Hello all - I’ve a situation where I have a bunch of “chord chart MIDI” files that I’d like to use to “audition” Performance/arpeggios.

I want to know if my XF8 can make them useful before I invest any time doing anything with them.

The MIDI data is a single track MIDI sequence created by a device that step recorded a chord progression (three or four notes played together in the octave below middle C for durations that are usually half or quarter of a 4/4 measure). 

They are currently on floppy disc (yes, I know!) and they are not “standard” MIDI file type but I can export them and save them as something else. (Awkward and time consuming)

I can go into more detail if it will be helpful.

Cheers,
Reggie

How useful they’ll be ultimately depends on the content. If you can convert your data into SMF then importing such into a Motif XF Pattern is easy peasy.  But now what? Creating your own set of user arpeggios is not especially difficult, either, but how useful any short piece of Pattern-to-Arpeggio data is down to your tastes and the general usability of the end result. If your original data is simply a series of standard chord progressions I’d suspect the effort will not be worth it. On the other had, if the chords or lines are intricate and interesting and represent something that would be extremely hard to ‘play’ in real time, then maybe, sure.

Your best bet would be to experiment with 3 or 4 of these and see how they turn out. When you’re creating user Arps there are some options as to how they will behave (note, fixed note, velocity, range and more), plus different key modes, so be sure to read up on that beforehand.

Arpeggios Explored Part 1

Arpeggio Key Modes

Good thread on arpeggios