Melody Sequencer [user error]

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tgrey
Posts: 134
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2021 8:39 pm

Melody Sequencer [user error]

Post by tgrey »

I'm having trouble with the Melody Sequencer module. The main portion of it doesn't seem to render at all:
MelodySequencer.jpg
MelodySequencer.jpg (67.36 KiB) Viewed 1287 times
I've tried both with and without GL acceleration enabled in VM, just in case it was a rendering issue related to that.

In case it matters, Mid 2011 Macbook Air - OSX 10.13.6. I'll try on a Windows machine tomorrow too.
Last edited by tgrey on Fri Oct 01, 2021 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
ColinP
Posts: 939
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:46 pm

Re: Melody Sequencer Bug

Post by ColinP »

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.

That's what Melody Sequencer looks like when there's no sequence data, it's not like a conventional step sequencer. There aren't a fixed number of steps. Think of the start state as a blank piece of paper.

Detailed documentation on its operation, written in the style of a tutorial, is available here...

https://www.adroitsynthesis.com/melody- ... operation/

As you can see in the first image of the documentation , it looks exactly like your screenshot when no notes have been created.

A general overview of Melody Sequencer is also available here...

https://www.adroitsynthesis.com/melody- ... er-module/

Melody Sequencer needs a certain minimum supporting environment before it does anything. It is just one component in an architecture that includes the Rhythm Sequencer, Groove, Time Splitters and the chord related modules. These all interact and support each other according to a concept called disentanglement that is discussed in the overview of LSSP available here...

https://www.adroitsynthesis.com/overview/

LSSP is quite an unusual system with many interacting and novel components and some modules like Melody Sequencer, Rhythm Sequencer and Groove can take a while to get to grips with. That's why the website is so important and has taken almost as much effort to develop as the modules themselves.
tgrey
Posts: 134
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2021 8:39 pm

Re: Melody Sequencer Bug

Post by tgrey »

Sorry for the delay! I meant to reply much sooner, especially since it wasn't actually a bug at all... but this week has just gotten away from me. You were correct, it did just have to be wired up in the LSSP environment!

So I have to admit, I was trying to learn these modules on my own using the short "about" description rather than the full documentation. The first few LSSP sequencers I tried I was at least able to load and see the interface and tweak things before it was fully patched up, so when this one loaded empty I automatically assumed my ancient hardware was creating some sort of rendering problem since it didn't look like the screenshots I'd seen.

Looks like I've got a lot of reading and experimenting to do with these!
ColinP
Posts: 939
Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:46 pm

Re: Melody Sequencer [user error]

Post by ColinP »

Hi tgrey,

Thanks for your comments.

Many modules in VM (and similar systems) are effectively emulations of hardware designs from 40 or 50 years ago, albeit with many enhancements, and one can usually figure out what's going on pretty easily. However, several elements in LSSP like V/Bar, Time Splitting and the variety of S-Poly signals are sufficiently novel that it's probably impossible to fathom what's going on without at least a glance at the website documentation.

I strongly recommend working through the five LSSP 101 tutorials as these include ready-built patches that can be run with just a few clicks and give a fun practical introduction to the ideas involved in constructing songs using LSSP.

The easiest way to access the documentation is by right clicking on the title or a blank part of an Adroit module and selecting Module Help from the menu (assuming you are online)

The Melody Sequencer isn't covered in the LSSP 101 tutorials but the pages dedicated to it on the website give a reasonably comprehensive introduction. Although there's a steep learning curve if you are new to LSSP, once you are past that Melody Sequencer is something of a breeze to program providing that you have a MIDI keyboard. I designed it be a partner module for my Arturia Keystep, although you can also do more cerebral programming - for instance by starting with a scale, shuffling the note order, removing some notes, duplicating others and so on.

One slightly alien thing might be the disentanglement concept. The idea is that you handle form, rhythm, melody and harmony as completely independent things. So Melody Sequencer focuses on just one part of the puzzle. It takes a little getting used to but I find it extremely liberating as it makes it easier to explore musical composition as an orthogonal space rather than a tangled mess.
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