Mela Synth (All Numbers) Mega Thread

Nikolozi

@Luxthor said:

@Nikolozi said:

@audiblevideo said:
@Nikolozi scale dialer sounds good. Actually if you could save scales inside the app like a preset within a preset that would be "best". Give the common ones, church modes, and the possibility of either importing or saving your own scales separate from a preset ( aka within the scale node )

LMK if thats a good idea or even possible. Respect.

Great idea, I think module presets would be a very useful general feature for all modules. https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/module-presets

My vote goes to Undo / Redo functionality first, this will elevate Mela into the serious tier. ;)

Agreed, it's badly needed. It's not a small task though, that's why I haven't done it yet. But I do consider it one of the high-priority features. So hopefully soon.

https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/undoredo-functionality

Luxthor

@Nikolozi said:

@Luxthor said:

@Nikolozi said:

@audiblevideo said:
@Nikolozi scale dialer sounds good. Actually if you could save scales inside the app like a preset within a preset that would be "best". Give the common ones, church modes, and the possibility of either importing or saving your own scales separate from a preset ( aka within the scale node )

LMK if thats a good idea or even possible. Respect.

Great idea, I think module presets would be a very useful general feature for all modules. https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/module-presets

My vote goes to Undo / Redo functionality first, this will elevate Mela into the serious tier. ;)

Agreed, it's badly needed. It's not a small task though, that's why I haven't done it yet. But I do consider it one of the high-priority features. So hopefully soon.

https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/undoredo-functionality

I exactly know what it is, especially if not implemented from the start, it’s about the whole architecture. 😅

I’m glad to see you taking this hard task into consideration. Mela deserves to be in the same league as Alchemy, Twin3, Factory, Aparillo, and SynthMaster2. But nothing will change if it stays as it is, the majority of iOS synths don’t have the Undo-Redo feature.

Nikolozi

@Luxthor said:

@Nikolozi said:

@Luxthor said:

@Nikolozi said:

@audiblevideo said:
@Nikolozi scale dialer sounds good. Actually if you could save scales inside the app like a preset within a preset that would be "best". Give the common ones, church modes, and the possibility of either importing or saving your own scales separate from a preset ( aka within the scale node )

LMK if thats a good idea or even possible. Respect.

Great idea, I think module presets would be a very useful general feature for all modules. https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/module-presets

My vote goes to Undo / Redo functionality first, this will elevate Mela into the serious tier. ;)

Agreed, it's badly needed. It's not a small task though, that's why I haven't done it yet. But I do consider it one of the high-priority features. So hopefully soon.

https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/undoredo-functionality

I exactly know what it is, especially if not implemented from the start, it’s about the whole architecture. 😅

With Mela 4, It was the case that I didn't want to implement undo/redo early on because the architecture was evolving fast based on the other needs and the decision on how undo/redo would work needed to be delayed. Otherwise, it would get in the way and slow things down. But now architecture is somewhat settled so it's a good time to do it when possible. With Mela 3, because of the static UI layout, it would have been much more trivial to add undo/redo.

I’m glad to see you taking this hard task into consideration. Mela deserves to be in the same league as Alchemy, Twin3, Factory, Aparillo, and SynthMaster2. But nothing will change if it stays as it is, the majority of iOS synths don’t have the Undo-Redo feature.

Thank you sir 🙏🧡

It won't stay the same, that's for sure

solncekreeze

I purchased Mela 5 today. And I would like to ask a question-why are there six notes in the Chord? Why not eight? There is some kind of incompleteness.

Nikolozi

@solncekreeze said:
I purchased Mela 5 today. And I would like to ask a question-why are there six notes in the Chord? Why not eight? There is some kind of incompleteness.

Thanks for purchasing Mela.

