See if any of this helps:

https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/pad-sustain

(including links to other messages in that thread).

Thank you, Jason. I've read all these threads and tried the instructions, but have still no success.

I selected a pad sound as single part performance, recorded a C major chord over 16 bars (that's enough for my purposes) as pattern and converted this pattern as user arp.

The recorded pattern plays as intended, the user arp not. I have assigned the user arp correctly and tried all possible settings. This includes the different key modes, which I don't understand all, but I have tried them all.

I don't want a single note drone and I don't want to "toggle" the chord playing. What I want to "simulate" is that the pad's chord will be automatically held - like on an arranger keyboard - until the next chord change.

Since I need chord changes to be recognized by the arpeggiator, I selected the convert type "Org Notes" before saving the user arp. As I understand it, this corresponds to preset arpeggios that have a "_C" in their name.

Understood. I'll do a better job of applying the linked information to your specific question later once I'm able to setup my keyboard.

Org notes will allow for you to play a Cmaj chord and the arpeggiator will play the notes of Cmaj. And, with org notes, you can change to a Gbmin chord and the arpeggiator will play the notes of Gbmin. This is the only arpeggio type with chord intelligence where your combination of notes fingered are analyzed for a chord type and arpeggiator will play an appropriate chord for those input notes.

If you always want the arpeggiator to play the same notes no matter what keys you press on the keyboard, then use "fixed". "Fixed" will play the notes recorded in the arpeggio with the duration of notes recorded in the arpeggio. So if you record a Cmaj chord - then no matter what piano keys you press, a Cmaj chord (of the duration/rhythm recorded inside the arpeggio) will play.

The "normal" arpeggio type will play only the note(s) you finger. It will not try to guess what chord you're playing (no chord intelligence) - it will only play the notes you finger (and octaves of those notes). The rhythm of what is played is dictated by what's recorded inside the arpeggio.

https://yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/create-user-arp-for-rhythm-no-matter-how-many-notes-are-pressed

The basic approach to accomplishing what you're asking for is to accomplish drone notes that last "forever" and then manipulate the sounding notes' AEG in order to "abort" these notes when you play a second chord. Creating note(s) that last "forever" is easiest accomplished using FM-X (because you don't need an arpeggio to help you play notes "forever" ). Not sure if your held chord sound can be handled by FM-X. It's not necessary as previous work I've done accomplished what you're asking for using AWM2 chords.

Jason, many thanks for you fast reply.

I know the differences between the arp modes "Org", "Fixed" and "Normal". As I wrote before, I need a solution which reacts to chords. So "Org" seems to be the only solution for me.

Again: I don't want to play drones. Creating long (or even endless) envelopes is okay to create drones, but it is no solution for my intention: I simply want to hit a chord and this chord should held until I hit the next chord.

I know, with the MODX it's not possible to play the chord "endless". At least not automatically. It's not a problem if chord length is limited to a specific number of bars, e.g. 16, 32 or whatever. I can live with that.

My problem seems to be the conversion from a pattern to a user arp. I've read a lot about MODX/Montage/Motif arps (there are many articles on yamahasynth.com), but I can't get it to work.

You maybe looking for the LEFT HOLD features found on Yamaha Arranger Keyboards.

From an Arranger manual (PSR-SX900).....
Holding the LEFT part Voice (Left Hold)
By turning on the PART ON/OFF [LEFT HOLD] button when the LEFT part is ON, the LEFT part Voice is held even when the keys are released.
Non-decaying Voices such as strings are held continuously, while decay-type Voices such as piano decay more slowly (as if the sustain pedal has been pressed). This function is convenient when used along with Style playback since the sound of the chords matching Style playback are maintained.

While the Style engine of an Arranger and the Arpeggio engine of the Synths share some things in common, the LEFT HOLD feature is not one of them.

The Arpeggio engine has a different set of rules.
It is not completely clear to me how you intend on using the “holding one long chord”...
Arpeggio Phrases have a Length; they can be set to play once and stop or set to Loop once the Length is complete.
Are you intending to change chords, expecting the chord intelligence to adjust?
If so, then the Phrase Length becomes a critical parameter.

Can you explain how you intend to use the “one long chord” Arp Phrase?

I have tried several times to explain what I want and I don't know what else to write. I do not mean the Left Hold function of the PSR-SX which is nothing other as the simulation of a pressed sustain pedal for the left part only.

There are a lot of ready-to-use accompaniment performances that come pretty close to what I want. Part of some of these performances are pad sounds. These pads only sound as long as the chord is pressed. All other parts (bass, drums, other accompaniment melodies) continue to play when I release the keys. Sure, because their arpeggiators are in Hold mode. And that's exactly what I want to have for pad parts too. Unfortunately I haven't found any arpeggio presets that allows this. Therefore I would like to create a corresponding User Arp.

I think I know the MODX well enough to know that the only way to reach this goal is using an User Arp.

So I need an User Arp that does nothing else but playing a long chord. When I press a new (different) chord, the Arpeggiator should react and hold the new chord. So the Arp Mode must be set to "Org". As I wrote before I could live with a fixed phrase length.

To be honest, I'm about to give up. However, I believe that this can somehow work, because the arpeggiator should not care if he plays short, long, single notes or even several long notes at once.

OK, I've made some progress now. Unfortunately, my plan cannot work. I have built a User Arp that actually holds the chord. Unfortunately, all the involved notes are played every time till the end, so they will not be interrupted by a chord change.

So, Bad Mister is right: The length of the phrase is the critical point. I assumed that the arpeggio will be changed as soon as I hit another chord.

A quick note about the background of my use case: I find it very helpful with arranger keyboards that you only have to strike the chords briefly and don't have to hold them. Exactly this behaviour I wanted to simulate with the MODX's arpeggiator.

