#1

Hello!

I’m very excited to announce the latest SDS Digital design, on which I proudly collaborated with Sandrine (aka Fresh Nelly aka the brain behind SDS Digital). I thought it was worth making a thread since the Melisma dives headfirst into tonal structures, and starting a discussion over form, function, etc.

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The Melisma is designed and built by Sandrine. Check the official product page for her own full summary of what this powerful module can do: http://www.freshnelly.com/melisma/melisma.htm

The original inspiration for this module came from my own personal experience with a lot of the available CV-to-MIDI modules out there. I’ve worked on a few designs with various manufacturers, and I also own a few custom options, but there was nothing that consolidated polyphony, structure, and open ended exploration under one panel, so I reached out to Sandrine with a pitch and after a lot of work the Melisma is what we came up with.

As with all SDS Digital designs, the Melisma became more powerful with each iteration. There was lots of back and forth, and Sandrine put lots of her inspiration and superb ideas into what is now the final product. I’d say that by now it’s more of her baby than it is mine, but that’s what happens when you collaborate with extremely prolific and clever people. That is to say, I’m impressed with all the doors this thing opens, even if I was there for each step of the design! There’s lots of things for me to explore both musically and technically.

Here’s a quick demo I made on my first patch after receiving the commercially available design a day ago:

Melisma video

I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about the design process, the UI/UX, the feature set, etc.

Thanks for sharing my enthusiasm!

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Mungo Modules
#2

Love the Idea. “Instant Zappa” was the first thing that came to my mind when watching the video.

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#3

:relaxed: That’s a compliment if I’ve ever seen one. Zappa compositions are quite intense! That was one of my main issues with modular: it isn’t easy to get drastic changes in form and I’m hoping Melisma will mitigate that. I plan to post more videos as I slowly explore what the module is capable of, and promote it at the same time.

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#4

I realized I haven’t posted anything on this thread in a while. Apologies if this looks like self promotion. It isn’t! I’m absolutely infatuated with this module and how musical it has turned out. Even after all this time, I still discover new ways of working with it.

When you have so much musicality (chords, etc) packed-in, it’s easy to be more free in your approach to it. So here’s me using gestural control via the 2.4 Sink to control the Melisma and some granular elements at the same time:

super psyched about this new-found freedom.

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#5

I plan to continue updating this thread when something interesting comes up.

There’s a v1.4 release on the Melisma and an incoming v1.5 shortly (currently testing it).
Once again my excitement overshadows my tester eyes, I get lost playing with the new features.

Amongst other things with the newer versions you can:

  • Control almost everything via CC messages (windows, arpeggiation types, etc)
  • Create your own arpeggiation trigger patterns (up to 16 steps!)
  • Limit windows to one single step, which allows to fully CV control the chord progression with a single CV source (previously when it came to CV control you could only control Root and Chord Type separately, now you can essentially do whatever you feel like)
  • Create your own custom chord types (up to 30 user editable chords) with freely selectable root-note. Typical you’d want C as the root note for the type, which you can later change by V/Oct or by setting the root for each chord in a chord progression, but hey, it’s up to you!
  • Set a predetermined arp size. Typically the arpeggiation would depend on the size of the chord but you can limit that if you want
  • Select a the last note of the arpeggiation before size reset!

Does this all sound complicated? Well, it isn’t! It’s a joy to play.

And the more I use this module, the more I realize what a powerful device it is for generative music. You can set all kinds of rules inside it, pauses, sizes, windows, chord types, root notes, and then send it triggers and/or CV and allow it to improvise.

This module should’ve been named “The pianist” cause it mostly feels like having an actual pianist under CV control. :laughing:

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#6

Hi there. I excitedly bought one of these when they were announced because I thought it would be the perfect solution to my CV -> MIDI desires but I have found way too complex to understand. (I also think I misunderstood its intended use from the get-go.) It’s just sat unused in my rack since then. I’m going to put some serious effort into learning it in the coming days: do you mind if I randomly ping you with Qs in this thread? The manual is too dense and I think the actual demo videos are…not the greatest. Thank you.

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#7

Hope I can be of service! I can hardly imagine a melodic CV-to-MIDI purpose that the Melisma can’t cover. Once you become familiar with it it’s super easy to use. Have you updated to latest firmware?

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#8

Hiya. No, I haven’t updated yet. It’s kinda been collecting dust in my rack. I haven’t really tried to use it since April or so.

Here’s the workflow I was imagining with it.

  1. Select a key in the Melisma
  2. CV in for a root note
  3. CV in to select a chord in the key

So I’m pretty sure I misunderstood what it is designed to do because it’s not set-it-and-forget-it. I wasn’t expecting the menu diving on a tiny screen with my bad eyes. :confused: Is there a better way to work with it that doesn’t involve programming things in the menus?

Thanks very much.

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#9

Well, updating it gives you a LOT of new features but if you don’t need them then that’s absolutely fine, it’s not necessary.

I’m not sure what it is exactly you’re trying to achieve to be honest. For instance, it might be that my understanding of western theory is fuzzy (it is most of the time!) so I’m not sure why you’d need to choose a key in order to choose a chord. Can you please explain why you’d need to set a key?

Other than that, yes, you use the Root input to choose a Root in a V/Oct fashion, and then have the Chord input to use CV to select a chord type (Maj, Minor, etc, etc). You can modify the list of chord types so that it only contains chord types you want, or, you can have ALL the available chord types in there. You’ll need to send it a Gate at the Gate input to fire the chord. So two voltages (V/Oct, and chord type selection) and one gate.

No need to do any real menu diving. You can set it once, save it, and from then on you can use CV to change Root notes and chord types and never bother with the menus again. The rest of the stuff it can do, you don’t even need to bother with if you don’t want to! So, in a way, it can be set and forget. Like a CV controlled library of chords.

Other controls, like inversion, expansion, holding the chord for arpeggiation, arp type, are all accessible via the front panel. No menus needed.

That being said, I’m more than happy to explain (in steps) any process you want to do in particular, if that helps.

Generally speaking the module isn’t that complicated, but I can fully understand why it might be daunting at first. It can do a lot of things! (with the latest firmware you can even make your own chord types, or program your own arpeggiation patterns)

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