First, does launching this as a MIDI FX in the latest Logic X version circumvent the need to use two tracks, IAC and the Logic environment, as described in various presumably older posts and notices here and in various reviews, like the one at Splice? It does seem to be working as a MIDI FX insert on a software instrument track, but as I'm just trying it out for the first time, I'm not clear on whether it's working properly.
Second, is there a way to set it up so that either playing a repeated series of MIDI notes or running held notes thru the arpeggiator, also cycles the resulting arp pattern sequentially through the selected chords? It seems from first play-around that you can either arpeggiate, or trigger unarped-chords with single notes, but I want to filter arpeggiations through chord changes, ideally without having to change fingerings, i.e. to use the held notes simply to establish a number of notes and let the MIDI FX handle both the repetition patterns and the pitches/changes that result. Or, perhaps send patterns created elsewhere, either by hand or from some other sort of sequencer/arpeggiator into Cthulhu and have it change the pitches using its chords in some sort of selected sequence.
Am I simply trying to describe what Cthulhu already does but that I haven't figured out yet how to implement, or imagining features that don't really exist, or can you maybe accomplish something like this in Cthulhu, or perhaps by adding in some of Logic's native MIDI FX, or some other 3rd-party arps, etc.?
Many thanks!
First, does launching this as a MIDI FX in the latest Logic X version circumvent the need to use two tracks,Yes. Printing MIDI is a different story, but it's the same story as using Logic's MIDI FX (you need to use MIDI FX Freeze at audiocr.com until Logic adds a way to do this internally).
Second, is there a way to set it up so that either playing a repeated series of MIDI notes or running held notes thru the arpeggiator, also cycles the resulting arp pattern sequentially through the selected chords?From my limited understanding of your description I would say "no". The chords module and Arp module are essentially separate, with Chords->Arp being the chain order when both are enabled. I don't know a way to achieve what you want I guess, simply pressing keys to determine a number of notes, I don't know, nothing comes to mind, inside Logic perhaps using Scripter you could perhaps get clever transmitting pattern changes to Cthulhu based on number of held notes, but I'm not sure this would satisfy much of anything that you're satisfied with unless explicit patterns using the note selection graph in Cthulhu.
maybe someone else might be able to chime in, or maybe go to a more general forum like KVRaudio.com and try to re-explain what you want without mentioning Cthulhu in the description, and maybe someone can understand and be of more help.
Thanks, and sorry to be unclear; I guess I can see that with both functions on, C does use the chord selections to re-pitch the arp patterns, so that's mostly what I was after. And at least I now know my experiments using Cthulhu aren't being crippled by Logic's MIDI weirdness. Lots to explore—including the manual:)!
One other thing, though: in the demo version I'm using, the rate knob (to the left of Swing) seems to not be updating its display when moved. The rate changes, but it always reads 1/16…? Known problem, or just me?
Yes, that issue has been fixed since the demo version (which is slightly older).
