“Continue”

There is not just Start and Stop in the vocabulary of MIDI Transport. There is Continue — which in other words, is pick up where you left off. Because the Arpeggiator has a different set of requirements to begin play — different from the DAW, for example, the simple act of pushing Play does not start an Arpeggiator. Pushing Play on your DAW only makes the timing ‘gears’ available for the Arp Phrase to latch onto (CLOCK). You, as musician, must additionally press a Key, or a chord, within a specified Note Range and Velocity Range, to Start the Arp Phrase. The Arp Phrase will normally start from the beginning each time you retrigger the keys. “Normally“, means when armed, reset, and the HOLD parameter is set to either ON or OFF, the Arp Phrase will start from the beginning when triggered. If you STOP the DAW transport and return to the Top, no instruction has been given to the Arp other than Stop. And it does, STOP, wherever it happens to be within its phrase.

If it sees clock running, again, it may indeed pick up from where it left off. To reset/rearm the Arpeggiator, simply toggle the Master [Arp On/Off] Switch. This should be apart of your natural workflow when attempting to record Arp Phrases to your external DAW in real time. This resets the Arp to the top of its Phrases and rearms it for you to trigger it.

Arp HOLD Settings
That said, we mentioned that “normally” this is the behavior of the Arpeggiator, but you can use the Arpeggio’s “HOLD” parameter setting set to “Sync-Off” which allows the Arp Phrase to play only while you hold down the triggering Keys, if/when you lift your hand the phrase can continue to run (unheard) and will play again when next you press the Keys. The phrase continues the timing in the unheard background. This combines the HOLD On and Off functions allowing the Phrase to “peek-a-boo“ without restarting.

Example: Recall the Performance “Double Dippin’ the Funk”. This classic Motif XF Performance (apologies to Kool and the Gang), uses four Arpeggiators, one for each active Part.
Drums and bass play the funk groove (Arp Hold is set to ON), two different rhythm guitars are split on the keyboard... left hand rhythm and right hand rhythm... the guitars play a steady riff if you just hold chords with each hand. But you can do your own “call and response” by varying the amount of time you hold down the chords in each hand... you’ll hear the phrases do not restart each time (Sync-Off). They keep the timing but only sound when the keys are pressed.

Try an E7 chord in each hand varying the time held... two beats each, four beats each, one beat each vary it — create new Arp patterns... always in sync.
When HOLD = OFF you must engage a key to hear the Arp Phrase
When HOLD = ON the phrase continues without additional contact
When HOLD = SYNC OFF the behavior is in Sync when keys are held, but Off when contact is broken

Extra Credit:
Did you know the MONTAGE is designed to record its own Arps, quickly and easily?

You can virtually recall an Arp, Automate the transfer it to the internal Sequencer (Using “Key On Start” and “Loop = Off” during the transfer).
This will print your interaction with the Arp Phrase perfectly to the internal Pattern Sequencer Track — automating both punch-in and punch-out.
Drag and Drop, the result into your favorite team DAW, using MONTAGE CONNECT. The MONTAGE Pattern data is immediately saved to your “Contents” > “Data Utility” > “Pattern” Folder... and can be imported, using CONNECT, directly to your DAW via the USB connection.
No complex, clock synchronization, or routing problems. Quick/Easy.

Hi Bad Mister, thanks so much for this. I'm not going to be at my Montage for a while to try this out but didn't want to come across as rude not replying to your, as ever, very thorough message. Thanks again!