To answer your question, a few reasons, but none of them are significant on their own.
1. I was following Ableton Live's device which has been a standard for a long time and it used 6 notes.
2. It seemed most chords didn't have more than 6 notes.
3. I considered 8, but with 6 vs 8, couldn't come up with a good enough reason why 8 would be better. Especially because of combining modules would allow you to create much longer chords anyway.
4. Beta testers all have been happy with it since Mela 3 and no one has complained that 6 wasn't enough.
5. Finally, you can achieve much longer chords by combining them in series or parallel (on multiple lanes). With series you can create up to 36 (6x6) notes by combining 2 and with parallel you can create up to 12 (6+6).

I'm happy to consider making the chord module support 8 notes. I could probably add more features like a Bitwig module, which has note chance and velocity randomness.

Would be great to hear about your use case to make sure improvement can be useful for you.

solncekreeze

@Nikolozi said:

@solncekreeze said:
I purchased Mela 5 today. And I would like to ask a question-why are there six notes in the Chord? Why not eight? There is some kind of incompleteness.

Thanks for purchasing Mela.

To answer your question, a few reasons, but none of them are significant on their own.
1. I was following Ableton Live's device which has been a standard for a long time and it used 6 notes.
2. It seemed most chords didn't have more than 6 notes.
3. I considered 8, but with 6 vs 8, couldn't come up with a good enough reason why 8 would be better. Especially because of combining modules would allow you to create much longer chords anyway.
4. Beta testers all have been happy with it since Mela 3 and no one has complained that 6 wasn't enough.
5. Finally, you can achieve much longer chords by combining them in series or parallel (on multiple lanes). With series you can create up to 36 (6x6) notes by combining 2 and with parallel you can create up to 12 (6+6).

I'm happy to consider making the chord module support 8 notes. I could probably add more features like a Bitwig module, which has note chance and velocity randomness.

Would be great to hear about your use case to make sure improvement can be useful for you.

Thanks for the еxplanation. I connect two chord and arpeggio modules in series. And the notes are playing strangely. On one module, I turn on all six notes by lowering them. On the second chord module, I include two notes. And they are reproduced somehow incomprehensibly. The arpeggios are in down mode. Which chord slot is played first in the chain, the one on the left first or the one in front of the arpeggio?

Nikolozi

@solncekreeze said:

@Nikolozi said:

@solncekreeze said:
I purchased Mela 5 today. And I would like to ask a question-why are there six notes in the Chord? Why not eight? There is some kind of incompleteness.

Thanks for purchasing Mela.

To answer your question, a few reasons, but none of them are significant on their own.
1. I was following Ableton Live's device which has been a standard for a long time and it used 6 notes.
2. It seemed most chords didn't have more than 6 notes.
3. I considered 8, but with 6 vs 8, couldn't come up with a good enough reason why 8 would be better. Especially because of combining modules would allow you to create much longer chords anyway.
4. Beta testers all have been happy with it since Mela 3 and no one has complained that 6 wasn't enough.
5. Finally, you can achieve much longer chords by combining them in series or parallel (on multiple lanes). With series you can create up to 36 (6x6) notes by combining 2 and with parallel you can create up to 12 (6+6).

I'm happy to consider making the chord module support 8 notes. I could probably add more features like a Bitwig module, which has note chance and velocity randomness.

Would be great to hear about your use case to make sure improvement can be useful for you.

Thanks for the еxplanation. I connect two chord and arpeggio modules in series. And the notes are playing strangely. On one module, I turn on all six notes by lowering them. On the second chord module, I include two notes. And they are reproduced somehow incomprehensibly. The arpeggios are in down mode. Which chord slot is played first in the chain, the one on the left first or the one in front of the arpeggio?

Are they chord modules on the same lane if yes then you will get 12 notes. For example, say Chord 1 has set these Pitch values 0, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10 and then Chord 2 has 0, +1, then you will get 0, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10, +1, +3, +5, +7, +9, +11. The way to think about is, if one note goes into Chord 1 then 6 notes will come out, then these 6 notes will be processed by Chord 2 converting each note into 2, giving you a total of 12 notes. Does this make sense?

