Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Slick Tricks for Stack and Strum

11/02/2022

Version 5.5 introduced Chord Stack and Strum features, which are pretty cool (for the basics on how they work, check out Gregor Beyerle's YouTube video). We'll warp these functions in some novel ways.

Chord Stack Meets Arpeggio

You can combine creating a Chord Stack and arpeggiating it at the same time.

Start by selecting the desired Key, Scale mode, note length, and clicking the Scale check box (fig. 1). I find the most reliable option is to click Q, which follows the current quantization setting (quantization doesn't have to be enabled).

Figure 1: Select the appropriate parameters circled in white before proceeding.

Choose the Paint tool.

Hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac).

While still holding down Alt or Option, click where you want the note to start, and drag right (dragging left doesn't work), while dragging up or down.

The further you drag to the right, away from where you started, the more notes you'll generate.

Past a certain point, some notes will repeat before moving on to the next note. The repeating is most likely to happen when using scales with few notes, like a Major Triad. The repeating notes can be a fun effect with sounds that have a fast decay.

When doing arpeggios, I like to drag up to the scale note just before the octave, and then create a second, downward arpeggio (fig. 2). You can turn this into an Event, and hit D to create as many iterations of the arpeggio as you want.

Figure 2: An arpeggio created by stretching a chord shape up, then creating a second arpeggio that stretches the chord shape down.

Strum Fun

Let's turn our attention to strumming. One of my favorite alternatives to a conventional strum is that you don't have to strum from the top or bottom of a chord, you can strum from the inside out. It sounds more like fingerstyle picking than strumming.

Create your chord of choice.

Select all the chord notes.

Click somewhere toward the middle of the note where the strum should end (fig. 3 shows what happened when I chose the middle of the 7 notes) and hold down the mouse button.

While still holding down the mouse button, hold down Alt Ctrl (Windows) or Option Cmd (Mac), and drag left or right. This is a wonderful effect-try it!

Figure 3: Inside-out strum.

Even better, we can take advantage of another new 5.5 editing feature. Set the end of the Event to where you want the notes to end. Select all the notes, right-click on one of them, and choose Musical Functions > Process > Extend to Note End. Now you'll have a lovely, strummed attack, and all the notes will end at the same time.

More strum fun tips:

You don't need to strum all the notes of a chord. You can select, for example, just the top three chord notes, and strum those.

Don't overlook downstrokes. Click on the lowest note of a chord, hold the mouse button down, then hold down the Alt Ctrl or Opt Cmd and drag right. Now the top note will stay in place, and the strum will progress downward in pitch. If you want to end on the lowest note, choose the highest note instead of the lowest one, and drag left.

Anyone who's been following this blog knows I'm a fan of 12-string guitars and Nashville tuning. So, copy your strum, move it up an octave, and offset it slightly late compared to the original strum (see fig. 4, which once again takes advantage of the Extend to Note End function so that all the notes end at the same time).

Figure 4: Octave strums have a different character when you offset the higher-octave notes.

Finally, it gets even better when you combine these techniques. For example, in fig. 4, you could strum the octave notes from outside in, and the lower notes from the inside out or make one a downstroke, and one an upstroke.

Are we having fun yet?
LINK: https://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2022/02/11/slick-tricks-stack-stru...
See more stories from presonus

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

28/08/2026

Charter Takes Scripps to Court Over Carriage of Las Vegas' KMCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Backlight Expands Creative Operations Platform with AI-p...

Global media technology company Backlight will showcase its latest innovations across Iconik and Wildmoka live video creation and distribution at IBC2026 (booth...

28/08/2026

Emergent Brings Its AI-Enhanced Content Production Platfo...

Emergent, a developer of browser-based, AI-enhanced content production tools, will present its complete AI-enhanced content production platform at IBC2026, exhi...

28/08/2026

Joseph Bell Announces VFX & Animation World Atlas 2026

Joseph Bell Announces VFX & Animation World Atlas 2026 Joseph Bell August 28, 2026 0 Comments Joseph Bell's Visual Effects & Animation World Atlas...

28/08/2026

Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO

Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO Brie Clayton August 28, 2026 0 Comments Regional audiovisual company builds broadcastgrade ...

28/08/2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Console at IBC 2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Console at IBC 2026 Brie Clayton August 28, 2026 0 Comments DHD.audio has chosen IBC 2026 as the la...

28/08/2026

Grass Valley AMPP Provides an All-Encompassing Approach t...

Encompass Digital Media and Grass Valley are expanding their collaboration with the launch of Altitude Playout Plus, a software-defined channel origination plat...

28/08/2026

Yospace releases new Ad Presentation solution

Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), has announced the release of its Ad Presentation solution, which enables broadcasters to apply non-li...

28/08/2026

TSL Showcases Reduced Complexity for Control and Monitori...

TSL Showcases Reduced Complexity for Control & Monitoring Across IP Workflows at IBC2026 New TSL Hummingbird capabilities including Dante control routing, toge...

28/08/2026

Lutz Rathmann to Become CEO of Riedel Communications

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Spectrum Offers Lower-Income Internet Customers Free Amazon Prime

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

FCC Exempts Public Access Channels from Closed Captioning

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Elon Musk's X Launches NFL Gametime on X

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

GlobalM and Lamhas Partner to Expand Managed IP Broadcast...

GlobalM and Lamhas Satellite Services today announced a new agreement that will see GlobalMs GMX technology deployed as part of Lamhas expanding managed IP broa...

28/08/2026

Boland Communications Introduces SMPTE ST 2110 Option for...

Integrated 25GbE Connectivity Delivers UHD Video Directly to Up to Two Monitors, Eliminates External Gateways, and Supports SMPTE ST 2022-7 Network-Path Protect...

