Pattern Effect Commands → 00xy (Arpeggio)

The arpeggio effect is a staccato of different notes stroked in a serial arrangement that would otherwise form a chord when all those notes would being played simultaneously.

The numbers used in the x-y values are related to the semitones, offset from the Base Note that is being played in the row the arpeggio command is being applied.

C-4 01 .. .. 0037 means that an arpeggio of a C-minor scheme would be played sequentially and a 0047 would be a C-major arpeggio. Other arpeggio rates applied would be the wobble combination (high and low octave) 00c0 which could give certain base instruments an extra powerfull dimension.

Arpeggios in the past (in electronic music terms speaking), were amongst others used on the commodore C64 to circumvent the limitation of the maximum voices that its sound-chip (The MOS6581 AKA SID) could simultaneously play (three independant oscillators).
By rapidly playing the notes in a serial looped batch, it made one voice sound like three were used but in fact just one voice was used.

In the tracker world the arpeggio effect can also be used to apply weird effects to sound effect samples or percussion. The Chord mode which it was used for in the past is obsolete as most trackers do not contain limitations regarding the amount of avaiable tracks.
It is still being used however in some “cheeze” competitions where only simple wave-form samples are allowed and full chords can sound very dull with raw sine waves in contrast to how they can sound in arpeggio mode.


One of the limitations of this command is that the speed of the arpeggio cannot be altered without affecting the whole song speed.
Arpeggio speed can only be affected by adjusting the BPM speed in the play-console.

Another limitation is the amount of notes that can be put in the arpeggio scheme which is 3 (the basenote and two related semi-tone offset values).

A more appropriate trick to overcome these limitations for your sample-based instruments is to go to the instrument envelopes and use the pitch envelope to create your own free-hand and free-length arpeggio scheme.
This may be a bit of work, specially if you would require many different arpeggio schemes, but the result will be much more effective than using the quick and dirty pattern effect command.