Processing in Mela happens from left to right (and top to bottom). Each module processes the output of the previous model.

Another approach you can take is to put Chord modules in parallel and it may do what you intuitively want. You can check the screenshot here, I have 3 MIDI lanes. With first 2 lanes take MIDI input 1, and Chord modules generate 8 different notes for each input note coming into the plug-in. Then lanes 1 and 2 send MIDI via bus to lane 3 where the arpeggio will process these notes.

Let me know if this is clear enough.

Also created a feature request to improve the Chord module: https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/expanding-chord-module-capabilities

solncekreeze

@Nikolozi said:

@solncekreeze said:

@Nikolozi said:

@solncekreeze said:
I purchased Mela 5 today. And I would like to ask a question-why are there six notes in the Chord? Why not eight? There is some kind of incompleteness.

Thanks for purchasing Mela.

To answer your question, a few reasons, but none of them are significant on their own.
1. I was following Ableton Live's device which has been a standard for a long time and it used 6 notes.
2. It seemed most chords didn't have more than 6 notes.
3. I considered 8, but with 6 vs 8, couldn't come up with a good enough reason why 8 would be better. Especially because of combining modules would allow you to create much longer chords anyway.
4. Beta testers all have been happy with it since Mela 3 and no one has complained that 6 wasn't enough.
5. Finally, you can achieve much longer chords by combining them in series or parallel (on multiple lanes). With series you can create up to 36 (6x6) notes by combining 2 and with parallel you can create up to 12 (6+6).

I'm happy to consider making the chord module support 8 notes. I could probably add more features like a Bitwig module, which has note chance and velocity randomness.

Would be great to hear about your use case to make sure improvement can be useful for you.

Thanks for the еxplanation. I connect two chord and arpeggio modules in series. And the notes are playing strangely. On one module, I turn on all six notes by lowering them. On the second chord module, I include two notes. And they are reproduced somehow incomprehensibly. The arpeggios are in down mode. Which chord slot is played first in the chain, the one on the left first or the one in front of the arpeggio?

Are they chord modules on the same lane if yes then you will get 12 notes. For example, say Chord 1 has set these Pitch values 0, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10 and then Chord 2 has 0, +1, then you will get 0, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10, +1, +3, +5, +7, +9, +11. The way to think about is, if one note goes into Chord 1 then 6 notes will come out, then these 6 notes will be processed by Chord 2 converting each note into 2, giving you a total of 12 notes. Does this make sense?

Processing in Mela happens from left to right (and top to bottom). Each module processes the output of the previous model.

Another approach you can take is to put Chord modules in parallel and it may do what you intuitively want. You can check the screenshot here, I have 3 MIDI lanes. With first 2 lanes take MIDI input 1, and Chord modules generate 8 different notes for each input note coming into the plug-in. Then lanes 1 and 2 send MIDI via bus to lane 3 where the arpeggio will process these notes.

Let me know if this is clear enough.

Also created a feature request to improve the Chord module: https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/expanding-chord-module-capabilities

Yes, I figured it out. Created a preset. But the idea you suggested (Bitwig module,chance) was very good.

Nikolozi

@solncekreeze said:

@Nikolozi said:

@solncekreeze said:

@Nikolozi said:

@solncekreeze said:
I purchased Mela 5 today. And I would like to ask a question-why are there six notes in the Chord? Why not eight? There is some kind of incompleteness.

Thanks for purchasing Mela.

To answer your question, a few reasons, but none of them are significant on their own.
1. I was following Ableton Live's device which has been a standard for a long time and it used 6 notes.
2. It seemed most chords didn't have more than 6 notes.
3. I considered 8, but with 6 vs 8, couldn't come up with a good enough reason why 8 would be better. Especially because of combining modules would allow you to create much longer chords anyway.
4. Beta testers all have been happy with it since Mela 3 and no one has complained that 6 wasn't enough.
5. Finally, you can achieve much longer chords by combining them in series or parallel (on multiple lanes). With series you can create up to 36 (6x6) notes by combining 2 and with parallel you can create up to 12 (6+6).

