thanks opm!!! i appreciate so much your kind comments & generally encouraging attitude. although it seems any fears of boonkruptcy were entirely unfounded.
also a bit late nitro but i think it's fair to say that as long as a bitpack doesn't specify not to use arps i can't see why that would ever even need to be a question. arp away! (next time)
@roz thanks, but that question was actually a "joke" (and partially a kind of "experience" as well - i used arp randomized from -96 to 96 in one instrument (n163), and from -48 to 48 in another (2a03) - i think it might also sound interesting when mixing them with non-arp instruments )