Arpeggiator

A device that electronically creates an arpeggio. An arpeggio is the playing of the tones of a chord in rapid succession rather than simultaneously. Many synthesizers over the years have had arpeggiators built in to them that have been used to create all manor of variations on the basic theme. Some merely do the arpeggio in ascending or descending order of notes, while some can employ very complex algorithms to the note order structure.