I'm happy to consider making the chord module support 8 notes. I could probably add more features like a Bitwig module, which has note chance and velocity randomness.

Would be great to hear about your use case to make sure improvement can be useful for you.

Thanks for the еxplanation. I connect two chord and arpeggio modules in series. And the notes are playing strangely. On one module, I turn on all six notes by lowering them. On the second chord module, I include two notes. And they are reproduced somehow incomprehensibly. The arpeggios are in down mode. Which chord slot is played first in the chain, the one on the left first or the one in front of the arpeggio?

Are they chord modules on the same lane if yes then you will get 12 notes. For example, say Chord 1 has set these Pitch values 0, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10 and then Chord 2 has 0, +1, then you will get 0, +2, +4, +6, +8, +10, +1, +3, +5, +7, +9, +11. The way to think about is, if one note goes into Chord 1 then 6 notes will come out, then these 6 notes will be processed by Chord 2 converting each note into 2, giving you a total of 12 notes. Does this make sense?

Processing in Mela happens from left to right (and top to bottom). Each module processes the output of the previous model.

Another approach you can take is to put Chord modules in parallel and it may do what you intuitively want. You can check the screenshot here, I have 3 MIDI lanes. With first 2 lanes take MIDI input 1, and Chord modules generate 8 different notes for each input note coming into the plug-in. Then lanes 1 and 2 send MIDI via bus to lane 3 where the arpeggio will process these notes.

Let me know if this is clear enough.

Also created a feature request to improve the Chord module: https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/expanding-chord-module-capabilities

Yes, I figured it out. Created a preset. But the idea you suggested (Bitwig, chance) was very good.

Sweet 👍

Luxthor

The new update brings improved preset browser and selector. Also, new modules. Thank you, @Nikolozi !

Mela 5.2 (Apr 16, 2024)

Preset Selector:

• Moved the Preset Selector to the left side of the screen.
• Added disclosure button to toggle the Preset Browser view.
• Tapping the preset name now presents the actions menu, removing the need for a separate button.
• The Save Preset, Export & Save and Create Group actions no longer present a separate text field. Instead, the Preset Selector turns into a text field in place.
• Now a confirmation dialogue will be displayed when overwriting an existing preset.
• Create Group action is now accessible via the File menu or Command-G shortcut in the Mela app.

Preset Browser:

• Greatly improved Preset Browser interface, now vertically scrollable on the left side.
• It now feels more integrated with the Preset Selector.
• The Import, Export, Rename, and Delete preset group actions are accessible via the ellipsis icon menu.
• User presets offer similar actions through a long-press gesture (or right-click on macOS) and swipe left on the preset name.

Event Module:

• Introduced a new MIDI Processor module for note-on and note-off events.
• It's simple yet very versatile.
• With the Event module, you can create algorithmic compositions by modulating its parameters.
• It can trigger envelopes or retrigger LFOs, even when Mela is inserted as an audio effect with no MIDI input.
• Events can be triggered via the user interface, automation, or modulation.
• Its primary parameter, Event, accepts values within the [0%, 100%] range.
• When the value exceeds 50%, the module generates a note-on event.
• Once the value drops to 50% or lower, it generates a corresponding note-off event.
• Additional parameters allow you to set the generated event's channel, note, and velocity values.
• The note-on and note-off events can also be triggered by tapping the toggle button.
• The toggle button indicates the currently held note.
• The Event module is part of Collection 3.

Note-On/Off Gate:

• It's now possible to create a gate-like modulation signal using the MIDI Source module based on note-on and note-off events.
• Set the Input parameter to Note-On/Off Gate to use it.
• On note-on, the modulation signal jumps to 100% but it drops back to 0% on note-off.
• The signal can be smoothed out using the Smoothing parameter.
• You can use this instead of an envelope generator when you don't need the complexity.

