Many times i use to create a synth sound that evolve with an internal ADSR envelope applied to some parameter of the used synth (ex: osc detune, pitch, filter cut, res, volume, phase or etc etc), or with delayed lfo (also applied to different parameters).
So everytime u trig a note the modulation start and evolve, similar to the modulation of athmos or pad.
Then i use a basic arpeggiator ( in my case the Live arpeggiator, but every daw have one) to retrig the note that i'm playing in my synth bass/lead line.
What i simply have to do for change the movement it's to change the gate of the arpeggiator or the offsets, or beat retrigger and mess around...
just to make things easy and functional...
What happen by changing the time of gate is that with a short gate u get only small start of the ADSR mod, more u open the gate, more u get the following modulation, such a delayed LFO that start after the envelope...
then, if u want at some point, it takes one second to open or close the filter from the atm into the seq track...
U can also apply some control to the velocity, that depends on the routing of ur synth u r using.
With the arpeggiator u can also retrigger the velocity with a decay time and a specific value target. For example, that can be good for the filter res...
but it's really endless the way to use all of this kind of routing...
Also using a different lenght time legato (glide) and mess into the midi clip with shorter notes up and down over long notes can create different movement from the conventional overused LFO's... This can create a kind of plastic pitch morf with the defined tuning and only into a desired spot of the arrange (kind of same as pitch bend)...
I don't know if i have explained clearily... my english it's not the best!