ArpGun is a powerful chord and arpeggio generation tool for Renoise, built upon the foundation of the legendary ChordGun. It allows you to quickly insert complex chords into your patterns and instantly transform them into a variety of arpeggiated and Euclidean rhythmic patterns across successive lines.
ArpGun is an evolution of ChordGun, originally developed by pandabot. While ChordGun focused on rapid chord entry on a single line via OSC, ArpGun extends this functionality natively to support rhythmic "spacing", melodic movement, and polyrhythmic Euclidean generation, making it a complete tool for both harmony and rhythm.
- Original Predecessor: ChordGun on Renoise Forums
- Native Note Auditioning: Uses the Renoise 6.2 native note triggering API to audition instruments directly without any messy OSC local-server setup!
- Scale-Aware Chord Entry: Select a key and scale, and ArpGun provides a custom interface of valid chords for that scale.
- Integrated Arpeggiator: Transform any chord into a rhythmic sequence.
- Patterns: Up, Down, Up/Down, Down/Up, Up/Down/Up, Down/Up/Down, Strum Up, Strum Down, and Dyads.
- Standard Step Timing: Control the rhythmic spacing with fixed step sizes (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, or 32 lines).
- Euclidean Rhythms: Switch the Timing mode to "Euclidean" to distribute notes using complex polyrhythms based on Hits, Length, and Shift.
- Multiple Write Modes:
- Merge: Adds notes without clearing surrounding column data.
- Overwrite: Replaces existing notes in the target range by clearing relevant columns first.
- Inversion Control: Easily cycle through chord inversions.
- Custom Keybinding Support: Fully optimized for keyboard-heavy workflows with customizable shortcuts.
Requirements: Renoise 3.4.0 or newer (requires API Version 6.2 for native note playing).
- Download the
ArpGun_v1.0.xrnxfile. - Drag and drop the file onto the Renoise window.
- Access the tool via Tools -> ArpGun or by assigning a keyboard shortcut.
- Open the ArpGun interface.
- Choose your Tonic (Key) and Scale Type.
- Click any of the chord buttons to insert that chord at the current cursor position in the pattern editor.
- Toggle Edit Mode in Renoise to either write the notes into the pattern (Edit Mode ON) or just audition them using the selected instrument (Edit Mode OFF).
- Set the Arp Mode to "merge" or "overwrite".
- Choose an Arp Pattern (e.g., "Up" or "Dyads").
- Choose your Timing Mode:
- Standard: Use the Arp Step dropdown to choose a fixed line gap between notes (e.g., every 4 lines).
- Euclidean: Define a polyrhythm.
- Hits: The number of notes to play.
- Len: The total number of lines in the sequence loop.
- Shift: Offsets the starting position of the rhythm.
- Select a chord. ArpGun will now automatically spread the notes of that chord across the pattern track based on your pattern and timing settings.
ArpGun is designed to be used without a mouse. You can bind these in Edit -> Preferences -> Keys (search for "ArpGun").
The default "power-user" bindings included in the plugin package (and used by the developer) are:
Shift + Option + 1-7: Insert Scale ChordShift + Option + [/]: Change Chord InversionShift + Option + -/=: Change Chord TypeShift + Option + 9/0: Change Scale TonicShift + Option + ,/.: Change Arp PatternShift + Option + ;/': Change Arp Step
Note: On Windows/Linux, the "Option" key corresponds to the "Alt" key.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
- Original ChordGun Logic: pandabot
- Arpeggiator Extensions & UI: TrueSchool