Hiya,
I think there's something I'm not understanding or missing about this...

You can control the Transpose value of an oscillator with an LFO curve. (ok, got it)
The amount is the semitones going from -96 up to +96. (ok, got it) but...
How do I know what semitone is it moving to?
I mean: the amount applied to the Transpose value is in semitones, but then, what the LFO curve or step drawn does?
(Maybe that is not the correct question, but it does not matter, follow me...):

If I understood this correctly, setting the value of the LFO amount applied to the Transpose in 12, you get twelve semitones, so you have an octave to play with, but then, when drawing the LFO, you have to set the grid layout, let's say: 2 - 12, so you have a bar (because my Tempo is set to 1/1) with a pianoroll of 12 semitones, where, if I draw the first half bar the lowest possible, I get the note I'm playing, and if I set the second half bar to, let's say to the 5th line of the grid, I get a note 5 semitones above the key I'm playing.



Am I right or is my brain made out of cheese?

 

Bro.
My potato can't even understand what your cheese is doing.

 

VITAL VST \\ HOW TO MAKE ARPEGGIATOR [1 bar/2 Octaves]

 

Last edited: May 22, 2026 at 11:54 AM

I love to use Vital lfo as an arp/step seq.

And don't forget that you can quantize the notes on the oscillator section (the small dots bellow the Pitch label) so you simply do not need to worry quantizing them with the horizontal steps on the lfo! Very handy to get unexpected surprises when you use even crazy shapes on the lfo.

Everything just Vital, and I used and abused the use of the lfos as arps/seqs (most songs were made with just one instance of Vital - I approached it like some kind of semi-modular, buchlaesque synth, and played live):

 

Last edited: May 22, 2026 at 1:42 PM

Interesting thing to do that I had no clue about (actually, because I'm more into writing the patterns in the midi clips of the DAW, than using built-in arpeggiators). I was only trying to understand what's happening in there, but I don't know if I'm more confused now or if it is I'm watching it after being two hours working on mowing the path in front of the house. (I think I can forget about using the DAW for a few days after the blisters I got because of that hoe).
I'll have a look at it tomorrow morning with the coffee.

 

I have to say I liked it way a lot! It reminds me of the lowtempo psychedelic compilations I used to listen to back in the 90s. Great job, @jennyblack!

 

Why not render out an example and check for yourself with a spectrogram plugin/melodyne or any other tool that tells you the notes played - even an EQ with a piano display would work.

I drop an LFO on the pitch section (it's called Transpose in the Matrix tab) and set the range to 12 for one octave. I then set the Y in my LFO to also be 12 and the X in the LFO to however many transpositions I want in total. I then change to 'step draw' mode.

So line 7 in the LFO is a perfect fifth, line 3 a minor third and so on. So if I'm reading your last paragraph correctly, then yes, you're doing it the same way.

 

Yeah, @xorome , good advise! that's what I did this morning when I posted this, using Melodyne helped me to see what whas actually happening there, but I wanted to discuss it in the forum because before, when I was using serum, I saw the same on that VST and never understood it in depth, so I thought: hey, time to learn another thing...