How to Make an NI Massive Arpeggiator Using an LFO

There are several ways you can go about making your own arpeggiated sequences within Massive, but there is no true NI Massive arpeggiator. This creative approach will show you how to do it through the use of an LFO!

Now it can be argued that this is not a true arpeggio. Whatever. This is a cool approach to automating a sequence of notes, and however it is accomplished doesn’t really matter as long as it sounds good and people find it useful. This is the same approach with all of the tutorials we feature here and we hope that this video will help some folks out there create something they never realized they could with Massive synth. The one thing that makes this technique different than most of the other arpeggio tutorials out there for NI Massive, is that it does not make use of the Stepper or Performer, but rather an LFO. If you have a different way of accomplishing something similar, we’d love to hear from you, too!

This lesson begins with a simple Square-Saw II wavetable loaded into OSC1 and dropped one octave. The Wt-position is se to the middle and an LFO is assigned to modulate this parameter. The same LFO is also set to control the Cutoff knob of a Daft filter that the sound is routed through. This LFO is synced to a rate of 1/16 and the crossfade slider is positioned between a sawtooth waveform and a 100% waveform. This uniquely programmed LFO is the secret to this technique.

As you can hear in the video, the sounds being generated are simply changing dependent upon the wavetable position at 1/16th note intervals as the LFO sweeps through them. It is a clever way to create your own arpeggio-like effect for your projects! As we mentioned earlier, if you have your own way of doing something similar, we’d love to hear from you.

Do you have a tutorial request or feedback for us? Shoot a message our way today. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab