Instruments
Every sound you hear in Melony comes from an instrument. An instrument is a collection of recorded samples, one for each note it can play, wrapped in a small engine that knows how to pitch them up or down. This page explains how to find them, how to load them, and what to expect from them while you play.
Finding instruments
All of Melony's instruments live in the browser, which is the panel on the left side of the window. They're organised into ten categories:
- Pianos - concert grands, uprights, and electric pianos
- Organs - pipe and church organs
- Keys - vintage electric piano and similar keyboard sounds
- Guitars - acoustic, classical, and electric guitars
- Bass - upright and fingered electric
- Strings - solo violin, cello, contrabass, harp, and full sections
- Vocals - choirs and sustained "ahh" ensembles
- Drums - acoustic drum kits
- Synth Leads - square, sawtooth, and vocal-formant leads
- Synth Pads - warm, sweeping, and cosmic textures
Some of the categories include sub-categories
Searching
The field at the top of the browser filters instruments as you type. The search looks at the instrument's name and its description.
Favorites
Every instrument has a small heart icon on the right. Click it to add that instrument to a Favorites section, which appears at the top of the browser. This is useful when you find yourself reaching for the same instruments over and over.
Loading an instrument
To load an instrument onto a track, drag it from the browser and drop it anywhere on the track's control column or lane. The track's label will change to the instrument's name.
You can replace the instrument on a track at any time by dropping a different one on top of it. The existing notes on the track stay exactly where they are; only the sound they play back through changes.
How sampling works
A brief note on the tech, since it helps to know what you're hearing.
Each instrument is built from a set of real recordings. Depending on the instrument, that set might be one sample per note, one sample every few notes that gets stretched to fill the gaps, or several samples per note recorded at different playing strengths. When you play a note, the instrument picks the closest recording it has and shifts its pitch to match.
The practical upshot: instruments with dense sample sets sound most faithful, while instruments with sparser sets sound slightly less detailed at the extremes of their range. Melony ships a mix of both. Some are dense, note-by-note collections. Others are lighter and rely more on pitch shifting.
Playing range
Not every instrument can play every note. A cello doesn't reach the top of a piano keyboard, and a piccolo doesn't go below middle C. When you select a track, the piano roll greys out any keys the instrument can't play. Those notes won't produce sound if you draw them, so it's worth looking at the keyboard before you write something that wanders outside the range.
Drum kits
Drum kits are a special kind of instrument. Instead of pitches, they map each note to a specific piece of the kit, kick, snare, hi-hats, toms, cymbals, and percussion. Because the mapping is fixed, Melony displays them differently from other instruments.
When a drum kit is loaded on the selected track, the piano roll switches to a drum layout. The left side shows the name of each drum piece instead of piano keys, and the notes you draw on each row will play that piece. A button appears in the piano roll heading to toggle between the drum layout and the standard grid, in case you want to see the notes in their original form.
You can also play drum kits live. Press the keys shown next to each drum piece on the on-screen keyboard, and you'll hear the corresponding sound.
What instruments come from
Melony's instruments are built from sample libraries that are freely licensed. Each instrument shows its source in the browser, just under the description.