Text Input:

• The Perform View parameter renaming no longer happens in a separate text field. Instead, the value label turns into a text field in place.
• The Enter Value menu action and a triple tap on a dial or slider no longer display a separate text field for entering a parameter value. Instead, the value label turns into a text field in place.
• For frequency-based parameters, you can now enter values by appending either "kHz" or "k". Mela will interpret these values as kilohertz instead of assuming they are in hertz.
• Similarly, for time-based parameters, appending "s" to the value will indicate to Mela to use seconds instead of the default milliseconds unit.
• Added "Set to 0%" menu item above Enter Value for the Level parameters of the oscillator modules.
• The Level parameter of these modules reset to the default value of 50% on double-tap, however, the 0% value is also very useful (e.g. for amplitude modulation).
• In the future, other parameters may gain similar options to quickly set them to common useful values.

Other Changes:

• The update includes many internal changes to continue to transition away from Mac Catalyst and towards becoming a fully native macOS app.
• The MIDI Source and Note Length modules updated the Note-on/off strings to Note-On/Off to improve consistency.
• The MIDI Logger module is now more compact as the Copy and Clear buttons were removed. The actions are still available via the context menu which can be accessed by tapping the console anywhere.
• Added a workaround for Musical Keyboard getting stuck notes due to SwiftUI gesture bugs.
• Many UI tweaks and improvements.

Nikolozi

@Luxthor said:
The new update brings improved preset browser and selector. Also, new modules. Thank you, @Nikolozi !

🙏🧡 more to come : )

[Deleted User]

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Luxthor

@tja said:
This is the wrong topic.
I don't understand the tendency to create immense threads, without changing to a new one for a new update - or in this case - even a new name.

Just post for Mela 5!

You don’t understand, Mela 4 became Mela 5. @Jumpercollins should change the thread title.

Nikolozi

@tja said:
This is the wrong topic.
I don't understand the tendency to create immense threads, without changing to a new one for a new update - or in this case - even a new name.

Just post for Mela 5!

I don't usually create threads on the AB forum, but always try to reply when I'm tagged. I'm happy to create a new post every time there's a Mela update to keep users informed, but I don't want to make it look like spammy marketing. As it would mean a new topic every 3-5 weeks. What's the accepted etiquette, do developers post about their app updates here?

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Fingolfinzz

Was Mela 2 removed? I went to download it today and couldn’t find it in my purchased apps

Nikolozi

@Fingolfinzz said:
Was Mela 2 removed? I went to download it today and couldn’t find it in my purchased apps

I posted the following earlier in the thread explaining why Mela 2 has disappeared from downloads:

OK, a quick story time. Up until last year, I was operating my business as a company entity. But the fees associated with running a company, like accounting services, various insurances, company registration fees etc, were an adding to be a lot of money. Additionally, I had to do all sorts of reporting annually and quarterly. It took up a lot of time too.

I decided to switch back to a solo developer business structure. The one issue with that was Apple couldn’t convert my company developer account into a solo developer one. This meant I needed to create a new developer account and then transfer the apps from the company’s account to the solo one. The issue with that was that certain apps can’t be transferred due to technical limitations (i.e. if an app is using certain APIs/ Frameworks). I was able to transfer all my synth apps except for Mela 1 and 2. That meant I couldn’t offer upgrade pricing via bundle to the existing Mela users. Like I had done for using going from v1 to v2.

In order not to make Mela users feel like they were being taken advantage of I offered Mela 3 at an intro price that would have been equivalent to the bundle upgrade price, the price was $5. That's why Mela 3 was so cheap at launch. Additionally, I made Mela 1 and Mela 2 free to anyone who was interested in testing them out knowing that I would have had to remove them from the App Store at the end of the financial year (which is June 30 for Australia).

