Arpeggios have been an important part of melodic electronic dance music for a number of years. They can be extremely powerful, however, they can be a very lazy way of creating melodies.

In this video, I’m going to show you a few techniques I’ve developed over the years. They will make your arps sound less like a ringtone and more like something people will want to listen to.

Techniques I will cover:

• Using a noise osc for more bite and crunch.
• Automation to make the arp less static.
• Adding additional MIDI notes to strengthen the melodic structure.
• Recording filter automation to add a human touch.
• Using transposition to add interest.

Conclusion:
Don’t just leave an arp playing. Change parameters over time so that the sequence less static.

How you do you keep your arps interesting? Let us know in the comments below!