The Interface

Melony's window is divided into a few fixed panels. Once you know what each one is for, everything else in the app becomes easy to find. This page walks through them one at a time, from top to bottom.

The menu bar

Running across the very top of the window, the menu bar holds four dropdown menus and a few global controls:

• File - create, open, and save projects; import MIDI files and audio from disk; export your work as MP3 or MIDI
• Edit - undo, redo, and delete
• View - show or hide the browser and the piano roll
• Help - Melony's documentation

In the centre of the menu bar is the project name. Click it to rename your project. A small orange dot next to the name indicates that you have unsaved changes.

On the far right is the settings button, which opens a dialog where you can change the playback settings, input connection, themes, and other preferences.

The transport

Directly below the menu bar is the transport, the strip that controls playback. From left to right:

• Playback buttons - return to start, stop, play, and record. Play and pause can also be toggled with the spacebar
• Position display - shows the current playhead location as bar.beat.tick. For example, 4.2.1 means bar 4, beat 2, tick 1
• Tempo - the project's beats per minute. It determines how fast the project plays
• Time - the time signature. It shows how many beats are in a bar and which note value counts as one beat. For example, 4/4 means four quarter notes per bar
• Key - the project key

The rest of the transport is a row of toggles and controls that change how Melony behaves during playback:

• Master - the overall output volume, applied on top of every track's own level
• Metronome - plays a click on each beat during playback
• Sustain - holds notes after you release them
• Loop - repeats the loop region on the timeline. The region itself is set by shift-dragging on the ruler
• Capture Notes - records whatever you play for up to two minutes, then lets you drop the result into a clip as a single action. This is useful when you improvise and play something you like, but you forgot or don't want to record the whole take
• Snap to grid - forces edits to land on grid lines. The dropdown next to it sets the grid division (1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and so on)
• Key highlight - tints the piano roll to show which notes belong to the project's key
• Widgets - the small ··· button opens a picker of floating tools (see the Widgets page). You can also press F8

The browser

On the left side of the window is the browser, which contains your library of instruments. It has a search field at the top and a list of categories below it.

Click a category to expand it. Each instrument shows its name, a short description, and the source where it comes from. Click the heart icon next to an instrument to add it to a Favorites section, which will appear at the top of the list.

To load an instrument, drag it from the browser onto any instrument track in the arranger.

The arranger

The arranger is the large area in the upper right. It's where songs are built. At the very top of the arranger is a toolbar with four editing tools:

• Select ( ) - the default tool, for selecting and moving clips and notes
• Draw ( ) - click and drag in an empty lane to draw a new clip at that length
• Split ( ) - click a clip to cut it at the point where you clicked
• Erase ( ) - click a clip to delete it

You can press the 1 through 4 keys to switch between tools.

Below the toolbar is the ruler, marked with bar numbers. Click anywhere on the ruler to move the playhead there. Drag on it to scrub. Hold Shift and drag to define a loop region.

The main body of the arranger is a stack of tracks. Each track has two halves: the controls on the left, and the lane on the right where clips live.

Track controls

Every track has the same set of controls. Reading from left to right and top to bottom:

• Track name - click to edit the name of the tracks
• Instrument - the instrument loaded on this track
• Palette - opens the track color picker. Use it to change the color of the tracks to your preferences
• Automation - shows or hides the automation lanes for the selected track
• FX - opens the effects panel
• Export - exports the track on its own, as either MIDI or MP3
• M, S, and the red circle - mute, solo, and record-arm
• Volume and Pan - the track's level and stereo position. The Reset button next to Pan recenters it.
• Input and Channel - where the track listens for incoming notes. It is recommended to leave them set to All inputs and All channels unless you want to restrict the track to a specific input or channel

Reordering tracks

You can rearrange the order of tracks in the arranger. Drag anywhere on a track's control column to move it up or down the stack. While dragging, a line appears showing where the track will land.

You can also move tracks from the keyboard. Click any track to select it, then press the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys to move the selection up and down the stack. Hold Shift while pressing an arrow key to actually move the selected track one slot in that direction.

Duplicating a track

If you want a copy of a track - its instrument, clips, effects, automation, color, and mix settings - you can duplicate it. Right-click the track's control column and choose Duplicate track, or select the track and press Ctrl + D. The copy is inserted directly below the original, and its name gets a copy suffix so you can tell them apart.

At the bottom of the track stack is the Add track button. Clicking it opens a menu with three options: create a new instrument track, create a new audio track, or import an audio/MIDI file from disk.

The piano roll

Below the arranger, occupying the lower portion of the window, is the piano roll. Its heading shows the track the clip belongs to and how many notes it contains.

The piano roll has a keyboard running down its left side and a note grid to the right. Each horizontal row in the grid corresponds to a key on the keyboard. Each vertical line marks a beat or a subdivision of one, depending on your grid setting.

The tools in the piano roll heading change how notes are drawn and edited:

• Snap - the same as the transport snap toggle, but specifically for the piano roll
• Velocity - the velocity applied to newly drawn notes. Selected notes can be edited individually through the same field
• Octave controls - the < and > buttons shift which octave the computer keyboard plays in, and the label between them shows the current setting
• Fit notes - zooms the piano roll so that every note in the clip fits on screen
• Maximize - expands the piano roll to fill the whole workspace

The status bar

The thin strip along the very bottom of the window is the status bar. It shows a short message from Melony (e.g., Saved, Playing, etc.), as well as the app version and your audio device's sample rate.

Adjusting the layout

You can rearrange the workspace to suit what you're doing:

• Press the B key to show or hide the browser
• Press the P key to show or hide the piano roll
• Drag the thin divider above the piano roll to resize it
• Click the maximize button in the piano roll heading to make it fill the workspace