Jason & Bad Mister: Thank you very much for your detailed answers and for the time you spent on my problem!

I understand what you're asking for. I think we're getting stuck on semantics here.

You want a sound to keep playing forever until you hit a new chord. You say tomato, I say drone. That's my interpretation. I could call it zebra if that's closer to what you want to call it. Play a zebra note until you press another chord than we kill the zebra and birth another one.

I do understand how my language is loose when I say "drone". Because drone implies a single note of a low pitch that is sustained for a long period of time. And I do not mean to imply here that the note is singular - drone notes (note note). And secondly I do not mean to imply that the notes need to be low pitch. Here's one definition:

"In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece."

... and so when I say "drone" I mean harmonic notes as above that can be sustained for an entire piece - but is interrupted by the second "drone" if you elect to retrigger a new chord.

You want to press some notes and they play until you press another set of notes. The first set sustains until interrupted by the second set. I'm not sure how to convey that I'm giving answers that seem to match what you're asking.

So my approach is to take things in steps:

Step 1: Make the sound sustain "forever" so when I press a chord - those chord notes will continue to sound even when I lift my fingers. It just plays forever no matter what else I do. Even playing another chord.

Step 2: Make the sustained "forever" sound abort if I play a different set of notes. In other words, if I retrigger MODX by pressing keys - then the first chord stops and the second chord plays. This is the part where the initial "drone" stops (is silenced) and new "drone" starts.

The mechanism for silencing a chord that would otherwise go on forever is AEG manipulation.

I hope we can get past describing the same thing using different words - unless there's something I'm not getting that's outstanding.

------

As mentioned before - my previous method of aborting the first chord is to use AEG parameters triggered by motion sequence.

When different languages and detailed technical contexts come together, conversation sometimes becomes difficult.

• For Step 1, my solution is creating a User Arp. Completed.
• To complete Step 2 I first have to understand how to handle motion sequences. Since I mainly use AWM2 sounds, I hope this will be the solution. Right now, I have absolutely no clue :p

I think I will let my issue rest for a few days now and then continue my efforts.

I would really prefer digging deeper and giving you more specific direction here - but I still cannot setup my keyboard in order to run through this to give the level of detail needed. My previous writeup on this gave some detail - but others did have issues following it - so I need to revise it to eliminate any ambiguity.

And certainly leveraging soundmondo to place my performance in a shared environment would help.

The only "gotcha" is that I must use factory settings for everything. I couldn't use user pulses ("curves" for lane movement) in the solution. Or user curves for motion control. This is probably not a huge deal for this - but I'm wondering why I previously didn't place this on soundmondo after reaching a solution and am grasping at the possibility straws.

So perhaps you'll get it sorted out. I'll be in the trenches with you if I can get my keyboard setup before you get it sorted.

... "duh" update to a last comment: the reason I didn't post my results to Soundmondo is that this particular AWM2 based solution requires a custom user ARP to handle holding down the looped portion of the sample (before release) "forever". Soundmondo doesn't allow for custom user anything except normal parameters - so therefore I could not share my solution through Soundmondo. I did remember there was probably some such limitation reason why I didn't share - but just now remembered the particulars.

That said - if you can handle the ARP part, then soundmondo can still help to cover the rest. The Performance just will not stand on its own without further modification to add an appropriate ARP.

I don't really like Soundmondo, because I never could log in successfully using the Soundmondo app on my iPad. It is also extremely complicated to log in into this forum (no way with Safari on Mac, I can only log-in with Google Chrome after closing a 2nd Log-in window followed by a browser refresh). I find that fact pretty strange for such a large corporation, because the handling of user accounts should not really be rocket science 🙁

As far as I understand, Soundmondo is the only way to share single performances.

I'm just starting to think about a theory how to solve my issue using a Motion Sequence. Before I do anything I need to know what to do 😀

Do the Arpeggiator and the Motion Sequence correspond to each other? I think the goal should be that the Motion Sequencer sets the sustain of the AEG to zero as soon as the keys are released and sets it high again when I hit the next chord. Will the arpeggiator "be aware" of this? Normally it plays the notes of the User Arp Pattern to the end -- without any mercy 😮

This all is new and extremely abstract for me, so I am happy to get impulses for thinking to the right direction.

Here's the theory behind what was already suggested:

The ARP will hold notes "forever". The AEG should default so that the decay1 time/rate value is at the maximum time. When the ARP is holding the note down - the sample is looping in the sustain level (decay2 level is non-zero which is the level of the sustained note). If you want to "snap" the notes off using AEG - then you would set the decay2 level to 0. The release level can already be set to 0. This would cause the loop to stop because the level of the loop will be set to 0 and note would terminate.

When you press a key or keys two things happen. 1) Your ARP starts playing a new set of notes "forever" 2) Motion sequence is triggered and sets the AEG values (decay 2 level) to 0 to stop any existing notes. If no notes are sounding then the termination doesn't do anything.

How ARPs and Motion Sequence are "tied together" is that both are triggered by pressing piano keys so both can "fire off" at the same time.

Why doesn't setting decay2 to a level 0 "hurt" the 1) step where a new set of notes begin? Well, it takes time to reach decay2. That's why we set decay1 to a long time. Or at least long enough to delay getting to decay2 so we can terminate the existing notes and not affect the new notes. This is something that is tuned and affects how fast you can change chords without running into trouble.

There is one more step. After motion sequence terminates the existing notes, the next step in the motion sequence it to set decay level back to the original level. This has to be done before the decay1 time runs out. This is how the new notes will never "see" decay2 of 0 which terminated the previously existing notes.