms and wobble basses.

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