Files & Export

Melony uses a single file format for projects, and can import and export a few others. This page covers saving and opening projects, importing MIDI and audio, exporting your work as MP3 or MIDI, and how autosave works.

Project files

Melony projects are saved with the .mln extension. A project file contains everything that makes your song what it is: the tracks, the clips on them, every note, every effect setting, every automation curve, and the track colours and mix levels.

It does not contain the instrument samples themselves. Those live inside the Melony installation folder and are shared across every project. A project file is therefore quite small, typically a few hundred kilobytes, even for a busy session.

Audio clips that you've recorded or imported are the one exception. They're embedded in the project file directly, since Melony has no other place to keep them. That means a project with a lot of recorded audio can grow quite large.

Saving and opening

The File menu in the menu bar contains all the operations you'll need:

The project's name appears in the centre of the menu bar. If there's a small orange dot next to it, you have unsaved changes. Clicking the name opens a rename dialog.

Importing MIDI as a project

If you have a MIDI file you'd like to use as the starting point for a new project, choose File → Import MIDI as project…. Melony reads the MIDI file, turns each track in the file into a track in the project, and creates clips at the right positions on the timeline.

The current project is replaced, so Melony will ask for confirmation first if you have unsaved changes. The new project uses the MIDI file's tempo, time signature, and track names. Every imported track is loaded with a piano instrument by default; you can drag a different one onto any track afterwards.

Two limitations worth knowing:

• Sustain pedal and tempo changes are baked into the notes. If the MIDI file uses a sustain pedal, the affected notes are extended to match. If the tempo changes partway through, the timing is scaled so everything still lines up. The result plays back correctly, but the individual pedal and tempo events aren't preserved as separate data.
• Only notes are imported. Other controllers, program changes, and per-channel settings are ignored. Melony doesn't try to guess what instrument you meant, so every track comes in as a piano.

Importing a MIDI file onto a track

If you'd rather add MIDI to an existing project, you can import a file directly onto a track. Right-click an empty area of an instrument track's lane and choose Import MIDI file from the menu.

Melony reads every note in the file and flattens them into a single clip, placed at the beat you right-clicked on. All tracks in the MIDI file are merged into that one clip, so a multi-track MIDI file becomes one dense clip on your chosen track. If you want separate tracks instead, use Import MIDI as project and then delete the tracks you don't need.

Importing audio from disk

Melony can import MP3 and WAV files as audio clips. To do so, first create an audio track - right-click the Add track button and choose Audio track, or select an existing one - then drag the audio file from your file explorer onto the track's lane.

The file is embedded in the project and shown as a clip with a waveform. You can move it around and resize it like any other clip, though audio clips can't be shortened below a quarter-second or extended beyond the length of the audio itself.

A single audio file can be up to 50 MB. Anything larger will be rejected on import.

Exporting as MP3

To render your whole song to an MP3 file, choose File → Export as MP3…. Melony renders every audible track to an audio file and opens a Save dialog where you choose where to write it.

The render happens offline, faster than real-time, so a three-minute song usually takes a few seconds. A progress bar appears while it works.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Muted tracks are excluded. If any track is soloed, only the soloed tracks are rendered.
• Effects are applied. The render includes every effect on every track, plus the master volume setting.
• Automation is applied. Volume, pan, and effect parameter curves are all respected during the render.
• Reverb and delay tails are captured. Melony automatically adds a little extra time at the end so that any lingering audio doesn't get cut off.

The maximum length is ten minutes. Anything longer will be rejected with an error, and you'd need to export in chunks.

Exporting as MIDI

To export the notes themselves as a Standard MIDI file, choose File → Export as MIDI…. Melony writes each instrument track to its own MIDI channel and produces a .mid file that any DAW can open.

The export includes note pitches, velocities, and timing, plus the project's tempo and time signature. Audio tracks are skipped entirely, since they have no MIDI representation. Effects, instrument choices, and audio clips are not included; the exported file is just the notes.

Exporting individual tracks and clips

You can also export parts of your project on their own.

Every track has an Export button in its header, shown as a download icon. Clicking it opens a small menu with two options: Export as MIDI and Export as MP3. The MIDI option is disabled on audio tracks. The MP3 option renders just that track, with its effects and automation applied, and nothing else.

Individual clips can be exported too. Right-click a clip in the arranger and choose Export as → MIDI or MP3. MIDI export writes just the notes in that clip. MP3 export renders the clip's audio in isolation, again with effects and automation from its track applied.

These are useful when you want to send a single part to a collaborator, or when you're testing a particular section of a song.

Autosave

Melony can save a recovery copy of your project at a regular interval, so that a crash or an accidental close doesn't cost you much work.

To enable it, open the settings dialog and go to the Files tab. Choose an interval from the dropdown: Off, Every minute, Every 5 minutes, or Every 10 minutes.

Autosaves are kept in your browser's local storage, not on disk, so they don't clutter your file system. If Melony is closed unexpectedly, the next time you open it a dialog will offer to restore the most recent autosave, including the time it was written. If you accept, the project loads as it was at that moment. If you decline, the autosave is discarded and you continue from where you left off.

A normal save clears the autosave, since there's no longer anything to recover.

Where your files go

Melony doesn't have a fixed project folder. When you save a project, you choose where the file goes, the same way you would with any other application. The "current file" is remembered for the rest of the session, so a second Ctrl+S saves to the same place without asking again.

Autosaves are the one exception. They live in a database maintained by the app itself, invisible from the file system, and are only surfaced through the recovery dialog on next launch.