Now removing them didn't mean owners of Mela 1 and 2 couldn't access them. They could re-download it anytime as long as the company's Apple developer account hadn't expired. The account expired in March which is why you can no longer download Mela 2 from your purchases list. Interestingly, at some point, Apple lifted some technical limitations for transferring apps, and Mela 1 qualified for a transfer, and I was able to transfer it to my solo developer account. But Mela 2 didn't qualify. All this text to explain why Mela 1 is downloadable and Mela 2 is not. But I'm happy to provide any Mela 2 user with a Mela 3 promo code, to get around this limitation.

I'll DM you a promo code for Mela 3.

Nikolozi

@tja said:

I think you are totally free to do as you wish.
Nobody will see this as spamming 🤗

Personally, I like new topics for new updates - it makes reading much more easy and helps to get to the point.

Sweet, I'll start posting about the updates as new topics and see how it goes.

Fingolfinzz

Appreciate it, @Nikolozi. The midi stuff in 3 is great after having a play with it. I’ll have to get the IAPs for 5 soon cos I’m really liking what I can do in 3 just with the midi alone

Nikolozi

@Fingolfinzz said:
Appreciate it, @Nikolozi. The midi stuff in 3 is great after having a play with it. I’ll have to get the IAPs for 5 soon cos I’m really liking what I can do in 3 just with the midi alone

Good to hear Mela had 12 significant updates after v3.9, so, a lot of things have been added and improved since then.
As a quick guide, Collection 1 unlocks all modules that were in Mela 3 in one form or another, Collection 2 unlocks all modules introduced in v4 and Collection unlocks v5 modules.

biggir

Hello, In order to facilitate the use of external controllers, Is it possible to fix cc's or expose macros in a fixed way, rather than having to do the mapping every time you change presets ?

(For example, idealy , in the AUM Midi controls menu, add a section dedicated to the 8 macros so that they can be linked to a button on a midi controller)

Thank you :-)

biggir

@biggir said:
Hello, In order to facilitate the use of external controllers, Is it possible to fix cc's or expose macros in a fixed way, rather than having to do the mapping every time you change presets ?

(For example, idealy , in the AUM Midi controls menu, add a section dedicated to the 8 macros so that they can be linked to a button on a midi controller)

Thank you :-)

Hello @Nikolozi : Are there any hidden cc's for the 8 macros? :-) Thanks :-)

Nikolozi

@biggir said:

@biggir said:
Hello, In order to facilitate the use of external controllers, Is it possible to fix cc's or expose macros in a fixed way, rather than having to do the mapping every time you change presets ?

(For example, idealy , in the AUM Midi controls menu, add a section dedicated to the 8 macros so that they can be linked to a button on a midi controller)

Thank you :-)

Hello @Nikolozi : Are there any hidden cc's for the 8 macros? :-) Thanks :-)

No hidden CCs :-)

I saw you also posted on the Mela Feedback site, which is great because I can track issues there and keep users updated. And it's great to get clarifications on things.

I wrote a proper response over at https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/macros-midi-mapping

biggir

@Nikolozi said:

@biggir said:

@biggir said:
Hello, In order to facilitate the use of external controllers, Is it possible to fix cc's or expose macros in a fixed way, rather than having to do the mapping every time you change presets ?

(For example, idealy , in the AUM Midi controls menu, add a section dedicated to the 8 macros so that they can be linked to a button on a midi controller)

Thank you :-)

Hello @Nikolozi : Are there any hidden cc's for the 8 macros? :-) Thanks :-)

No hidden CCs :-)

I saw you also posted on the Mela Feedback site, which is great because I can track issues there and keep users updated. And it's great to get clarifications on things.

I wrote a proper response over at https://mela-feedback.nikolozi.com/feature-requests/p/macros-midi-mapping

cool ! thanks for your feedback :-)