28/08/2026

JT-DMF Invites IBC2026 Attendees to Help Shape the Future...

Interactive Ask Me Anything sessions will connect broadcasters and technology providers with the experts developing a practical, interoperable roadmap for sof...

28/08/2026

TAG Video Systems Cuts Live Production Latency Below Two...

At IBC2026, TAG will show sub-2-frame latency and 800 Gbps of aggregate scale for uncompressed ST 2110 monitoring in software, live MXL interoperability with pa...

28/08/2026

SportsBox BHVs Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher Moves fro...

SportsBox, BHV's Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher, Moves from Development to Production at IBC 2026 SportsBox brings flexibility without compromise to high...

28/08/2026

Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market Organiz...

Lutz Rathmann named CEO of Riedel Communications Anthony Zuyderhoff to lead unified customer-facing organization as CCO Riedel Communications is strengthenin...

28/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed fund honoring institute president and CEO Pete Schultz

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has established the Pete Schultz Fund for Innovati...

28/08/2026

Chemists develop simpler method to make molecular building block for drug development

LA JOLLA, CA-Chemical structures called cyclopropanols are among the most useful...

27/08/2026

ESPN Adds College Football Saturdays to Disney+ This Fall

ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Zixi to Showcase Live Video Platform and Broadcaster v19

Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...

27/08/2026

NDI Surpasses 1.2 Million Hardware Nodes as IBC2026 Showcase Expands

NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...

27/08/2026

Clear-Com FreeSpeak Cell Trialed During Rio Carnival Before Commercial Launch

Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: BVH SportsBox Remote Mixer Becomes Reality

BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...

27/08/2026

TOGETHXR and Snapchat Announce Second Snap the Gap Athlete Cohort

TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...

27/08/2026

CNBC UK Selects MediaKind Beam for Live News Infrastructure

MediaKind has announced that CNBC UK has selected Beam to modernize its contribution and distribution infrastructure for live broadcast operations. The deployme...

27/08/2026

Monitor Engineer Chris Dwight Deploys Sennheiser Spectera on Puscifer and A Perfect Circle Tours

Monitor engineer Chris Dwight has deployed Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bi...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream Expands UP Platform

Telestream has announced an expansion of its UP cloud-native platform, adding capabilities for orchestrating Telestream services, third-party technologies, and ...

27/08/2026

Swerve TV Signs Multi-Year Partnership with GLORY Kickboxing

Swerve TV has signed a multi-year partnership with GLORY Kickboxing, bringing live GLORY events and library programming to Swerve Combat, Swerve TV's free a...

27/08/2026

AFP and Dalet Integrate AFP Content Into Dalet Flex Newsroom Workflow

Dalet has announced a new integrated content experience with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Dalet Flex, designed to bring AFP's editorial metadata into the p...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Grass Valley to Demonstrate Integrated Live Production Environment

Grass Valley will demonstrate an integrated live production environment at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), combining K-Frame, Maverik X, ...

27/08/2026

NWSL and Roku Expand Partnership with Sunday Night Streaming Package

The National Women's Soccer League and Roku have announced an expanded partnership, with the Roku Sports Channel becoming the exclusive streaming home of ei...

27/08/2026

Fubo Adds ACC Network Extra and SEC Network+ to Streaming Service

FuboTV has announced the launch of ACC Network Extra (ACCNX) and SEC Network (SECN ) on the Fubo streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers with En...

27/08/2026

Moment Branding: Using Sound to Create More Powerful Fan Experiences

Sports marketers have entered the experiential age. Today, sports teams, leagues, and venues are increasingly using immersive interactions and real world events...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne to Debut MDoG-8800 12G Fiber Transport Module

MultiDyne will introduce the MDoG-8800 at IBC2026 (Stand 11.C12, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), extending its openGear portfolio with a high-density fiber tra...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: JT-DMF To Host Ask Me Anything' Sessions

The Joint Task Force on the Dynamic Media Facility (JT-DMF), an initiative of AMWA and the EBU, will host a series of informal Ask Me Anything sessions during...

27/08/2026

Homestream Syncs Duke, Auburn and Georgia Tech Football, Basketball Radio Calls to Live TV Broadcasts

Homestream, a mobile app that automatically syncs a team's local radio broad...

27/08/2026

Spikes Under the Lights Brings Collegiate Volleyball to AT&T Stadium in a Made-for-TV Event Built for Scale

A packager for TNT Sports, Kwokman Productions is on hand for the unique event w...

27/08/2026

25 Seasons of New York Yankees on YES Network: The Day 1 Crew Looks Back on a Quarter Century in the Bronx - and Stamford

After more than 3,000 games, five members of YES Network's original staff re...

27/08/2026

Dreamtonics unveil Instrument X orchestral alternative

Physical modelling orchestral instrument announced Following their recent cryptic hints, Dreamtonics have officially revealed the latest addition to their s...

27/08/2026

Apple update the Mac mini & Mac Studio

M5 Ultra-equipped Studio most powerful Mac to date Apple have just announced a design refresh which they say makes the Mac mini fiercer and more versatil...

27/08/2026

Bitwig Studio 6.1 now available

Sampler receivers major upgrades Bitwig's latest DAW update brings some major changes to the Sampler device, kitting it out with new slicing options, tw...

27/08/2026

Arturia release Pure Sub

Designed specifically for hard-hitting modern bass Designed specifically for bass-heavy electronic music, the latest plug-in from Arturia aims to offer an a...

27/08/2026

Gracenote's first DSP integration brings show-level content intelligence to The Trade Desk

Advertisers gain granular CTV targeting and turnkey reporting across eligible in...

27/08/2026

Boland Debuts ST 2110 Option for its 4K HDR Monitors

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...